Hey, I’m Alex (he/they)

I’m a MArch 1 student in Continuity, an atelier I was drawn to due to its highly pragmatic, grounded and contextual approach to Architecture. I did my BArch at the University of Nottingham, where I particularly focused on inclusive education and housing, as well as adaptive design.

I did my Part 1 at WW+P Architects (formerly Weston Williamson), and continue to work there part time whilst I complete my degree. My work there on the Residential Mixed-Use team is predominantly focused on social housing and civic buildings, and I also get involved with education programmes like Open City’s Accelerate.

What If? particularly appealed to me as I have learnt the value of community is so important, particularly whilst working on social housing projects. What If? Is an exciting proposal to reuse a historically valuable local building and give it community value. It also ties into a bigger vision for the redevelopment of the region, promoting resilience for the existing and future communities.

A skill I bring to the team is my ability to quickly adapt to new situations and challenges, allowing me to get stuck into a short project, like in the upcoming Action Weeks.

Over the two weeks our main aim, alongside our ambitions, is to have fun and learn new skills.
We will not only visit the site and meet our collaborator, but we'll engage with the local community at a consultation event held at What If?'s community hub during the first week.
We're also hoping to visit a similar, highly successful, project in the heart of Manchester (more details to be confirmed) and see if we can apply any of this in Stockport.
We'll be analysing and critiquing existing proposals for the regeneration of the area and counter-mapping.
We'll be quickly getting to know the local, making sure that our final vision is ambitious, exciting, but most importantly hyper-local and for the community in which we are working.
At the end of the action weeks we'll have worked collaboratively to produce a vision for site and wider area. This will involve designing, debating, researching and ambitious thinking.