We focus on students' design development process and try to connect handsketch and precedent ideas with 3D model and rendering. The enscape tutorial enables students to understand basic rendering techniques that can be applied to final presentations. Today's draft visuals can be further developed over the next few days.
Final definition of the Hoarding stretch by the the 'Hoarding' group followed by consolidated collage of individual work. The 'Branding' group in the meantime continued working on the graphics.
Day 4: DESIGN IDEA DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR CHOSEN PROFILE
Considering the opinions provided in the profile, undergrads can use the chosen medium to create a design strategy and address individual issues in the community
Day Five-
End of week one! Today the team was again split into two teams. The teams focused on the physical model and the digital proposal imagery.
The physical model is developing as we wanted. We are nearly finished with the internal levels, and will be ready to make a start on the roof and elevations next week!
The digital team worked on further developing the proposal imagery. The team ran through a series of ideas for the images and decided that a mixed media style would best convey our ideas for the proposal. The images are a work in progress, but they are coming along nicely!
Good end to the week, happy with the progression so far. Look forward to finalising our ideas and the model next week!
This morning we began by sketching a detailed site plan of the play area. BA students measured widths and dimensions to design the four different elements within the playground - the education area, access to the mound, the main play structure and the walkways/ seating within the site. In the afternoon, we planned out layouts for the design and construction manual.
Our finished collages! Each group compiled their ideas to create a unique collage for their designated site. They each reflect the unique character of the areas and offer different, bespoke ideas for the possible interventions. It's interesting to see the varied presentation styles chosen by each group too, which will make for a great client presentation on Monday...
Day 4: INTERVIEW
An interview was conducted with David Baldwin from Shepard Robson by Omkar Salvi, a team member from Community Calls on the 19th of May. David Baldwin has been working on the North Manchester General Hospital project at Shepard Robson Architects from the last 2 years. The interview briefly discussed David’s opinion on the Village Green project and how the design team approached to cater to the Community of Crumpsall. He elaborately spoke about their community involvement in Crumpsall and the general concepts and objectives behind the design of Village Green.
We got together to decide on visualisation angles for the final presentation through sketching. Later, we experimented on 3D sketchup to visualise the new space while reusing the original materials.
Day 5 of Dragonscapes had us create and send a presentation to the client and managers of the Debdale outdoor centre to receive their agreement and any alterations to the design before we begin construction on Week 2. The proposal covers all the work we have done in the previous week, from concept to masterplan. Following approval and alterations, we will begin construction of the seating and garden area on site to create a starting point for the dragoneers to build on in future.
Today is the day we meet with our collaborator on-site for a mid-action-weeks review. We received a couple of feedback and got our hands dirty afterwards planting flowers, vegetables and love in the garden before retiring for the weekend!
This morning we went on-site at the Platt Fields Market Garden to discuss our ideas and renders produced throughout the week with the team at MUD. We had a focus group review with the volunteers on the three initial designs and received a couple of constructive feedback to work on next week.
After that, we joined in the volunteers doing a little bit of digging and planting around the garden. The day ended with many pots of chili and tomato plants ready to grow, and we can't wait for next week to continue developing our design!
Our final masterplan is ready to present to Friends of Chapel Street Park tomorrow morning to receive their feedback. We look forward to meeting the community at Bluebell Green - the presentation will begin at 10.30am!
The team came up with several concepts for seating and gardens using recycled materials. Benches and planters would be constructed using wood planks, cinder blocks and tires sourced from various facilities. The old boats on site would be recycled into seating, planters or ponds.
Where: CHORLTON LIBRARY, Manchester Rd, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, M21 9PN
Who we are:
We are students from the Manchester School of Architecture working alongside Chorlton Community Land Trust in re-imagining Chorlton, to enhance ways of getting around, improve the environment, and ultimately develop the public realm.
The core values of this project focus on rejuvenating Chorlton’s main thoroughfare to transform it into a GREENER place to be. Improving the public realm for shopkeepers, residents, and visitors, our proposals will be pivotal in creating a more welcoming place for people to spend time in - to work, shop and play.
