Group 23
LIVING UP

Youth House Co-op, a non-profit set up by formerly homeless young people, aims to house young people kept homeless by disability and disadvantages the founders experienced themselves. Our project - “Living Up”, in conjunction with the organisation, will look into developing a creative proposal for the development of an inclusive and accessible multi-million pound housing scheme for young homeless people in Manchester. We will explore and work with shipping containers to design an interesting masterplan which would help the organisation achieve its planning submissions and will bring many people out of homelessness.

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Kian H / Agrima S / Oliver P / Rasaq Ayomide Y / Charlotte K

Kian H
Name - Charlotte Keen

Hometown/Country - Birmingham, UK

Atelier - PRAXXIS

Undergraduate University - University of Liverpool

Part 1 experience - 1 year exp at Shedkm, Liverpool

Architectural Interests - Intersectional and community led design.
Hobbies - Cooking and baking
Posted 15 Mar 2022 23:13
Kian H
Name - Kian Hennessey

Hometown/Country - Knutsford, UK

Atelier - Infrastructure Space

Undergraduate University - Sheffield Hallam

Architectural Interests - The future of timber in architecture

Hobbies - Cooking, travel and climbing
Posted 15 Mar 2022 23:13
Kian H
Name - Agrima Sharma

Hometown/Country - Haridwar, India

Atelier - CPU[ai]

Undergraduate University - NIT, Jaipur, India

Part 1 experience - 2 years exp at Studio Lotus, New Delhi, India. Worked on residential and hospitality projects.

Architectural Interests - Community led architecture and computational design
Hobbies - Cooking and Music
Posted 15 Mar 2022 23:15
Kian H
Name - Ollie Porter

Hometown/Country - UK

Atelier - &architecture

Undergraduate University - Manchester School of Architecture

Part 1 experience - 1.5 years at PJH Architectural Services, working on primarily residential projects

Architectural Interests - Residential Architecture
Hobbies - Football, sports and generally being active
Posted 15 Mar 2022 23:15
Kian H
Name - Rasaq Yishawu

Hometown/Country - Lagos, Nigeria

Atelier - MAKING

Undergraduate University - Covenant University, Ogun, Nigeria

Part 1 experience - 1 year exp at Lagos State Ministry of housing, Nigeria

Architectural Interests - Residential architecture and Real estate
Hobbies - Football, Politics, Music and Fashion
Posted 15 Mar 2022 23:17
Kian H
Youth House Co-op, a non-profit set up by formerly homeless young people, aims to house young people kept homeless by disability and disadvantages the founders experienced themselves.

Our project - “Living Up”, in conjunction with the organisation, will look into developing a creative proposal for the development of an inclusive and accessible multi-million pound housing scheme for young homeless people in Manchester. We will explore and work with shipping containers to design an interesting masterplan which would help the organisation achieve its planning submissions and will bring many people out of homelessness.
Posted 15 Mar 2022 23:25
Agrima S
Youth House Co-op(under Greater Manchester Housing Action) is a non-profit organization in Manchester, set up by formerly homeless young people who are working towards developing a community led housing scheme for other homeless and differently abled people.

With a severe lack of homes for people in need, community-led housing offers a real opportunity for people to come together to benefit from supportive and secure homes. The scheme would be designed around the needs of local people and built with the community, not profit, in mind.

Through collaboration with MSA, they desire to develop a replicable community led housing scheme and spread understanding of use of disabled adaptation grants and grants to their future practice, benefiting more disabled homeless young people who wait longer than any group for housing currently.

We will be working closely in collaboration with them during the action weeks and would be interacting with potential residents of the housing scheme to understand their experiences and desired outcomes for the project. We will also be working closely with an occupational therapist for disability access planning, carbon co op for insulation advice as well as a Fire safety consultant for the project.
Posted 15 Mar 2022 23:49
Kian H
This project aims to engage in an essential issue experienced in today’s world, especially in Manchester, - Homelessness. With the view that it is our social responsibility to contribute solutions to this problem through architecture, we are proposing an innovative design to shelter homeless and differently-abled youth, which we believe would serve as the foundation for many more solutions in the near future. This project, through a scheme of community led design, would provide a space for skill development, leisure and communal gatherings for the residents to help improve their mental health and generate livelihood.
Posted 16 Mar 2022 00:11
Kian H
This project will be an opportunity to expand on skills such as site surveying, sketching/ collaging, model making, 3D modelling/ rendering, and work with external collaborators and consultants.
Posted 16 Mar 2022 00:38
Agrima S
MSA Live has officially begun!!

Day 01 - Meet the Client + The Big Draw

We began our day by meeting the BAs and introducing them to the project and the clients. Followed by this, we had a meeting with the client and the occupational therapist.

After the team understood the project and interacted with the clients, we started with our next activity - The Big Draw. We got to brainstorm different ideas in small groups to see how can we design an interesting master plan. We did this by using to-scale cutouts of module homes and placing them on site.

Looking forward to visiting the site tomorrow and the weeks ahead!
Posted 16 May 2022 20:58
Kian H
A successful end to day two!

