Tong Gao

Hi I’m Tong!

Atelier: Advanced Practice

Hometown: Shaanxi, China

Undergraduate: University of Liverpool

Worked At: Investigation and protection of ancient buildings in Fujian.

Experience: Worked on Suburban housing which included sustainable, open plan and community concept. Currently working on a health neighbourhood community hub at the North Manchester General hospital.

Skills: Rhino, Auto cad, Adobe suite

Architectural Interests: Community Architecture and Sustainable Design

Hobbies & Interests: Outdoor sports such as skiing and rock climbing.

Anna Lavery

Hi I’m Anna!

Atelier: Infra Space

Hometown: Sunderland

Undergraduate: Manchester School of Architecture

Worked At: Blake Architects, Chris Beardshaw Design

Experience: I’ve worked on residential projects, working with barn conversions, listed buildings and new builds, mainly in the Cotswolds AONB. I have also worked as a landscape design assistant and I’m currently working with a charity on a children’s playground in Bangladesh.

Skills: Sketchup, Adobe Suite, Vectorworks and Graphic Illustration

Architectural Interests: Alternative architectures and social housing

Hobbies & Interests: live music, cooking, hiking, art and politics

Jack Whitehouse

Hi I’m Jack!

Atelier: Advanced Practice

Hometown: Birmingham

Undergraduate: Leeds Beckett University

Worked At: Donald Insall Associates

Experience: I worked for a practice specialising in architecture conservation for 2 years. Based in the Birmingham office I worked solely with Listed Buildings and those of Historic value. Focusing on the care, repair and adaptation as well as designing new buildings for sensitive sites.

Skills: Adobe Suite, Revit, AutoCad, SketchUp

Architectural Interests:

The interaction between people and buildings.

Sustainable design strategies.

Hobbies & Interests: Road Cycling and Racing, Football and Music.

Wenze Xie

Hi I’m Wenze!

Atelier: Advanced Practice

Undergraduate: University of Liverpool

Hometown: Zhejiang, China

Worked At: Guangxi Rongtai Architectural Design Co., Ltd

Experience: Worked on residential and gallery projects. Currently working on community centre in North Manchester which covers commercial areas, education and activity spaces.

Skills: Adobe suite, AutoCad, Sketchup, Rhino

Architectural Interests: Community project and sustainable design

Hobbies & Interests: swimming, yoga

Hannah Byrom

Hi I’m Hannah!

Atelier: CPU

Hometown: Bolton

Undergraduate: Manchester School of Architecture

Experience: I have previously worked on residential, commercial and church projects. Also have worked as a trainee site manager on social housing refurbishment sites.

Skills: Adobe suite, ArchiCAD, Revit, Rhino and Grasshopper

Architectural Interests: Community projects and housing for the elderly

Hobbies & Interests: I like bouldering, hiking, live music and cooking

Yuxi Yang

Hi I’m Yuxi!

Atelier: &rchitecture

Hometown: Sichuan, China

Undergraduate: University of Liverpool

Worked At: Southwest Architectural Design Institute

Experience: Working on community centre and elderly housing in Liverpool and Manchester. At present I am working on a renovated project about a converted an abandoned abattoir in East Manchester into a sustainable community centre.

Skills: Adobe suite, AutoCad, Sketchup, Rhino

Architectural Interests:

Community housing design

Sustainable architecture

Landscape architecture

Hobbies & Interests: Drawing, music and movies

Joseph Cox

Hi I’m Joseph!

Atelier: Continuity in Architecture

Hometown: Matlock, Derbyshire

Undergraduate: University of Liverpool

Worked At: jmarchitects

Experience: Working on a mix of educational and residential projects in and around Manchester and Sheffield. While in practice I was given the opportunity to be project lead on a primary school project in Sheffield.

Skills: Adobe Suite, Revit, AutoCad, SketchUp, Photography

Architectural Interests:

Sustainable Design

Improving architecture for the unseen disabilities

Hobbies & Interests: I’m really into photography, art, hiking, music and rugby

Hi I’m Sophie from CLASS!

Community Led Action and Savings Support (CLASS) is a small, registered charity which provides professional support to savings groups affiliated to Greater Manchester Savers and their associated networks.

CLASS also supports affiliated savings groups in other towns and cities as these emerge through community exchange and mobilisation.

CLASS is committed to supporting and facilitating community-led processes.

CLASS works hard to protect this principle of community leadership.

CLASS also encourages and supports women to take on leadership positions within savings groups and in their communities.

Guest speaker announcement:

Who: Craig Stott

Practice: Project Office

About: Working and designing for the community, architectural solutions and designing on a low budget.

Project Office is co-directed by Craig Stott and Simon Warren, architects and senior lecturers in Architecture at Leeds Beckett University in which they have undertaken diverse projects within the Leeds City region including ‘The New Wortley Community Centre’ which Craig is going to present and provide discussion on how this was approached and provide a real insight into community driven work.

Find out more information about 'Project Office' here:

https://leedsbeckett.wixsite.com/projectoffice/about-us

DAY 3

The third day started with forming a brief from the tenant’s requirements and wants. The tenants kindly sent us letters expressing what they would like from the community centre. Using these, we produced word clouds and brainstormed the common themes and spatial requirements. These were then translated into spatial adjacency diagrams and then into photomontages of the individual spaces. Some great images were produced.

We are looking forward to Day 4 and seeing how these diagrams and images play out into designs!