Citizens

Citizens * PRIORITIZING THE USERS *

INCLUDING AN INTERVIEW WITH

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LOUIS WOODHEAD

PRESENTS

MANUFACTURING COMMUNITIES: DESIGNING REAL PLACES PART 4

STUDENTS LEAD THE WAY ON FOOD CRISIS FAVELA RISING ENGAGING THE HOMELESS

SHOULD THE DESIGN PROCESS BEGIN WITH THE USERS?

THE TRIAGE CENTRE

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YOUTH WRECKREATION

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THE COOP MSA Prints

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MSA Prints EDITORIAL Welcome to the MSA print special edition four-part series ‘Manufacturing Communities: Designing Real Places’. This series explores the social technologies in which architects need to become expert in order to design and develop socially relevant architecture in a world of rising population, rapid urbanisation and increasing social and spatial inequalities. Responding to a debilitating disciplinary focus on the physical technologies of ‘sustainability’ this series instead examines the problems of commitment and engagement which ultimately determine their implementation and success.

CONTENTS

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Bulletin

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Opinion

In this series we tackle the relationship between the discipline of architecture and wider society in four steps beginning with the role the architect plays as a citizen in that society; secondly, exploring how the design qualities of the city are defined by its citizens; third how the city includes or excludes its occupants through the granting of citizenship; and lastly in terms of the city as an occupant of the wider ecology of the planet.

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Favella Rising

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An Interview with Louis Woodhead

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Manufacture Workshop

In this edition, part 4, the role of users of all types and their marginalisation is the focus. Engagement with implicit or explicit users in contemporary architecture has been reduced to a toothless ‘consultation’ process. The explicit user refers to the developers, the architects, engineers and all other parties directly involved in the design process. However, what is more interesting is the role of implicit users such as the wider general public, the neighbourhood within which the architecture is to reside, and the final users of the building, who are rarely considered.

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Travel

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ENAGE: 101 ways to change your city

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Participation

The process through which architecture is designed is not the only issue, as the procedure of commissioning buildings has been removed from a democratic process emerging from the general public, but has instead been confined to a limited number of development corporations, particularly when we consider housing production.

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Collaborators

The theme that links the three projects discussed in the features section of this issue all relate to engaging more with the users - both implicit and explicit - who should, in an ideal world, be more involved in the process of design and construction. This shift could result in the improved output of architectural resolution; it is also likely to be less combative to the existing environment and more suited to the needs of all users and the wider neighbourhood context it sits within.

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13 The Triage Centre TIMOTHY SPILLER

03 Ancoats Dispensary BULLETIN

Latest update on the on-going campaign to save the Grade II Listed Ancoats Dispensary.

Trying to incorporate homeless people and the Ancoats community trying to save the Dispensary.

Creating a symbiotic relationship to assist both groups.

17 Youth Wreckreation MALIHA RAMIZA

Tying back the youth community at Cheetham Hill. A proposition of injecting an active recreational area which would form a standard ground amongst the youth.

23 The Coop

DAMMY FASORANTI

Discovering the importance of developing a network which connects the various services targeted towards assisting the homeless and creating a space which makes this accessible for the expected user.

21Homeless Networks and Assemblages DAMMY FASORANTI

An abstract about the history of homelessness and it’s effects on both the homeless community and the society that surrounds them.

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BULLETIN local wealthy businessmen during the Victorian Industrial Revolution in Manchester; Ancoats was the first industrial suburb, becoming home to some of the poorest in the city who worked in the nearby Mills. This chapter is confined to history, but the Dispensary remains a Victorian icon of that period, being of historical importance as the hospital which developed X-rays and other medical breakthrough technologies and procedures.

ADT continue despite failed lottery bid The result of the Ancoats Dispensary Trust (ADT)’s bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was not the answer they were hoping for. The grassroots organisation that sprang out of attempts by Urban Splash to demolish the once vitally important hub of the community - the Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary - was unsuccessful in it’s first bid to the HLF in order to secure the funding required to save the building.

In the 1980s, local reaction was unable to prevent the Hospital being closed and since that time, the building has been left derelict, eventually falling into a decrepit state. Despite being Grade II listed Urban Splash requested planning authorisation to Manchester City Council which would have enabled them to demolish the building.

Having recently removed the roof, which has disrupted the structural integrity of the building, it now requires thousands 04

of pounds worth of scaffolding to surround it in order to prevent it from collapse which inevitably obscures the original facade.

