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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.