Group 18
IN OUR NATURE

Our project is part of the In Our Nature Programme and our goal is to green the Northern Quarter through tackling climate change. By promoting sustainable living practices and improving the public space. The space will be used by the local community to grow plants. The project will focus on growing edibles and non-edibles for use in local businesses such as restaurants, and charities such as food banks. We will also be introducing a skatepark on the car park roof alongside sheltered seating areas. Join us and lets make the Northern Quarter a greener place.

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Christopher W / Mayce A / Yicheng W / Rebecca H

Christopher W
Name: Chris Waltham

MArch Atelier: Continuity in Architecture

BArch: University of Brighton

Hometown: Brentwood, Essex

Skills: Revit, Enscape, Photoshop, Avoiding Hand Drawing, Model Making, Being undeniably from Essex whilst trying my hardest not to be.

Why I Chose In Our Nature: I chose In Our Nature because it is an exciting project in the Northern Quarter with genuine potential to be built. Our design proposal could help our clients gain lottery funding for a community garden on the top of an existing car park, and the prospect of making this happen made it something I really wanted to get on board with.

Fun Fact: I was once put to bed after a night out by World Champion javelin thrower and ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ winner Fatima Whitbread.
Posted 14 Mar 2022 15:30
Mayce A
Name: Mayce Arebi

MArch Atelier: Continuity in Architecture

BArch: Birmingham School of Architecture

Hometown: Manchester

Skills: Rhino, AutoCAD, Adobe Suite, Vectorworks, Hand drawing, Screen printing.

Why I chose In Our Nature: Northern Quarter is one of my favourite places and this is the perfect opportunity to work on a live sustainable project in the area.

Fun Fact: During my free time, I enjoy lion spotting at the Peak District.
Posted 14 Mar 2022 16:06
Mayce A
Name: Yicheng Wu

MArch Atelier：&rchitecture

Hometown: Hangzhou, China

Skills: AutoCAD, Adobe ,Sketch up, Enscape, Vray, Hand drawing.

Why I chose In Our Nature: The creation of a green garden on top of the car park is fantastic, balancing the relationship between people and nature and in line with the need for sustainability

Fun Fact: I especially love watching pandas eat bamboo and can often spend a day at the zoo.
Posted 14 Mar 2022 18:13
Rebecca H
Name: Rebecca Howe

MArch Atelier: MAKING

BArch: De Montfort University, Leicester

Hometown: Sheffield

Skills: Hand drawing, Model making, Rhino, Revit, Sketch up, Adobe suite, AutoCAD

Why I Chose In Our Nature: I chose In Our Nature as I believe the project will create a fantastic sustainable space which also has the potential to bring the community together. It will also provide a much needed green space in the very urban Northern Quarter.

Fun Fact: I once won an inflatable swimming pool on a night out.
Posted 15 Mar 2022 10:49
Christopher W
The skills that you will learn and develop within In Our Nature are centred around those gained in a real-life architecture project. To begin the first week, students will be taken to our site to analyse and document the space through sketching and photos. We will meet with members from In Our Nature to develop client-worker relationships, and from there we will work in small teams drawing, modelling, and collaging uses for the space on top of the Northern Quarter Car Park, with the first week leading to a presentation of our ideas to the external collaborators.

Our second week will be a development from our first, as we seek to create plans, elevations, atmospheric drawings and renders of the community garden space to present to the Manchester City Council. Through the help of the team and your peers, you will learn software’s like Photoshop, Indesign, Revit, Enscape, Sketchup, as well as sketching and collaging. You will work together to develop collaborative skills within teams and with the client, encouraging communication, team building and leadership qualities, whilst most importantly, having a good laugh!
Posted 15 Mar 2022 11:33
Christopher W
The aims of this project are to promote awareness and tackle climate change within Manchester by creating a community garden and inner-city green space in the Northern Quarter. Through our external collaborator, In Our Nature, we aim to create a greener city with the community garden that will be used by the public and restaurants in the Northern Quarter, promoting local sourcing of foods within the city. As well as this, the aim is to create a new space for social interaction, through the addition of a skate park, outdoor cinema, or event space – you decide with your design!

The overarching goal of this project is to gain more funding from the National Lottery Fund for In Our Nature to help this project get built, so not only will you be designing a great project in the Northern Quarter, but it could also get built!
Posted 15 Mar 2022 11:34
Rebecca H
The Tib Street carpark roof transformation is an exciting project with many enthusiastic collaborators involved, all sharing the same goals to ultimately make Manchester a greener and more sustainable City.

