Charrettes

This week I have been developing my designs. I gave myself a 30 minute session in which to come up with each design. I began by using my model and then photograph it and annotate it on Photoshop. Each design brought out an idea for the next one although not all of them were as successful as I hoped.
I became quite attached to my first design, it seemed to convey everything I wanted but once I had begun playing about with the site axes, it mixed up the arrangement and I felt that it grounded the design to the site and wider area.

I had no luck finding any of the original plans so I guess this project will just be façade retention but there was no guarantee that the building as it stands would be suitable for my  building anyway. I'm not exactly sure how to go about navigating this problem.

I still need to start work on my designs for the housing aspect of my programme. After considering that 'cohousing' might not be the way forward, I started looking at Byker again, especially at the enclosed spaces shared by a small group of housing. I think something like this would work as having shared spaces would encourage small communities to form, much like as was discussed in Matrix's book.

Library Day

Being back in Manchester now, I spent Sunday and Monday reading. Monday was spent in the library and while some of the books I was reading didn't exactly seem relevant to my project, I was reminded about the houses of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was something that I remember reading but I've got a feeling it was from the book that my old Geography teacher lent me once briefly. 
The idea behind Wright's housing was to open up the living space, bringing the kitchen into the main part of the house rather than hiding it away. For the time, I can imagine this being quite a radical idea. Part of it was to allow women to continue to cook and prepare dinner while still being able to entertain guests etc. 

This idea can be carried into my own project and I've started to look at his Usonian Houses in an analytical way. Having one large living space makes a more manageable house for women (or men) who stay at home and also makes child care easier as most of the day time activities happen in this central space.