Hi everyone, I'm Max.
I’m currently in my first year of March and in the Continuity Atelier. Before this, I completed my BArch at the University of Newcastle. After that, I spent a year on placement in South Africa, where I worked on several large-scale office-to-residential retrofits and urban regeneration masterplans. Following my time there, I spent another year in London working with the firm Howells (formerly Glenn Howells), an AJ100 firm, where I focused on large-scale residential schemes and masterplans both in the UK and across Europe.

My group, Group 13, is working with the Company What if? They are led by a very dynamic and engaging team that have already introduced the MArch Students to a variety of Architects, Landscape Architects, Council delegates, Town Planners and Historians around Stockport who we can continue to work with throughout this project. The brief Is currently very open, but looking at structuring a program for sustainable retro fit to produce community centred buildings is something I’m really interested in and something I think could really standout in a interview portfolio.

A skill I bring to the team is that “I don’t deal in if buts or maybe’s, I deal in absolutes” equally to further this, when working on this project “I want everyone to go out there, enjoy it, but be fucking disciplined with it”. Channelling my ideologies into my digital workflow and team communications is crucial in allowing myself to add moderate, up to significant levels of additional value to any group work dynamic.

THE COLLABORATOR

What if? is a fast moving and grass roots urban consultancy firm. Their interest lye in taking in disused council buildings on the basis of generating ideas about how to repurpose them into social and democratic hot spots that give back into their communities. With a people first approach they stand as socially motivative outliers in a field that is rapidly developing into a profit centred industry. Above all else, they always stand to ask the question, What if?

Transferring Procreate Brush Library

To enhance the skills and resources of BA1 and BA2 students, I shared my extensive Procreate Brush Library, comprising over 1,000 brushes organised into over 50 folders. This initiative was in response to observing that many students use Procreate but were unaware of how to download brushes online or create custom brushes. Instructions for this where given as well as how to share these brush libraries to their future practices when they start on Part 1

Illustrator skills tutorial

After speaking with our BA1 and BA2 students, it became clear that they wanted some tutorials on software. Following a democratic vote the day before, Max and Alex led a session on how to export from Digimap and edit the drawings in Illustrator. These skills will be vital, not only for our project but also for helping the BA students develop their employability skills.

Sketch up 1 on 1’s

Following the success of the Illustrator session, feedback indicated that some students lacked any experience in 3D digital modelling. To address this skills gap 1 on 1 SketchUp sessions were offered ensuring all students got a foundational knowledge in 3D digital modelling to aid in some of the design tasks that would be carried out over the rest of this project.

Three groups - Landscape - Beacon – wider site connections

In the afternoon we split our team into three groups to come up with initial ideas to show our collaborators on Wednesday.
Beacons take the form of tall way finders — multi-purpose structures that offer seating, shading, play and moments of reflection. Designed using local and recycled materials such as textiles and clothing, they would root the project in Stockport’s identity, fostering a sense of belonging.
For landscaping a rough sketch model (1:200) was created so that we can quickly iterate variations of landscaping throughout the next two weeks.
With wider site connections, a small group went on to iterate their illustrator maps detailing site processes into their drawings

Site Neighbourhood Walk

We took a very long route to the site from Stockport train station. Along the way, we stopped off at Castle Street, which is Edgley’s high street, Hollywood Park, and an industrial neighbourhood off Ford Street (which is set to be demolished for the Stockport 8 development), before enjoying a leisurely walk back along the River Mersey to finally arrive at Whatif?

Teaching LiDAR Scanning

Following discussions with BA1 and BA2 students, we discover that two thirds of the group all owned iPads, however none had used a LiDAR scanning. To address this, a brief tutorial was delivered, introducing the functionality and applications of LiDAR technology. Subsequently, the team successfully employed LiDAR scanning to capture the landscape relevant to our proposal, as well as the internal spaces of the Whatif? project.

Engaging with Collaborators

Once again, we split into three groups focusing on Landscape, Beacon, and Wider Site Connections. There were six collaborators in total, and they rotated around each table in groups of two, ensuring all students were exposed to their different perspectives. We spoke to them about issues within the local area, the needs of the community and then went on to explain our design ideas, developing with them alongside the advice of the collaborators

Group Crit

After extensive discussions with our collaborators, we pinned up all three groups’ work to demonstrate our current position within the design process. This informal crit created a valuable opportunity for reflection and development, with direct feedback from our clients.

Landscaping in Plan

Following the last meeting with our collaborators, we started to explore landscaping changes to the current car park, in front of the What If site. The team developed ideas brainstormed earlier, including new arched entrances into the east-facing hedge, a intricate 'play road' mural, as well as designing circular planters.

