Projects Book - Design/Research Portfolio by Benjamin Carter

PROJECTS FOR THE CITY

BENJAMIN CARTER

2015 - 2022

DESIGN /RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

AND

SPATIAL CONDITIONS

msa

Manchester School of Architecture Common Ground Atelier

cdrs

Cambridge Design Research Studio University of Cambridge

INDEX

DESIGN PROJECTS PROJECTS FOR THE CITY

early urban interventions 2015

p10

heaton hall cultural wing 2017

p14

metropolis archive 2018

p22

collier street gallery 2018

p42

aula 2021

p58

campus 2022

p80

essay 2022

p102

RESEARCH PROJECTS SPATIAL CONDITIONS

atlas - city 2017

p112

atlas - college 2020

p118

atlas - campus 2022

p126

thesis - spaces of edification 2022

p132

APPENDIX projects carried out at manchester school of architecture are marked by the code MSA, projects carried out at cambridge university are marked by the code CDRS

preface

MANCHESTER PROJECTS

Throughout these design projects, an interest in producing civic architecture emerges. In a notoriously enterprising city such as Manchester - as the first industrial city - the idea of the civic is seldom invoked as much as expediency and commodity. The privileged status of the latter produced a city based on maximising the potential of space for private gain, resulting in the brutal efficiency of its historic mill buildings and its modern day tower buildings and a city based on capital and perpetual change.

The projects here propose an alternative mode of urbanism where private interests and civic space are not necessarily opposed; but one where private interests act in service of the improvement of the city. These projects explore ideas of redundancy inherent in the city of constant change, and address the demolition of swathes of the city to the detriment of its image and function. Therefore, the loosely identified theme of obsolescence which afflicts the post-industrial city is paired with the corrective theme of the civic, underlying the projects shown here and registering a common idea within these projects for Manchester.

ABOVE metropolis archive project - the city exists in a state of perpetual demolition and renewal

COMMON THEMES

In these projects for the city, distinct architectural styles are elaborated according to the specific spatial condition encountered at each site. Manchester is a city - which in spite of the prevailing Victorian mercantile appearance of its centre - has been picked apart and modified around the industrial belt of its inner city, resulting in a series of smaller urban environments of a distinct architectural character. Insofar as the city can be considered a tapestry of industrial, mercantile and postindustrial environments, the architecture of the projects seeks to respond to this difference, promoting a highly sitespecific architecture which exceeds the genius loci of the city’s predominant Victorian identity. For instance, in spite of the physical proximity of the Metropolis Archive project to the Campus project, (both projects are within a 5 minute walk of one another) there is a significantly different architectural intent for each; owing to the difference in their surrounding condition. What the architecture of the projects aims to manifest, is a style which is distinctly Mancunian - oriented to the city as a whole - as well as a sensibility which is even more local - oriented to the immediate urban environs within the city. These are projects inflected to the urban condition on an immediate and general level. Overarching this site-specificity is a countervailing objective to assert the autonomy of architectural form, so that each project advances the idea of the project and states its purpose beyond the limits of contextualism. Balancing degrees of separation and assimilation, the projects in this document are both mimetic in the way in which they defer to the surrounding condition, but furthermore creatively adapt the given condition in such a way as to heighten or subtly defy the ‘as found’. It is in this tension, of formal autonomy and site specificity, that the projects aim to contribute to the city, in visibly modifying its existing characteristics in order to propose an architecture which is derived from its environment, but one which is somehow separate and derived internally from the idea of project.

ABOVE metropolis archive project - the building reinforces the ‘as found’ condition of the rigid street wall

What Manchester offers most of all is the spectacle of city as process. The city has monuments yet little coherence, what feels most enduring is its fragmentary and provisional character

SOURCE Richard J. Williams: Manchester after Engels, placesjournal.org ABOVE metropolis archive project - abstracting architectural fragments from mancunian urban history

PART I — DESIGN PROJECTS FOR THE CITY The projects shown here are all designed as publicly-accessible buildings, which in some cases directly explore the idea of publicness. Beyond this, these projects return something back to the city, whether that is in the provision of outdoor public space, internal city halls within the building, or by heightening urban experience.

1 2 3 4 5 6

early urban interventions listening chamber and music archive heaton hall cultural wing on heritage asset metropolis archive museum to lost urban form collier st gallery galleries pressed between railway and canal aula urban union and public interior campus restructuring a postwar urban environment

msa msa msa n/a cdrs cdrs

2015 2017 2018 2018 2021 2022

salford

musical archive

CASTLEFIELD

collier street gallery

PROJECT LOCATIONS 8

manchester

heaton hall

CITY CENTRE

metropolis archive

ST PETER’S

CANAL STREET

aula

campus

ROCHDALE CANAL UMIST CAMPUS

listening chamber

EARLY URBAN INTERVENTIONS projects along the canal LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR

Rochdale Canal lock 89 listening chamber 2015 culture

LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR

Castlefield Bowl musical archive 2016 culture/education

MANCHESTER

BELOW view of the listening chamber in relation to the rochdale canal

10 10

Two projects set on the Rochdale Canal. First, a small listening chamber designed according to a specific song; the structure’s height is intended to emulate the echoic acoustics of a cathedral and direct views up and out of the open top. The poignancy of the aria is heightened by the monumental quality of the listening chamber, whose profile mimics the form of the once prevalent mill chimney. This project is intended to heighten the individual’s spatial experience; within the dark shaft, canal water fills a well below and the space is open to the sky above, city noise melds with choral song. Outside the structure, the chamber evokes a memorial to a defunct urban form - the industrial chimney.

msa

ABOVE view of the approach to the chamber across a bridge the chamber is an enigmatic structure which evokes the form of the industrial chimney once ever present in manchester RIGHT within the vertical structure, the eye is drawn up to the open sky above or through the perforated floor to the canal below BELOW the analogy to the industrial chimney gives the chamber a memorial-like quality

ABOVE panoramic view of the castlefield bowl whose arena quality is heightened by three new enclosing buildings BELOW section through music archive, showing the performance structure in the midground

Second, three separate structures enclose the Castlefield Bowl. These form a music archive, a museum, and a performance stage respectively. The three ‘common forms’ triangulate the irregular geometry of the site and intensify the space between, amplifying the as found amphitheatre condition. Whilst the architecture of each form is mute, projections from the sheer walls and on the roofscape provide performance opportunities in the form of balconies or a drawbridge-like stage. RIGHT plan of the three new buildings triangulating and focussing the space of the bowl

BELOW plan of the archive building ground floor, whose form is determined by existing site geometries

HEATON HALL CULTURAL WING extension to a listed historical building LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME LISTING AWARD

Heaton Park, Prestwich - MANCHESTER cultural complex, gardens and public spaces 2017 culture and heritage art gallery, visitor centre, administration building, and function rooms grade I shortlisted: rossant award

Taking the existing Heaton Hall as an architectural fix at the centre of the eponymous park, this project acts as a filter between the hermetic condition of the former, and the open condition of the latter. Through a sequence of architectural frames and enclosures, the parkland condition is refined through a hortus conclusus, passing through a pavilion and loggia before entering the hall itself. The intent of the project is to introduce cultural programmes within a new group of buildings and open up the lost interior of the hall.

14 14

ABOVE Heaton Hall and the new wing seen across the lawn, the new architecture abstracts the rhythm of existing columns

msa

RIGHT comparative site plans of existing condition (top) at the convergence of multiple routes around the park, where a car park and yard form the site extent. below: the intervention as a group of smaller buildings at a key fulcrum point BELOW views over the landscape are framed by loggia and colonnade structures, acting as a filter between park and hall

TOP routes through the park intersect the new ensemble of buildings crossing over key open spaces ABOVE plan of the hall and new intervention (left), internal enfilades and a spine corridor are broken in a rhythm of indoor and outdoor spaces

Forming a fulcrum at the convergence of multiple routes around the park, the new ensemble provides a point of orientation for both the park and the hall. Establishing centrality to an amorphous collection of disparate structures atop the hill, a new suite of gathering spaces acts as a platform from which to survey the park and a forecourt to the hall itself.

TOP the architecture of the new buildings is ordered by a consistent tectonic rhythm and trabeated language

ABOVE the central pavilion is planned on a 9 square grid and forms the main visitor centre for the park

LEFT the new group of buildings is ordered by an alternating rhythm of indoor and outdoor spaces between hall and park BELOW the section mediates between the closed condition of the hall and the open verdure of the park, framed by a series of classical devices such as loggias and colonnades

ABOVE view of the ‘court’ within the new pavilion - a key orientation point within the park

The new architecture refers to the regularity of columns and the tectonic order of the hall’s neoclassical architecture, however it erodes the closed massing of the hall to create a series of freestanding colonnades and loggia, open to the parkland setting. The rhythm of indoor and outdoor publics rooms gradates and mediates the transition between interior and exterior.

