Sites

I have decided that I am going to use both the library site and the graveyard site. 

I began to look at the two sites in relation to each other and to the surrounding area, especially Cheetham Hill Road. I noticed that both sites, although not in direct view of the high street, were well connected to it and therefore to each other. I was able to trace routes between the sites, one of them being a straight path, perpendicular to Cheetham Hill Road. I found this really interesting and I want to use this in my programme as it fits in with my manifesto and re-connecting through using the streets and creating street life. 

A Dilemma . . .

Today I was working though my personal manifesto and how I am going to approach this project.

I have made links between Lynch's 5 elements of the city and our manifesto's 5 elements of the community although I am yet to tie it into my project completely (it's too good a link not to use!).
I also spent some time looking at the sections from yesterday and making comparing the empty spaces within them: the demolition site, the car park and the park. With this being a strong idea that I want to carry forward. I am now left with a bit of a dilemma. 

The site that interested me the most, the one adjacent to the old library, wouldn't necessarily be the best site for my project, considering my manifesto. The third site, the cemetery seems to be a better fit as it is completely an empty space.
It was also commented on that I might be taking on too much if I wanted to have retrofit as part of my project alongside the brief.

Decisions, decisions . . . . 

Studio 5: Going Solo

Yesterday, we had our individual tutorials in studio. 
As well as discussing our study tours, we've also began to think about our personal manifestos for our individual projects. 

I haven't really given much though to my project since Newcastle but after re-reading though our manifesto (in an attempt to edit it) I began to make links between the manifesto and my trip.

The major link was the five aspects that we wanted to focus on and the five elements in Lynch's text. While the first makes up a community, the other makes up the city. I think that this is a strong idea that can be used in my manifesto and I want to look further into it.
I also want to look closer at my visit to Byker estate in an attempt to see what makes a community project work and what doesn't. When it was first proposed and built, the project was ground breaking but further down the line and it seems to have fallen into disrepair and I can't help but feel that it doesn't function as well as it did when first built.

As a group, we still have a little bit of editing to do on our manifesto and this is something that we were working on today. We identified what needed sorting and improving and after much discussion, we assigned ourself tasks and are aiming to finish it by Sunday (Monday at the very latest if rearranging is needed). This evening, as well as working on the group blog, I am going to look at market typology. The idea is that I will map out different markets and similar arrangements and we will then be able to compare them. This is something I am going to continue tomorrow when I go to the Arndale Market and Church Street Market. Tonight though, I am going to map out the Victoria Baths Craft Fair that I attended at the weekend as a slightly different type of market.

The Sites

Today I decided to go and take a closer look at the sites and maybe start having a think about which one I would choose for my project. 

The first site include the old library, the shops adjacent to it and the car park behind it. One of the interesting features of the site was the cut through from the main road to the car park and the World Wide supermarket behind it. While creating a link between the two, there were very few people around to actually use it. 
In order to get to the remainder of the site, I had to rejoin the high street and walk up the side road adjacent to it; the fence barely let me see into the other car park, let alone let me though.
I found the variety of element on this site really interesting and my interest in historic buildings is drawing me to choose this site. The library is something that I would really like to include in my designs and something that I would look into is precedents of sensitive retrofits of listed buildings. 



The second site was the one of the old police station. This was much more connected to Cheetham Hill Road and in a way, acted as a barrier between the road and the housing behind it.

The third site lay in the midst of all the housing behind the second site. It was a cemetery that has now fallen into disrepair and has been consequently closed to the public. Having said this, while there was no entry through the main gates, someone had made a gap in the fence and left some of the large stones on the pavement as a step to provide access to the site. The height of the site above the rest of the area works as a vantage point but also separates it further from the surrounding area. 

Studio 4: Manifestos

Today, we were presenting our manifestos to out tutors and studio group. After the last 3 or so weeks of gathering and analysing and reading, we finally seemed to have a good idea of which direction we wanted to go with the project and how we were going to approach it individually.

The poster I made to represent our approach and the manifesto also represented the approach I wanted to take. When tracing over the map, I realised how many empty spaces there were, including a large empty block. My approach would involve creating an intervention of some sort that would encourage people to visit and interact with, bringing them together and form the start of a community.

