P2 | MAKESPACE THE DIGITAL FABRICATION FACILITY FOR CREATIVE MAKING AND MATERIAL TESTING NORTHERN QUARTER, MANCHESTER EVGENIA VLACHAKI 110175500
My proposal puts forward a digital fabrication facility set in the urban cityscape of Manchester, in Northern Quarter. The proposed facility will plug into the existing vibrant and creative community of the Northern Quarter providing its consulting services to the numerous design and art studios, fashion ateliers and multiple architecture practices, which surround the site. The project is aiming to combine equipment, expertise and perspectives of making in a way, which considers environmental implications and the fundamental issue of 21st century materiality. It will operate as a multidisciplinary facility containing open access digital fabrication workshop spaces, IT facilities, an exhibition gallery and a laboratory of biomaterials, which will be researching and testing natural polymers (composed with fungi), which could replace the unsustainable 3D printing plastics in the future. [* MakeSpace was initiated with a 3-week digital fabrication workshop aiming to create a ‘Stacking’ structure using a single machined material. This exercise informed my understanding of the workshop requirements and inspired the stacked arrangement of spaces and activity. ]