Today, the team came together for the first time! We began our week with a tour of Castlefield, exploring the landmarks and getting to know more about the area. Along the way, the tour stopped at our favourite spots (which we learned about from Castlefield Forum) so we could begin to think about how we might improve these areas and enrich them for local residents.

The main stops on our tour were St John’s Gardens, the intersection between Duke Street and Beaufort Street, Castlefield Bowl, and Spinners Way. These areas all have their own unique characters – each with different advantages and disadvantages too! By visiting these places one after the other, we began to think about the opportunities each one has…

We chose three spots to focus on for our mapping study: ‘The Triangle’ (intersection between Duke Street and Beaufort Street), ‘The Bowl’ (Castlefield Bowl) and ‘The Street’ (Spinners Way). Their locations on opposite sides of the A57 offer opportunity to link together the community across the divide which the road causes. Each area has a very different feeling, so hopefully our interventions will all be contrasting too!

The day started with a Digimap workshop and students were divided into groups. Group 1 decided to focus on studying the demographics of Castlefield- age groups, population density, ownership status etc. Maps were downloaded from Digimap and edited on Photoshop and InDesign. Additionally, some infographics were produced by the group to representing the key findings. The group thoroughly enjoyed the mapping exercises and look forward to taking it further tomorrow!

The historic mapping of Castlefield shows the various key developments of the area from the Roman forts to the industrial revolution to the present day use of the site. Today the group researched and explored the past heritage of Castlefield and mapped out the key developments and changes that took place over the time that influenced the urban landscapes and street patterns of the area.

Today, group 3 conducted a study into the land use and context of Castlefield. By identifying the various building uses, we got a feel for the existing 'zones' (residential, commercial etc) - and came to understand the extent of the residential nature of Castlefield. We also looked at the culture hotspots of Castlefield and realised that the vast majority sit above the A57... This will help to inform our interventions later on, especially at 'The Street' site.

So far, we have hosted two workshops for the team - one by Maddie covering the use of Digimap, including tips on how to put a map into Photoshop for graphical purposes; and another by Johan covering basic skills and tips for using Illustrator, with a focus on the use of aerial maps for representation. Monika also offered Photoshop support for those team members who required some extra pointers. These skills have been put to use already in the mapping exercises conducted by the groups.

Today, the groups continued with the work they started yesterday looking at the history, demographics and land use/context of the site. By polishing up the information which was researched yesterday, the groups have each produced graphics to demonstrate their information. Also, we've begun to make a start on laying out the final publication, and even had an initial brainstorming session on ideas for potential interventions.

Today we allocated specific sites to each group, and we began to brainstorm design ideas for the different locations. We thought about interventions which would be free for Castlefield Forum to implement, alongside projects which would be low cost or require some investment. Ideas ranged from innovative lighting strategies to inventive street furniture designs, and the groups all made sure that their ideas were unique and appropriate for their sites. Sketching and collaging allowed for these ideas to begin to come to life...

The three groups presented their mapping exercises and design collages to the clients from Castlefield Forum. The ideas were appreciated by the collaborators and they also gave inputs to the students about what more they can expect out of this project! The group continued to work on more urban intervention ideas in the second half, and proposed design variations for different cost ranges.

The groups decided to make their design ideas come to life today! The students started working towards producing the final visualisations and began work on sketch up and other rendering softwares. Digital models were produced showcasing the different furniture ideas and spatial features. Some students continued sketching exercises from the previous day to further flesh out the design proposals.

The groups continued the work from the previous session: creating visualizations, sketches and iterative testing of digital model prototypes. A costing exercise was also conducted to propose design ideas at different price points to the collaborator. Additionally, the team also started work on the final publication and finalised the layout.

Today we had our final presentation with Calum and Nena from Castlefield Forum. We showed them our final designs and renders for each of the three sites and explained the concepts behind these ideas. The feedback we received was great, and the Forum were really happy with the varied designs we'd come up with - they said they'd be putting forward some our ideas to the National Trust immediately, as they're currently engaged in a project with them. Success!

The BA1 and BA2 team worked towards preparing the images for the publication: putting the finishing touches in and detailing them out. The year 5 students setup up the layout for the publication, and worked on the final deliverables. The MSA Live Session ended with joyous and gregarious goodbyes!