Group 19
PHASE TWO

Working alongside CORE Projects Manchester, we are supporting the Dandelion Church community to move toward a more self-sufficient and decentralised energy future. At the heart of the project is a simple aim: help the church generate and use energy locally, reduce bills, and keep more power in the hands of the people who use the building every day. We are exploring retrofit strategies to improve how the existing spaces perform and feel, so they can better support worship, learning, and community support activities. In parallel, we are shaping a community engagement process that listens first, builds shared ownership, and tells Dandelion’s story with care.

Callum W / Iliana Madikizela Afonso C / Jake H / Nicholas Ming Soon L / Peiyun L / Qixin Z / Rosie Megan H / Sean S / Tan G / Tsz W / Yiyao L

Sean S
03/02/2026

Our project commenced with a series of icebreakers, a great way for us to get to know each other on an architecture and personal level, leading us to discover the groups unanimous decision of coffee over tea.

To figure out how we could work best in collaboration, we followed with analysing our own strengths and weaknesses and giving the opportunity for people to work on factors they enjoy or push themselves and learn from others if they desire.

The final part of the day ended with meeting Mike and hearing more about what he wanted from us to help bring his plans and ideas to reality. We bought up questions and discussed plans moving forward, ending the day with a clear plan and a meeting with Alexandra booked.
Posted 17 Feb 2026 14:43
Sean S
11/02/2026

This week we met on Wednesday the 11th in MTC to discuss our contract and brainstorm ideas for our poster to best represent our project. Discussion around the table began with a mockery of a poor BA1’s lunch, however developed further into a more in-depth discussion once bourbons and initial poster ideas and sketches were brought to the table. Most of our ideas came with an idea of processing cores and technology, trying to incorporate CORE’s logo into our own poster. Once we signed our lives away on the contract made by a genuine lawyer (only made through nepotism), we agreed to bring a couple of finalised poster ideas to our next session and choose through a vote which one we go with.
Posted 17 Feb 2026 14:45
Sean S
17/02/2026

Our session commenced with an attempted dictatorship takeover from a specific group member and a threat of being an observer for the project if their poster wasn't selected. Once the dust settled and the pitchforks had been put down, a vote to decide poster design was carried out and we made our selection. We then met up with the clients Mike and Alexandra, who agreed with our vision for Dandelion church, and helped us develop our ideas further. Rob then joined us for a discussion, that featured a little bit of direction for our project, as well as many, many examples of his own work in which he believed would be of use in our project.
Posted 17 Feb 2026 18:38
Sean S
03/03/2026

On a scorching day at the beginning of March in an even more scorching Crawford House seminar room our plan for today was to teach all the BA1s AutoCAD to produce the necessary architectural drawings for our project. Jake showed a great deal of patience during the downloading process of the programme, as well as in his teaching methods, greatly helping the BA1s, who are often heard to miss digital skills sessions due to heavy Tuesday nights out after MSA Live sessions. Once agreeing on who was drawing plans and who was drawing elevations, Mr Hyde (not to do with Dr Jekyll) helped us wrap up our session today.
Posted 3 Mar 2026 16:26