ABOVE view of the main facade and extension. the open columns of the proposal create a permeable new ensemble of buildings and a platform from which to view the park OPPOSITE a new series of thresholds are created to the hall, opening up the interior for a new host Manchester Art Gallery 20

METROPOLIS ARCHIVE museum to lost urban form LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME AWARD

22 22

Chorlton Street - MANCHESTER urban infill block 2018 culture museum and archive, ancillary function rooms, lecture theatres and storage nominated: architects’ journal student prize

This project proposes the modification of urban transformation to reclaim the obsolete form of the city, demolition becomes a transitional incident rather than a finality. Salvaged architectural artefacts are collected within the Metropolis Archive as a repository of urban form. Concealed within a carapace of brick, the raumplan section arrangement provides a dynamic spatial setting for the lost form of the city.

msa

PREVIOUS view of the metropolis archive along chorlton street, the tripartite plan is legible on the facade as a central ‘nave’ which projects out to the street and two flanking ‘aisles’ LEFT conceptual sketch showing a series of architectural artefacts suspended on an interconnected topography of platforms

ABOVE location of the archive amongst the mercantile grid of streets near the canal. BELOW conceptual drawing of the project the archive aims to contain various historical artefacts across Manchester to be perceived together in an abstracted space, creating a small city of fragments within the archive

The archive is a distillation of the city - the museological programme belies the dynamism of the project, whose mission is to house the fabric of the city effaced by the march of development and demolition. Within its many halls the archive becomes a mortuary of defunct architectural form, resilient to stagnation due to the ever changing rotation of new material. Halls of varying sizes house equally immense and minute artefacts, opening them up for study and comparison in their new abstracted scenography.

ABOVE the main hall within the archive houses large scale urban artefacts - shown here, an assemblage of different fragments from around the university are rehoused in a capriccio arrangement

RIGHT a singular fragment is resituated in the abstracted space of the archive, allowing artefacts to be appreciated in their own right

RIGHT the transverse section through the archive demonstrates the difference in scale from immense halls for large fragments to intimate rooms for closer study BELOW a wall of alcoves contains smaller objects - forming an array of artefacts across time

ABOVE dissected view of the metropolis archive, showing the internal topography of halls - or raumplan arrangement - combining plan and section into a dynamic spatial arrangement RIGHT cartographic gallery - a small hall containing maps and plans from key stages in manchester’s development

The use of the raumplan arrangement - whereby the section is staggered to create a topography of rooms - generates a continuous spatial sequence rotating up the archive. This large volume houses architectural artefacts on the scale of buildings themselves, steppingup from low, long halls, to tall spaces in which freestanding artefacts are grouped into small city-like configurations. Around the main halls, smaller rooms for non-salvaged artefacts, such as maps, drawings and books, record the form of the city in smaller chambers.

ABOVE rare books room - library. located on the fourth floor, the library runs the length of the building and sits directly over the archive LEFT the linear orientation of the building focusses views toward a space beyond. for instance, the city skyline can be seen past a series of fragments, drawing a link between urban histories

ABOVE rare books room - library, view through to reading room beyond OPPOSITE the double height library is a contained vessel suspended over the main halls below

ABOVE the processional stair, differentiated by colour, follows the raumplan through space RIGHT the stair traverses the section, projecting the visitor out at eye level and gods eye level in relation to tall urban artefacts

Within the Metropolis Archive, the spatial arrangement of the building is based on the tension of plan and section. Where the city grid is internalised within the archive to give rise to a tripartite grid plan, creating a regular field of columns, the section is based on an irregular void which steps vertically around columns. This spatial sequence is followed by the processional staircase, which traverses and projects out in order that the visitor can experience the raumplan arrangement.

ABOVE view of the stair spanning multiple levels and forming a podium for an architectural fragment LEFT the stair forms a dynamic viewing route from the basement to the top floor - allowing artefacts to be perceived from multiple vantage points

ABOVE view along richmond street - the archive respects the street wall, yet disrupts it through its vertical emphasis BELOW in contrast to surrounding buildings, the facade is modelled and articulated with deep reveals in a language of brick bays

The dynamic internal arrangement of city halls is cloaked in an outer carapace of brick, which integrates the archive amongst its mercantile Victorian setting. The outward appearance of the archive is robust, with columns which taper down to the ground to manifest the effect of incremental loading. Emulating the local building stock, the archive presents a symmetrical noble facade onto Chorlton Street, with a vertically-emphasised secondary language on its flanks.

TOP relationship of existing and proposed

ABOVE massing view of the archive in relation to its immediate context

ABOVE view along bloom street - the archive infills a void in the city grid, restoring a historic urban pattern RIGHT facade bay study

By building to the pavement edge, in a manner consistent with the Victorian city, the archive restores the street wall lost to time. In place of the planar walls on adjacent warehouse buildings, the archive is perceived as a syncopation in the rhythm of the street wall; whilst morphologically respecting the context, the archive simultaneously disrupts the context through the articulation of the facade.

ABOVE exploded view of the archive’s primary components, the ribbed piers are bracketed by robust brick blocks bookending the building LEFT detail section through a tapered pier, incrementally widening towards the base as a didactic tectonic demonstration

3 1

ABOVE ground plan of the archive, showing main administrative level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

toilets cloakroom vestibule bookshop staff offices meeting room loading bay artefact lift documentation

01 03

04 08 05

09 08

06 11

LEVEL -02

NOTES

LEVEL -01

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

REFLECTED CEILING PLAN IS INDICATED IN GREY ONLY WHERE THE CEILING IS IMMEDIATELY OVER THAT SPACE

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

LEVEL 00 - GROUND LECTURE THEATRE PLANT/ STORE TOILET RESTORATION STUDIO VAULT ARCHIVE ARMATURE WORKSHOP ARTEFACT LIFT ARCHAEOLOGICAL GALLERY REPOSITORY

WHEN READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH VOID (MARKED WITH A CROSS) THIS ALLOWS THE RAUMPLAN TO BE READ IN PLAN

LECTURE THEATRE(ACCESS LEVEL) SEMINAR ROOM PASSENGER LIFT TEMPORARY GALLERY VAULT GALLERY ARTEFACT PREPARATION AREA ARTEFACT LIFT VOID OVER GALLERY BELOW PROCESSIONAL STAIR

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0 1 10 11

01 02

VESTIBULE CLOAKROOMS/TOILETS PASSENGER LIFT BOOKSHOP OFFICES DOCUMENTATION/PHOTO STUDIO ARTEFACT LIFT VOID OVER GALLERY BELOW PROCESSIONAL STAIR MEETING ROOM LOADING BAY/REFUSE STORE

03 01

10 06

06 06

08 06

LEVEL 01

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

LEVEL 02

BRIDGE CABINET GALLERY LOWER GALLERY PASSENGER LIFT SERVICE PLENUM PLANT/STORE ARTEFACT PREPARATION AREA/ CRANE BAY ARTEFACT LIFT PROCESSIONAL STAIR VOID OVER GALLERY BELOW

01 02 03 04 0 3 05 06 07

LEVEL 03

VOID OVER GALLERY BELOW PROCESSIONAL STAIR UPPER GALLERY PASSENGER LIFT ARTEFACT PREPARATION AREA ARTEFACT LIFT PLANT/STORE

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

BRIDGE PASSENGER LIFT CLOSED-CLIMATE REPOSITORY ARCHIVE STUDY ROOM VOID OVER GALLERY BELOW PROCESSIONAL STAIR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ARTEFACT LIFT

03 01

02 04

06 05

10 08

LEVEL 04

LEVEL 05

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

01 02 03 04 05 06 07

PASSENGER LIFT READING ROOM RARE BOOKS AND LIBRARIAN'S OFFICE LIBRARY VOID OVER GALLERY BELOW STAIR ACCESS TO ARCHIVE (LEVEL 03) DRAUGHTSMAN'S GALLERY CARTOGRAPHER'S GALLERY ARTEFACT LIFT PROCESSIONAL STAIR

PASSENGER LIFT GALLERY AROUND VOID CITY BELVEDERE LONG GALLERY PROCESSIONAL STAIR PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION ARTEFACT LIFT

LEVEL 06

ABOVE building plans: top left to bottom right in ascending order. the plan is based on the internalisation of the city grid, in order that the plan of the archive represents a miniature city 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

PASSENGER LIFT CITY BELVEDERE FUNCTION ROOM VOID OVER GALLERY BELOW EVENT/LECTURE HALL 21ST CENTURY GALLERY CAMPANILE BELVEDERE ARTEFACT LIFT PROCESSIONAL STAIR TOILETS/CATERING

4 2

ABOVE transverse section through archive - showing raumplan arrangement stepping across the plan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

temporary gallery repository archaeological gallery vault gallery stair hall staff offices bookshop cabinet gallery

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

archive hypostyle hall principal gallery library 20th century gallery long gallery event/lecture hall roof plant

RIGHT long sections through the two ‘aisles’ showing large halls surrounded by smaller compartment like galleries BELOW section along the main processional route through the metropolis archive illustrating a series of raumplan volumes through which it passes

ABOVE context elevations along bloom street (top) and richmond street (beneath) BELOW context elevation showing the ‘noble facade’ along chorlton street OPPOSITE view of the main foyer within the metropolis archive

COLLIER STREET GALLERY galleries pressed between railway and canal LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME HERITAGE

42 42

Castlefield, lock 92 - MANCHESTER urban infill and heritage conversion 2018 culture and arts art gallery and archive within the castlefield conservation area and footprint of the roman fort

Occupying a difficult location - inserted between a listed railway viaduct at high level, and a canal at low level - the project seeks to maximise the available space of the narrow site to create a suite of new galleries. The triangular footprint is already occupied by the monumental tower of a former sawmill and timber wharf, standing as the solitary vestige of the site’s former industrial use. Collier Street Gallery combines two existing galleries: the Saul Hay Gallery, which occupies an existing building on the site, and the Castlefield Gallery, situated locally, to create a new cultural resource for art in Castlefield.

