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.

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!

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!!

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!!

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"!!

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.

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!!

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!!

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!!

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!

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!!