Hi everyone! I’m Nellie.👋

I’m a second-year MA Architecture and Adaptive Reuse student at MSA. I completed my undergraduate degree at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, …More
specialising in commercial and retail spaces. I’m passionate about how architecture shapes the way we experience and interact with our surroundings. To me, architecture is an evolving process—one that connects people, places, and communities beyond just the built form.

As part of the Verde Vision team, I’m excited to collaborate with Life Leisure to reimagine leisure spaces in Cheadle and Romiley. ✨Looking forward to bringing fresh perspectives and creative solutions that enhance everyday experiences! 😊

Teaming Up with Life Leisure in Stockport

It's our 1st time meeting with Ross and Lisa! We’re really excited to be working with Life Leisure again this year.

As a Community …More
Interest Company (CIC), Life Leisure does amazing work making sure everyone in Stockport has access to affordable ways to stay active and healthy.

This time, we’re focusing on two local facilities to help reimagine their outdoor spaces. Our goal? Create more welcoming, active spaces for the whole community to enjoy.

We can’t wait to share more as the projects take shape!

Reimagining Outdoor Space in Cheadle

First up—Cheadle! It is on a slope with a planter in the front and a lawn at the side of the facility.

We aim to give it a fresh look by …More
creating a more welcoming entrance and flexible outdoor space for everyone. We’re exploring ideas like improved greenery and kisok that encourage movement and social connection, making it easier for people of all ages to come together and enjoy the space.

Bringing New Life to Romiley’s Outdoor Space

Next stop—Romiley! The site is a long strip of lawn at the moment that is visible from the swimming pool and the gym.

What would …More
we do for Romiley? We’re looking at making good use of the outdoor area to be more functional and enjoyable for all ages. Mini golf? Pavillion? Seating area? Sensory garden? Outdoor yoga space?

We don’t know yet but we're certain to bring it to life and can't wait to get started!

Catch-up with Ross & Lisa

We met with our amazing collaborators again!

Thank you Ross and Lisa, for catching up with us on Teams today. It was a really productive morning, and …More
we’re grateful for the chance to speak directly with users.
We’ll now begin prepping for our upcoming community meeting. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!

[Day 1] Welcome New Team Members!

A big welcome to our 10 new team members from BA1, BA2, and MLA1 to the project!

With fresh perspectives and creative energy, they’re joining …More
us to help bring our ideas for Cheadle and Romiley to life. We’re looking forward to collaborate across year groups and make the most of this dynamic synergy. Let’s get things moving!

Please join us to welcome:
Claire, Ian, Mandisa, Woody and Yasmin from BA 1; Emin, Khadijah, Reem and Tong from BA2 and last but not least, Yuxuan from MLA1!!! 🎉

[Day 1] Action Week Kick-Start!

We kicked off Action week with a presentation outlining our aims, initial design ideas, and community engagement plans for the Cheadle and Romiley …More
sites. It was great to share our vision and get the momentum going with input from our peers.

We're super excited to take these ideas off the screen and into the spaces that serve the whole community.

Let the transformation begin!

[Day 1] Ice-breaking & brainstorming

Finally meeting everyone in the team for the first time. What a delightful morning! We started with bonding over some ice breaking games. We …More
are starting on the site researches and precedent studies to explore potential ideas for the sites.

[Day 2] Skills Sharing Moments.

We're prepping for the site models. Our teammates are sharing secrets to perfecting tiny details in model making. And BA1s are learning their CAD …More
skills from our MArch students. Look at our little birds fly~

[Day 2] Site models in the making…

Our modelling team foraged the trees and are making each and every one the flags by hand for our models to interact with the communities tomorrow. …More
As they say, "Teamwork makes the dream work!".

[Day 2] Model Outcome!

Look at our final models of Cheadle and Romiley site! Shoutout to our fantastic model team.❤️

[Day 2] Site Analysis.

While our model team is focusing on the site models, our desk team is busy with site analysis to understand contexts and geography features in Stockport.

[Day 3] Urban Acupuncture Workshop.

We had an urban acupuncture workshop to come together and identify the population of Stockport. Familiarising ourselves with the community and …More
preparing our conversation with the users on-site tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

[Day 3] Engaging with the Community @Romiley site

This week, our team headed back to the sites, and we brought along our teammates to dive deeper into the design process. The team …More
split into two groups for a busy day of community engagement – one part at Romiley, the other at Cheadle (more on that in a moment!).