PREVIOUS view within the Saul Hay ‘clerestory’ gallery at first floor level

ABOVE the building occupies a triangular site pressed between a railway viaduct at high level and a canal BELOW at low level. furthermore composite form: view along the the site lies within the canal showing the existing mill castlefield conservation tower (centre) bracketed by two area and the footprint of new brick galleries the roman fort (dashed)

ABOVE view at the gallery forecourt where a sheltered loggia is formed beneath the raised cube of the Saul Hay Gallery

The project is treated as a ‘composite form’ - whose architectural composition consists of a series of different elements bound together to create a whole from multiple parts. Each part of the composite addresses a different urban condition; whether it is oriented toward the embankment, the railway, the canal, or the existing mill tower - and expresses the gallery as a combination of two separate existing galleries. The Saul Hay Gallery is housed in a raised white cube which forms a sheltered entrance to the project, while the Castlefield Gallery is housed in a low warehouse-like brick volume which evokes the site’s industrial antecedents.

RIGHT view within the triangular ‘canal room’ at the prow of the plan BELOW view along the existing ‘Architect’s Footbridge’. a new public space is created at its landing - establishing a clear route across the canal and through to roman castlefield beyond the railway viaduct

ABOVE the gallery abuts its industrial neighbours - it addresses a large canalside space intended to become a linear park in future stages PREVIOUS the project is a composite form; comprising a number of elements bound together into a singular assemblage. the existing brick tower is bracketed by a series of buildings which evoke its industrial character

canal rooms

6 3

1 railway rooms

2 3

TOP level 00

ABOVE level 01

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 2 3 4 5 6

architect’s bridge - existing rochdale canal gallery forecourt and loggia service yard beneath arches foyer castlefield gallery gallery - canal rooms toilets stair tower

saul hay gallery vitrine gallery - railway rooms lift stair tower void over gallery below

art library level

3 1

5 4

staff level

2 3

TOP level 02

ABOVE level 03

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4

lift stair tower record room computer suite public research room void at clerestory level

lift stair tower staff back of house staff office

TOP 1 2 3 4

ABOVE rochdale canal sawmill tower - existing new stair structural bracing

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

OPPOSITE lift glazed corridor stair tower gallery - canal rooms public research room staff offices existing chimney

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

forecourt and loggia vestibule castlefield gallery - canal rooms castlefield gallery - railway rooms art store in basement stair tower gallery - canal rooms public research room

ABOVE the main gallery floor has a direct relationship with the canal below, providing a significant setting for the display of artwork

ABOVE comparative views of the site as existing (top) and proposed (below)

The new galleries bookend the existing sawmill tower, preserving it both morphologically; as an element of the composite form, and structurally; by inserting a new armature within to reinforce the edifice. The tower is repurposed by introducing a stair within, counterposing the light interiors of the galleries with the dark interior of the tower. Therefore, this project seeks to reinforce the canal edge and heighten the ‘as found’ condition, whilst preserving a local monument and reworking a difficult urban site.

BELOW the existing tower mill is reinforced with an internal structural ‘cage’ which doubles as an armature for a new stair RIGHT the structural cage preserves the tower and allows it to be experienced from within OVERLEAF canalside view following the creation of the linear sculpture park

THESIS PROJECT cambridge design research studio BELOW four types of urban intervention varying from adaptive reuse of existing buildings to new build infill balance the contrasting imperatives for retention and reinvention

This project seeks to physically and programmatically restructure the former UMIST Campus, balancing the economic imperative for reinvention with the environmental imperative for retention. Judicious decisions concerning the value of the existing buildings drive this project. The design emerges from over a year’s research into the spatial qualities of modernist architecture and postwar campuses, producing an informed alternative to comprehensive redevelopment. The ambition for the project is to create a city micro-district, reprogramming the single use university campus in favour of a heterogeneous mix of uses and an amplified sense of urbanity. New uses are found for old buildings: lecture theatres become cinemas, large labs become sports halls, towers become communal apartments - saving a vast quantum of embodied carbon. At the heart of the campus a new civic and cultural centre - the Aula - anchors public activity within the district. The former UMIST Campus is transformed into a city within the city. Using an infill strategy, a series of cohesive new buildings replace low rise lab buildings which contribute little to the campus environment. Whilst retained campus buildings are reframed and their significance heightened by the creation of a new urban setting. The objective of this dual reinvention/retention strategy is to introduce a critical mass of inhabitants and workers into the campus whilst preserving its unique attributes, in order to adapt the campus from an institutional enclave into a mixed use urban quarter. 56

AULA

CAMPUS

urban union and public interior

restructuring a postwar urban environment

LOCATION DISCIPLINE TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME

LOCATION DISCIPLINE TYPE YEAR SECTOR AWARD

former umist campus - MANCHESTER architecture social condenser 2021 culture, civic, and social library, theatre, gallery, public hall, and civic services

stage 1 project

former umist campus - MANCHESTER urbanism urban renewal masterplan 2022 mixed use:primarily residential, commercial manchester society of architects future architect award

stage 2 project

The overall strategy comprises two project stages - first; an architectural project for the Aula, which seeks to contain the urban idea of the campus within a single building, and secondly; the Campus project, which intervenes on the scale of a large piece of the city in an urban renewal scheme.

AULA urban union and public interior LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME

former umist campus - MANCHESTER social condenser 2021 culture, civic, and social library, theatre, gallery, public hall, and civic services

The Aula represents the first stage of intervention within the campus, it is an architectural project which translates the student union type to a democratised audience; proposing instead a ‘people’s union’. The project combines civic, cultural, and social programmes within a singular anchor building at the nucleus of the UMIST Campus, in so doing it manifests the idea of a campus - which is the promote and generate new patterns of association between distinct groups. If a campus can be understood as a small city, then the Aula project poses the correlative question; how is a building like a city?

58 58

ABOVE aerial view into the main campus quadrangle showing the open door bays of the aula (top right)

OPPOSITE the aula seen in the context of the campus, the axis of the external street is internalised into the aula concourse

cdrs

TOP view within the aula library, occupying three floors of one of the cultural ‘cabinet’ towers ABOVE within the library, glazed reading carrels overlook the aula hall, creating a visual relationship

The Aula examines the idea of publicness, through both programme and architectural form, the project aims to create overlap between various different uses and groups in order that people may be in public, and as the public. A series of cultural stimulus programmes within the Aula: galleries, public halls, libraries, civic services, theatres, gyms elicit a constant level of activity and a diurnal rhythm within the building. Whilst these programmes are contained within tall vessels, called ‘cabinets’, they share a relationship with the Aula Hall, a common foyer for all the cultural programmes so that various audiences are compelled to convene in a single space.

ABOVE drawing of the aula hall at ground level - the hall acts as a common foyer for the variety of different programmes BELOW view of the people’s hall, a large adaptable assembly room

RIGHT the cabinets are tall cultural vessels nested within the larger vessel of the aula hall. each contains a stack of different programmes with glazed openings linking the cabinets to the hall

Within the shared foyer of the Aula Hall, smaller ‘aedicules’ populate the space and create clusters of activity. The idea of a public marketplace is examined through the arrangement of aedicules to heighten the common experience of space, whilst permitting some ambiguity of use through a series of platform and tribune structures for undetermined use. The Aula Hall is an open space, which at times falls into a general pattern of use; the public using the small kiosks in the hall, and other times it will host special moments; such as the electric energy of a theatre audience prior to a performance.

ABOVE a series of aedicules, or small kiosks, arranged in small spatial clusters create pockets of space within the hall BELOW the aedicules sit beneath the vast ceiling of the cabinets overhead

ABOVE views of the aedicules beneath the cabinets - accompanied by platforms and tribunes, they partially enclose more localised spaces within the aula hall

TOP view from a stair into the people’s hall and aula hall below

ABOVE cut away facade showing the aula interior as a series of platforms and cabinets

Spatially, the cabinets appear as freestanding towers within the hall - tall cultural containers suspended overhead. Despite the enclosure of the primary cultural programmes in the cabinets, a visual relationship is formed through opening apertures and windows to the activity within. Members of the public will be able to experience fragmentary moments of activity within the cabinets from the Aula Hall - permitting degrees of participation and observation in the public interior.