The bottom-up approach of ADT emerged following a public consultation process where residents noticed that the latest iteration of plans for the New Islington development in North East Manchester no longer included the Dispensary. This revealed that Urban Splash had abandoned any attempt to save the building.

Arousing significant anger from the residents, a positive organisation was formed which has stood vigil outside the building and fought to save it. The organisation has been lobbying the council in order to save the building and block any attempts by the developers to place a demolition order on the building.

Created out of the patronage of

The ADT group has been fund-raising, working with conservation architect Alex Finlason and attempting to involve Urban Splash and the city council.

Efforts of a joint collaboration have been rebuffed forcing the group to turn to Igloo, a conservation development company. Alongside the architect, Igloo has proposed a route forward to save the building and redevelop it in order to create a local community centre and artist studios for the nearby AWOL Studios - a local creative company - in order to provide the project with longterm fiscal freedom which would ensure its sustainability.

The crowning element which would have enabled this vision to become reality was an important investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund. As specialists in the funding and restoration of local buildings in need of rescue from destruction and fatigue. Despite not receiving the result they had wished, this has not deterred the group from continuing their actions and they have recently put in a second bid to the HLF to secure the funding they need to restore the building.

For more information, please contact the ADT co-ordinator Linda Carver via the group’s website.

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Have architects lost touch with users?

A provocative article written by Christine Outram - titled ‘What Starbucks Gets that Architects Don’t’ criticises how Architects fail to connect with people as they used to. People do not just hang out at Starbucks for coffee, but they also want the comfortable spaces provided within where they can stay,.

Commenting that ‘... there are no empty seats at a round table and [a] circle does not have edges to bring discomfort to the users while standing’, Starbucks realised that 78% of coffee lovers prefer to stand while communicating as it provides them with the flexibility to leave when they please.

To design such an effective space, Starbucks had conducted surveys with coffee drinkers to discover what they desire when they visit coffee shops. Their response was for a place of relaxation, a place of ownership.

This resulted in Starbucks requesting rounded tables from the architects despite their initial suggestions of using square tables as it is easier and more cost effective.

Most of the Starbucks users are typically on-the-go and prefer to treat the coffee shop as a pit-stop. The decision to provide circular tables is therefore not only fit for purpose; it also shows Starbucks’ care for the comfort and satisfaction of their customers.

If Starbucks as a business is able to put their users first, what prevents architects doing the same for building users?

Above: Starbucks pays detailed attention to the interior design of their outlet Opposite Page: Meeting of the Ancoats Dispensary Trust

Comment @marygilda Architects should accept that other people do have the right to voice an opinion @CarolLRead What could the NHS so to improve user experience? Swings installed at bus stop make waiting fun.

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New Building for the Booth Centre

Above: The new Booth Centre building as seen on the Booth centre website

“The Booth Centre purposes to be a source of support, advise, learning and growth”

A leading service provider in Manchester, the Booth Centre is well known for the diverse and thorough services they provide to single homeless people in Manchester.

Previously housed in the Manchester Cathedral building since 1995, the homeless charity run a successful centre with the help of four full time staff, one part time staff member and 20 volunteers.

Despite the small size of their City Centre location, the Booth Centre have been able to impact a large number of people; with over 170 homeless people using the centre weekly, the centre focuses on being a place where the homeless and vulnerable are made to feel welcome and cared for.

Central to their core values and principles is the desire to help people; the Booth Centre purposes to be a source of support, advise, learning and growth.

With homeless charities often accused of perpetuating homelessness, the ethos of the Booth Centre stands in opposition to this claim. Aiming to empower and enable the homeless community as service users to make informed personal choices that will result in lasting positive changes in their lives and foster self-confidence and high esteem. To accomplish this, the centre operates a daily drop in, offers advice and counselling to resolve deeper issues as well as running a diverse range of stimulating and exciting training and development activities which users are free to participate in.

away from their current premise. Having the building purchased and paid for by the Edward Holt Trust has been a tremendous blessing for the centre as it means they only need to raise funds to furnish and equip the new building. With their own place, the Booth Centre were able to consult with Architects to design and remodel the building to make it suitable to their needs.

The Booth Centre has officially moved into their new building this month and the larger space will allow the Booth Centre to expand the range of services currently being provided to include a larger café space, dedicated advice rooms for service users to meet with specialist consultants, activities and training rooms as well as a commercial kitchen which will be used to provide extensive catering training as well as providing well cooked food.