Mock up brochures were created to plan out the InDesign document. The InDesign document has been prepared ready for content production next week.
Three shop fronts were chosen from Chorlton, using photos and survey notes the students created sketch elevations with dimensions. Information was gathered ready for modelling next week.
Initial draft Masterplan for the redevelopment of Chorlton’s public realm.
Identifying areas to introduce greenery / art murals and sign-age.
Before all the students could presume with their works, we went for a laser cut test run first thing in the morning to ensure that all the slots and connections could fit perfectly well.
Today we met with the client to show them all the great designs we had produced for the rooftop of the car park. We really wanted some feedback from our collaborators so that we could develop our ideas in line with their wants. It was also good for the clients to see all the creative ideas that everyone has come up with.
With the feedback from the client, we can now move forward with our design next week and come up with a really great project!
Jen from FCSP told us that the children in the community love the poem 'Nut Tree' by Julia Donaldson, so GCG's Florence designed this sign to put in Bluebell Green! We are all excited to share these signs with the community on Saturday, along with our masterplan and sketches from this week.
Day Four -
Day four consisted of two teams focusing on the physical model and the digital proposal imagery.
The progression with the physical model is beginning to take shape. This is allowing us to better understand the massing of the existing building, helping us to distinguish the areas of the building we wish to develop.
The digital team worked on developing the SketchUp model, using skills they had learned from yesterdays tutorials. Today this was then inputted into Enscape were we started to set up rendered images. We finished the day with some draft visuals that we can further develop over the next few days.
Day Three –
Today we were again split into two teams, mixing up the members from yesterday.
Team one focused on the physical model. Using the workshop, they learned about laser cutting and how to use different equipment – predominantly the band saw. The model has already begun to take good shape!
Team two was led by two of the masters’ students, who gave a SketchUp workshop to the undergraduates. Some had very basic knowledge from a previous module but learned a lot of new skills today. The students were given an individual task to make use of their new understanding. This will all be useful for our proposed outcome of a virtual collage.
Day Two –
The agenda for today was a site visit to Hulme Hippodrome, and a group task to find similar case studies to help us overcome the problems within the building.
A NIAMOS coordinator walked us around the building whilst outlining its history as well as the fundraising efforts being undertaken by themselves to help fund its restoration. Deterioration was evident, as well as the strong community efforts, thus it will be important that our design solutions are sensitive and responsive to the building and the local area.
In teams, we also found case studies for different elements within the building, such as accessibility and circulation, exterior openings, and lighting. We shared and communicated design ideas, collating them all to help towards the final digital model.
After our site analysis day, we knew more about our site and the neighbourhood around it. Today we decided to slow down our pace and develop our proposal in groups for the whole day.
Sub-team 3 are fascinated by the entanglement of Mill heritage and artist & LGBTQ+ spaces as well as the growing concern surrounding gentrification of Mills in Manchester and Salford. They have been creating posters outlining their agenda and will be looking into mapping the history of Artist & LGBTQ+ spaces in mills after the decline of the textiles industry.
Sub-team 2 has been hard at work researching the construction of mills and how that relates to Islington Mill's changing use over the last 200 years. They have been doing some excellent drawings both on and off site and are interested in mapping the technologies and construction techniques present in the Mill.
Sub-team 1 is interested in the material history of Islington Mill and tracing its journey through material change. They have been busy working on creating a timeline of the mill and researching the materials of different phases of construction.
Today we went back into our classroom to have presentations about the site analysis and, with a huge bag of painting materials, we started to brainstorm about our proposals for the Baguley Hall.
The students were tasked with further developing their chosen intervention from yesterday. They were to produce drawings, costings and material sourcing. Drawings - in how the intervention would be constructed and final measurements. Costings - how much it would cost to procure the necessary material. Sourcing - where the materials will come from.
Today the student continued working on their story boards, of which they have done two each :)
Another photoshop workshop took place for the students that were working on the story boards
and
The 3D Model is also almost complete!
Also the students have started on some more interior collages which show the interior communal spaces, where members/ residents will host activities, play games, socialize and dine together.
