Name: Emily Walsh

Hometown/Country: Birmingham, UK

Atelier: Making

Undergraduate: Birmingham City University

Skills: AutoCAD, SketchUp, Revit, Photoshop

Interests: Sustainability, zero-carbon, community, conservation

Name: Waleed Alsulami

Hometown/Country: Saudi Arabia

Atelier: &architecture

Undergraduate: University of Colorado Denver

Skills: AutoCAD, Revit, Illustrator,

Interests: Residential and commercial buildings, sustainability.

Name: Syamin Amira Muriddan

Hometown/Country: Malaysia

Atelier: PraXXis

Undergraduate: University of Technology Malaysia

Skills: Revit, 3ds Max, SketchUp, Autocad, InDesign, Photoshop, Corona Renderer, Lumion

Interests:

I’m Syamin and I passionately believe in inclusivity and socially responsive architecture. Through Praxxis in MSA, I’ve learnt about ‘intersectionality’ and that feminism extends more than just fighting for women's right. I aspire to one day become an architect who values the community and diversity through her design. When I’m not in my working mode, I always find time to cook and my weekends are always spent trying new recipes. I also enjoy traveling, as I believe it helps broaden horizons and encourages positive feelings.

Name: ZEYU CHE

Hometown/Country: CHINA

Atelier: CIA

Undergraduate: Leeds Beckett University

Skills: Autocad, Rhino, InDesign, Photoshop, Indesign, Ai

Interests: I am interested in hand-drawing to express my understanding of architecture or space and researching the impact of social phenomena on architecture.

Name: Chakameh Seirafy

Hometown/Country: Canada

Atelier: Infrastructure Space

Undergraduate: Politecnico di Milano

Practice: Architectural Technologist, Canada

Skills: Revit, AutoCAD, InDesign, Sketchup, Photoshop

Interests: Travelling, Formula 1, Photography

Commoners is a family friendly, intergenerational housing co-op in South Manchester. We are working with Union Chapel in Fallowfield - it is on a piece of land owned by them, adjacent to the church, that we hope to build. We aim to use renewable energy technologies, like solar panels and the standards of Passive House.

We want to address growing housing inequalities, intergenerational challenges and the climate crisis. We believe that creating a sustainable, resilient, diverse and multigenerational community will bring us one step closer to this goal, and during covid-19 we believe this will have an even greater positive social impact. In addition, we hope to reduce the energy costs of the community by recycling energy in a way that will no longer be the preserve of the wealthy, but will also allow people on low incomes to move into the community, while also achieving an environmentally friendly goal.

In our group, we will fully encourage creativity and active expression of ideas. We will develop graphic skills by using the Adobe softwares, particularly Photoshop, and layout skills through Indesign. In addition, we will also use AutoCAD and modelling softwares to give us a better understanding of space through 3D modelling. We will be working as a team and develop our communication skills better as
we learn.

Day1: We spent getting to know each of the undergraduate students and introducing them to the brief and our plans for the project. We divided all the students into two groups. The first group focuses on sustainable development strategies and ecological systems stuff. The second group was responsible for the functionality, volumes and the planning of the landscape.

Day 2: We divided all BA students into two groups. Group A focus on positive development and solutions we need to think of some strategies and sustainable ideas about how to achieve the biological goals in this project. Group B focus on the site design development which would provide some diagram and graphics to show the shape and volume of the community and what kind of function would be in this community.

Day 3: We started to research some precedents using sustainable strategies or ecological cycle systems and share them with each other, and we also used some digram or sketches to show why we chose them and how they work.

Day 4: Everyone presented the work they have done so far and the March students shared some ideas and gave suggestions to the BA students to improve their work.

Day5: Keep working！

Day5: Keep Working!

Day6: All BA students presented the information and ideas they had done to the March students and shared them with other same group students. March students gave some feedback and suggestion for the landscape and general arrangement plan to the group member responsible for the master plan. In the afternoon, we were really happy to meet with the clients and we presented the work we have done so far to them and answered their questions and also received feedback and suggestion from the client.

Day7: Keep Working!

Day8: We have ensured more details and started making the final booklet. BA students made a lot of great pages! Well done!

Day9: All students keep working for the final publication!

Day10: After two weeks of intense work, we have now completed the final booklet and everyone has done an excellent job! Well done!