Group 23
MOTHERSHIPPON: GROW AND PLAY

We aim to design a greenhouse pavilion and upcycled ‘play-structures’ in the courtyard of the MotherShippon Art Studio in rural Ellesmere, using reclaimed materials from art workshops conducted on-site. The project looks to design a sustainable space that promotes awareness about climate change and encourages experimentation with materials. The 'play-structures' will be flexible and temporary, allowing for future alteration and addition as more reclaimed and newly discovered materials are collected over time at the site. We will look to create playful exploration already occurring at the Rural Art Hub, providing shelter, play, and exploration for the community of children. The objectives of this project include catering to a diverse group of users, creating a sustainable energy source, and researching types of plants that can grow in the region to be used as part of the structure. The project’s outputs will include drawings, sketches, experimental models with reclaimed/recycled materials, and research on suitable plant species.

Download Final Report

Ebrahim V / Chin Yiu Y / Yuwei Q / Mohith Kiran R / Yulin J

Chin Yiu Y
NAME: Ebrahim Variava

ATELIER: FLUX

WHERE WE ARE FROM: Leicester, England

THREE SKILLS: Revit, Adobe Suite, Collaging

HOBBY: Films, Coffee and consistently failing in baking

FUN FACT ABOUT ME: I have a pet African grey parrot at home; and three cats who have decided to leave their neighbors for my home, so now it's a part-time cat Airbnb. I have a soft spot for all things Studio Ghibli and Pixar. Grew up with comics and movies and for me, it's DC > Marvel.

A FAVOURITE FOOD: I grew up eating 'Haleem'. Now either it's the nostalgia of my mum making it, or the meat and barley brothy goodness with that hint of ginger and chili that sends you to the next dimension, that makes it unrivaled.

HOLIDAY DREAM: It's the dream of seeing Bruges and a trip through Japan that takes the student pain away.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 14:16
Chin Yiu Y
NAME: Yuwei Qiao

ATELIER: Infrastructure Space

WHERE WE ARE FROM: Changchun, China

THREE SKILLS: Photoshop, Chinese painting, Adobe Illustrator

HOBBY: keep pets, travel, photograph

FUN FACT ABOUT ME: I have picked up many stray cats and brought them home. Besides being an architect, my biggest dream is to open a cat cafe to help homeless cats find warm homes.

A FAVOURITE FOOD: I love everything except raw food

HOLIDAY DREAM: I'm very interested in nature
Posted 13 Mar 2023 14:19
Chin Yiu Y
NAME: Yulin Jian

ATELIER: Infrastructure Space

WHERE WE ARE FROM: Chongqing, China

THREE SKILLS: Rhino, Cooking, Illustration

HOBBY: Games, Delicacy, Sketches

FUN FACT ABOUT ME: I run a secret board game shop. But because of my chronic neglect of management, the task of running the business has been completely handed over to my friend.

A FAVOURITE FOOD: I like strong flavor and rich spiced food which has intense color and full nose. with a nice splash of paprika. It's hearty, it's healthy!

HOLIDAY DREAM: I want to travel to space or a fantasy world like in animation.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 14:27
Chin Yiu Y
NAME: Mohith Kiran Reddy

ATELIER: Making

WHERE WE ARE FROM: Bengaluru, India

THREE SKILLS: Conceptualization, visualization and storytelling

HOBBY: Running, Writing, and Reading

FUN FACT ABOUT ME: I love anime/animated storytelling and video games. I am excited about writing scripts and directing a few in near future.

A FAVOURITE FOOD: All-time favorite- traditional south Indian food. I love trying new food all the time.

HOLIDAY DREAM: A yoga retreat with sports and treasure hunt by the nature.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 14:31
Chin Yiu Y
NAME: Chin Yiu Yeung

ATELIER: Some Kind of Nature

WHERE WE ARE FROM: Hong Kong

THREE SKILLS: Model Making, AutoCAD, Rhino

HOBBY: Football (Messi's fan), Scuba Diving, Traveling alone

FUN FACT ABOUT ME: I have 3 dogs in my home; two of them are Bichon Frise and the other one is Maltese. They spend most of their time sleeping, eating, and playing. Sometimes I wish I were a dog too!

A FAVOURITE FOOD: I like all kinds of Japanese food. Shoryu Raman is one of the best places for craving Japanese cuisine in Manchester.

HOLIDAY DREAM: I enjoy traveling to places that have beautiful nature such as mountains, beaches, and water.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 14:33
Chin Yiu Y
Our collaborator, Joseph Schneider, is an artist whose practice, though centered on the processes and objects of painting, is multi-disciplinary. As part of his practice, he founded and runs the Rural Art Hub and continues to use the Mother Shippon studio to work alongside and collaboratively with participants of workshops at the hub. He has a BA in Philosophy (University of Sussex) and an MA in Painting (Royal College of Art). He has facilitated interdisciplinary and skill-building workshops across art, play, and social history at a diverse range of organizations including WM College Camden, South London Gallery, PACE, Frieze, Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths University, and Greenwich University.

