Hi, my name is Harry Bartholomew, I am currently in my first year of Architecture, BA1. I grew up in a town called Kenilworth.
I studied Physics, Maths and Graphic Design at A-level, gaining the necessary skills for starting Architecture. After studies, I decided to take on a gap year, half working to improve my hospitality skills and half for travel, going around Southeast Asia, all whilst working on my drawing skills. I am loving the course here at MSA so far and am excited to figure out my own architectural interests.
Leisure spaces are a crucial aspect of a community, bringing people together in various ways. Personally, I enjoy the fitness promoted by these leisure spaces, giving access to countless unique activities that cover a large demographic. I am looking forward to working alongside Life Leisure and my team, expanding my skills and experiencing a new, unique challenge.

For our engagement session, once preparation was complete and despite all the hail, the engagement team managed to travel to our site. Our activities surrounded 2 primary questions about the area; the first was a post-it note pin-up board with the question being “what challenges do you [the clientele] face when coming [to the site].” This allowed the public to write their own opinions on the matter, giving us information on what the public thought could improve the area. The engagement for this was good, but contributions were more related towards access, such as car parks and paths, as well as events the leisure centre hosts. However, the second engagement activity was much more successful; we printed out a cartoon map of our selected area alongside various fun models of potential outdoor appliances with the intention being that the participating public could create their own ideal outdoor space. This was placed alongside the question “What would your perfect outdoor space look like?” This activity gave us a range of different responses across all ages; the younger audience preferred a playground area, including slides and climbing frames. Some of the older members agreed with this, including seating areas to watch their kids and to relax after the gym, whereas some just preferred a nice seating area with a lot of greenery which we noticed was absent in the surrounding area, a place to have a picnic for example after the gym. A common theme was not to include outdoor gym equipment, as a lot of the members were content with all the equipment in the gym. Overall, this engagement activity gave us a variety of useful opinions on what the site needs and how we can please all members of the leisure centre.