Group 31
HOLT TOWN HIVE

This Holt Town Hive looks at how a bus stop can be more than just a bus stop. The idea is to design a flexible Travel Hub for Greater Manchester that can handle frequent bus services while still feeling safe and comfortable to use, combining buses with cycle docks, e-scooters, proper shelter, and small additions like kiosks and parcel lockers. Shaped around Holt Town’s current conditions and future developments, our aim is to turn everyday travel into something more considered - a place where people feel connected and can look forward to spending time.

Ananya R / Edward K / Emre T / Jitisha S / Matiss E / Ria Rajendra P / Siti Salwa BH / Viviane VD / Xiaoran M / Xintong L / Yasmin S

Emre T
We kicked off our first session by getting to know the team, sharing our architectural backgrounds and sharing our individual strengths, interests and perspectives. After getting to know eachother, we turned our attention to the brief. We spent time analysing the online resources and diagramming the project scope, identifying not just the bare minimum outcomes expected from us, but where we could expand the project by adding extra creativity and value.

Then, we worked on the collaborative design of our project poster. After sketching individual iterations and going over them as a group, we synthesised our ideas into a final draft that represented our collective vision. With several project names in mind, we headed into our first stakeholder meeting with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).

The presentation by the TfGM team was incredibly insightful, outlining the project trajectory and specific expectations. A productive Q&A followed, clearing up any potential ambiguities. As a group, we are really proud of the synergy we’ve built in such a short time, and it was rewarding to see that our excitement is shared by our client.
Posted 16 Feb 2026 20:49
Ria Rajendra P
Site Visit 1 - We had a walking tour from the Etihad Stadium through Holt Town, ending at New Islington, alongside our collaborator Transport for Greater Manchester and a representative from Manchester City Council.

As we walked through Holt Town, the council representative explained the regeneration plans and their long-term vision for the area. Experiencing the site on foot gave us valuable insight into the opportunities and constraints within Holt Town, as well as a clearer understanding of what future residents may need in terms of connectivity, public space, and infrastructure.

This was a successful site visit, as it provided strong contextual grounding and clarified Holt Town’s relationship to Manchester city centre. The discussions from this meeting informed our first steps towards identifying a new location for the proposal of the Holt Town Travel Hub.
Posted 4 Mar 2026 12:17
Emre T
Our third MSA Live session focused on finalising our ethics application and having another site visit. We started by reviewing the ethics documents prepared last week, ensuring all our administrative documents were in line with the requirements. In doing so, we evaluated our planned community engagement activity and realised it required modification to align with our collaborator’s vision for the project. Taking this on board, we held a brainstorming session to develop a new engagement activity and updated our risk assessments to ensure it applies to our modified community engagement activity.

Once the ethics application was complete, we shifted our focus back to the site. The group travelled to Holt Town for another site visit, walking the stretch down to New Islington. This on-the-ground exploration was crucial; it allowed us to gather primary data for our site analysis and begin identifying the most strategic, high-potential locations for the new transportation hub.
Posted 17 Mar 2026 14:14
Emre T
Week 4 - 17/03/2026

In our latest session, we initially focused on responding to feedback from our mentor regarding our ethics application. Revisiting our community engagement strategy, which we modified last week to suit our collaborator's needs, we clarified the exact details about our activity. By clearly explaining the three distinct phases, we ensured that we clearly communicated exactly what we wanted to do.

With the structure of the engagement activity determined and explained in good detail, we shifted our focus to a brainstorming session to generate the content for the engagement activity. A major focus was on creating a list of design drivers for the project. During the upcoming engagement, we plan to use this list as a tool, inviting our collaborators to highlight the drivers they feel are most important and applicable to our project. We finished the session by identifying the remaining content required to run the activity, leaving us with a clear plan for the week ahead.
Posted 21 Apr 2026 11:23
Emre T
Engagement Activity - 24/03/2026

This week, we carried out our engagement activity with our collaborator! We came prepared with all three of our engagement activities ready to carry them out, and we held an interactive session in which we accompanied our collaborators through the activities to extract every bit of information we could for them. The information we gained during this session will be crucial for our design process, as we were able to clearly understand the collaborators' exact expectations and priorities for this project.

Throughout the activity, we understood the expectations of the collaborator in terms of design, functionality, materiality, community, and user experience. We will use this information during our design process to shape our design and curate an experience which satisfies the collaborator, the user, and us as the design team. We are really proud of our engagement activity, and we feel like the outcomes we obtained through this activity were successful beyond our expectations!
Posted 21 Apr 2026 11:25
Viviane VD
On tuesday 21st April, our group focused on developing design ideas using feedback from our previous engagement activity. We spent a significant amount of time creating and refining concepts believe our collaborator would find useful for their company.
After the design phase, we showcased each bus stop concept to our peers. Each person explained the reasoning behind their design and why they felt it aligned with the collaborator’s needs and expectations. Following this, we cane together as a group to create a final concept that combined features from each individual design.
By the end of the session, we had developed a concept that everyone agreed on and believed would meet the collaborator’s expectations: an adaptable bus stop made up of multiple units, each with its own function, such as seating, parcel lockers and a kiosk.
This session was highly productive and helped us prepare for a meeting with the collaborators the following day. Everyone was proud of the outcome and the deisgn we created.
Posted 26 Apr 2026 15:51
Viviane VD
On Wednesday 22nd April, we had a meeting with our collaborators, at the Transport for Greater Manchester building in Picadilly. We came prepared with all of our individual design sketches, as well as the final concept we had developed as a group.
During the meeting, we received a lot of positive feedback. Our collaborator seemed pleased with the direction the bus stop design is taking. We also exchanged new ideas, including adding charging points, toilet units and incorporating passive surveillance features.
We will now take this feedback forward and continue refining our design, making the necessary adjustments based on the collaborator’s suggestions.
By the end of the meeting, we were all very happy with the outcome. It feels like we are on the right path and only need to make a few small changes to better align with the collaborator’s vision.
Overall, we gained a lot of use insight, and the meeting was a great success
Posted 26 Apr 2026 15:54