Hi, Im Frances!

Alelier: Continuity

I competed my undergraduate at Oxford Brookes University and worked in practice for a few years before coming to MSA to do my part 2 in Architecture.

I am really interested in gardeing and growing produce so I am looking forward to working with Growing Togetherness CIC to not only improve their garden space, but also take away some tips for my own. I am also excited to be working with students from all year groups in the action weeks and hopefully come up with something that that Growing Togetherness CIC want to see built.

The Brief:
Growing Togetherness CIC in Buile Hill Park, Salford, welcomes everyone of all ages and backgrounds into their community to share the work and rewards of the garden space they collectively cultivate.
Our involvement is to design and present a proposal for a structure within the community garden which provides shelter for the processing and working of the willow that they grow. This structure should be in keeping with the natural surroundings and resourceful; made from found, natural or recycled materials. 
This community has big plans and bundles of enthusiasm for how they can further evolve. We hope we can help them with this new intervention, which is just one part of their greater scheme of garden improvements.

6 has become 16!

Today we welcomed more MSA students to The Canopy Collective! We introduced the brief and outlined the structure for the two action weeks. We’re visiting our site for a community consultation meeting later in the week so we got to know each other, did some desktop research and looked at president studies. Tomorrow we start designing, watch this space!

Day 2:
In preparation for the community consultation on Thursday, today we started to explore ideas around nature and structures. We searched for inspiration outside and sketched, modelled and discussed initial concepts in a beautiful green space around the MSA campus. We discussed and combined ideas and started to work well as a team. Bring on day 3!

Day 3:
Inspired by precedent studies, today we got making! We explored forms, multi-purpose structures, scale and thought about materiality and application on the site at Buile Hill Park. Tomorrow we’re visiting site as a group so we’ll discuss and explore how our concepts can adapt to the place and people we’re designing for. We’re looking forward to meeting the community!

Day 4:
Community consultation day! Today we got to meet lots of enthusiastic local community members. Our collaborator kindly hosted us for lunch and, in between sandwiches, we got to talk about some ideas, wants and needs for the covered structure we’re designing in the garden/allotment area. We had a busy few hours enjoying the sunshine and speaking to members of the running club, the ukulele club, those there for a cup of tea and even the BBC! Some of the group got so engrossed in the croquet, I think they might still be there! We look forward to coming back and presenting our ideas in a week’s time.

Day 5:
We spent the morning consolidating and digesting information from site and reviewing comments received from the community consultation. Having already made a start on designs, we reviewed these with the new information and thought of ways of adapting the proposals to best suit. We’ll continue this process on Monday and start refining the design as a team.
Great first week, well done everyone!

Day 6:
Moving forward with the design for the shelter, today we’ve consolidated a design as a group through iteration and discussion. We’re beginning to refine the design, think about appropriate materiality for the site and think about how local trades can construct it, a big part of Growing Togetherness’ ethos; a circular economy.

Day 7:
Today we worked on refining the proposal whilst keeping the site in mind. Choosing 'shelter', 'natural' and 'water catching' as 3 key terms to return back to during the design development, we pressed forward with the structural shape and materiality. We’ve also noticed more input and opinions from the undergraduate students throughout the action weeks which is really encouraging. Only one more day of development and collation before we present to the community, tomorrow will be the final push!

Day 8:
Action day! We’ve spent a few days refining the design, today was about representing the final proposal. Some of us went to the model making workshop and some to the computer, and we came together to collate the presentation. We’re really looking forward to presenting to the collaborator and community tomorrow- we hope they like it!

Day 9:
Community presentation day! Whilst setting up we were invited to join a guided meditation session in the garden. Something most of the group haven’t experience before, it was a strange and entertaining experience; a relaxing way to start a presentation! Presenting in front of those we consulted and new faces too, we delivered our pitch and we think it went well! We got questions about the design language to which we answered to their satisfaction, and questions about feasibility to which our collaborator jumped in to explain how they intend to make our ideas a reality! Our collaborator Mark was incredibly supportive throughout the presentation and was great at explaining how our project feeds into the wider plan for Seedley Pavilion and the garden. We’ve been made to feel so welcome by the community and we hope that some of our group will think to stop by and get involved, as they have done the days that we’ve been on site.

Day 10:
The close: today we’ve collated our submission and reflected as a team. We’ve really enjoyed having two weeks of uninterrupted time to spend on this project. Our collaborator- Growing Togetherness CIC, and the community surrounding this organization, has been so welcoming and enthusiastic about the project and moving their site forward. We hope that our design can contribute to the eventual building of this shelter on the site, but either way, it has been fantastic to see how the model of a circular economy is being put into practice I local communities. It’s also been great working with multiple year groups and we hope that they got as much out of the experience as we have. I think that we’re all ending MSA Live encouraged about taking on live projects in the future.