Third day included graphical development of ideas from the ‘Branding’ group. The ‘Hoarding’ group worked on ideas for blank panels in the stretch of hoardings, and began individual proposal designs.
Today each group was required to finalise their simplified 3D models and export them into 2D drawings either using Autodesk AutoCAD or Adobe Illustrator. The connection for each model was analysed carefully to ensure that they are feasible. Drawings produced will be then sent out to the B15 workshop for laser cutting.
Day 3
Day on site, Manchester
Barlow Moor Community Association
Learning from the kids of Manchester.
Understanding the kids perspective of the City of Manchester, their favorite animals, their approach.
Fun outdoor session, very active, super friendly environment.
This was a teaching day!
As both schemes had been well developed in the past few days, this was the day for postgraduate members to teach undergraduate members digital skills, which included sketching and modelling.
We divided into two groups and taught separately. Undergraduate students have learned lots of new digital skills tricks on this day. The purpose was to present architectural ideas more efficiently -- which is very important in communicating the project to clients.
We had developed three schemes, and respectively analyzed the pros and cons in the conference with the clients and considered the feasibility on site. Finally, two were selected as promising, on which the team has been working in preparation for further communication with engineers and customers the next Monday.
The team gathered in the morning as usual. According to the communication with the clients yesterday, there were three plans , but now we advanced into two. We splitted into two groups to refine the two proposals.
Proposal drawings are getting more sophisticated!
Day 04- Digital Modelling and Master Planning.
Day 04 began with the groups concluding on each of the two design ideas to be presented as proposals to the collaborators. Minor changes were made in regard to fire safety, security, space flow and accessibility across both groups. The groups compared the ideas as group members switched spaces, so each idea could be viewed from different perspectives. With final conclusions made on the proposal ideas, each group was divided into smaller subgroups to produce various design outputs including sketches, plan drafts and digital models. This was a great step toward creating a proposal document that can be easily understood by the collaborators as mere sketches would not properly communicate the ideas. the digital modelling helped the team properly identify the sizes of spaces. The development of two proposals was concluded to provide the collaborators with options to choose from and ensure they are satisfied as the project progresses.
Day 4: Sketchup workshops.
We continued doing 3d modelling through Sketchup workshop .
We told the students that we need to divide them into two teams: one for the advertisement team and the other for the visualisation team, so they need to think about which group they prefer.
After looking into the site and analysing it, students are divided into groups according to the zones they want to tackle on the site. Discussions were held among themselves with ideas of visualisations and sketches we drawn to aid their ideas that was then shared among themselves.
In the afternoon, the MArch1 students presented various ways of visualisations and ideation processed as well as representations that could be useful to the students.
We visited the Whitworth Gallery in the afternoon and we had the pleasure of meeting our collaborators, Dan and Catherine from TASC. They gave us a brief introduction to TASC and showed us projects they have previously worked on. We then had a discussion about the combination of ideas from the previous sessions and focused on the construction of the mobile gallery. It had been an eventful day gathering inspiration from external speakers and sharing ideas.
The lecture in the morning was given by Clover Lee, who is the director of plusClover. Based in Hong Kong, Clover has worked on various projects ranging from residential interiors to retail design. Collaboration is an essential element in her work, so it was great for her to share her experiences with us. The projects presented were related to the project we are currently developing as they all targeted a younger demographic, so it was beneficial for us to learn about how graphics could be used to reinforce branding.
Beginning the day, BAs continued to explore their ideas and proposals for site 01 and 02 . Creating the elevations of the facades, the plans for the interior spaces, as well as the activities for each space.
Everyone started to come up with specific ideas and justifications for what they would implement in the spaces, and we couldn't wait to see the final drawings!
After our Teams meeting we created a CAD drawing of the final masterplan, with the elements that Friends of Chapel Street Park asked us to include in the design, such as accessible paths, willow arches, lean-to shelters and an accessible WC.
This morning Green Corridor Gateway met on Teams to discuss which elements of yesterday's masterplanning sketches we will include in the final masterplan. Some of our pets joined the discussion too!