ABOVE column clusters give the cabinets a freestanding quality separated from the main structural skeleton BELOW view from the main entrance to the aula, showing the hall as a large public interior

The Aula initiates later stages of the project, which address the campus as a whole. A first floor internal street, labelled the ‘concourse’ collects vertical circulation in the Aula with horizontal circulation into adjoining campus buildings. The concourse comprises of a series of suspended landings, which give access to the main cultural programmes, and become active during different times of the day. While the street integrates into neighbouring buildings connecting complementary programmes following their adaptive reuse into community-oriented spaces. 66

TOP section showing main circulation ABOVE suspended landings and stairs occupy the large concourse volume OPPOSITE the concourse hall combines horizontal circulation into adjoining buildings with vertical circulation within the aula

ABOVE view from the main campus quadrangle through the aula door bays into the public interior. the aula hall can open directly into the open space of the campus exterior for large activities and public events 68

Primarily, the project explores the idea of interior urbanism, but also responds to the urban conditions around the campus. A civic, almost palatial, facade is established where the Aula faces onto a public quadrangle at the centre of the campus. Here, large sash doors open directly onto the quad to allow activity to span between interior to exterior. Where the Aula faces a wide street condition, a linear facade is established to heighten the existing space of the campus. Oriented along the street, the concourse facade intersects and spans across into adjoining buildings via a series of bridges. The two facades, (civic and concourse) create a janus-face condition whereby the project is externally responsive to the differing urban conditions around it.

TOP view into the inhabited facade of the aula concourse, beneath which passages through to other spaces are created ABOVE main ‘civic’ elevation facing onto a public quadrangle

ABOVE view on axis with the aula concourse, which acts as the building’s spine

BELOW aula concourse elevation view where it intersects adjacent buildings

ABOVE the aula shown in relation to its immediate environs, illustrating how it divides its site into three quadrangles RIGHT the aula forms one edge of the main quad - shown here with a provisional landscape treatment

Prefiguring the second stage of the project for the campus, the Aula establishes a series of positively defined quadrangles and new enclosures, and creates new links through covered passages between related urban spaces. A key piece of the proposal is a projecting entrance aedicule which appears almost as a freestanding pavilion in the main quad. The slight rotation of the entrance aedicule relates to the orientation of the nearby mill building, and furthermore its orientation forms an implicit cruciform relationship between it and three other building entrances. The Aula therefore establishes the preconditions for a relational architectural and urban logic to be carried through to the next design phase for the campus. ABOVE the entrance aedicule is rotated within the quadrangle to align to the former mill and existing building entrances

BELOW the concourse forms a street within the building at first floor level, beneath which two loggias allow the ground plane to pass beneath the building

4 2

7 5

ABOVE level 00 - aula hall 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

covered area under entrance reception aedicule stoa retail kiosks canteen aedicule bookshop back of house area loggia under concourse pariser building foyer mill building foyer

level 03 - gallery level

level 02 - city room

level 01 - concourse

ABOVE plans for the upper levels of the aula

6.02

4.01

1.03

roof terrace

5.01

citizen’s bureau

2.01

picture gallery

1.02

people’s hall

georgian theatre

tower library

0.01

0.02

ABOVE longitudinal section through the main body of the aula, showing stacking of cultural programmes over the aula hall

stair hall

BELOW longitudinal section through the concourse, showing its extension into adjoining buildings and vertical circulation within the concourse hall

2.01

piano nobile

area: capacity: technical descripti urban ‘common roo

curtain compartme

0.03

5.01

stoa

area: capacity: technical descripti internal street with onto main quadran

citizen’s bureau

into people’s hall

0.05

3.01

canteen

area: capacity: technical descripti small freestanding

picture gallery

operable with conc

2.01

piano nobile

1.02

0.03

people’s hall

stoa 0.05

canteen

0.04

bookshop

RIGHT transverse section through a cabinet (centre) and the concourse (right)

2.01

piano nobile

area: capacity: technical descripti urban ‘common roo 1.01

curtain compartme

concourse hall

0.03

stoa

area: capacity: technical descripti internal street with onto main quadran into people’s hall

0.02

stair hall

technical descripti suspended ‘cradle’ and stairs give acc and piano nobile le

horizontally to lift co

2.01

piano nobile

0.02

0.03

stair hall

stoa 0.04

bookshop

RIGHT transverse section through the aula hall, showing the main staircase within a light well

aula UMIST Campus Manchester

project directory stage 01 design

context elevation - faraday court drawing no.

drawing title

scale

date

L1101

proposed context elevation c/d

1:400 a2

14-06-21

L1101

maths and social sciences tower

elevation C

existing

in context transverse elevations c and d

existing

renold building

proposed

existing

aula

existing

ferranti building

context elevation - ferranti court

existing

faraday building

ferranti building

proposed

ABOVE site sections along the flanks of the aula, showing the bowllike effect of the campus with building heights diminishing towards the centre

aula

BELOW elevation of the concourse, the repetitive rhythm of paired columns on the facade is counteracted by projecting stairs and bridges

existing

renold building

elevation D

ABOVE aula civic elevation facing onto the main quadrangle, the entrance aedicule projects beyond the planar facade as a freestanding urban figure LEFT aula secondary elevations, the facades are composed of a composite logic - based on the combination of cubic building masses into a whole of multiple parts

CAMPUS restructuring a postwar urban environment LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR AWARD

former umist campus - MANCHESTER urban renewal masterplan 2022 mixed use: primarily residential, commercial manchester society of architects future architect award

80 80

ABOVE view along atlas way - the main pedestrian route across the campus

OPPOSITE view from the railway viaduct showing existing buildings (midground) framed by new campus buildings (background and foreground)

cdrs

ABOVE view of a new route into the campus from the city, breaking through existing barriers to movement to integrate campus and city RIGHT satellite structures such as gateways and colonnades mark the transition to the campus

The intention for the project is to create a city micro-district, reprogramming the single use university campus in favour of a holistic and heterogeneous mix of uses and a heightened sense of urbanity. New uses are creatively selected for existing buildings: lecture theatres are transformed into cinemas, large labs become sports halls, towers become communal apartments. At the heart of the campus a new civic and cultural centre - the Aula - anchors public activity within the district. The former UMIST Campus is transformed into a city within the city, which is reconnected to the city at large.

ABOVE plan of the campus reinstating a grid of pedestrian streets and courts, and buildings open at ground level LEFT view at ground level showing the relationship of existing buildings (far left) and proposed (centre)

Critical decisions concerning the merit of the existing building stock are judged against successful concepts of postwar planning, aiming to reinstate positive spatial types. One principal concept from postwar planning determines the proposed form of the campus - the precinct. Precinctual planning proposes pedestrian areas with enclosed spatial envelopes in such a way to create a heightened urban experience based on rhythms of exposure and enclosure - and the sense of ‘city rooms’. A newly public environment is proposed which is concentrated around a series of precincts, which form a coherent setting for new and existing buildings.

ABOVE scenographic views within the campus demonstrating a series of spatial frames and enclosures RIGHT view of a proposed ‘precinct’ public space - existing buildings (in red) structure the proposed layout of new buildings (in grey)

ABOVE 4 types of large scale intervention: 1. the aula 2. infill of new mixed use buildings 3. adpative reuse of retained buildings 4. consolidation of new and old on a unified landscape treatment

BELOW index of new campus architecture, showing different scales of intervention types; ranging from tower and podium blocks to covered walkways

ABOVE serial views at the campus threshold to the city, a consistent landscape treatment and freestanding satellite structures indicate the boundary between the two condition

ABOVE plan of the campus indicating location of landscaped courts RIGHT conceptual landscape of the campus; a new urban grain of streets is reinstated concentrating on landscaped areas

The campus offers a different form of urban space to the post-industrial city. The project introduces a grid of pedestrian routes around the campus, which converge in a series of quadrangles, landscaped courts, and precincts. The threshold between campus and city is defined by a series of transitional structures in landscaped areas. They act as key points from which the status of the campus as an urbanistically integrated - yet architecturally autonomous environment - can be understood.

ABOVE view of the layered public realm within the campus - showing the tension of new and existing buildings and the relationship of background ‘frame’ buildings to foreground ‘figure’ buildings 88

Within the wider campus plan, the precincts, each marked by a chequerboard square, represent points of concentration where activity and space reciprocate to create a relation between the citizen and the city, a setting for civic life. The campus as a whole is holistically structured by the relationship of the precinct to enclosing buildings, where new spatial settings are formed for new and existing buildings. Frame-like buildings are counterposed by urban figures - key programmatic and architectural monuments which are foregrounded against the normative language of the frame.