With ambitions to reach out to more of the city’s homeless and put the user first in the service they provide, the Booth Centre will be recruiting volunteers for a number of roles as well as asking for donations to help fund the new building.

For more information or to donate to the centre, please contact the Booth Centre on 0161 835 2499. Alternatively, if you would like to fund-raise on behalf of the centre, details can be found on how to do this here: www.boothcentre.org.uk/newbuilding.html

With the success the Booth Centre have experienced, demand for their services has rapidly increased; their previous location in the Manchester Cathedral was no longer sufficient in meeting the demand for help and assistance. The help of the Edward Holt Trust, the Booth Centre was able to secure a new premise, a mere 5 minutes

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BULLETIN Student’s lead the way on food crisis Food banks are opening up rapidly all over the country, with reports from the Trussell Trust of three new food banks opening every week. Reports also show that more than 350,000 people turned to food banks in 2012 , a figure which is almost triple the figure from 2011. An estimated 600,000 people are living in extreme poverty according to the Greater Manchester Poverty Commission, this particularly hits Manchester as the fourth most deprived place in the country – and the city with the second lowest average income.

Half of the population of children living in Moss side, Hulme, Ancoats, Clayton (all in Manchester), and Irwell Riverside in Salford are said to be living in poverty.

These figure are shocking and may seem exaggerated, however, food poverty is affecting individuals and families all around the country with many struggling to put food on the table.

This makes the work of foodbanks all the more important - something a group of 15 student from the University of Manchester’s St Vincent de Paul Society discovered when they began running a mobile soup kitchen which fed the vulnerable community of Manchester.

Through their hands on approach to responding to the crisis they observed, they became increasingly aware of the severity of the problem and the need for an expansion of their work.

This led to the creation of the very first ever student led foodbank in the country, working under the umbrella of the Trussell Trust network, Manchester Central Food bank opened its doors to the public in October 2013 and within the first 5 weeks, had already fed over 50 people (23 children and 27 adults) which was equivalent to about 261.9kg worth of food. Praised as innovators who are paving the way in making positive contributions to society, Manchester Central Food bank have been called leaders for tackling an issue that

affects so many in the community.

Despite the praise, others have been less than positive; Tory MP Paul Maynard and others such as Edwina Currie have criticised food banks and accused them of normalising food poverty. Voicing that food relief should not be the responsibility of the government, the Tory MP has suggested food banks could make its users reliant on help. In response to this, the Trussell Trust and the manager of Manchester Central Food bank have raised the point that the foodbank is there to meet unmet need.

Manchester Central Food bank have been called leaders for tackling an issue that affects so many in the community.

Above: The foodbank in operation with clients interacting with volunteers, Volunteers inside the main foodbank space Right: Joey Ferrigno inside the foodbank food storage

Running a food bank requires volunteers that are passionate about what the foodbank stands for as well as people who do not judge the clients that use the foodbank. Due to the diverse sets of people who use the foodbank, difficult clients often present the volunteers with challenges; however volunteers endeavour to make the clients feel as comfortable as possible. It is crucial as a volunteer to remain flexible and be capable of adjusting to the various situations that may arise.

Recent news reports that many of the people using services like the food bank to gain access to supplies and food are facing the crushing choice of choosing between heating and eating. The rising cost of energy has led to many families not being able to access cookers to heat food contents. Many of these clients are women who live in shared supported housing; these accommodations are often poorly furnished with limited cooking facilities.

As a result of paying careful attention to their clients and attempting to respond to their crises, the foodbank has begun to deal with this issue by providing clients with ‘kettle packs’ which are food items that do not need to be cooked with an oven such as instant noodles.

With the success the food bank so far, there are plans to apply to become a charity. The foodbank is currently in the process of restructuring their internal structure to establish a more solid and well run organisation.

For more information about Manchester Central foodbank or to volunteer, please check here: http://manchestercentral. foodbank.org.uk/ MSA Prints

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OPINION Do architects have an embedded social responsibility to the people or should their efforts be directed elsewhere?

N17 Design Studio, our new partnership with Haringey Council in Tottenham, north London, demonstrates our continuing belief that architecture can help change people’s lives, and that architects have a social responsibility.