The two teams built on their preliminary designs and ideas from yesterday and began working on the assigned tasks.
The poster team worked on photoshop and indesign to produce digital posters to raise awareness on a variety of different key themes for Lifeshare. Each student produced several drafts which will be shared with the client to receive some feedback.
The interactive map group made progress using Figma. They successfully applied base layers on the software which enables the user to zoom in on different sections across Manchester to locate the variety of services Lifeshare provide.
At the end of the day, a brief catch-up session was held to discuss the progress and the next steps for tomorrow.
Group 35 transforms the concept into the design of posters for representing different graphical identities of the sub-contractors and presenting the criteria of the apprenticeship program.
All of the groups expressed similar ideas, with proposed wind chimes to allow sound to travel naturally through the space, as well as larger instruments to provide a more interactive experience.
The models and collages were a really effective way of communicating ideas for different textures which could appear on the existing fences and floor, or be integrated within new playful installations. Ideas for materiality also began to come through with these proposals.
Ayesha started the day with a highly requested workshop on Revit, which helped introduce the undergraduate students to the software. For the rest of the day, we continued with our design competitions – this time, we focused on designing for “touch” and “sound”.
The team has been busy today preparing for our mid-action-weeks review with our collaborator tomorrow morning. We have developed three ideas shown above, ready to narrow down to one, to develop further next week.
A homemade water wall is a fantastic addition to a garden play space! Using recylcing materials to build a water wall could teach kids about recyle, gravity, angles and water flow. Here we give ideas for water wall!
Today we began by consolidating our three options from earlier this week. This meant highlighting differences and similarities in the work, and adapting based on the clients feedback. The BA1 and BA2 students homogenised their design through this framework and presented a consolidated programme and activity matrix to develop further tomorrow.
Day 4 - Group sketches
In the afternoon, the students were divided into two groups. After narrowing down to two locations on site to put the interventions, the groups attempted to combine and distill their earlier individual concepts to create two interventions. The agreed upon themes that both groups agreed to adhere to were 'stepped seating, shelters, and swings' as well as a potential 'ribbon' motif.
Day 4 - Individual sketches
In the morning, the BA students were asked to draw concept sketches applying the principles we identified previously to Hulme Park. Concept sketches of the upgraded facilities were then been presented to the whole group.
Today we allocated specific sites to each group, and we began to brainstorm design ideas for the different locations. We thought about interventions which would be free for Castlefield Forum to implement, alongside projects which would be low cost or require some investment. Ideas ranged from innovative lighting strategies to inventive street furniture designs, and the groups all made sure that their ideas were unique and appropriate for their sites. Sketching and collaging allowed for these ideas to begin to come to life...
In today's session, our client Sarah visited us to present to the students. She explained the history of our site and provided more information about Waymarking C.I.C. The students then had the opportunity to present their initial proposals and they received feedback from the client.
On day 4 the students focused on-site mapping. Analysing the different restaurants and the ingredients needed allows them to develop the idea of a 'community garden' on the carpark roof.
Day 4 - Site Analysis
The BA students were paired off and were assigned a specific aspect to identify throughout the site. These aspects included 'Roads, Entrances & Paths'; 'Trees, Hard & Soft Landscaping'; and the 'Levels / Contours' of Hulme Park. The first group found that Hulme Park is surrounded by roads on all sides, as many entrances (with one of them blocked) and quite an extensive network of footpaths throughout the site. The second group found that the site predominantly featured soft landscaping, with small interventions of hard landscaping dotted throughout. They also found that the site is host to a good number of trees. The third group found that there are four main areas of level change throughout the site: the highest one being in the southern half of the park, and the other lower three being in the southern portion of the north half of the park. These will inform the application of interventions to Hulme Park.
We started the day off with creating some posters for the protest on Friday to save Ryebank fields, everyone had a chance to create their own message. Dominic gave a small presentation on future visions we should explore for Ryebanks. We then ended the day with a photoshop workshop, designing posters and information boards that would go into the exhibition space.