The project is part of an Amity led programme called In Our Nature, which is lottery funded with the aim of bringing the community together to take action against climate change. They are collaborating with a subgroup from the Northern Quarter Action Group to achieve the community garden and inner-city green space. The NQAG is a cooperative partnership brought together under a bold vision for Manchester's Northern Quarter - one which is greener, builds the community, and enhances what’s special about the Northern Quarter.

Both bodies have funding available to support the projects, however the proposals we as a group put forward will be key in helping keep momentum for the project going and allow all the collaborators involved to envision what the space could be transformed into.

External collaborators to date include Manchester City Council who are supporting the NQAG and the Amity program and have already begun taking steps to make the idea a reality. Along with input from local and national charities and enterprises; A New Leaf MCR, Hubbub, Groundwork and Sow The City. Additionally Members from the National Trust are also onboard and are hoping the Tib Street carparks green transformation becomes a precedent for other urban cities to adopt.
Posted 15 Mar 2022 12:21
Yicheng W
DAY ONE

MSA Live is underway and today we met our design team! Unfortunately, due to typical Manchester weather we had to postpone our site visit to the Tib Street car park until tomorrow when the sun is (hopefully) shining again. Nevertheless, we cracked on in the comfort of the warmth and dry and got to introducing ourselves.

WOW!

Beautiful drawing by a member of our team of our site with some different programme ideas.
Posted 16 May 2022 16:33
Yicheng W
DAY ONE

MSA Live is underway and today we met our design team! Unfortunately, due to typical Manchester weather we had to postpone our site visit to the Tib Street car park until tomorrow when the sun is (hopefully) shining again. Nevertheless, we cracked on in the comfort of the warmth and dry and got to introducing ourselves.

After some explanation of the project to our team, we got to brainstorming different ideas in small groups to see what fun things we could design on the rooftop of the car park. Here are some sketch ideas from our team, as well as us all working hard together.
Posted 16 May 2022 16:42
Yicheng W
DAY TWO (MORNING)

With the sun shining the team headed down to the Tib Street Car Park to do a site survey and meet our clients. We started off by doing a 10-minute drawing exercise of the exterior of the building to get the creative juices flowing, before heading upstairs to the car park roof top to do some more surveying.

We had a group meeting on the roof of the car park, where our project will be taking place, with Howard and Katherine from the Northern Quarter Action Group. It was great fun introducing them to the team as they outlined their hopes for the project.
Posted 17 May 2022 16:09
Yicheng W
DAY TWO

We then carried on with some further site investigation, taking photos of the roof top, and doing another quick drawing exercise to get a real feel for the space that we have to work with. Look at these amazing sketches by the team, careers as artists, as well as architects, we think!
Posted 17 May 2022 16:10
Christopher W
DAY TWO (AFTERNOON)

In the afternoon we headed back to the studio to brainstorm all the different ideas we had for the project, before splitting into two teams to work on developing these great ideas. Here are some programme collages by the students that show some of the amazing ideas we have for the rooftop of the car park.

We could see some sick kickflips coming in the Northern Quarter soon! And did someone say Pizza???
Posted 17 May 2022 21:35
Yicheng W
DAY THREE

We started the day as a development from yesterday’s collages, creating sketch plans in groups. Working in groups to create sketch plans allows everyone to come up with great ideas, whilst also learning and being inspired by one another. The teams went through numerous iterations to see how the programme would best fit onto our site, teasing out their favourite parts of each design to create amazing designs.

We have some exciting stuff in store for tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for even more great work!
Posted 18 May 2022 16:37
Yicheng W
DAY THREE

Here are some close ups of the designs for the roof top, looking at creating community gardens amongst other fun activities. We can’t wait to show all the great ideas to our clients and see where we can develop our work moving forward.
Posted 18 May 2022 16:38
Mayce A
DAY FOUR

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.
Posted 19 May 2022 15:17
Mayce A
Collage by one of the students.

Credit: Keisuke Sakamoto
Posted 19 May 2022 15:41
Yicheng W
DAY FIVE

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!
Posted 20 May 2022 13:34
Christopher W
DAY FIVE

To round off the week, we wanted to show you some of the great sketch designs that everyone had come up with! It’s great to see all the amazing ideas for the car park roof top, and what that disused space could be transformed into in the future. We are all looking forward to developing the project now in line with the clients feedback and designing a really incredible space for the Northern Quarter.
Posted 21 May 2022 11:33
Mayce A
DAY SIX

Planters and seating area studies.
The initial sketches show different designs that integrate both functionality and sustainability - including solar panels, water collection tanks and reusing materials.
Posted 23 May 2022 15:30
Christopher W
DAY SEVEN

Today we continued to delve deeper into our designs for the car park. Here is some amazing design work from Louis Louth, who has proposed to add some lovely signage to show people what's going on up on the roof top!
Posted 24 May 2022 11:56
Mayce A
DAY SEVEN