ABOVE view of urban elements within a typical precinct. each precinct comprises a number of stepped tribunes, and a key architectural figure related to the landscape design

TOP aerial view of atlas way - a linear external concourse - whose layout is based on a sequence of outdoor ‘rooms’, ie. well-defined urban spaces

ABOVE view showing the relationship between existing and proposed buildings, and between both existing and proposed in relation to a unified landscape design

The frame buildings give depth to the facade, allowing the facade itself to become an inhabited zone - in critique of the flatness of modernist architecture. The frame serves as an intermediate zone between public and private; a communal area which evokes the an idea of the civic in the participation of the individual in the collective public realm. Whilst the new architecture of the campus is evidently modernist, it also offers a critical reaction which partly favours and partly resists the modernist conventions of design. The frame is a reaction against the flat modernist curtain wall, conversely new campus buildings adopt the tower and podium type as a positive urban form; whereby the tower fulfils the requirement for density while the podium encloses a well defined townscape.

ABOVE the frame permits a deeper facade and doubles up as an alternative means of circulation BELOW deck access areas for residential buildings provides an intermediate area between public and private OPPOSITE the new campus architecture adapts the tower and podium typology to establish a multi-layered city

The frames provide a depth to the public realm - articulated as covered arcades, loggia entrances, and colonnades - which permit a more ambiguous relationship of interior and exterior and provide a greater variety of spatial experience at the edge of public spaces. The trabeated language of the frame introduces a consistent tectonic appearance across new campus buildings, and a rhythm within the space of the campus through the arrangement of columns as spacedefining elements. The regular framework permits modification of the infill elements, offering possibilities for specific building types accommodated within a generic outer structure. ABOVE elevation and section of a covered colonnade structure. the deep frame provides an area which mediates between architecture and urbanism, accommodating ramps, stairs etc integrated within the building curtilage

RIGHT worm’s eye view of the relationship the precinct bears to the covered spaces of the architectural frame BELOW elevation and section through the tower and podium of a residential tower. a cut-away belt section provides a visual break and offers a communal area atop the podium

New additions to retained buildings exploit the morphological order of modernist architecture. For instance, the tower and podium type is respected to allow new additions at podium level to enclose new urban spaces and introduce a mix of functions, whilst the object-like quality of the tower element is respected as an isolated monument. This strategy converts the existing buildings from single use education buildings to mixed use urban blocks, illustrating the intent of the project as a whole; to transform the campus from a rarefied academic environment to a metropolitan urban quarter.

ABOVE view into the campus from the railway, demonstrating the relationship of new and existing BELOW transformation of an existing tower on podium building preserving the tower whilst using the podium to accommodate new interventions and programmes

ABOVE view of the existing MSS tower with the addition of a new frame structure in the central bay, permitting new use as apartments

BELOW a new townscape organises former back of house areas and provides a setting for the retained building stock

ABOVE at the centre of the campus, the campus hall provides an unprogrammed space for pubic use within the shell of a former campus building

100

SPREAD campus-wide site plan showing new and existing buildings together. the campus is reorganised around a hierarchical layout of spaces; ranging from large courts, to narrow passages 101

CIVIC ARCHITECTURE AND RELATIONAL URBANISM

102 102

ABOVE metropolis archive - the building’s section is organised as a stack of public halls

lecture hall library

main artefact gallery

hypostyle hall C20 gallery

vault gallery

essay

civic architecture and relational urbanism

Each of the projects documented here examine the idea of a civic architecture; one which makes a contribution to or participates in the collective space of the city. The civic, which in itself refers to the urban condition generally, is specifically defined under this architectural logic as the common spatial, formal, or social conditions of the city. Civic architecture is one which is responsive to the given urban condition, either heightening or critiquing the established order of the city through architectural form or urban space. It is the task of this type of architecture to establish new relationships or challenge existing relationships to create a significant urban environment. Therefore, civic architecture is necessarily relational; oriented towards the conditions which form its wider context. Orientation, in these terms, involves the overt or implicit relationship between elements of the city. If an architectural element is oriented beyond the immediate limits of its built form, it could be said to engage in a common context and strike new relationships in urban space. The implications of this can be reified as an architectural fact, or more ambiguously established in intangible relationships. In critique of the prevailing singularity of architectural form, civic architecture offers a relational theory of space which bridges architecture and urbanism to reinforce the collective nature of the city. The result of a city built on the idea of the civic is a city where spatial settings create a strong sense of common ground through the concerted design of urban form across time, establishing an urban order which assimilates consensus and dissensus into a coherent environment. The extent to which the citizen can ‘read’ the city; that is, to be able to apprehend these relationships between buildings in space, is the task of a civic architecture. Through engagement in common ideas and forms, architecture can establish a series of multiple orientations and reify the collective logic of the city through mutually oriented forms - architecture which participates and reinforces an understood condition. ABOVE aula - intangible relationships between elements across the space of the quadrangle [p.73]

103

By establishing the preconditions of a common ground of the city, civic architecture also establishes an environment of consensus apt to manifest subversive orientations. Just as a series of common relationships between buildings can heighten a collective reading of space; space can be equally understood by a wellconceived spatial operation which subverts, undermines or counteracts a common theme. Therefore, if inherent to the idea of urbanity is the opposing forces of consensus and dissensus, then too ideas of urbanism should be based on action and reaction, perceived in the public realm. In the balance of site specificity and formal autonomy, the projects documented here attempt to reify relational ideas of space which both affirm and contradict established common themes. On the one hand, they seek to amplify the as found condition, and through a critical lens, challenge or creatively reinterpret the inherited situation and received ideas. Furthermore, the projects examine the idea of civic space both internally; by internalising an urban condition to create a public interior, or externally; by modulating the edge condition of the building to create an intermediate area in the overlap between architecture and urbanism. Three categories of civic design are posited and illustrated in projects which seek to heighten the collective experience of the city and contribute to an urban common ground. These three categories look at the interior, edges, and exteriors of architecture demonstrating that the civic can exist in all parts of the built environment. The first contribution civic architecture can make is by returning space to the city. This category inherits the humanist architectural tradition of providing partially interior, partially exterior spaces oriented outward to the city whilst doubling as key entrances and urban figures. These spatial filters resist the immediate relationship of public and private espoused by modernism to provide a more ambiguous edge condition which can be inhabited.

104

ABOVE metropolis archive - reacting to an existing spatial condition [p.32]

civic architecture and relational urbanism

Secondly, civic architecture establishes the possibility of an interior urbanism, which attempts to translate the urban condition of the city in an architectural condition. These adopt the form of public interiors, which either examine the permeability of city rooms to the public, or create internal situations which elicit a sense of urbanity by heightening collective experience within. Thirdly, relational ideas of space which affirm or resist established urban patterns aim to create a critical urbanism which is legible to the public eye. This category scrutinises the existing urban condition to determine how its form should be heightened or critiqued, or whether a combination of affirmative and subversive architectural decisions could generate a visible spatial tension. Two projects illustrate the first contribution of civic architecture in their provision of spaces with dual orientations: inflected towards the building interior and urban exterior. At the interface between the two conditions transitional elements resist a hard boundary and immediate relationship of interior and exterior, instead civic architecture favours degrees of separation between the public realm and private interior through a permeable edge. The Collier Street Gallery project is designed as a composite form, which refers to the form of the building whole constituted from the assemblage of multiple types of distinct building elements. Whilst the main body of the gallery is encased in a heavyweight brick envelope which gives the appearance of being grounded in the sandstone escarpment symbolic of Castlefield, the entrance pavilion is lifted above the ground to create a small loggia of a different material order. This part of the gallery is a symbolic white box (a common association signifying its purpose as an art gallery) which is oriented towards a number of approaches to the building. The little loggia is situated at the convergence of approaches at a key spatial

ABOVE collier street gallery - loggia and raised gallery [p.47]

105

fulcrum; either from the canal, from the railway arches, or at the landing of the footbridge, which establishes this sheltered urban space as a key crossing and inflects it towards the Castlefield area. A small urban scene is established at the landing of the footbridge, where the gallery loggia, an aedicule containing a statue, and a banquette provide a small pocket of urban space and a forecourt setting. The covered space exploits the dramatic approaches to the site, either over the canal or under the arches, to create a static point and a forecourt to the gallery, as well as returning space back to the city and contributing another episode to the dramatic sequence of spaces within Castlefield. Similar ideas are examined at the Campus Hall at the centre of the campus project. This project inherits the Staff House building of the former UMIST Campus as an as found modernist fix within the campus plan - occupying a pivotal lynchpin position. The existing colonnade around the base of the building is maintained and partly deconstructed to form a large open frame, related to the main quadrangle. A new sense of enclosure is created by raising the colonnade soffit which reconfigures the existing building into a vertically emphasised new space. The building is partially hollowed out and reinforced with a structural armature within, glazed apertures are left open, and two compluvium style light wells are created in an open ceiling. Within the space displaced artworks from around the campus are relocated in a new setting for public art. This returns an unprogrammed public space to the campus, which can accommodate events or spontaneous use, or simply acts as a shelter and urban stage. Without a determined programme, the Campus Hall serves as a natural and free point of concentration and space of appearance within the campus; a common ground for assembly heightening the collective experience of space.