Rural Art Hub is focusing on climate change and sustainability and intends to use creative solutions to address the lack of creative thinking about sustainability in the community. They believe that this initiative will help them achieve their goals and offer opportunities for local communities and visitors to get involved sustainably, both in theory and practice.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 14:35
Ebrahim V
Welcome to the MotherShippon:

The site is a sloping terrain with dirt, clay and cobble stones that cover approximately 400 m2. It requires multi-functional structures that can host a variety of activities, including pavilions, installations, and other forms of art. The proposed design aims to create a space that is open to people of all ages and abilities to explore their potential creativity.

Skills that you will learn:

In the two weeks together, you will have the chance to develop an understanding of various core architecture software. Throughout the project, we will be engaging in collaging, perspective illustrations, and orthographic drawings, through which we see an opportunity to teach you the various aspects in the design workflow.

Aside from the digital components, this project will allow you to engage in experimental model-making, sketching and illustrations, as a process to explore and test ideas. The project will provide an opportunity to research and develop an understanding into sustainable design interventions, focusing on growing pavilions and temporary installations.

To top it off, a presentation with our lovely client will be a great chance for pitching and presenting, with the possibility of being involved in on-site construction that may happen separately in the summer.

Social Impact:

The Rural Art Hub has nurtured a community by engaging in art through various experimental and playful means. The development looks to elevate this nurturing and to further provide a platform of growth particularly for the children who visit the Mothershippon. The Rural Art Hub has a focused mission towards sustainable living and finding creative solutions towards a better future, and we look to amplify this mission by focusing on how our interventions can have a lasting influence on sustainability through upcycling and adaptive interventions.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 15:52
Yuwei Q
During our site visit, we had the wonderful opportunity to take part in a clay plastering activity, organized by Rural Art Hub and Clayworks, alongside a group of children. Together, we mixed clay and water with fibers to create a strong and durable mixture, which we then applied onto blocks of straw with hawks. We all ended up covered in clay after the activity, but it was a fun and unforgettable experience! We finished our site visit, with a game of tag with the local children, (as part of our site research of course...) and explored our own creativity in the Mothershippon.
Posted 13 Mar 2023 19:17
Mohith Kiran R
Day 1

The Mothershippon Adventures Begin!!

An incredible first day meeting the lovely group of students who will join us over the next two weeks.
We introduced the site, project themes, group discussions and got stuck in with our research investigations to fuel our future explorations.
And nothing breaks the ice like a good couple rounds of Jenga!!!

We're all super excited to see what will come next!
Posted 9 May 2023 20:31
Ebrahim V
Day 2: Spotlight - Super Sam

A little gratitude post for our lovely MA1 team member Sam, putting in the modelmaking elbow grease in the B15 Model Making Workshop before the day has even begun!
Posted 10 May 2023 17:26
Yulin J
Day 2

Let the creativity begin!!

Another amazing day working with the Mothershippon team, starting the day off with an online call with our fabulous collaborator Joseph!

With yesterday's research fresh on our minds, today was a great opportunity to collaborate in sharing initial impressions and specualtive design interventions for the Mothershippon Playground. With an initial speed round of sketching, design ideas were flying across the board.

It was really great to see the team sharing ideas and exploring ways of keeping the messy, exploratory essence that has made the Rural Art Hub amazing so far! Especially amazing to see how ideas of growing new materials for use, and upcycling abandoned materials can form new structures.

Its only upwards from here!
Posted 10 May 2023 17:41
Ebrahim V
Day 2

Ideas are flowing as the day wraps up!!

Great way to end the day, with a series of sketches, draft spatial arrangements and site model already coming to life!

Next stop will be taking these initial sparks of creativity and developing them onwards, hopefully some physical models and collages will be coming soon!!
Posted 10 May 2023 18:19
Ebrahim V
Day 3

Some Model Making Mayhem!!

Its all experimentation over here with the Mothershippon Group!! Today we visited the B15 workshop and continued our explorations of the "Play Structures" for the Mothershippon playground. Much like the ethos of being messy and exploratory at the Rural Art Hub, we grabbed our tools and got right to it!

Just as we previously explored ideas of upcycling, reclaimed resources and reinvigorating abandoned materials, all our model making was made from materials that were left behind from previous modelmakers. Upcycling and reuse were the words of the day, and the team proceded to make some lovely exploratory sketch models!!
Posted 11 May 2023 18:56
Ebrahim V
Day 3: Spotlight - "Growing Pavillion"

With the third day wrapped up, its exciting looking back on the ideas, drawings and modelmaking that we were surrounded by today!