This was, after all, the democratic impulse driving the post-war modernist ideal to provide better working and living conditions for all.

by Aidan Potter Director of John MsAslan & Partners

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doing a similar thing – you can’t be a tourist if you want to understand the social and urban context and be an agent of change.

The studio will offer young people in Tottenham internships and work placements, providing an insight into the way a design studio operates and, hopefully, encouraging them to explore career opportunities.

The idea for a new studio in Tottenham came out of a discussion between Nick Walkley, Haringey Council chief executive, John McAslan and myself.

Setting up a studio almost immediately opposite the police station where the London riots broke out follows naturally from our experience in Haiti, Malawi and India. What better way to reach out and engage with the local community and establish credibility?

As a practice, this offers us the opportunity to assess the area’s need for regeneration and is the kind of pragmatic engagement advocated by the Towards an Urban Renaissance report back in the late nineties.

Both John and I were greatly influenced by Ralph Erskine’s Byker estate in Newcastle, a project that was developed at an onsite studio. N17 is

The sobering reality is that, some 14 years later, these problems have not retreated and, in the case of riot-torn Tottenham, have in fact intensified.

The Urban Task Force, which was chaired by Richard Rogers, identified the urgent need to revitalise neglected inner-city areas.

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It’s not that architecture has no social responsibility, it’s that architects should not be required to be do-gooders.

Do-gooding is the politics of gesture; it’s as much about the ego of the dogooder as the effect they might have.

Architecture’s social responsibility is something else: a far deeper commitment to the role architecture plays in the construction of our cities and society.

Architecture is not a form of charity, despite what your fee agreements might suggest. Neither is it a form of social work or community engagement.

There is an increasing number of these kinds of projects, but I’m not suggesting that they are bad. Rather, the converse. It seems a tragedy that architects feel they have nowhere left to run to make positive impacts within the communities that surround them.

Excluded by procurement methods from market-led visions of the city, it’s

no wonder architects find themselves nailing together pieces of wood on Saturday afternoons with locals they’ve dragged off the street.

It may be convenient, useful even, to engage in a protracted dialogue with a community, but “being there” should not be regarded as any more a humanitarian effort for an architect than, say, a multinational telecommunications company.

Being embedded in a community does not necessarily provide expertise. That comes from attitude, the skill to work within a circumstance, the ability to negotiate between vested interests and, perhaps most of all, the ideological ambitions of the architect.

by Sam Jacob Director of FAT Architecture

In short, it’s in architecture’s disciplinary core that social good needs to be constructed, not in its gestures.

That said, I wish John McAslan and the residents of N17 all the best.

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FIND US AT: Manchester Universities’ Catholic Chaplaincy Avila House 335-337 Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PG

Tuesday: 10am - 12 Noon Wednesday: 10am - 12 Noon Friday: 10am - 12 Noon

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FAVELA RISING

by Maliha Ramiza Ramlan

Above : Favela Rising by Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary Below : Changes were made to the favela neighbourhood to create a livelier environment.

Favela Rising is an independent film directed

by Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary which is set in the midst of a run down city (Favela) in Brazil. This film focuses on a man’s effort to make his own life better and also that of his surrounding community.

His community has been looked down on by outsiders as being a community full of criminals and an area with negative and shallow people. Anderson Sa tries his best to give a positive portrayal of how a group of people can find their way back to unity as a community.

As a response to the community living in Favela, Anderson creates a formation called the AfroRaggae. He had become an agent for change by enabling people, particularly the youth, to see alternative pathways to living life in Favela. By empowering the individual through music, community, education etc. AfroRaggae helped the community by giving people different ways of living. Through performance and through spreading positive messages, people were constantly reminded visually of what is possible.

Favela is seen as an urban slum or ghetto; an illegal settlement that is seen as problematic to the uprising image of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The Vi­gário Geral favela is portrayed as a lawless place of gangs, violence, crime, poverty, and is controlled by drug lords. With this kind of image, people began to lose respect and refused to lend a helping hand to the people of Favela.

Anderson did not believe in giving up and had set his whole heart on helping the community. “When I have a negative thought, I reach my hand into my head and throw it out.” Anderson’s words of wisdom inspired many youths of the Favela; by uplifting their spirits and encouraging them to work hard. Day by day, youths became more intrigue with the activities that Anderson offered and this is shown in the film when they were united through the expression of music together.