106

TOP collier street gallery - spatial fulcrum at the building entrance and bridge landing [p.46]

ABOVE campus - campus hall at the logical centre of the campus [p.98]

civic architecture and relational urbanism

These two examples provide space for the city and return part of the building to a greater urban milieu. Both projects lean on humanist precedents of the loggia or the colonnade, which offer points of participation within the public realm from a point residing between the public and the private. Whilst the quality of enclosure may infer a sense of the interior, two further projects explore the internal condition as an urban environment itself - and question the contribution the room can make to the idea of the public interior. In the project for the Metropolis Archive, the built form of the city is internalised into a city in interior condition. The project recoups the demolished fabric of the city in a capriccio of architectural fragments bought together in a series of urban halls. Insofar as the collection of architectural artefacts within the archive may itself connote a city in interior, it is actually in the creation of a topography of urban halls which the nature of interior urbanism is evoked, notwithstanding the nature of the artefacts within. Using a raumplan arrangement of sequential halls, rising from the ground to the top of the archive, a continuous suite of city rooms offer a civic condition within an institutional interior. The halls maintain a relationship with the city through tall windows, allowing abstracted artefacts within to be counterposed by the built environment outside. On the one hand, the archive offers a stepped topography of vantage points from which to view the city, and on the other, provides a civic interior in which visitors can contemplate the form of the city. The dual orientation, inward and outward, establishes the idea of the urban hall as a relational space, which resists hermeticism and is open to the city beyond. The Aula examines a similar idea of an urban condition compressed into an architectural interior, seeking to elaborate a civic idea by heightening an internal collective condition. In counterpoint to the continuous raumplan of the Metropolis Archive, it contains cultural and social programmes in large ‘cabinet’ towers over a ABOVE metropolis archive - raumplan arrangement organises a series of city rooms

107

main hall, the latter acts as a shared foyer for diverse audiences. In certain respects, the project emulates the social condenser type, which intends to provide a place for the mixing of public groups to create new patterns of association; a place where citizens can meet and social groups can overlap. The idea of the public interior is explored primarily in the large foyer, the Aula Hall, which in itself is not programmed for any specific use. Throughout the day, it serves as a common foyer for the cultural programmes within the cabinets, but also offers a free space for spontaneous or casual use. The latent urbanity stimulated through complementary and sometimes conflicting patterns of use is heightened spatially by enclosing structures in the hall, creating micro-urban scenes and spaces; small pockets of space which act as clusters which concentrate activity. Through great sash doors, the open public realm of the exterior is invited in and inversely the activity of the interior may bleed across the building envelope into the main campus quad. A liminal stoa zone acts as a spatial filter and a framing device between the public interior and exterior, which offers a doubly-oriented space looking in and out simultaneously. Both Metropolis Archive and Aula explore how an urban spatial condition, which tends to be distilled into activity occurring in streets and squares, can be further condensed into a public interior; whose containment pressurises the event within. These urban halls rely on a clear relationship to the city beyond and a propelling programme to provide underlying activity within. However, a true public interior eventually becomes a destination per se, allowing people to be freely in public and as the public at once. Thirdly, the civic is brought about in projects which look to complete an urban condition, providing an urban experience consistent with its immediate environs. This third type looks at reinforcing existing conditions in

108

TOP aula - the shared foyer of the aula hall create clusters of activity [p. 63]

ABOVE aula - sash doors open directly onto the main quadrangle [p.58]

civic architecture and relational urbanism

order to make an urban logic apprehensible over time - these interventions use a site-specific language to elicit an architecture of consensus with its environment. In the projects for the Metropolis Archive and Collier Street Gallery, a completion of the linear wall condition explores the concept of Instauratio Urbis as a means to evoke the civic. Loosely translated in these projects this concept aims to restore lost or latent urban conditions which tend towards spatial enclosure. In the Castlefield project, the linear condition of the canal is bracketed on one side by the Bass Warehouse, which delineates a long wall rising shear from the towpath. On the opposite bank, where the project is situated, the gallery responds by mirroring this condition, abutting the canal to engage with the contextual cues of surrounding buildings. Here, the gallery is morphologically oriented towards existing industrial architecture without necessarily mimicking its appearance, in order to establish a relational architecture and reinforce the local spatial condition. In this project context is treated as a setting for dialogue between buildings over time. The as found condition of the canal is adopted and amplified through the form of the gallery, which encloses the long corridor of the canal and gives a positive shape to the void created between the warehouse and the gallery. A similar idea is pursued by the Metropolis Archive in relation to urban space. A gap site in the city grid is filled to the pavement edge, in a manner reminiscent of the historic victorian buildings surrounding it. The heights of lineaments on the facade of the archive register contextual building cornices to retain a continuity of rhtyhm on the facade. However, in this project, the articulation of the archive facades provide a critical alternative to the flat warehouse facades of the context, establishing the formal autonomy of the project. The responsive exterior of the archive intends to embody the idea of the project as part of the city, and simultaneously surpass its form through a subversion of its order. TOP collier street gallery - mirroring the spatial condition [p.54]

ABOVE metropolis archive - tension of formal autonomy and site specificity [p.34]

109

Whilst the archive completes the street wall and reinforces a linear street condition, the vertical emphasis of the projecting piers and the depth of articulation of each bay contrasts the planar surface of neighbouring buildings. Outwardly, the archive is oriented towards its context but subverts its dominant horizontal condition. As a state of exception and simultaneous affirmation of the context, the Metropolis Archive reinforces the urban condition of the canyon-like street, whilst counterposing the architectural form of each individual building in its immediate environment. The archive therefore maintains the tension between consensus and dissensus upon which civic architecture is reliant - permitting the archive to be read as an urban figure and part of a wider city theme. These projects illustrate three categories with contribute to a cohesive urban order based on a relational basis of architectural form. Civic architecture structures urban experience. Either through architectural devices, spaces for the public, or reifying latent urban relationships, the civic is invoked through distinct modalities of heightening collective experience in the city. In order to establish a civic architecture, buildings should look beyond the remit of the project itself, to consider a wider field of urban relationships and transgress the disciplinary division between architecture and urbanism. It is a way to make sense of the city, in all of its difference. These projects demonstrate through multiple orientations that this does not necessarily involve the outward dressing of a building, but permeates right through from the exterior to the interior of architecture.

110

ABOVE campus - relationships between new and existing buildings, and architecture and urban design, form the basis of civic architecture and relational urbanism [p.81]

PART II — RESEARCH SPATIAL CONDITIONS The following research projects document various spatial conditions in urban areas and other large scale organised environments. They take the form of an atlas, which provides the requisite data to make considered design interventions. The atlases precede design projects in establishing the existing site conditions and theoretical context prior to any propositional thinking.

8 9 10 11

atlas 1 - city atlas 2 - college atlas 3 - campus thesis

chorlton street study area the courts at churchill college former umist campus study area spaces of edification

msa cdrs cdrs cdrs

2018 2020 2022 2022 111

ATLAS 1 —

CITY

chorlton street study area LOCATION CHARACTER AREA PROJECT YEAR

chorlton street - MANCHESTER victorian gridiron 30.55 acres metropolis archive 2018

ABOVE the study area within the larger grid pattern of manchester city centre

112 112

This research examines the spatial condition of part of Manchester’s mercantile core, establishing the contextual basis of the Metropolis Archive project. The study area is bounded by four major streets within the city centre and is bisected by the Rochdale Canal, which runs one block south of the project site. Whilst the study area retains a strong gridiron condition of victorian streets, especially along the canal, voids resulting from demolished buildings and a number of post war mid-rise towers preclude a singular description of the area. Consequently, the study area is one of the lesser defined grid conditions within the city centre, and is characterised by a divided identity of victorian and modernist buildings lacking a shared spatial logic.

msa

ABOVE view along richmond street - the victorian city grid is defined by tall street walls and narrow secondary streets

ABOVE RIGHT the victorian city centre comprises a series of independently developed gridded areas oriented according to historic land boundaries

BELOW comparative grid densities. top: northern quarter, middle: ancoats, bottom: study area

BELOW the study area is based on narrow grid proportions, creating long and narrow secondary streets on one parallel and perpendicular primary streets at a less frequent spacing

113

ABOVE drawing highlighting the street wall along chorlton street, perpendicular views focus on tall victorian landmark buildings LEFT the primary streets in immediate proximity to the associated metropolis archive project BELOW local exemplars of manchester warehouses directly abutting the street - the warehouses are characterised by a secondary, unadorned side elevation treatment

114

ABOVE sections along secondary streets adjacent to the metropolis archive site. top: section bb - bloom street bottom: section cc - richmond street BELOW section along primary street showing varied scales and character of elevation. section aa - chorlton street

115

ABOVE view along bloom street, at the edge of the study area BELOW significant urban figures within and immediately around the study area. in each case, the example is of the scale of an urban block in its own right

116

LEFT facade bay of the manchester college, a linear block on chorlton street ABOVE the grid of the study area overlayered with significant buildings. the grid and position of key buildings at the end of streets concertedly create a scenographic urban pattern

117

ATLAS 2 —

COLLEGE

the courts at churchill college LOCATION CHARACTER AREA YEAR

cdrs

churchill college - CAMBRIDGE postwar college in open fields 41 acres 2020

ABOVE abstracted plan of the collegiate courts showing the path network within court clusters

118 118

This case study into Churchill College precedes further research into the space of the campus. Despite its institutional status as a college, Churchill retains many of the qualities of a campus - an organisational type largely absent from Cambridge until the postwar period. Conceived and built according to a single design, the college forms a holistic environment based on a logic of rule and exception. The majority of the college fabric comprises three clusters of residential courts loosely arranged to enclose a great court, within which exceptional college functions are situated; such as a library, dining hall, and social spaces. The spatial condition of the college is interpreted by the rhythm of passing through similar courts with variations on a theme, whilst passing from spaces of exposure to moments of enclosure.