Development of the events space on the Carpark rooftop. The students have chosen to place the open- air theatre towards the north of the site - allowing the Manchester skyline to become the backdrop.
Posted 25 May 2022 10:52
Christopher W
DAY SEVEN

As we get to crunch time with the project, the team got together to agree on a final sketch plan which will be drawn up and submitted to the client. Everyone is really happy and excited about the design we have come up with and can't wait to show it to everyone. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Posted 25 May 2022 11:54
Christopher W
DAY EIGHT

Today we continued working in small teams to meet our deadline for Friday. Students Cameron Griffin and Keisuke Sakamoto have been working hard on different planter designs and drew up axonometric drawings for these amazing concepts. All the planters are designed using the dimensions of pallets to create a more sustainable and efficient product.
Posted 25 May 2022 20:43
Christopher W
DAY EIGHT

Following on from designing the planters, our team members Cameron and Keisuke put their rendering skills into practice and created these beautiful renders. These renders showcase how well people will interact with the design and how stunning the designs are. We enjoyed the merging of the planters with the seating, as well as these areas have been adapted to include sustainable energy solutions.
Posted 25 May 2022 20:49
Christopher W
DAY EIGHT

We also had a team working on the event space that we were proposing for the car park roof top. This team, made up of Alice Barnes, Arya Vahidi, Daud Ahmad, and Louis Louth, were experimenting with tensile structures to act as a cover for a stage space within our design. Here are some images of the process, alongside some images of the great design.
Posted 25 May 2022 22:19
Christopher W
DAY EIGHT

Look at that!! An amazing model by Alice, Arya, Daud, and Louis really shows off their fantastic design work. Excited to see how people may interact with this structure… Stay tuned!
Posted 25 May 2022 22:27
Christopher W
DAY NINE

Continuing on from yesterday's amazing work, our stage design team created visuals of how this space could look when populated and in situ. Great work from Alice, Arya, Daud, and Louis! If you look close enough you might be able to see some greenhouses in the background...
Posted 26 May 2022 16:48
Mayce A
DAY NINE

Development of the skateboard park. The ramps can be constructed and packed away easily.
Posted 26 May 2022 16:52
Christopher W
DAY TEN

From yesterday’s work, we wanted to showcase Louis’s beautiful drawing of the stage area for the car park roof top! An incredible use of model making, hand drawing skills and photoshop made this what it is, and it’s great to see everyone using all their talents to present such amazing designs.
Posted 27 May 2022 13:13
Christopher W
DAY TEN

With greening the city at the heart of our client’s philosophy student Ankita Rani set out to come up with rain water collection technologies. Her designs for this are innovative and were loved by us and the client alike, using the collection system to create a stunning water feature that also functions as a hydroponic planter!

Ankita’s work was made into a reality with the help of Cameron’s amazing computer skills. Great work guys!
Posted 27 May 2022 13:17
Christopher W
DAY TEN

Here is a design for a potential green wall that could be added to the front of the car park along Church Street by Ankita. We love the use of all the different plants to make up the façade, as well as the variation across the street. Did we mention this is in the Northern Quarter…?
Posted 27 May 2022 13:20
Christopher W
DAY TEN

During our review with the clients, one thing they mentioned was how much they liked the idea of having greenhouses within this space. Students Regina Jedrzejek and Cameron Griffin worked hard on different ideas for how these could look. They played with different variations of closed and open greenhouses that will be filled with planters for public use. We think they look incredible.
Posted 27 May 2022 13:48
Christopher W
DAY TEN

We continued to work on different visuals for the project. Keisuke Sakamoto rendered these stunning images displaying the atmosphere of both the roof top gardens and the street level planters. We can’t get over how great these are!!
Posted 27 May 2022 13:58
Christopher W
DAY TEN

Since we finalised our plans students Regina Jedrzejek and Rafaella Falquez have been working tirelessly to come up with this beautiful plan. It’s great to see how teamwork really pays off and has created such an amazing design that everyone has been a part of. We love what this MSA Live project has produced and hope you love it as much as we do.
Posted 27 May 2022 14:05
Christopher W
DAY TEN

As the week ends, we are extremely grateful for our team for all the hard work and effort they have put in to this project. It was great to see how the team bonded throughout the week and were working together to design the best project that they could. It was also amazing to see how talented these students are, we can definitely see this group going places and it was a pleasure to work with them all!

We want to say a big thank you to everyone that took part, as well as a thank you to our clients In Our Nature for giving the students space to be as creative as possible. We hope you like the work as much as we do.
Posted 27 May 2022 14:12