March Atelier: &rchitecture

From: Manchester

BA: Manchester School of Architecture (PRAXXIS)

Interests: Painting / Art

Skills: Illustrator / Photoshop / Revit

About: In any spare time I have, I like to paint and create. Inspired by my Kurdish heritage, I use my art to articulate issues surrounding cultural identity and the global refugee crisis. I am passionate about representing and highlighting ethnic minorities and the plight of refugees within the UK.

This project allows you to pick up and practice various skills, from communicating, being part of discussions as a team to 3D modelling skills in Sketchup and Revit. We will also have opportunities to sketch, diagram and design.

Laura Sanderson organised this MSA LIVE project in collaboration with our external partners. Laura has previously worked with our collaborators for an Events project in previous years in Rochdale so is very aware of the needs of the community and the existing site.

Historic England - The public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

We will be collaborating with Daisy Horsley from Historic England. Daisy works with and provides training to teachers across Greater Manchester to improve access to local history in the school curriculum.

St John the Baptist Church - This church welcomes and invites locals to enter the Grade 2 listed building, to form a community.

We will be collaborating with Stephen Leech, the Project Manager for the church and volunteers of the church, Christine Matthewson and Peter Galvin to deliver this project. We will be hearing from them about the existing and ongoing activities and the needs of the church.

Rochdale Development Agency - The RDA is a local authority controlled company of Rochdale Borough Council, dedicated to promoting Rochdale as a central investment location.

We will be collaborating with Jack Youd from the RDA for this project, the Heritage Action Zone Project Officer.

Rochdale Revival aims to improve the connections the existing communities in Rochdale have with St John Baptist Church. The project aims to make the Church more visible to the local communities from all faiths and backgrounds. Part of this project is about softening and removing the invisible barriers that have in the past stopped people from different faiths from entering the Church. It is also in the interest of those who work and volunteer at the Church that the intervention supports community integration and the ongoing activities they hold, allowing people to gather, meet new people and engage with the rich history and beauty of the Church and all that is inside.

DAY 1 TIMETABLE:

10 AM - Introduction to Rochdale Revival and the team
11 AM - Creative Exercise

1 – 2 PM - Lunch

2 PM - Informal Presentations
3 PM - Presentations about Rochdale Revival and aims of project
4 PM - Questions with Steven Leech (Collaborator) and recap of the day

It’s Day TWO!

DAY 2 TIMETABLE:
10 AM - Introduction to objectives of the day, learning further about the barriers and issues of visibility
11 AM - Group Exercise 1: Precedent Studies, diagramming, sketching and documenting an initial strategy.
1 – 2 PM - Lunch
2 PM - Completing Group Exercise 1
3 PM - Short informal presentations of each group’s initial strategies
4 PM - Recap of the day

It’s Day THREE!

After a great session yesterday, today we will start off with an Illustrator Tutorial to ensure all of you have the basic skills to place your strategies on site. We hope that you will go on to use Illustrator in your own projects at MSA in the future as it is very useful and easy to use for diagramming your ideas and creating maps.
You will all be developing some diagrams to further portray your strategy in the context of Rochdale and wider community.

It’s Day FOUR!

We were really pleased with the strategies and mapping that came out from yesterdays session, today we will wrap up any loose ends on the diagramming exercise to make sure you have all completed them.
We will also introduce Storyboarding as a method to capture your ideas in still frames. You may want to show how your strategy changes by day and night or the different elements. We will also be working on some thin line drawings to capture your ideas further.

We look forward to seeing you all at 10 AM – have fun!

It’s Day FIVE!

After another great session yesterday, today we will be starting a new method of design development through speed model making. All of your installation proposals will have buildable elements and through a speed model making exercise you will develop and refine your design further in 3D.
You will need basic materials like paper, card and scissors to do this speed model making exercise. In your groups you will then refine your individual models into one group model that incorporates all of your models’ strengths, this will be then defined in perspectives and a final image for your group proposals.
We hope you all enjoy today’s exercises, which is great for getting ideas out and developed, without being too precious early on. Remember to have fun with it!
Lunch 1 – 2 PM

See you all at 10 AM!

Community Group

Today the members of community group iterated sketch models that allowed them to develop their strategy in 3D, exploring finer details of their design. They focused on the experiential elements of their roof structure, thinking about the way light enters, how rain and wind are treated through their proposal. Their final image shows their developed proposal which incorporates a curved roof design, tinted mosaic inspired glazing and a journey through the structure from the open air of the market to the more secluded side where light shows can take place.

It’s Day SIX of MSA LIVE 21!

Today we will start off with group presentations to our collaborators, Jack Youd, Steven Leech and Laura Sanderson. Each group will explain their proposals, design decisions and designs they have developed. We can’t wait to see you all show off your exciting work!
Lunch will be 1 – 2 PM

See you all soon!

We were joined by Jack Youd and Steven Leech, two of our collaborators we are working with for our project Rochdale Revival. BA1 and BA2 students presented their proposals within their thematic focus groups: Community, History and Culture. They talked us through their intentions, aims and inspirations for their design. We received great feedback from both Jack and Steven and students spent the rest of the morning responding to their feedback to strengthen their proposals further.

After receiving feedback on their proposals students were asked to design mood boards that capture the new elements they would like to introduce into their design and develop further. Each group considered the sustainability of their selected materials, use of colour, how it supports safer cities and how it encourages biodiversity. The mood boards created allowed students to gather images and inspirations for their final task of the day, creating a montage of their designs and new additions they would like to develop.

The History team created a montage that brings together their proposal with new elements which were developed in response to the feedback from the collaborators. Their compilation highlights the journey to through their installation from "Start to End" leading to the Church.

The Community team created a montage that brings together their proposal with new elements which were developed in response to the feedback from the collaborators. Their montage describes a journey a user would take when arriving at the tram stop or by walking into the area. They montage describes a journey and the activities that you would see when arriving to their proposal that leads to the Church.

The Culture team created a montage that brings together their proposal with new elements which were developed in response to the feedback from the collaborators. Their montage describes a journey a user would take following their designed mosaic footpath and highlighting the experiential elements of their installations, showing how they may look inside with suggestions for materiality.

Today we will be developing the montages created yesterday, refining them further to create a line drawing in the style of Dan Slavinsky. We will have a tutorial by Theo Fisher to walk you all through how you can make one within your groups. We hope that you all enjoy today's task and hopefully it will get you all thinking a little differently about compositions and abstract drawing!

Today we will be starting at 10 AM and will be working further on the abstract drawings developed in yesterdays session. Students will take their piece a step further by picking out key elements they want to capture and highlight in their drawings. We will be finishing the day at 1 PM today.

It's our final day together over at Rochdale Revival! We will be reflecting on the project and all of your amazing work that you have made over the last two weeks. We will have a half day session today finishing before lunch.

See you at 10 AM