TOP location of churchill college relative to the main group of central colleges ABOVE the typical arrangement of court clusters places two landscaped courts to either side of a smaller paved court BELOW view within the raised ambulatory walkway around the edge of a court

119

120

LEFT oblique view through the open ground plane of the college. the raised blocks allow views through a series of courts

ABOVE plan of the collegiate campus - the college courts are concentrated at the lowest point of the site, rising up to the hilltop chapel

ABOVE the artificial ground of raised platforms and walkways forms a continuous route around the college BELOW plan and elevation layout of a typical court - the walkways permeate the edge of the court and provide alleys and passages through the college

121

ABOVE aerial view into a court - compact proportions lend a room like quality to the court, enlivened by the varied arrangement of oriel windows RIGHT upper level plan of a typical court - each room is accessed directly from a staircase, creating small vertical social units related to the larger unit of the court

122

TOP a permeable ground plan creates continuity around the base of the court clusters, yet each court is a distinct enclosed space ABOVE photograph from one court to another, showing the differing landscaping treatments and plant species of each court RIGHT view from within a student room, a terrazzo banquette and oriel window provides a space oriented outward to the communal realm

123

TOP views are framed through wide piers to the landscape beyond ABOVE section demonstrating the horizontal visual relationship between landscape and court RIGHT each court is individuated by a differing layout of rooms and therefore a distinct arrangement of oriel windows which project out over the court

124

ABOVE the architecture of the court is highly articulated, through deep reveals and projecting elements BELOW views showing spatial continuity around the ground plane, and enclosure above the ground floor

125

ATLAS 3 — former umist campus study area LOCATION CHARACTER AREA PROJECT YEAR

CAMPUS cdrs

former UMIST Campus - MANCHESTER modernist urban enclave 18 acres aula and campus 2022

ABOVE view of the campus in relation to its urban environs and major infrastructure routes

126 126

These drawings record the existing spatial condition of the former UMIST Campus, at the fringe of Manchester city centre, as a precursor to the Aula and Campus projects. At the site boundary, a host of major infrastructural routes sever the relationship between campus and city, resulting in an insular condition. Looking inward, at the centre of the campus a series of landscaped courts are enclosed by modernist campus buildings, which form an dramatic scenography based on the considered relationship of architecture and urbanism. In spite of the multiple authorship of the campus by a consortium of architects, there is a consistent typological form to the campus due to the tower and podium type organising tall and low buildings into a comprehensible townscape.

TOP temporal superimpositions of the industrial and postwar city - overlayered photographs from the same viewpoint in different points in time ABOVE aerial view of the courts and pedestrian paths at the centre of the campus OVERLEAF view of the campus and its relationship to the city at its perimeter. the campus is disconnected from the city by elevated infrastructural routes and low continuous podia

127

128

129

ABOVE a notional horizontal datum separates two scales of campus architecture; the tower and podium. podium buildings enclose the campus townscape while podium buildings adopt a more monumental object quality BELOW campus scenography composed by the relationship of tower and podium buildings

130

ABOVE the planar quality of campus buildings layer to form compositional screens based on a visual montage of grids and facades BELOW longitudinal sections of the campus demonstrate its city-like appearance as a cohesive urban ensemble of modernist architecture

131

THESIS spaces of edification - the campus as urban theory and design concept PROJECT YEAR LOCATIONS

cdrs

master’s thesis 2022 churchill college, cambridge - sidgwick site, cambridge - university of leeds, leeds - university of essex, colchester - university of east anglia, norwich - university of warwick, coventry - university of york, york - umist, manchester - northwestern university, evanston - uic, chicago - iit, chicago

ABOVE view of the central precinct at the university of east anglia, norwich

132 132

This thesis studies the relationship of higher education and the built environment, manifested through the form of the university campus. In particular it examines the postwar campus, at a time when architectural and educational ideologies aligned to produce remarkable visions not only of what the university should be, but also radical propositions for how society should be organised spatially. The spatial condition of the experimental campuses of the postwar period are documented in case studies from the UK and the US, where in the latter, the reciprocity of campus planning and city planning projects establishes the idea of the campus as a civic type.

SPACES OF EDIFICATION

abstract

The phenomenon of the Knowledge Economy, which harnesses the production and transmission of information, is increasingly recognised as an agent in stimulating urban change.1 The physical environment most emblematic of this phenomenon is the university campus, whose relevance to urbanism is beginning to be apprehended after a history of withdrawal from the condition of the city. Notwithstanding positive or harmful consequences, the evolving relationship and closer affiliation between campus and city is transforming the latter into ‘Knowledge Cities’, parallel to a complementary trend in the former toward the ‘UniverCity’ - revealing how the respective missions of modern higher education and urban renewal are becoming increasingly interdependent.2 This thesis examines the relationship of the campus to the city, as physical proxies for themes of university ideology and urbanism, explained through the organisation of the campus itself. As small cities, the campus in the city is an analogous form; spanning the scales of architecture and urbanism whose disposition mimics the structure of the city at large. The architecture and urban theory of the university campus is examined through exemplary case studies from the postwar period in the UK and US. This period in particular represents the time at which the aspirations of state and society elided with an unparalleled utopianism in higher education. This was manifested in England in the creation of the New Universities, which offered a carte-blanche for experimental modes of living and learning. These new institutions were designed as ideal towns in the country, self-sufficient polities unencumbered by existing urban conditions. Rare examples of urban universities in England emerged in the postwar period, and one case study will be examined in further detail as a locus for theoretical and applied urban design studies. The following chapters segue from the ideological conception of the campus as a total environment, to the application of campus design theory - a field condition - on the scale of both architecture and urbanism, concluding in a speculative hypothesis for how campus planning contributes to urban design, to be implemented through the subsequent design element of this thesis. Throughout this thesis, the built environment will be considered as a lens to examine extra-architectural themes, attempting to define a concept of a campus as a general theory and demonstrate its physical application in the design of cities.

The Knowledge Economy was conceptualised in the 1969 book The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society although the concept is attributed to preceding economists. cf. Peter F. Drucker, op. cit., 1st edn (New York: Harper & Row, 1969)

Campus and the City: Urban Design for the Knowledge Society, ed. by Kerstin Hoeger and Kees Christiansee (Zurich: GTA Verlag, 2007), p. 13.: for harmful consequences of university expansion see, Davarian L. Baldwin, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are plundering our Cities, 1st edn (New York: Bold Type Books, 2021), pp. 6-7.