In Romiley, we set up our site model and invited locals to interact with it. With the help of the site model and flags we made, everyone had the chance to leave their thoughts and feedback, offering us valuable insights that will shape our design vision.

A big thank you to Life Leisure for making this session possible, and to the Romiley community for your warm welcome and constructive feedback. Your input is crucial as we move forward with the project!

[Day 3] Reflection @Romiley site

Hi, I’m Reem from BA2.
Prior to the site visit, participating in the acupuncture workshop was extremely beneficial. It helped me understand what …More
to expect and prepared me to engage more thoughtfully with the site. I appreciated that we conducted research and exercises beforehand rather than going directly to the site, it made a real difference.
During the site visit, I particularly enjoyed gathering data from people in the area. Everyone was friendly and gave thoughtful, detailed responses, which were incredibly useful for shaping our design proposal. In the end, the data we collected directly informed our ideas, and I’m glad we had the chance to engage with the community in this way.

[Day 3] Engaging with the Community @Cheadle site

On the same day, our other half of the team was in Cheadle, gathering feedback and engaging with the local community. The goal was …More
to hear directly from the people who use the space, and understand how our design can better serve their needs.

We set up the site model and asked participants to leave comments using flags, just like we did in Romiley. The responses were thoughtful, and we gathered some great ideas that will help refine the vision for this project.

Huge thanks to Life Leisure for helping us organise this event, and to the Cheadle community for sharing your thoughts and making this day such a success!

[Day 3] Reflection @Cheadle site

Hi, my name is Yasmin from BA1, teamed with Verde Vision. I really appreciated starting with the acupuncture workshop before visiting the site - …More
It had allowed us to prepare what questions we could ask people from that data we had learned of the area. The site visit itself was really helpful in being able to visualise what we were really working with, but speaking with the clients of the gym was perhaps the best for our design development, albeit very nerve wracking, as ideas we hadn’t even thought of were brought forward or built upon. It had also helped me understand better the type of people going to the gym, that the acupuncture workshop hadn’t taught me - we were mostly speaking to parents with their kids or elderly clients, so we had to think more of how we could make our designs accessible to these groups in particular.

[Day 4] Mood Boards

Our team is preparing a presentation for the meeting with Ross and Lisa from Life Leisure in the afternoon. We're transforming our findings and initial thoughts …More
into diagrams and collages. Look what we have put together in just one morning, just impressive!!

[Day 4] Client Presentation

Our team presented to Ross and Lisa from Life Leisure in the afternoon. It was great to share everything we have been working on and got some positive …More
feedback from them. It's been a lot of work but it was all worth it. We're excited to dive back into the project after all the feedback. Can't wait to see how everything comes together!

[Day 5] Finalising Design Proposals

After getting some really useful feedback yesterday, we’re now wrapping up our design work and starting to develop the plans. We’ve made …More
a few adjustments to the layout and materials to better reflect the ideas we want to communicate, and now we’re diving into the more technical side of things. It’s exciting to see the project starting to take shape in a more detailed way!

[Day 5] Design Critiques

We spent the morning working on our designs, and now we're doing some cross-reviews across groups. There's been a lot of back-and-forth, sketching and rethinking …More
but that's part of the process to push the design a bit further. Our team is feeling good about the direction we're heading in!

[Day 5] Team Bonding

It’s been an intense first week. Huge thanks to everyone for the effort and amazing work. The outcomes have honestly exceeded expectations, and it's been great …More
seeing the project come together like this.
Special shoutout to Jovan for the delicious Basque cheesecake—definitely the energy boost we needed! Great job, team. Let’s keep the momentum going 🚀

[Day 6] Site Mapping

After a restful weekend, our team is back! Looking at things with fresh eyes has helped us refine key ideas and make improvements based on the feedback we received …More
last week.

Today, we focused on strengthening the concept and spatial arrangement, making sure our design decisions align with both the site conditions and the intended user experience. It’s exciting to see how much more cohesive the project feels already.

[Day 6] Programming

Over on the Romiley team, work has shifted into programming. This stage is all about defining how spaces will function, connect, and flow—laying the groundwork …More
for a strong architectural strategy.

