Group 31
HOME FOR CITY OF TREES

In collaboration with City of Trees, we will be designing a new Home for City of Trees at Barnfield Park. Our goal is to come up with a masterplan that preserves the heritage of the site by reusing the existing building and materials on site into functionable work and training spaces for a new headquarters. Through visual graphics, we want to provide ideas for how this headquarters could look, function and engage with the local community. So, let's get greening and creative with reusing old materials!

Download Final Report

Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH / Shiwen N / Hanna Batrisyia Binti CZ / Jack G / Shaan S

Shiwen N
MEET THE TEAM!

Name: Mohamad Danial Haziq bin Mohd Hamdan
Atelier: CPU (Ai)
Undergraduate: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
Skills: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino Grasshopper, 3DsMax, Corona Renderer.
Interests: Parametric Architecture, Metaverse, Computational Design.
Posted 14 Mar 2022 15:57
Shiwen N
MEET THE TEAM!

Name: Hanna Batrisya binti Che Zulhikam
Atelier: Some Kind of Nature (SKN)
Undergraduate: Oxford Brookes University
Skills: Rhino, Photoshop, Enscape, 3DS Max, Concrete Casting, Fabric Formwork, Metalworks, Modelmaking, Latexworks
Interests: Interior Design, Industrial Architecture, Landscape
Posted 14 Mar 2022 15:58
Shiwen N
MEET THE TEAM!

Name: Jack Garforth
Atelier: Continuity in Architecture
Undergraduate: De Montfort University
Skills: Model making; woodwork, metalwork concrete casting. Revit, Rhino, Photoshop, Lumion & photography
Interests: Brutalism, Modernism and timber construction.
Posted 14 Mar 2022 15:59
Shiwen N
MEET THE TEAM!

Name: Shaan Singh
Atelier: Some Kind Of Nature
Undergraduate: Leeds School Of Architecture
Skills: Design, Art, Model making, Painting, Digital Art, Film making, Revit.
Architectural Interests: Parametric Design, Urban / landscapes
Posted 14 Mar 2022 16:00
Shiwen N
MEET THE TEAM!

Name: Shiwen Ng
Atelier: Continuity in Architecture
Undergraduate: University of Dundee
Skills: Sketching, Photography, Photoshop, Indesign, Sketchup, Vray, AutoCad, Lumion
Interests: Adaptive Reuse, Interior Design, Critical Regionalism
Posted 14 Mar 2022 16:01
Shiwen N
MEET THE COLLABORATOR!

Jess joined the Community Forestry sector in 2005 after working in the media industry. Jess worked in a number of roles for Red Rose Forest and City of Trees before taking on the role of Forest Director in April 2019. Jess is also passionate about connecting people to the natural environment and her background in community engagement has developed into specialising in the relationship between health & wellbeing and the urban forest.

Website: https://www.cityoftrees.org.uk/
Posted 14 Mar 2022 18:12
Shiwen N
MEET THE COLLABORATOR!

Alex joined City of Trees in June 2021 having previously worked at the Alzheimer’s Society as a corporate account manager. As fundraising manager at City of Trees, Alex works with businesses across Greater Manchester to support their sustainability agenda and forge partnerships to help fund and deliver City of Trees projects across Greater Manchester. Alex works with businesses to organise CSR days, plan staff fundraising activity, deliver carbon offsetting schemes and helping to connect corporates to City of Trees local planting schemes. Alex has over 8 years experience of working as a Key Account Manager within the corporate sector and has a real passion for nature, sustainability and the outdoors. Alex can often be found walking and swimming in his native Cumbria with Ullswater and place fell as is his two favourite places to return to. Due to the history and mythology connected to them, Alex’s favourite tree is the Oak.

Website: https://www.cityoftrees.org.uk/
Posted 14 Mar 2022 18:13
Shiwen N
DIVERSITY + INCLUSION

The new HOME for City of Trees will be a hub for community engagement and training for jobs in forestry. We will be regenerating the site to new spaces for a headquarters that facilitates education and engages trees as a topic. You will participate in the designing of a masterplan that can introduce people to new initiatives and experiences and optimising the holistic benefits of working with plants and nature.

SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DESIGN

This project also gives us the opportunity to work with an existing building while reusing materials on site to preserve the heritage and character of the site. The site used to be a horticulture centre. Currently, there is a mix of 1970’s single story building, which is attached to a glass and steel section of interconnecting glass houses. There are also existing polycarbonate frames that could be refitted into useful spaces throughout the site, for events and local enterprises. The original growing beds with existing irrigation system are still there and our collaborator would like to turn this into a tree nursey too!

ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY

Adaptive reuse is a great way to tackle climate change ! Your challenge will be to come up with designs through reusing and recycling existing structures, and turning them into functionable work and training spaces for the City of Trees including offices, studios, workshops and a tree nursery!
Posted 14 Mar 2022 18:35
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
As part of this project, participants will be given the opportunity to explore various aspects of Lighting, Irrigation, Planting, Growing Frames, and "Furnitecture" design through sketching, basic software workshops, group discussions, visual rendering, and model making. There will be opportunities to gain a new understanding of how reusable material can be used to help future design projects and engage with the Prestwich community.

WHAT WILL WE DO?

Week 1
Based on the brief, participants will be divided into five groups, each tackling a specific area of the site, such as lighting, irrigation, planting, growing frames, and "Furnitecture" designs. At the end of week 1, we will be having numerous designs/models to be finalized during week 2.

Week 2
We will be preparing a small exhibition to showcase our designs at Barnfield Park/ City of Trees office in Week 2.
Posted 14 Mar 2022 19:41
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
WEEK 1! : Activities Plan for the Week
Posted 15 May 2022 20:58
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
WEEK 2! : Activities Plan for the Week
Posted 15 May 2022 20:59
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
Site Visit!
Posted 15 May 2022 21:00
Jack G
Posted 16 May 2022 21:27
Jack G
Posted 16 May 2022 21:28
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
DAY 2!

Environmental Group: Here is a small sampling of today's site research conducted by our team. Our group has discovered site environmental studies, analyzed the sun and green space on site, and investigated the importance of polycarbonate tunnels within our site.

Our findings will be applied to the design development tomorrow, and we are all looking forward to it.
Posted 17 May 2022 20:37
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
DAY 2!

Accessibility Group: Here is a small sampling of today's site research conducted by our team. Using accessibility studies and analysis of public transport, bicycle routes, and footpaths, our group has found site accessibility issues. A heap of synthesis has been discovered, which will be applied to the design development tomorrow. This should be a lot of fun!
Posted 17 May 2022 20:43
Shiwen N
DAY 2!!

History/Heritage Group: Here is a small sampling of today's site research conducted by our team. There used to be a house at the site during the 1800s and was replaced by a single brick building in 1970s which housed a horticulture centre. However, ever since the horticulture centre moved, the site was left empty, but we still think it shows great potential for a new purpose!
Posted 17 May 2022 21:21
Shiwen N
DAY 2!!

Now having a better understanding of the site through site analysis, we worked together as a team to put together a masterplan that fits both the client and the site requirements! Some of the new function includes: offices, metting rooms, tree nursery, event space etc.
Posted 17 May 2022 21:27
Shaan S
DAY 3

SOME INSPIRATION TO GET THE GROUP GOING!

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE TEAM DISCUSSING IDEAS OF HOW WE CAN APPROACH THE DESIGN.

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEE THIS DEVELOP FURTHER WITH THE TEAM TOMORROW WHERE WE WILL LOOK AT VISUAL WAYS TO REPRESENT OUR IDEAS.
Posted 18 May 2022 16:56
Shaan S
DAY 3

SOME INSPIRATION TO GET THE GROUP GOING!