Anderson started working on ways to bring the community together and make the lives of its residents better - focusing This expression shows how they have particularly on the ability to the youth of the transform their “Through music we changed Favela own lives through Our reality.”

People living in a continuous Favela grew up process, rather than with a lack of opportunities, structure, and it being a predestined existence. education; the result of this has led them to a life full of crime, with few other choices. They have their own mind in the things This is particularly true for young boys they are taking part in and are encouraged who see that way of life as the way they to have their own say on changing how can achieve status and respect. The young things are run at the Favela. The Favela was people look up to drug dealers who are designed and predetermined as a slum but treated as the highest ranked at the Favela. the most important thing became how the users made use of the place.

However there is a community of people who do seem to care for each other, When they come to this realization, the however these people are defined by the community will desire a change and will negative connotations associated with the choose to bring about this change through Favela. Having lived their lives afraid due their own will. to the little control they possess over their own existence.

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FEATURES

Engaging The Homeless Timothy Spiller

The Triage Centre Timothy Spiller

Youth Wreckreation

Maliha Ramiza Ramlan

The Coop Dammy Fasoranti

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ENGAGING THE HOMELESS

by Timothy Spiller How does one go about engaging with homeless people? This was the question which drove myself and Dammy to visit Manchester at night in order to engage with this challenging group of people.

This level of engagement is perhaps the only method to truly understand homelessness, both in terms of the scale but also in terms of the details of the problem and the experiences of those who are homeless.

informed the studio projects undertaken by ourselves this year.

A major issue relating to homelessness is the inability of governments and organisations to accurately valorize the scale of the issue within our cities. There are a variety of homeless typologies, some of which are highly visible, and others who remain obscured from public view. Without an organised structure it is highly challenging to engage with this specific group.

Having met in Piccadilly Gardens during a wet weekday evening after dark, we used our location knowledge combined with our architectural understanding of the city to seeking the homeless people most visible: those who were sleeping rough on the streets.

We walked around the city centre, dependant on each other for safety, with the initial intent to film and take photographs of homeless people, imagining the spaces they were inhabiting and how this became a physical reality we could transform into a designed architectural output.

The results were profoundly interesting, and have continued to inspire our work.

This was part of a progression of techniques in order to understand homelessness and was the most sophisticated and informative process, which has subsequently

Together, we met two pairs of homeless people, both very different, but both in need of assistance, and recorded a number of others, all of which have their own stories

about how they

became homeless.

Firstly, we met Mike, a disabled man, in his 50s perhaps, lying underneath an overhanging part of a bank next to Curtis, who was unconscious. They are both alcoholics, struggling to receive benefits and adequate food, sticking together for their own protection.

Just around the corner, we found Brian and Scott. Their place of rest for the night was a small entrance, sheltered from the rain with the benefits of being near restaurants, the staff of which gave them excess food, and the security of being in a well-lit area with a CCTV camera and the building’s security guard, who combined with offering protection once prevented the Police from removing them.

The lessons we learnt from these interactions fed into our projects, from understanding the programming, the specific needs of the homeless community, to the current facilities available to them and a wide variety of subjects which informed our architectural outputs.

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THE TRIAGE CENTRE

by Timothy Spiller

“Manchester has homeless people but acres of boarded-up, unlettable property.�

Rogers and Power

The problem of homelessness resides alongside serious levels of urban dereliction in areas dominated by the Industrial Revolution. Because of this linked relationship, the starting position of the project was to somehow overlap these two ideas to create a temporary solution, dealing with the triage issues arising from homelessness in Manchester.

Below: Ancoats Dispensary, May 2014 (Photo by Author)

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In pursuit of an abandoned building as the basis of the design project, the search settled on the Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary, formerly the home of Ancoats Hospital in North Manchester. The Dispensary has subsequently been closed and is under threat of demolition, despite its status as being Grade II Listed. When the Council attempted to close the hospital in the 1980s there was an uprising of local discontent, however this failed to stop the inevitable closure and movement of the services to a newer hospital further north. However, a

similar group has sprung out of the attempts by developers Urban Splash to demolish the building, an icon of the area and the heart of the community, as part of an altered plan for their New Islington development in Ancoats.

The original plans for New Islington, as sold to the area and wider public, incorporated a renewed regeneration version of the Dispensary within the context of a new urban renaissance, with the creation of apartment blocks to improve the area. This form of gentrification has forced many people to move out of Ancoats, leaving only those who do not have the economic means, behind. The economic crisis halted an attempt to redevelop the building, as funding disappeared overnight. The funding had enabled the roof to be removed, affecting the structural stability of the building and putting it in more immediate jeopardy.

