Hi! My name is Ellie, and I’m from the United States.

Before joining the MA Architecture and Adaptive Reuse program, I studied interior architecture at Rhode Island School of Design. I also worked at a residential design company, assisting in the restoration and renovation of historic homes in Boston.

I have always been interested in how adaptive reuse can reimagine historic spaces to serve new needs. Redesigning the Waterbarn Chapel offers a unique opportunity to honour the town of Bacup’s history and culture, while creating a space to represent new communities.

I’m excited to collaborate with my fellow MSA students, Valley Heritage, and the Rossendale community to explore creative possibilities for the Waterbarn Chapel!

We had a great first day of MSA Live! We began by introducing the BA1 and BA2 students to our partner Valley Heritage, the Waterbarn Chapel, and the town of Bacup - giving everyone a sense of the site, its context, and the community we are working with.

We also outlined our goals for the action weeks ahead and our final output. Students were then split into groups to discuss initial site research and strategies for model making. We are excited to see how ideas develop from here!

We had a very productive first day! Our model making team has started working on a site model of the Waterbarn Chapel and our site analysis team has been busy investigating the history and demographics of Bacup.

Our team has been busy preparing for our community consultation event at Valley Heritage this Thursday. We developed a series of interactive activities and a questionnaire for attendees to gauge their response towards the Waterbarn Chapel.

Engaging the community is an important step in our design process. It provides the opportunity to listen, learn, exchange ideas, and perhaps reframe our understanding of the site’s needs. In our discussions as a group, we have had to consider the best formats to effectively include the community in this process. Collaborating with the team at Valley Heritage and sourcing inspiration from literature like “Architecture and Participation” have been helpful in shaping our approach to community consultation.

Our hope for this consultation is to get a better sense of the town and its people. We are looking forward to meeting the attendees, hearing their stories, and learning how the Waterbarn Chapel can reflect the community’s identity and needs more.

The site analysis team conducted a thorough and reflective study of the Waterbarn Chapel’s historical significance and structure in relation to the site’s wider context and demographics. The resulting site plan features different pedestrian routes and transportation links near the Chapel and surrounding area, providing valuable insight into the site’s accessibility and connection to the community.

In addition, forensic architectural studies explore the potential structural conditions and design details of the chapel before it was partially damaged by a fire. These investigations provide the team with a better understanding of the site’s context and possible future design strategies.

The site analysis and model making teams presented their research findings and conclusions to the group at the end of day two.

The model-making team created a site model that features the Chapel - reconstructed to its original form - neighboring buildings, different access routes, and the existing graveyard.

The model also includes movable elements to accommodate our conceptual design strategies, which will be developed in the next few days. Because of the site’s existing damages, the team was challenged to infer the structural design of the roof by referring to historic images collected by the site analysis team.

The site analysis and model making teams presented their research findings and conclusions to the group at the end of day two.

Our redesign strategy for the chapel focuses on creating temporary housing solutions for individuals and families in need. Today, our team began sketching a range of spatial layouts, exploring options for both shared and private accommodations. We are looking forward to presenting our initial ideas to the Valley Heritage team tomorrow!

We had a wonderful day in Bacup at our community consultation! We heard some amazing stories from residents and trustees of Valley Heritage who know the Chapel and community well. Our group shared some of our initial social housing concepts and strategies, which led to insightful discussions and feedback from attendees.

The consultation was invaluable, and after meeting with attendees, it became clear that our project needs to expand beyond social housing to support the larger community more. As we continue to develop our ideas, we will explore different ways of incorporating community-based spaces within our social housing scheme.

Key takeaways from the consultation:

Community-centered design:
There was a strong desire amongst the attendees for the Chapel to become a social hub that served the community’s needs beyond housing.

Barriers to preservation:
Heritage preservation is often hindered by issues such as a lack of funding, different political ideologies, or misaligned priorities. In order for regeneration projects like the Waterbarn Chapel to succeed, there needs to be communication, honest conversations, collaboration, and a strong local network.

Cultural heritage:
One of the attendees at our community consultation said, "Heritage is not just something from the past—it affects us now." This encapsulated a recurring theme in our discussions. Heritage, both tangible and intangible, is just as much a reflection of our past as it is our present.

Following the feedback from attendees at our community consultation last Friday, we have shifted our focus from just social housing to exploring a range of design concepts that integrate more community-oriented spaces. Our goal for the final output is to provide Valley Heritage with three conceptual design strategies:

1. Social housing
2. Community hub
3. Combination of housing and community spaces

Our aim is to provide proposals that can help Valley Heritage evaluate the cost, feasibility, and financial viability of each option.

This afternoon, we focused on further refining our concept designs. Our group explored different strategies for integrating social housing and community spaces - emphasizing flexible environments that adapt and respond to diverse needs and uses.

Today, our group continued to develop our design concepts. The BA1 and BA2 students have been working hard to refine and finalize proposals. The design strategy we are currently developing combines social housing and community spaces - reimagining the Chapel as a community marketplace and garden with private residential accommodations.

Our design concept preserves the Chapel’s ruins as a monument to the past, allowing the existing graveyard and new community marketplace/garden to inhabit the Chapel. The back part of the Chapel, which used to be a Sunday school, would now serve as social housing. This strategy facilitates community engagement while maintaining a sense of privacy and ownership for residents living there.

Our group is finalizing our design concept and preparing detailed sketches, collages, plans, elevations, renderings, and a site model to show Valley Heritage this Friday!

We have been working on perspective sketches of the community marketplace and garden, and design iterations of the third-floor social housing addition.

Sneak peek! We are putting the final touches on our design proposal and presentation. We are looking forward to sharing our ideas and outputs with Valley Heritage tomorrow!

We had a fantastic time sharing our final design concept with Jo from Valley Heritage this morning! It’s been a pleasure collaborating with Valley Heritage on design concepts for the Waterbarn Chapel. Special thanks to all the BA1 and BA2 students for their incredible effort and creativity over the past two weeks, you should be so proud of the work you produced!

Perspective renderings of the proposed community marketplace and garden

Detailed plans of the community marketplace and social housing

Axonometric of the steel-structure walkway within the community marketplace

Perspective drawing of the marketplace and garden

A well deserved pizza party to celebrate MSA Live!