Group 03
RETROFIT CHAMPIONS

Our group collaborates with the Manchester based organisation Carbon Co-op, an energy services and advocacy cooperative that helps people and communities to make radical reductions in home carbon emissions necessary to avoid climate change. They are people powered not fossil fuelled. Utilising community based social marketing, Carbon Co-op have us tasked us with creating a series of case studies that will showcase the innovators and early adopters, the vanguard of the retrofit movement, who have successfully retrofitted their homes. Displaying and distributing the achievable and beneficial investments they have made to their homes will encourage citizens to follow in their footsteps, advancing the wider retrofit movement. These case studies will be realised through student led interviews visiting the homes of Carbon Co-operators through a series of methods. To prepare for this we will be hosting a series of workshops to aid with listening, interviewing, and presentation skills. Furthermore, we will use the case production process as a way to share our software skills, teaching transferable skills and methods for making portfolios and showcasing work.

Download Final Report

Esha Emmanuel SJ / Faizal A / Joseph H / Muhammad Luqman Bin I / Brian C

Here's our 1st tutorial with Anna ,our MSA Live tutor. We then liaise with Jonathan Atkinson our collaborator from Carbon
Co-Op to discuss expectations , supports , resources & our next plan of action
Posted 13 Mar 2023 15:04
Our fundamentals for this project! Don't worry , we've have got more in store , if you're willing to explore :) Say it . Ask it. Sorted!
Posted 13 Mar 2023 15:05
NAMES : Faizal Akalwaya
BACHELORS UNI : Manchester School of Architecture
ATELIER : Infrastructure.Space
SKILLS : Retrofit Experience
MSA LIVE AIMS : Broadening my understanding of the real world effects of retrofitting properties.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 16:55
NAMES : Brian Cox
BACHELORS UNI : Newcastle University
ATELIER : Continuity in Architecture
SKILLS : Photoshop / Indesign / Render Engines / Autocad / Revit / Sketch Up
MSA LIVE AIMS : To create content that will help boost awareness for retrofitting and help bachelor students with key tools that will allow them excel at university and in practice.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 16:56
NAMES : Esha Emmanuel Selamat Jati
BACHELORS UNI : Manchester School of Architecture
ATELIER : Infrastructure.Space
SKILLS : Model Making / Sketching / Auto-cad / Sketchup / Lumion / Vray / D5 / Enscape / In Design / Photoshop
MSA LIVE AIMS : To have fun while engaging with real life clients and ready to learn from one another. Moreover, establish a strong understand on the issues of fuel poverty & thermal performance as a means to creating comfortable ‘home’.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 16:56
NAMES : Muhammad Luqman Ismadi
BACHELORS UNI : Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia
ATELIER : SKN - Some Kind of Nature
SKILLS : Model Making / Sketching / Auto-cad / Revit / Sketchup / Lumion / In Design / Photoshop
MSA LIVE AIMS : Learn on how to help people/community to change their home into more healthy and comfortable environment with less cost.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 16:57
NAMES : Joseph Higginbotham
BACHELORS UNI : Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University
ATELIER : Infrastructure.Space
SKILLS : Adobe Works / Sketchup / AutoCAD / Carbon Literacy / Photography / Drawing
MSA LIVE AIMS : To assist Carbon Co-op in spreading the word on Retrofit and developing ‘soft’ and software skills for undergraduates to carry through their studies and in the outside world.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 17:01
Our Action Plan for the next two weeks!
Posted 9 May 2023 14:21
It was great to meet the BA students joining us today and break the ice! Who knew drawing people could cause so much laughter. It's been a great way to get to know each other.
Posted 9 May 2023 14:43
Setting up ready for day 2! Looking forward to sharing some interview skills with our fellow students ahead of the case study visits on Thursday and Friday.
Posted 10 May 2023 09:58
Posted 11 May 2023 13:54
Posted 11 May 2023 13:55
It was great to meet our first Retrofit Champion, Phoebe Spence, this morning. Constance and Keisuke learnt all about her story, we were all interested in her systems for collecting rainwater as you can see above. Phoebe was a fantastic host, we're excited to share the details of our visit in the upcoming case study article. Watch this space!
Posted 11 May 2023 14:16
The students were really engaged in the activities throughout our Day 2 session. To get students ready for the days of the case study visit, we practice some active listening and interview techniques. Additionally, there is a photography class to ensure that students capture quality images of the homes for the case study report.
Posted 13 May 2023 11:43
Lloyd Hamilton's home was visited for the case study, which went smoothly. He describes his experience of renovating his home from its initial state of disrepair upon purchase to its present state of beauty and comfort. He is a really kind host and has all of his presentation slides from his research on retrofit renovation process. Stay tuned for the outcomes, which we will disclose later, as we genuinely appreciate the visit.
Posted 13 May 2023 11:50
Great to visit another amazing retrofit! Case study under construction.
Posted 15 May 2023 16:02
A wonderful conversation with Alan and Monica at their beautiful green home.

