Meet our collaborators!

This was our initial meeting with Aaron, Sam and Nigel where we discussed who are Kingdom Life, who are we as students, and our collective goals for this MSA Live project. After meeting the group, we all found that our collaborators’ enthusiasm and energy was infectious, and we are super excited to work on this project together!

Welcome to Site!

Kingdom Life currently resides in this church and community centre, in Old Trafford. In our initial visit here we toured the building and grounds, and could quickly see the care and effort that the community have put into the site so far, and the ambition for the masterplan we will be developing in the 2 action weeks.

Site Address: Kingdom Life, Chorlton Rd, Old Trafford, Stretford, Manchester M16 7WQ

Fancy joining us?

During our 2 action weeks we will be producing a design response to the site and brief, but we would also like to use this time to help you develop skills you wish to learn. This could be general design/ site planning principles, digital or physical modeling, sketching, collaging, or rendering, or preparing presentations. We will use our individual strengths to help you develop your skills, and hopefully in group working, we will learn some skills from you as well!

Our next posts are a series of introductions to the 5th years individually. If anything here sparks your interest, or you have any questions, please get in touch!

Meet Rosie!

Hometown: Leeds, England

Recent project themes:
BA3 study on “Anthropology of the home”, where I considered specifically how food (and food events) make an impact on how we use our homes.
MArch RM1 study on “Design informed by nature” using digital design tools (Grasshopper) to harness evolutionary intelligence from the physical form of fungi, particularly mushrooms, to inform architectural design.
MArch dissertation study on “: Is IKEA the realization of the Bauhaus dream?”, considering how previously, the Bauhaus (and other designers such as the Eameses) used the architectural concept of gesamtkunstwerk to shape their design process and artifacts, and now, how IKEA uses similar principles to achieve similar outcomes.

Interests outside of architecture: 3d printing, Gardening, Live music, Hip-hop dancing, Formula 1

Contact email: 18057007@stu.mmu.ac.uk

Meet Izzy!

Hometown: Preston, England

Recent project themes:
BA3 project on ‘Smart Voids’ looking at the impact of smart cities and technologies on the freedom of communal space and right to protest.
MArch 1 RM04 ‘Decolonising the toilet’ exploring the different cultural attitudes to human excretement and treatment of waste. How these processes are impacted by western colonisation in countries like India.
MArch 1 Dissertation - How can inclusive public toilets be achieved in age-friendly city schemes? Looking at how inclusive toilets help reduce social segregation for older people in cities such as Manchester and what strategies can be introduced to ensure these amenities are provided in the regeneration of Northern Gateway.

Interests outside of architecture: Listening to NTS radio, Portrait drawing , Walks in the Lake District, Taking pictures on my film cameras, Assembling music playlists, Watching films

Contact email: 22537611@stu.mmu.ac.uk

Meet Yiqun!

Hometown: Jilin, China

Recent project themes:
BA3 project on ‘public building renovation’, where I remodelled a cinema in Mayfair of Liverpool to cater for the new street planning and to breathe life into the venue.
MArch RM12 ‘Invent and Discover: Literary imagination in design research’ Based on guided writing exercises and academic texts, I explored architecture through different perspectives and sought further possibilities. A future architecture was then revealed in text and drawings with the help of AI.
MArch dissertation study on: ‘How modernism influenced construction and design of social housing in London’, It is a comprehensive review of modernism and the development history of social housing in London, and tries to find the intersection.

Interests outside of architecture: Travelling, Taking pictures of anything beautiful and interesting, Football, Red panda! Otter! Dogs! all kinds of!

Contact email: 22538644@stu.mmu.ac.uk

Meet Eric!

Hometown: Guangzhou, China

Recent project themes: BA3 Project ‘3 degree Shanghai’, In this project, we mainly study the changes of urban environment caused by three degrees of warming in the context of global warming. Using Shanghai as the site, we explored Adaptive Reuse of structures and materials, as well as wood and mixed structures
MA Project “Sport in Community- TRANS CAMPS”. In this project, we explore the links between sport, and football in particular, and communities in south Manchester. The aim of the project is to promote the unity of residents and communities and enhance their vitality through community movements. In the project, we studied the design of community football field, community center and social housing.

Interests outside of architecture: Illustration, Football, Table tennis, Video shooting, Gaming

Contact email: 21408018@stu.mmu.ac.uk

Day 1: We commenced our two actions weeks by meeting altogether in our studio building, and started the day strong by sharing pastries!

Day 1: To get to know each other a little better and "break the ice", we challenged each other to build a marshmallow platform out of dry spaghetti sticks. The room heard some great conversations and saw some creative solutions, but I think it's safe to say we've established spaghetti will not be our structural solution for Kingdom Life!

Day 1: Our final activity for the morning was to have a short presentation and group discussion about what our 5th years have previously discussed with Kingdom Life, the overall project we are undertaking together, the upcoming two-week plan, and our aims for the outcomes throughout the two weeks.

Day 1: Our afternoon was spent touring Kingdom Life's existing place of worship, youth centre, and gardens. We discussed ideas for the site strategies with our clients and explored concepts together throughout the tour, and afterwards where we sat in their current teaching spaces, discussing the vision for the new active and community-based facility for Kingdom Life.

Day 2: We started our day by reviewing the information we gathered from yesterday’s site visit. We split into smaller groups and produced a range of site analysis diagrams that will help us in developing our site proposals for Kingdom Life.

