Hello, my name is Sophie. I am a first year M.Arch student in the FLUX Atelier.

I studied in Ann Arbor, at the University of Michigan for my undergraduate degree, returning to the UK after graduation in 2022.

Over the past few years, I have been working at Arkilab Design Studio in Manchester, gaining experience across various RIBA stages. I have specialised in education projects while also working on residential and leisure developments.

Outside of academia, I enjoy playing water polo.

Feel free to contact me at sophiejackson2103@gmail.com

We met at the Geoffrey Manton building at 9 a.m. to prepare for the day. We collected pastries and drinks from Tesco, slightly exceeding the budget requirements set out prior to starting. The students began arriving at 10 a.m., and we waited to begin the introductory presentations.
We ran through the project introduction, including the site introduction, project brief, scope of works, and competition outline. This went faster than anticipated (as outlined on the action plan), so we headed to the site to have a look around.

We visited the site, first introducing the key elements within our scope of work. The students were given 45 minutes to explore, taking photos, sketching designs, etc. We then met the collaborator at the basketball courts and were given a guided tour of the park, during which they re-iterated our project brief, demonstrating their unique ideas and passion for the project.

The afternoon began with a walkthrough of our existing 3D model of Hulme Park. This was followed by a detailed breakdown of the three software we will be using (Enscape, V-Ray, Lumion), including pros and cons, different uses, etc. We showed example renders extracted from each as well as some of our own from previous university projects. We discussed with the students their preferences for which software they would be interested in learning and separated them into three teams for the competition.

In the afternoon we reconvened in our teams to work on developing the models. The afternoon involved investigating viewpoints, adding materials and further exploring the rendering software. The enscape group worked primarily in Revit focusing on the skatepark as a starting point, with a view to looking at the other areas including the community centre, amphitheatre etc. in the days to come.

We met in the Geoffrey Manton building at 10 am. Kunal conducted a short presentation highlighting the action plan for the week, setting out the time frames and expectations for deliverables. We then separated into our three teams and continued to work on creating the visuals. The Enscape team began developing their skills in SketchUp, and we had some issues with the software, but we managed to swap computers around to ensure each student had a working SketchUp and Enscape set up. The Lumion and V-Ray teams relocated to the CAD lab to conduct their workshops. The primary focus for the day was on adding materials to the models.

Throughout the day, the Lumion team worked in the CAD lab with the Enscape and V-Ray teams congregating in the Geoffrey Manton building. The day consisted of adding and editing materials for the renders, the teams splitting the various development areas, with each member focusing on developing one zone of the park. The Enscape team managed to extract a high-quality visual of the community centre to be taken into post-production, with a view to finishing the other three tomorrow (Friday) morning. So far, the students have picked up the software well and are creating some exciting visuals.

To start the day, Ayesha gave a half-hour workshop demonstrating the basics of Photoshop and how it could be used to help enhance the quality of the visuals. From there, the group separated into their teams, all remaining in the Geoffrey Manton building. Across the morning, the students developed their renders, some teams further along than others, based on technical issues and illness across the week. At lunch, we collated the images to show to the rest of the group as part of a presentation. To finish the day, we had a short discussion about how the students had found the software, any issues, as well as things they'd picked up from their peers' work. The files were collated and sent to the collaborator for feedback. There were some issues with people missing the Friday due to work and illness; therefore, some of the renders produced could not be included in the submission. We will be looking to send an updated version on Monday if possible, giving the collaborator time to review before Tuesday.

Over the weekend, we (the master's students) spent time reviewing the visuals submitted as part of the mid-project review, marking them up using red pen to illustrate areas of improvement to be addressed on Monday prior to receiving the collaborator feedback.

This morning, we were a little bit low on numbers based on pending undergraduate deadlines and illness. Unfortunately, despite our agreement for the collaborator to provide feedback by today, we received no information from them. As a result, we conducted 1 - 2 - 1 tutorials with the students to help develop their renders further. We struggled, missing some master's students, and therefore, we had to re-arrange, and some of the students had to use different computer setups and software to achieve their daily outputs.