Had an amazing visit on Friday last week for one of our case studies for retrofits in Greater Manchester. Alan and his wife Monica were wonderful in describing their experience of the retrofit process and passed on the lessons they learnt to myself and our first year students. The interview we conducted aimed at uncovering some of the unforseen conciderations that crop up when working on site, as well as a look into levels of thermal comfort and actual thermal gain, post retrofit.
Posted 15 May 2023 16:16
Had a wonderful trip up North of Manchester to Dominic McCann's beautiful retrofitted home. Dominic is one of the pioneers of Carbon Co-Op Retrofit projects that has became one of the best retrofit project of Carbon Co-Op. We had the privilege of venturing into the retrofit aspects of his home. Retrofits ranging from Solar PV to having a white external wall insulation has made Dominic's home a source of precedent for green homes in his neighbourhood.
Posted 16 May 2023 10:22
It was great to see our fellow students putting the presentation skills, that we introduced last week, into use. We spent yesterday morning sharing short presentations of our interview experiences, was great to see common strands between retrofitters and the unique parts of each homeowners approach.
Posted 16 May 2023 13:05
Esha giving a masterclass in file organisation. Telling us all to KISS... (keep it simple stupid).
Posted 17 May 2023 10:12
Part of our case study visits and outputs was the collection of photos that illustrated the variance in retrofit approaches as well as our participants articulating the changes on site. In order to get the best out of these images, carrying on from a prior session on how to take good architectural photos, Brian delivered an extremely well recieved presentation on editing architectural photos and images on Photoshop. Safe to say we all learnt something new in this one.
Posted 19 May 2023 18:10
After making our case study presentations on the first day back this week, we worked through the information gathered the next few days to create articles to present to Carbon Co-op. The articles were drafted as a group and themes from the interviews were delegated to each team member. Through our writing process we could solidify the lessons learnt from our visits on sustainable design and retrofits.
Posted 19 May 2023 18:18
Having completed our first drafts for our case study articles, we engaged in a democratic editing session, chaired by our esteemed peer Joseph and peer reviewed by independent reviewer from a neighbouring group Sanjidah. Edits pertained to layout and aesthetic changes, as well as some edits to the text before a final internal peer review.
Posted 19 May 2023 18:26
A happy democratic process has come to a close. Got a bit heated on the topic of word count (Faizal) but we all came to a uniform resolution.
Posted 19 May 2023 18:27
We had the pleasure of having Carbon Co-op & People Powered Retrofit introduce 4 of their staff members present for the final output presentation. Jonathan (bottom left) can be seen giving an intro on Retrofit and had each of their staff members, Harriet (Top left) , Mark (top right) and Matt (bottom right) a chance to introduce the roles & insight in retrofit.
Posted 19 May 2023 18:52
PRESENTATION DAY!
Each of the case study group presented their findings and reflections to the Carbon Co-op members. The feedback was very positive since we were able to acquire some interesting insights into retrofit that weren't previously documented or reported.
Posted 19 May 2023 18:55
MASSIVE THANK YOU!
A huge appreciation for all involved in this project . We would love to thank Carbon Co-op for their commitment and cooperation in providing us with 5 case studies retrofit "champions", namely, Julian Tomlin, Dominic McCann, Lloyd Hamilton, Alan Mould & Phoebe Spence. We appreciate their hospitality in accommodating us during our interview sessions. Last but not least, we would love to thank the BAs for their hard work and commitment in completing this project! See you around next year!
Posted 19 May 2023 19:03