Out presentation overall went better than I expected. Time management was a major problem in the group although when we did get together and knuckle down to work, we functioned well and came up with some great ideas for discussion. Personally, I felt that I didn't put in as much as I should have; with 21st birthdays and hospital visits the previous week.

Some of the feedback we received included the idea of getting obsessed with the street life and making really intense studies of it rather just skimming the surface and remaining distant. If the street is something that we wanted to look at, and it is, we really needed to start to understand it on a new level. We also need to just tidy up our manifesto; replacing some of the text for diagrams and generally finalising it.

To finish the day (and almost this part of the project) we were introduced to our site. There is a choice of three:

1 (Green): is the old library and the adjacent building and car parks.

2 (Blue): is the old police station and possibly the adjacent building.

3 (Red): is an old church site which is now just open land.

Due to my interest in historic architecture, I am already drawn towards the first site. However, I think all three sites have the potential for a good project so at some point over the next couple of weeks, I am going to go up to the site to explore them thoroughly before making my decision.

For now though, I'm off to Newcastle for my study tour, with additional flying visits to Durham and York.

Site Visit: First Impressions

I went to site for the first time the day after studio to get a feel for the area and maybe gather some ideas. 

I started by taking the bus to Victoria Station and then I planned to walk the remainder of the way up to Cheetham Hill. I briefly looked at the map before I left and saw that Cheetham Hill Road started near the train station so it was pretty straightforward to get there. However, so does Great Ducie Street and this was the one I started up in an attempt to get to Cheetham Hill. Luckily I realised my mistake before I had gone too far and found a route to Cheetham Hill Road with as fewer turns as possible. 

My route took me straight around the Strangeways Prison perimeter. I had already walked past the prison en route but it was one thing to walk past along a main road and another to walk past along quiet back roads. There were no cars, except those parked outside the brick warehouses and I passed only a couple of people. The high walls of the prison were unsurprisingly intimidating and the quietness of the surrounding streets really made me want to move on as quickly as possible to Cheetham Hill Road. There was very little activity along the surrounding roads and there was not much sign that they buildings were inhabited, particularly on the side facing the prison.

Despite being late morning, when I reached Cheetham Hill Road, there was very little pedestrian activity on the street although there was plenty of traffic in the way of buses, cars and lorries. The activity seemed to increase as I approached The Manchester Fort and headed further into Cheetham Hill. The section of the road I walked along before I reached The Fort seemed to be more of a transitory space rather than part of the Cheetham Hill territory, a bit of a no-man's land between the city centre and Cheetham Hill. 

The amount of activity increased further as I headed up the road. Along with houses, there were more shops, restaurants and community buildings such as mosques and job centres. There were more people out and about in the streets, many of them shopping. There were lots of small supermarkets that spilled out onto the pavement creating small markets. 

Once I reached the library, I turned around and headed back to the city. This time I managed to stay on the right road!

Studio 1: MSAP Intoduction

First studio day of year 3. Not sure I'm ready to get thrown in at the deep end but not sure I've got much say in the matter!

We started the day with discussing what the atelier, MSA Praxis was about and we split into small groups to discuss 'participative techniques' that are used in architectural practise to engage with the clients. We were given a list and we talked about which ones we knew about, what we thought others were and whether we thought they were actually used in practise. They were all things that we can use in our own projects as well.

Over lunch, we were tasked with making a cognitive map of a familiar route. These were then compared when we restarted. Most people did their route to university although not all were the half hour or so commute; some were from home to Manchester. It was also interesting to see the differences in the maps. Some were really literal (like mine) and easy to read while others were more abstract and only clear if you knew the route.

Then the REAL map came out. Of Cheetham Hill.

As I hadn't had the chance to visit the site before studio, the area was completely unknown to me and reading an unfamilar street map upside down doesn't really reveal much. As it is such a large area, we split it up into 6 areas, one for each of the groups. The task was to survey our area and to make a panoramic street view of a section of Cheetham Hill Road. The following week, we would then present our findings and collectively, we would all have a better understanding of Cheetham Hill