Beacon development

The ambiguity of the brief for the beacon was widely narrowed by the chat with the collaborates on the previous day. However many from the team were still wrapped up in the myriad of possibilities for the structure. To navigate this, we began by defining the key spaces, materials, and components. Then, as a team, we held a fast-paced design charette, where each member had 30 minutes to generate a design response. The charette proved to be incredibly expressive and insightful. It gave everyone the freedom to interpret the brief in their own way, revealing a wide spectrum of creative approaches.

Signage

A group worked on creating new signage at two separate entrances to the What If site, following discussions with collaborators on the previous day. Tools used included Illustrator and Procreate.

Local Plants Research

In the first half of the morning, part of the landscaping team researched local crops, scented flowers, and herbs with multiple uses. Strawberries, blueberries, and flowers such as sunflowers were identified as great options, given the limited space and their suitability for Stockport’s climate.

Digital modeling the planters

Following Tuesdays sketch up 1on 1’s Tom (who had never used sketch up before this week) was able to create a 3D model of the planters, whilst correlating his design ideas with the landscaping team. The model will be used to create orthographic drawing later on.

Landscaping in 3D

To develop the landscaping further, collages were created on photoshop and procreate to display our ideas in 3D.

Beacon model making in the park

Friday morning was spent physically modeling (at 1:20) an initial design of a beacon, following Wednesday’s discussions with the collaborators. Not only were we able to bask in the sunshine, we were also able to better understand the structural integrity and constructability of the proposed design…Which, in all honesty, led us back to the drawing board showing the harsh realities of designing on paper versus physically.

Beacon development + group crit

After the physical model was complete a crit was done by the landscaping team, we found that there may be some practical measures that include simplifying the construction process, reducing material complexity, and improving accessibility and maintenance. These thoughts led us to reimagine the current iteration of our beacon into a slightly more simplified structure that remains playful and engaging. The proposal thus becomes a mix of sculptural form and functional design that better integrates with the landscape and user interaction.

Modelling the Beacon in Rhino + Rhino Tutorial Session

Once we reached a solid position, we shifted our focus to physically understanding the beacon, exploring how we could refine it further by engaging with it as a digital model.

Scissor Gate

One of the interventions specified by What if? was for a removable gate to prevent children from leaving the play space, which could also be moved out of the way when cars were coming in and out. In order to ‘jazzy it up’, a set of different colour schemes were created, along with a 1:20 scale model.

Group Design Session on Beacon

Is the iterating process ever-ending? This session focused on resolving the beacon, and we discovered there was always something to refine. But I suppose that’s the beauty of designing something so engaging, fun, and realistic!

Orthographic Drawings for Planter

A set of measured orthographic drawings for the planter were created so that collaborators can produce them after the project has concluded.

Local Motif Making and placing

To stay connected to the local symbolism of the area, six motifs were designed with assistance from What if?, focusing on local symbols. These were then mocked up in plan view to explore how the streetscape outside the site could be reclaimed and reimagined as a symbol for the tri.

Materials and construction research and development

After completing the beacon, a small team began investigating the construction process and the materials that would be used for the beacon.

Final Physical Model of Beacon

To finalise our ideas around the beacon, a final physical model was made at a scale of 1:20. Although we had already produced three other physical models, we had observed over the last few days that our group of BA1

Beacon Views in Context + Tutorial on CAD Mapper + Enscape

The team working on the 3D Rhino model of the beacon were shown how to download context using the free software CAD Mapper. We then demonstrated to the BA students how to use Sketch View in Enscape to produce presentation-worthy images from their digital site models.

Finishing off and photographing our final model

In preparation for our meeting later with our client, Pauline, we finished off the final bits and pieces of our model and began photographing it.

Masterplanning

The masterplan looks at What If’s presence with a longer-term vision, exploring how the site can engage with the local area over an extended time span. Crucially, it considers how the site will connect with the forthcoming Stockport 8 residential development happening right on their doorstep.

Final presentation to what If

As the project came to a close, we presented our amazing work to Pauline, who heads What If, in order to get feedback. Pauline was incredibly happy with the outputs — she was even reduced to tears at one point (which is actually true, we weren’t expecting it either).

13GB Architecture resources file transfer as a thank you for hard work

As a thank you to the BA1 and BA2 students, I transferred over 6,000 architectural resources to them. This consisted of images of people, vegetation, etc., brushes for Photoshop/Illustrator, Revit families, Revit parameter files, software guides/manuals, stamps for Illustrator/CAD, and many more. This will help the students save hundreds of hours searching for these resources and encourage them to learn new software.

Developing master plans

Master plans where developed further to ingrate our studies on local icons and symbols into the our drawings

Orthographic drawing for beacon

After receiving feed back from our collaborator Pauline we created a set of measured drawings for the beacon so she can construct it on site!

Follow up email from our collaborator

Really nice for the team and BA students to see the how much our collaborators appreciated

Finishing off the publication and outputs

One the last day we let the BA students take the day off, allowing the MArch students to focus on the final documents for this project!

Student Feed Back on MArch Students

Student Feed Back on MArch Students