Romiley comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities, and the team is approaching it from a fresh angle. With both teams moving forward in parallel, we’re starting to see how the two sites can complement each other while still addressing their unique contexts.

[Day 7] Design Development @Romiley site

Today was all about turning the form we’ve developed into actual drawings. After a lot of time spent refining the overall concept, it …More
was great to start sketching out the building’s elevations based on that structure.

We’re getting into the details now. It’s fun to see everything come together in these drawings, and it’s definitely getting us excited about the next steps.

[Day 7] Design Development @Cheadle site

We explored the materiality for Cheadle, and it’s amazing how much it changed the feel of the design. We played around with different …More
textures, colors, and finishes—looking at how materials can respond to the site, the light, and the people who’ll use the space. Things are really starting to come to life now!

[Day 8] Design Development @Romiley site

We shifted into digital modeling and rendering. The team worked on building the model and generating some initial renderings to get a better …More
sense of scale, texture, and how the building will feel in its environment. These renderings help us fine-tune proportions, materials, and even how the light will hit different surfaces. We’re not just talking about it anymore, we’re seeing it!

[Day 8] Design Development @Cheadle site

Today at Cheadle, we focused on creating perspectives and refining the elevations, helping us see the design in 3D and get a clearer sense …More
of how the spaces will feel in real life. We’re starting to visualize the site from all angles, and it’s exciting to see everything begin to put together.

[Day 9] Final Run-through

With the design work behind us, today was all about final prep for the presentation.

We ran through the entire presentation as a team, fine-tuning our …More
script and made sure everyone felt confident about their part. We're excited and a bit nervous but the hard work is done. It’s been a full two weeks of intense work, and now we’re just minutes away from sharing it all.

Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly. Let’s do this!!

[Day 9] Final Presentation

We presented our work from the past two weeks to our collaborators. It was a chance to walk them through our design process, explain the ideas from community …More
engagement, and show how far we’ve come since the beginning.

It was great to see all the pieces come together. Site Cheadle's spatial experience with bouldering, Site Romiley's journey with outdoor seating, and all the community input that shaped the final outcome.

It was a proud moment for the whole group!

[Day 9] Collaborative Feedback Session

Huge thanks to Life Leisure for arranging today's meeting in such a cozy room with hot drinks and biscuits.

The feedback we received was …More
thoughtful and constructive, and it gave us a lot to reflect on. Similarly, we hope our imaginations can inspire the workforce!

Thank you again!

[Day 10] Self Reflection

Hi all, I'm Claire from BA1. Working with Verde Vision was a great opportunity to engage with a real client and collaborate effectively in a group setting, …More
which worked seamlessly as each role was successful fulfilled. Collaborating with the MArch & MArch AR students provided insights into future academic expectations as an architecture students.

[Day 10] Self Reflection

Hi, I'm Ian from BA1. During my time in MSA Live, I enjoyed my time here working with different people with different strengths, especially when a project …More
involves an actual client. I'm grateful that my groupmates were really friendly and did not force any work on us but rather give us the freedom to be creative. As a team, I think everything went pretty smoothly and efficiently as well as the clients were very satisfied with our work. Throughout the process, I have learnt to enhance my skills further in procreate as well as being able to engage with regulars about their opinions of the site.

[Day 10] Team Lunch

To wrap up an intense and rewarding two weeks, we headed out for a well-deserved team lunch to celebrate the completion of our project. After days of sketches, …More
models, presentations, it felt great to take a moment, relax, and appreciate how far we’ve come.

It’s been a full-on journey, and everyone’s hard work truly paid off. From early ideas to final presentations, the commitment and collaboration across the team made all the difference.

Great job, team!🙌 Here’s to everything we’ve achieved.

[Day 10] Wrap Up

This marks the end of our MSALive25 journey.

A huge thank you to everyone for your hard work and participation throughout these intensive two weeks. We've learned …More
so much, grown as a team. We couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you.

A special shout-out to Ross and Lisa from Life Leisure for providing this incredible collaboration opportunity and for their ongoing support throughout the project.

And lastly, don’t miss our exhibition later on to see the final outputs of our hard work! See you all in the exhibition!❤️