Day 2 - Site visit + Meet the Collaborators + The Big Draw

We began our day by meeting at the site. The students got involved with sketching and measuring the site to develop an understanding of the site and its surroundings. This was followed by a team lunch at a nearby food joint.

After getting back from the site we met our client, Debi and collaborator Joseph Molyneaux, an occupational therapist who is actively involved with the Youth house co-op. Joseph gave us an overview of how can we design not just an accessible housing project but an inclusive one.

This was followed by the team brainstorming on the different massing strategies for the project. We eventually decided on two options and will be developing them further this week.

Looking forward to creating an impactful scheme for youth house co-op in the action week!
Posted 17 May 2022 22:13
Oliver P
Big Progress On Paper!

Day 03 - Masterplanning and Spatial Arrangements

Day 03 kicked off with a continuation of the 'Big Draw' exercise, exploring different possible massing options on site through collage of scaled Shipping Containers on the car park.

Once two clear options had been whittled down, we split off into 2 groups, each developing one of the options in preparation for the clients review on Friday!

The proposals each consist of two elements, a ground floor communal social space inclusive of community cafe and food bank, while the upper floors look to provide low cost affordable housing for the young homeless community of Manchester.

Two very exciting proposals are coming together, looking forward to seeing where they develop over the coming days...
Posted 18 May 2022 18:32
Rasaq Ayomide Y
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.
Posted 19 May 2022 22:26
Kian H
End of the first week of MSA Live.

Day 05

Day 5 started on the evening before with us finalising our massing models and supplementing the visual information with sketches and small physical models.

In the morning of day 5, we gathered all our work into a single portfolio presentation and ran through the client meeting with the undergrads.

In the afternoon, our client, Debi, and her party arrived to run through our two separate presentations for each potential model.

Following this meeting, Debi and her party were able to discuss the two potential models and decide which they would prefer to proceed with and what alterations they would like to see.

We're now all looking forward to getting back to develop our design to meet our clients expectations.
Posted 20 May 2022 22:45
Charlotte K
Taking it to the final design!

Day 06 - Finalising our design and building our document. !

Day 06 started with a client meeting with Debi and her team, in which we discussed their feedback to Friday’s design proposals. This helped to clarify and confirm changes including defining which spaces are public and private, and the addition of some spaces such as a medical room. Additionally, we were able to finalise the different types of units and their exact dimensions so we could adapt and solidify our design into a final masterplan. Debi shared how valuable it was to be asked what matters to them in design and for a project to be built from their experiences, which is wonderful for our group to be a part of.

Following this our group split into two teams, one focusing on masterplan changes digitally, and narrowing down into details. Our other group worked on site analysis drawings, text for the bio and precedent pages to put into our design document for Youth house co-op.

Our next steps are to further develop our design document, and finish our digital plans, so we are ready to build a 3D digital model of our proposal.
Posted 23 May 2022 17:26
Agrima S
One step closer!

Day 07 - Finalising our design and client bio!

We carried on with the work from Day 06 and went into further detail while narrowing down the master plan. The group was split into two teams, one focusing on masterplan changes digitally and making the 3D Digital model. Our other group worked on site analysis drawings, text for the bio and precedent pages to put into our design document for the Youth house co-op.

Looking forward to finishing the document and presenting it to the clients on Day 10! The next steps are to further develop our design document, and finish our client bio document!
Posted 24 May 2022 17:03
Rasaq Ayomide Y
Day 08- setting up the final proposal document!

This was a continuation of day 7 with the first group working on completing the design of the master plan and the other group setting up the pages for precedents and site analysis. The group working on the design documents reviewed the design to make final changes in preparation for making final drafts while the group working on the client bio, precedents and site analysis moved towards completing their pages for the final collation for the youth co-op design document.

Before ending the day, we decided to allocate the team members into smaller groups to create final drafts for the proposal drawings.

Posted 25 May 2022 22:25
Oliver P
The Final Push!

Day 09 - In preparation for tomorrows presentation with our clients, we've been finalising all the drawings and presentation documents to show off the exciting proposals we've been working on. Today also saw the group explore a range of landscaping opportunities to bring the exterior spaces within the project to life. The bio of the Youth House Co-Op is complete with sketches, info and motivations of those working for the cooperative, looking to provide an informative guide to the group to raise their awareness and profile.

Looking forward to our presentation tomorrow, excited to hear what they have to say!
Posted 26 May 2022 17:31
Charlotte K
Final Presentation!

We were finally able to present our bio and design proposal to Debi and the Youth House Co-op (YHC) team. It was wonderful to see our group's work come together into a 30 page pre-planning style document for the YHC to build on in the future, and help them to develop their company information and story. The final proposal was met with tears of joy, which made us all feel like the hard work was really worth it to receive such an amazing reaction.

Debi responded to the presentation, saying:

‘Everything in that building you can trace back to us, and the reasons we want and need this project’.

She shared how valuable it was to have a project built from their experiences, and to feel heard and understood. For all of us, we are very proud of this project and the final outcome, and the important contribution it has made to Debi and the YHC team.
Posted 27 May 2022 18:55