SOCIAL IMPACT
Degrowth is a social and economic movement critiquing the paradigm of economic growth. We can’t continue building how we always did, the time is now to make a statement. The only sustainable growth is degrowth. Our main purpose here at the boiler house is to provide positive social impact through improving mental health and wellbeing through creating and making. We bring members of the community together regardless of gender, age, or race. We aim to combat social isolation, improve confidence, and learn new transferable skills in a safe, welcoming environment.

COLLABORATOR
Re-purposed as a centre for making and mending, The Boiler House used to be a district power station just a mile from the middle of Manchester. Social enterprise Sow the City signed a 12-year lease on the building and made it the site of a new social community. The Boiler House aims to provide free and low-cost use of tools, equipment and workshop space, to act as a catalyst for people to reach their potential. They also run a variety of skill workshops for the community, including a repair café, held on the last Saturday each month, where people can bring damaged or broken items and have experts help to fix them for free. It’s not just about fixing things, but also about reducing waste and building a community. Such activities could help to provide skills for employment, improve health and wellbeing, develop a circular economy, and promote gender and race equality.
Website: https://boilerhouse.org/

SKILLS
You will communicate directly with the live client and pitch your ideas. You will also take part in measured surveys where you will learn techniques such as triangulation and running dimensions. We will also teach you tips and tricks on CAD and 3D software. This project is a fantastic opportunity to expose yourself to a real life architectural problem, key experience for your CV.

Wenyu Hou
Atelier // FLUX
Qualification // BA (Hons) from Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University
Skills // Adobes, Rhino, AutoCAD, Sketching
Interests // Watching movies
Fun Fact// I can breathe under water :-)

Mirza Isaam Rahman
Atelier // CPU Ai
Qualification // BA (Hons) from Liverpool School of Architecture
Skills // Detailing, Presentation, communication
Interests // Cycling, Food
Fun Fact // I can fly a Boeing 737

Xinyu Shen
Atelier // Praxxis
Qualification // BA (Hons) from University of Liverpool
Skills // Designing, Sketching, Adobes, Rhino & Lumion
Interests // Psychology, Drawing, Travelling
Fun Fact // Never went sleeping before 0 am.

Jingyi Zhou
Atelier // FLUX
Qualification // BA (Hons) from Newcastle University
Skills // Model Making, Adobes/CAD/SU/RHINO/Render, Sketching
Interests // Cooking, History, Sleeping
Fun Fact // I can sleep with my eyes open. o_o

Day 2 to go!

The team met the clients in the morning. The clients gave a short introduced on the site and their wish to the new members, and we explained three schemes from yesterday. Clients gave the evaluation and gave some feedbacks for future development.

Day 2 to go!

Let's visit the site!
After the meeting with clients, the team selected three main directions and started to do the measuring survey after lunch. The dimension details have been recorded for day 3 to work together.

Week 1 to Week 2!

This slide shows the connection from week 1 and week 2, and summarizes the activities of the first week and the plan schedule of the second week.

Day 6 to go!

The second week launches!
Let's meet with the clients and engineer today!

This morning, a part of the team members came to the site to meet with customers and engineers to evaluate the feasibility and cost of the three schemes. We did the presentation to explain each option and their cons and pros. The clients are evaluated and considered based on that.

Day 6 to go!

Afternoon the engineer joined us. We introduced three options and consulted about some technical issues. After value estimation, plan 2 won with the highest score and was picked by the clients as the main direction to work on this week.

Week 1 Nice Sketches!

These drawings were the second scheme discussed during the first week. As previously shown, the glass was installed outside the rolling shutters, and the middle shutter was kept. This scheme focuses on shading through the greenery, regulating heat gain and daylight in summer and winter.

This scheme was finally picked by the clients, and would be mainly focused on the following week!

Week 1 Nice Sketches!

These drawings were some idea draft skecthes during the first week. The three openings were for a fixed full-face plant frame, the original roller shutter and a large sliding door. These sketches mainly tested different pattern and materiality of the plant frames and finally developed into scheme 1 and scheme 3.

Day 7 to go!

Today the team spent their time finishing the Sketchup 3d models, and making detailed drawings of the doors for the boiler house.

Day 7 to go!

Today is about efficient teams work!
We split into 3 groups in order to productively spend the day. After yesterday’s meetings, the team had a lot of details to figure out and to fix with the second design.

Day 8 to go!

In the morning we spent an hour and a half brainstorming ideas for the landscape proposal. We worked as a team before coming up with the perfect solution and developing it further.

Day 8 to go!

Working hard on the final proposal!
Today some of the team finalised the updated cost evaluation of our project, while others were working on brainstorming and drawing the landscape strategy and the proposal for the project.

Day 8 to go!

History Diagram

we learned about the history of boiler house, from the very beginning, to the industrial period, to the violence around the neighbourhood in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s the building was used for heating the homes in the area, but now it is the amazing workshop that we are working on!

Day 8 to go!

3D Model

The 3D detailed model of the doors was made in order to properly visualise it and put into a rendering program.

Day 8 to go!

Diagram of Community Effects

The team made various diagrams including a flow chart showing how this project would benefit the community around boiler house!