Group 03
DE-GROWTH COLLABORATIVE

A degrowth project that makes real change to a real community! Boiler House is a centre for making and mending for local people, businesses and creatives, organising activities to promote mental health and wellbeing, sustainability, environmental care, and encouraging skills-building. The main task for this project is to develop a patchwork windows proposal for the entrance to the building, which is currently electric roller shutters. Heating (winter) and ventilation (summer) issues should be considered in our work. The focus is to make the unheated hangar space usable in the winter months and benefit from solar gain so that all community members can continue to use the building in the colder months. In summer, ventilation can prevent the workshop from becoming too warm resulting from direct sunlight. The client commented on the natural light which floods into the hangar space and creates a fantastic working environment. Our project aims to make the building look more approachable from the street to encourage others to engage. We also want to activate these outdoor surrounding green spaces with some form of landscape design. These green spaces can serve community activities in the future. Over a two week period you can partake in a real project which will get built, covering the whole RIBA Plan of Work.

Download Final Report

Jingyi Z / Xinyu S / Wenyu H / Mirza R

SOCIAL IMPACT
Degrowth is a social and economic movement critiquing the paradigm of economic growth. We can’t continue building how we always did, the time is now to make a statement. …More
Posted 13 Mar 2022 20:59
COLLABORATOR
Re-purposed as a centre for making and mending, The Boiler House used to be a district power station just a mile from the middle of Manchester. Social enterprise Sow the …More
Posted 13 Mar 2022 23:17
SKILLS
You will communicate directly with the live client and pitch your ideas. You will also take part in measured surveys where you will learn techniques such as triangulation and …More
Posted 13 Mar 2022 23:18
Wenyu Hou
Atelier // FLUX
Qualification // BA (Hons) from Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University
Skills // Adobes, Rhino, AutoCAD, Sketching
Interests // Watching movies
Fun Fact// …More
Posted 13 Mar 2022 23:19
Mirza Isaam Rahman
Atelier // CPU Ai
Qualification // BA (Hons) from Liverpool School of Architecture
Skills // Detailing, Presentation, communication
Interests // Cycling, Food
Fun …More
Posted 13 Mar 2022 23:20
Xinyu Shen
Atelier // Praxxis
Qualification // BA (Hons) from University of Liverpool
Skills // Designing, Sketching, Adobes, Rhino & Lumion
Interests // Psychology, Drawing, Travelling
Fun …More
Posted 13 Mar 2022 23:21
Jingyi Zhou
Atelier // FLUX
Qualification // BA (Hons) from Newcastle University
Skills // Model Making, Adobes/CAD/SU/RHINO/Render, Sketching
Interests // Cooking, History, Sleeping
Fun …More
Posted 13 Mar 2022 23:21
Day 1 to go!

A fantastic first day as the team got to know each other and introduced the project brief. The undergraduates started by brainstorming with defining strategies and concepts. …More
Posted 16 May 2022 21:28
Day 1 to go!

Here are some initial ideas from the day one conversation, which were made for day-2 site visit and client meeting. Each group developed and pictured one preliminary …More
Posted 16 May 2022 21:28
Day 2 to go!

The team met the clients in the morning. The clients gave a short introduced on the site and their wish to the new members, and we explained three schemes from yesterday. …More
Posted 17 May 2022 21:44
Day 2 to go!

Let's visit the site!
After the meeting with clients, the team selected three main directions and started to do the measuring survey after lunch. The dimension details …More
Posted 17 May 2022 21:44
Day 3 to go!

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 …More
Posted 19 May 2022 23:10
Day 3 to go!

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 …More
Posted 19 May 2022 23:10
Day 4 to go!

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 …More
Posted 19 May 2022 23:16
Day 5 to go!

This is the day to practice out!
On this day, the team members were divided into three groups to materialize the three proposals. Through modeling and technical detail …More
Posted 22 May 2022 00:03
Day 5 to go!

Time to practice!
Models and drawings of three schemes were made to concrete the concepts and ideas. The new undergraduate members have learned more about digital design …More
Posted 23 May 2022 01:38
Week 1 to Week 2!

This slide shows the connection from week 1 and week 2, and summarizes the activities of the first week and the plan schedule of the second week.
Posted 23 May 2022 22:55
Day 6 to go!

The second week launches!
Let's meet with the clients and engineer today!

This morning, a part of the team members came to the site to meet with customers and engineers …More
Posted 23 May 2022 22:57
Day 6 to go!

Afternoon the engineer joined us. We introduced three options and consulted about some technical issues. After value estimation, plan 2 won with the highest score and …More
Posted 23 May 2022 23:11
Week 1 Nice Sketches!

These drawings were the second scheme discussed during the first week. As previously shown, the glass was installed outside the rolling shutters, and the middle …More
Posted 23 May 2022 23:24
Week 1 Nice Sketches!

These drawings were some idea draft skecthes during the first week. The three openings were for a fixed full-face plant frame, the original roller shutter …More
Posted 23 May 2022 23:24
Day 7 to go!

Today the team spent their time finishing the Sketchup 3d models, and making detailed drawings of the doors for the boiler house.
Posted 24 May 2022 15:39
Day 7 to go!

Today is about efficient teams work!
We split into 3 groups in order to productively spend the day. After yesterday’s meetings, the team had a lot of details to figure …More
Posted 24 May 2022 15:40
Day 8 to go!

In the morning we spent an hour and a half brainstorming ideas for the landscape proposal. We worked as a team before coming up with the perfect solution and developing it further.
Posted 25 May 2022 17:04
Day 8 to go!

Working hard on the final proposal!
Today some of the team finalised the updated cost evaluation of our project, while others were working on brainstorming and drawing …More
Posted 26 May 2022 01:30
Day 8 to go!

History Diagram

we learned about the history of boiler house, from the very beginning, to the industrial period, to the violence around the neighbourhood in the 1980’s. …More
Posted 26 May 2022 01:32
Day 8 to go!

3D Model

The 3D detailed model of the doors was made in order to properly visualise it and put into a rendering program.
Posted 26 May 2022 01:33
Day 8 to go!

Diagram of Community Effects

The team made various diagrams including a flow chart showing how this project would benefit the community around boiler house!

Posted 26 May 2022 01:33
Day 8 to Go !!! —— De-Growth

We re-considered our agenda and the concept of “de-growth” to clearly express our methodology in terms of reducing carbon costs and improving the local area.
Posted 26 May 2022 18:15
Day 9 to Go !!!

Technology & Cost

The team produced a cost evaluation based on the detailed drawings to fit the clients budget. We ensured that the estimated cost remains below …More
Posted 26 May 2022 18:21
Day 9 to Go !!!

Prensentation

The end is approaching! The team made progress towards the final outputs for the publication and client outputs in order to submit them tomorrow. …More
Posted 26 May 2022 18:23
Day 9 to Go !!!

Diagram & Research

With the presentation being almost done, the team produced diagrams to easily portray the design intentions and wider impact. Sketching and …More
Posted 26 May 2022 18:24
Day 10 to Go!

The team worked towards finalising outputs, both in terms of the publication and for the client. The team used InDesign to compile their work.
Posted 27 May 2022 16:51
Day 10 to Go!

The final day! The fortnight has passed by so fast, we have learnt conceptual skills, technical skills and presentation skills. This has accumulated to a clear understanding …More
Posted 27 May 2022 16:52
Two Fantastic Weeks Complete!

The team have collaborated to produced some fantastic work, satisfying the initail brief and going beyond expectations. Both undergraduate and post-graduate …More
Posted 27 May 2022 16:52