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case studies

Churchill College Cambridge, UK Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners 1958 -

Sidgwick Site Cambridge, UK Casson and Conder 1956 -

University of Leeds Leeds, UK Chamberlin, Powell and Bon 1960 - expansion plan

University of Essex Colchester, UK Architects Co-Partnership 1964 -

University of East Anglia Norwich, UK Denys Lasdun & Partners 1964 -

University of Warwick Coventry, UK Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall 1965 -

University of York York, UK Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall 1963 -

UMIST Manchester, UK Cruickshank and Seward, Hubert Worthington, et al. 1960 -

Northwestern University sites Evanston, USA Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 1968 - RCC 1970 - library precinct

Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, USA Mies van der Rohe 1940 -

University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, USA Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 1963 -

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FRAME

FIELD ABOVE view of an enclosure at the university of essex, looking towards the residential towers RIGHT figure, frame, and field - the spatial conception of the campus is based on the relationship of frames (repetitive elements), figures (individuated monuments), and field (spatial articulation and ground condition)

FIGURE

ABOVE figure, frame, and field relationship creates a miniature city like configuration at the university of essex

135

UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX ABOVE university of essex - photographs showing the sunken squares and courts enclosed by the mat-building frame of the campus LEFT diagrammatic plan of the essex campus based on a linear spine of squares (black) surrounded by built fabric (hatch), and traversed by secondary routes (dashed) BELOW section of the essex campus showing the multi-level planning of the scheme beneath the pedestrian squares and courts a service route is concealed in the bowl of the valley

136

UNIVERSITY OF YORK ABOVE university of york - the campus is based on the picturesque layout of pavilions in the landscape LEFT diagrammatic plan of the york campus as a dispersed series of campus clusters orbiting a central hall BELOW view of a college and the relationship of the pedestrian route to the water as it intersects both building and landscape areas

137

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA ABOVE view of the aerial walkways which traverse the campus - to the left, the teaching wall. to the right, the residential ‘ziggurats’ BELOW drawing and view of the main stepped precinct at the centre of the campus, photograph looks towards the library

138

ABOVE view of the ranks of residential ‘ziggurats’ which comprise a building range facing onto a wide field RIGHT plan of the campus as a linear megastructure extending out from the central precinct BELOW drawing showing expansion logic for the ziggurat type, whereby further units could be added using an identical formal order

139

CHICAGO CASE STUDY IIT CAMPUS AND FEDERAL CENTER ABOVE comparative ground studies of the Federal Center (top) and IIT Campus (below) demonstrating how campus planning offers city planning an alternative form of urban space RIGHT comparative photographs demonstrating how the oblquity of miesian space challenges the linearity of the street wall in american cities

140

ABOVE both Federal Centre and IIT adopt and critique the city grid - by opening up the urban block, enabling diagonal movement and positing a new order of urban space campus planning logic is used to propose an alternative urbanism for the american city

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APPENDIX

CATALOGUE + CV

CATALOGUE

DESIGN PROJECTS - ACADEMIC

listening chamber LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR SCHOOL

rochdale canal lock 89 - MANCHESTER listening chamber 2015 culture manchester school of architecture

music archive LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR SCHOOL

castlefield bowl - MANCHESTER musical archive 2016 culture/education manchester school of architecture

poplar house LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR SCHOOL

simister - MANCHESTER private house 2016 residential manchester school of architecture

heaton hall cultural wing LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME LISTING AWARD SCHOOL

heaton park, prestwich - MANCHESTER cultural complex, gardens and public spaces 2017 culture and heritage art gallery, visitor centre, administration building, and function rooms grade i shortlisted: rossant award manchester school of architecture

metropolis archive LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME AWARD SCHOOL

chorlton street - MANCHESTER urban infill block 2018 culture museum and archive, ancillary function rooms, lecture theatres and storage nominated: architects’ journal student prize manchester school of architecture

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CATALOGUE

DESIGN PROJECTS - ACADEMIC

aula LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME SCHOOL

former umist campus - MANCHESTER social condenser 2021 culture, civic, and social library, theatre, gallery, public hall, and civic services cambridge design research studio

campus LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR AWARD SCHOOL

former umist campus - MANCHESTER urban renewal masterplan 2022 mixed use: primarily residential, commercial manchester society of architects future architect award cambridge design research studio

DESIGN PROJECTS - MISCELLANEOUS

collier street gallery LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME HERITAGE

Castlefield, lock 92 - MANCHESTER urban infill and heritage conversion 2018 culture and arts art gallery and archive within the castlefield conservation area and footprint of the roman fort

rural retreat commission LOCATION TYPE YEAR SECTOR PROGRAMME HERITAGE

Cwm Penmachno - SNOWDONIA heritage conversion and extension 2016 residential house and hostel former methodist chapel

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CATALOGUE

RESEARCH PROJECTS - DOCUMENTS

architecture in extremis: ruins depictions of the moribund state and fictional dystrophy as the ideal condition through the works of giovanni battista piranesi YEAR SCHOOL ELECTIVE SUPERVISOR PRIZE

2018 manchester school of architecture architecture & media léa catherine szacka university of manchester john h.g archer prize

the revolutionary movement in architecture the emergence and establishment of a modern thinking in post ancien-regime france YEAR SCHOOL ELECTIVE SUPERVISOR PRIZE

2017 manchester school of architecture manifestations of modernity james robertson university of manchester john h.g archer prize

anthology eight essays on architecture: pt1. independent essays pt2. essays on the metropolis archive pt3. curricular essays YEAR PROJECT SCHOOL PROJECT

2018 metropolis archive atelier common ground metropolis archive

the college and campus the courts at churchill college, cambridge YEAR SCHOOL PROJECT

2020 cambridge design research studio churchill college atlas

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CATALOGUE

147

RESEARCH PROJECTS - DOCUMENTS

the politics of the urban university the umist campus and the city ESSAY 1 YEAR SCHOOL SUPERVISOR PROJECT

2020 cambridge design research studio felipe hernandez spaces of edification

infrastructure/megastructure forms of consolidation at the umist campus and mec hall, manchester PILOT THESIS YEAR SCHOOL SUPERVISOR PROJECT

2021 cambridge design research studio felipe hernandez spaces of edification

transforming the campus contested heritage narratives and the critical interpretation of the modernist built environment ESSAY 4 YEAR SCHOOL SUPERVISOR PROJECT

2021 cambridge design research studio felipe hernandez spaces of edification

umist in postwar society nation building and urban planning YEAR SCHOOL PROJECT

2022 cambridge design research studio spaces of edification

re-

CATALOGUE

RESEARCH PROJECTS - DOCUMENTS

spaces of edification the campus as urban theory and design concept THESIS YEAR SCHOOL SUPERVISOR PROJECT

2022 cambridge design research studio felipe hernandez and ingrid schroder spaces of edification

fieldwork report campus case studies YEAR SCHOOL PROJECT

2022 cambridge design research studio spaces of edification

project directory 1 aula - an urban union YEAR SCHOOL PROJECT

2021 cambridge design research studio aula

project directory 2 campus - the city within the city YEAR SCHOOL PROJECT

2022 cambridge design research studio campus

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CATALOGUE

CAPRICCIO

capriccio 1 LOCATION EAST ANGLIA FORMAT a3 vertical YEAR 2020 BUILDING COUNT 50

capriccio 2 LOCATION MANCHESTER AND WARWICKSHIRE FORMAT a3 vertical YEAR 2019 BUILDING COUNT 52

capriccio 3 LOCATION DURHAM FORMAT a3 vertical YEAR 2016 BUILDING COUNT 18

capriccio 4 LOCATION LONDON FORMAT a1 horizontal YEAR 2017 BUILDING COUNT 100+

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CATALOGUE

150

CAPRICCIO

capriccio 5 LOCATION MANCHESTER FORMAT a2 horizontal YEAR 2015 BUILDING COUNT 100+

PUBLISHED WRITING

the persistence of form in architecture the mnemonic value of the recognised artefact YEAR COMMISSION PRIZE THEME

2016 glasgow institute of architects nominated and published: alexander thomson society scholarship legacy

modernist 43 - library intellectual capital university library YEAR COMMISSION THEME

reading

2022 the modernist society library

the

northwestern

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BENJAMIN CARTER BA (Hons) MPhil (Cantab)

EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE

MPHIL ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN cambridge design research studio - CDRS department of architecture

2020 - 2022

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

BA (HONS) ARCHITECTURE manchester school of architecture - MSA common ground atelier

2015 - 2018

ACADEMIC RECOGNITION MANCHESTER SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS

future architect of the year award

2022

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

outstanding academic achievement award

2018

ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL

student prize [nomination]

2018

MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE john h.g archer prize

2018

MMU UNION

outstanding contribution to a society

2018

MANCHESTER SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS

rossant award [shortlisted]

2017

GLASGOW INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

alexander thomson scholarship [published]

2017

MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE ian c.s crowcroft prize

2017

MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE john h.g archer prize

2017

MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE academic excellence award

2017

MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE joe jessop award

2016

MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE academic excellence award

2016

EXPERIENCE GORT SCOTT ARCHITECTS

London, UK

2022 -

OMI ARCHITECTS

Salford, UK

2018 - 2020

projects: cortland at colliers yard manresa house moorlands church hangar 7 the filaments presbar diecasting site one heritage tower clippers quay great bridgewater street new cross

greengate, salford harborne, birmingham lancaster macclesfield chapel street, salford great ancoats street, manchester greengate, salford salford quays, salford manchester manchester

residential ecclesiastical ecclesiastical residential residential commercial residential residential commercial residential

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ingrid schroder aram mooradian conrad koslowsky stephen connah ronan connelly projects for the city and spatial conditions BENJAMIN CARTER 2022

This short volume collects a series of research and design projects based within the city of Manchester. It gathers in one place projects undertaken at Manchester School of Architecture, and the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, exploring Manchester from near and afar. It is intended as the author’s design portfolio and research anthology, but additionally a collection of works which explore existing and proposed spatial conditions of Manchester - aiming to develop a Mancunian style adapted to each particular condition of each respective project as well as a common idea across all projects.

BENJAMIN CARTER

DESIGN /RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

2015 - 2022