Day 2: Our next activity was to discuss the project’s core aspects and the spaces that may be required to fulfill these activities. We discussed how spaces may be flexible, they may be taken from the existing, or new build, and established an overall scheme programme.

Day 2: After reviewing our site analysis, and the project’s programme, we began to form some site strategy concepts by bubble diagramming the desired programme adjacencies, access points, and private/public relationships, we also sketched potential site layouts over existing site plans. The final part of the day was spent in our task groups, discussing ideas for our site strategies, and researching potential precedents for inspiration.

Day 3: We spent our days getting into the nitty gritty of site strategy design, with a focus on size/scale, and placement/massing on site. We have been working together in three sub-groups, developing three site strategies to give Kingdom Life a range of design ideas to see on Monday. We engaged with printed precedents that we could cut out and experiment with the spaces on our site plans. Using these ensured we are providing suitably sized spaces for Kingdom Life's community center needs.

Day 4: We continued the development of our site strategy proposals for our presentations to Kingdom Life on Monday. This included creating concept sketches, "blocking" plans to scale, precedent analysis, and creating vignettes of key spaces, highlighting how the design proposal creates a pleasant and functional space for the community.

Day 5: Today we are back at our collaborator's site with Kingdom Life! We are excited to be back to present and discuss our concept strategies. The 3 presentations give a range of options for KL to consider, and after a roundtable workshop, choose a final strategy for us to develop over the next 3 days.

Day 5: We kicked off our presentations with Concept site strategy 1, which focused on retaining the existing buildings and extending them to fit in the increased building programme. A new glazed entrance was proposed between both buildings along with an extension to the side of the existing church and an extension to the front of the youth centre to help create an active frontage.

Day 5: Our second presentation was Concept site strategy 2, which focused on retaining the historic church, but demolishing the existing youth centre to replace it with a larger facility with gallery access to the community-based functions, and a central cafe with a green roof terrace. A pedestrian route will connect the community through the site to the existing Merlin's Park

Day 5: Our final presentation was Concept site strategy 3, which explored the option of clearing the site and building it up from scratch. This involved bringing the building out towards the street front and creating a pocket pack with a terrace for the community behind the building. We found this concept interesting to explore, but it would be best to retain the church building, to retain Kingdom Life's history in the community.

Day 5: After seeing all 3 concepts, we were ready to discuss how to proceed with the design with our collaborators. We discussed each concept's strong points and weaknesses, decided how much of the site that KL would like to retain, and had a sketch session on combining the concepts into the final strategy. We also discussed our precedents, material choices, and atmosphere to ensure we are moving towards a final site strategy and concept that KL will be proud of.

Day 5: After a big day of collaborations, we had a final regroup to decide on how to prepare for our final strategy presentation to Kingdom Life in 3 days time. We welcomed the enthusiasm of the undergraduate students of the group who are excited to produce some conceptual visualisations of the spaces we have developed together.

Day 6: We are in full swing, with the undergraduates producing a range of fantastic work, from the creative vignettes that display the intended materiality and atmosphere inside a variety of spaces, to the roofscape concepts that experiment with pitched roofs to form a favorable roofscape. Meanwhile, the postgraduates are fine-tuning the site strategy to form an accurately scaled and thorough set of plans, and starting to create the New Space New Song Publication.

Day 7: Today we continued our development of the final site strategy, ensuring the design is a functional and desirable space for the surrounding community to congregate. As seen in the photographs, we often use our own bodies to measure spaces against, to ensure we maintain the human-scale functionality within the building elements that we interact with most.

Day 8: This morning we were finalizing our site strategy to present to Kingdom Life later today, we decided to retain some flexibility for KL by outlining some options for various levels of development, dependent on the number of student accommodation rooms wanted.

Day 8: This afternoon we made our final trip to Kingdom Life in Trafford for the two weeks. We had such a positive meeting with our collaborators who seemed very pleased with the site strategy we presented. We had conversations about the future of the project and the community; as our collaborators highlighted how the site strategy allows for the build to be done in phases, ensuring that Kingdom Life can maintain a consistent base for their community.

Day 8: To celebrate a successful presentation, we couldn’t help but grab a Kool Runnings who have been serving Caribbean food from their truck in Trafford for 27 years! We have been eyeing up the food truck since we started this project back in December, and now we can confirm that the food was absolutely delicious and totally worth the wait!

Day 8: As it is our final day with our collaborators, we want to say a big thank you to the team at Kingdom Life, who have made us feel welcome in their space, and have been fantastic to collaborate with! We all wish them the best for the future and hope to see them develop this project into the accommodating and engaging facility that their community deserves.

Day 9: As our two action weeks come to a close, we are making final adjustments to our final outputs, both to send as a package to Kingdom Life for them to use as inspirational material for further conversations with the council and potential sponsors, and for our publication document.

Day 9: Final Outputs: Site Strategy. This strategy encompasses the existing church with extensions to the South and West, and two new buildings that extend towards to street, providing active frontage to the site. These are all connected by an atrium/internal street, giving the spaces individual separation/privacy, but ensuring ease of access between them.

Day 9: Final Outputs: Internal Vignettes. Performance Space – Café – Atrium – Multifunctional Hall – Gym – Studio – Recording Studio – Classrooms – Internal Street. These highlight the atmosphere, materiality, and connections between the spaces.

Day 9: Final Outputs: External Vignettes. The overall massing, layout, and intended materiality are displayed here, with a focus on the visibility of the retained church frontage, limiting overshadowing/overlooking, welcoming visitors into the site, and providing inviting external social spaces for the student residents.