The "Growing Pavilion" sub-team continued their explorations and began articulating a more rigorous and calculated approach towards the development of a growing space. Here is a snippet from one of our lovely BA students Charlotte, as she explored and developed a potential design for the "Growing Pavillion"!!
Posted 11 May 2023 19:19
Chin Yiu Y
Day 4

Another Model-Making Session!!

This time is our “Growing Pavilion” team‘s turn to visit the B12 workshop and explore the design of the growing pavilion for the Mothershippon playground. Similar to what the “Play Structures” team did yesterday, we reused leftover materials from our previous projects and offcuts found in the workshop to make a sketch model in order for us to visualise the design idea from the design section yesterday.

Now that we have both the “Play Structures” and “Growing Pavilion” models, we can put them together in the site model and see how it all fits. Exciting things are happening, and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Stay tuned!
Posted 12 May 2023 19:37
Ebrahim V
Day 5

New Week, New Ideas

With a Manchester Monday basking in the early summertime magic, the Mothershippon group have been basking in creative delight. Coming back from the weekend break, it was lovely to see the team again, and even lovelier to see the ideas continuing to evolve and being depicted in drawings and collages. The team have continued to push forward with their interpretations of the site and have been pushing the possibilities of an ever changing, temporal scheme, and we love it!

As we enter the second week, our focus is towards resolution and refinement as we cement our ideas onto paper and continue to document the team’s fabulous work for the soon-to-come publication!!!

Its full throttle ahead as we welcome the second and final action week of MSA Live.
Posted 15 May 2023 19:45
Ebrahim V
Day 5: Spotlight – Charlotte’s “Growing Pavilion” Collage

With the team developing fantastic drawings across the board, here’s a fantastic collage elevation of the “Growing Pavilion” intervention from our amazing BA member Charlotte! With the focus being on a growing space, the team has gone above and beyond on exploring the adaptability and poetic value of the intervention – looking at how the intervention can enhance the existing architecture and provide a platform for the children to paint, play and explore further!

We are ecstatic to see the potential of the “Growing Pavilion” and the “Play Structures” at the Rural Art Hub, and their potential to promote sustainability, social inclusivity, and playful exploration!!
Posted 15 May 2023 19:54
Ebrahim V
Day 6

The Mothershippon Fever is Growing!!

Cracking on from yesterdays session, the team continued with their illustrations of the proposed interventions for the Mothershippon Playground! From the get-go we had our hands stuck on collaging, hand-drawn illustrations and some digital modelling! We are thrilled to see the final works as we continue towards the end of the action week!

The design mania and Mothershippon fever ran rampant with the team as we took part in a light-hearted drawing exercise, where we all unleashed our inner child-like fascination and created our own Mothershippon Mania Map. Pens, watercolours and Pastels, there was no stopping our little bit of madness!!
Posted 16 May 2023 19:43
Ebrahim V
Day 7

Sharing Ideas and Revisiting the Thinking Board!!

We kicked off the day with a meeting with our lovely collaborator Joseph, it was nice to catch up again and a wonderful time showcasing the ideas that have developed with the team. It was great to see a visual collection showcasing the collaborative environment that has grown over these two weeks!! Ideas of adaptability, expansion and sustainability were shared across the board.

The meeting was a great chance to receive feedback on our proposed interventions and gave us plenty to consider when revisiting the drawing board!! Now as we reach the end of the action weeks, it is full steam ahead as we produce our proposals whilst implementing our collaborators feedback.

Its happy days with the Mothershippon group!!
Posted 17 May 2023 21:25
Ebrahim V
Day 8

To the Finish Line!!

As we enter the penultimate day of our MSA Live Action Weeks, the focus, the excitement and even some nerves are definitely rising! The team have produced a fantastic range of work across different mediums.

Today was a day of huddling together, sharing our thoughts and ideas across the board and sculpting a fantastic collection of drawings. And the day ended with a great high as we could finally see the body of work together as we prepare our publications, which we are ecstatic to share!
Posted 18 May 2023 16:59
Ebrahim V
Day 9

The Finale!!

After two weeks of working together, sharing ideas together, we now enter our final day of MSA Live!! With all the hardwork and fabulous pieces of work produced over the last nine days, todays finalisation of our publication was a lot simpler and laid back than one would expect.

This project was a fantastic chance to get to know a group of people across different years and to put forward an incredible publication that we are so excited for people to see! With this last post, there's nothing more to say but thank you to all the members of The Mothershippon, both here in MSA and those in rural Ellesmere, it was an absolute delight!!
Posted 19 May 2023 22:10