STARTED WITH SOME CASUAL PRESENTATIONS OF PRECEDENT WORKS DONE BY THE TEAM. A GREAT EXCERCISE TO GAIN AN INSIGHT INTO HOW WE ALL VISION CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE SITE, SOME OF THE PRECEDENTS EXPLORED IDEAS OF LIGHT / TRANSPARENCY, ADAPTIVE REUSE, SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS AND TEMPORALITY.
Posted 18 May 2022 16:57
Hanna Batrisyia Binti CZ
DAY 4

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.
Posted 19 May 2022 22:10
Shiwen N
DAY 5!!

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.
Posted 20 May 2022 16:39
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
DAY 6!!

The new week is here and we are getting closer to our upcoming exhibition with the City of Trees!
As part of the finalization process, the students focused on each zone's design. In group discussions, we gathered ideas from the precedences and proposed ideas such as Furni-Techture, pavilions built with the polytunnel frame, container design, cart design with furniture, and new brick construction. We will present our designs to the City of Trees on Thursday at their headquarters!
Posted 23 May 2022 17:59
Hanna Batrisyia Binti CZ
DAY 7
Proposals has finally been made! Today, the students were presenting their ideas, proposals and visuals that they had been working on since the site visit. Great ideas and interesting proposals had been made with beautiful visuals.
Posted 24 May 2022 21:43
Hanna Batrisyia Binti CZ
EXHIBITION DAY

Hey guys! Our group will be holding an exhibition this Thursday (26/05) for the City of Trees! Do join us to look at spectacular visuals and proposals done by our students. For further information, do refer to our poster.
Posted 24 May 2022 21:46
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
DAY 8!

We were all working hard to print, build models, and prepare slides for our partner, City of Trees! Students were given responsibility for printing the visual, and some of them will handle the rest! Looking forward to tomorrow's exhibition!
Posted 25 May 2022 19:27
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
DAY 9 Morning Session!

On the day of the exhibition, we met at Manchester School of Architecture and then walked as a group to the City of Trees office that’s located in the centre of the city. We arrived promptly at 11:30 to set up the conference room for the presentation. We had compiled a PowerPoint including site analysis, precedents, sketches, idea development and final visualisations so the students could speak in order and fluently talk through their own ideas. We mounted printouts of the final visualisations on boards and fixed them to easels so the images could be viewed as we went through our presentation. We finished the morning by talking through our plan for the presentation and answering any questions or concerns the students had about the presentation. As it was the last day with the first and second-year students, we invited them to lunch to reduce any nerves they had about presenting.
Posted 26 May 2022 23:04
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
DAY 9: Presentation and Exhibition Day!

We began the presentation at 2 pm with members of the City of Trees organization. Before explaining our design process as architects, we introduced ourselves and the project so they could understand the way we approach problems on site. We then gave each student the opportunity to speak. After analyzing the site, the students developed their ideas, developed their designs, and created their final designs. In the Q&A session that followed the presentation, any other questions from the City of Trees members were answered. The City of Trees spokeswoman, Jessica, was extremely impressed with the student ideas and couldn't believe the quality of their visualisations. According to them, the ideas presented by the students were often things they hadn't even thought of. Additionally, they told us we would be able to get the funding for the project with the document we produced. Students all presented extremely well and acted with professionalism. Everyone was impressed and proud of the performances. Our day was concluded by exchanging contact information with the City of Tree so we can continue to keep in touch as their project progresses.
Posted 26 May 2022 23:13
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
DAY 10!

We are in the final stretch now. The team is working on the online and print aspects of the publication.
Posted 27 May 2022 18:25
Mohamad Danial Haziq Bin MH
FINAL OUTPUT!

The following work samples were created by our team. It was a blast! Clients were extremely pleased with what we created! As a result, they said that many of the students' ideas were things they hadn't even considered and that the document we produced would be invaluable in helping them receive funding. They all acted professionally and spoke well. Everyone was impressed and delighted. To end the day, we exchanged contact information with the City of Trees so we could keep in touch as their project moves forward.
Posted 27 May 2022 18:33