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.

Reading

After studio this week, we were given some readings to have a look at within our groups. These were to get us thinking about how we would approach our manifesto and look at the areas within Cheetham Hill.

We agreed to spend the evening reading and then meet up on Friday to discuss and swap ideas. This didn't exactly go to plan but we also met up on Saturday to continue discussions and make a plan for the week ahead.

My reading was the introduction from Altering Practices, a collection of essays by female architects. One particular sentence caught my eye and led me to then go on to read the rest of that essay:

"Urban designers could act as 'curators', as creators of meaning through unusual and unexpected connections, rather than 'planners' who impose their patronising meaning on space"

I think that this is something that I am going to try and take forward in my project.

Studio 2: Site Analysis

In studio today, listening to the other groups' site analyses reinforced the idea that our site was separated from the rest of Cheetham Hill. 

Many of the groups realised the sense of community in their respective areas and were able to act on it to develop their research whereas we weren't able to do the same.

A lot of interesting points were made and there were some really interesting observations but I felt that none of it was relatable to our area. 

We finished the day with a better idea of Cheetham Hill in general and some ideas of where to take our project next.

We also had some readings to make our way though to help with our manifesto development. My group's plan is to read our reading tonight ready for discussion tomorrow.