The result of this action has been that an expensive and constant amount of scaffolding, which has the additional impact of obscuring the visual impact of the building, has been required to maintain its facade. Urban Splash have been able to petition the Council to

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demolish the listed building because of its lack of viability and its structural instability.

At a local meeting, residents first noticed that in the models and images being presented to them the Dispensary no longer existed. This has resulted in a 3-year campaign to oppose Manchester City Council and Urban Splash as they moved ahead to remove this iconic piece of Ancoats and Manchester’s history. The role of the Dispensary, funded by the patronage of wealthy Victorian Industrialists, represents the investment of the wealthy to protect the vulnerable, something no longer a core value of our society, but which benefited the wealthy, because the Dispensary combated industrial accidents and poverty-related illnesses which resulted from the high density of the Industrial Revolution’s increased urbanisation.

The grassroots organisation, initially entitled “Save Ancoats Dispensary” which has now evolved into the Ancoats Dispensary Trust (ADT) is the result of the impending destruction of the heart of Ancoats. The organisation sprouted from consultation meetings with the developer and led to a significant amount of anger within the locality, causing awful side-effects of threats being made to members of Urban Splash.

Above: Ancoats Dispensar y in 2002 (Photo available on ADT website www.ancoatsdispensar ytr ust.com)

demolished, including fighting planning permission days before the building would have been destroyed. The group also worked towards gaining funding to create a community centre and artist studios, working with the Council and the developer in order to regenerate the building themselves. By working in combination with conservation development company Igloo and the nearby AWOL Studios, who are looking for better premises to inhabit,

they proposed a viable solution for the current empty space. It could be said that their initial anger has begun to melt and has turned into a positive attempt to create an economically sustainable future for the Dispensary. In the hands of the local community, and as part of a longer-term plan involving the community and Urban Splash, it forms a part of the wider regeneration of this neglected part of North East Manchester.

Below: Photograph of Ancoats Dispensar y Tr ust (Photo available on ADT website www.ancoatsdispensar ytr ust.com)

This anger has subsequently been channelled towards a positive and creative outcome, as the ADT has fought on a number of occasions to stop the building from being MSA Prints

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Above: Meeting taking place at the Manchester Central Fire Station Below: Flyer advertising the ADT event

The initial involvement with the ADT began following contact with the group co-ordinator, Linda Carver. This led to the attendance of the groups regular meetings on a number of occasions.

They meet on the other side of the Ancoats Urban Village area within the community room of the Manchester Central Fire Station, on Mondays at 7pm, not with the dispensary itself because of a lack of facilities. These regular meetings have been the foundations for a detailed analysis of

understanding and engagement which the group have built upon. They are often contentious and heated, discussing democratically all the decisions the group are responsible for, from their bids for funding and designs for the building to events they are running and any other related business.

restoration. A model of the site was created for the event, and as part of the development of the studio project. This was displayed at the event showing the building without the current scaffolding, thus providing as many visual links to the building as possible, which was vitally important.

The main issues faced by ADT has been their attempt to secure funding, primarily through a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the initial attempt of which failed (see Bulletin article). This has been met with some disappointment but a determined resolve, leading to a second bid being put in, with the result being expected around the 22nd July.

The other main point of discussion was the event they organised, and was part of the continued The event was called “Ancoats Dispensary: Sharing The Vision” and took place on the 28th of February, it brought together the local community of Ancoats, wider concerned parties across Manchester.

A number of key agencies involved in the development included the architect Alex Finlason (who has completed the designers for the regenerated Dispensary) and a number of key supporters including the former President of RIBA Angela Brady and local councillors.

The event was incredible, with a packed house of people from across Manchester taking part and enjoying the entertainment and events planned out by the group. They managed to raise the profile of their mission as well as raising some money and proving their organisational and planning abilities, a skill important in running the building if they achieve their goals.

By attending number of the first meetings, it was possible to see the direct focus they had toward this event, wanting to show a strong, united and organised group which are capable of running the building if they manage to secure ownership and the funding required to run the building after its 16

The entire process of engagement, of all types, across the year has been one of the most profoundly positive experiences that has enriched and further enhanced the studio design output. It could be said that architectural education is too far removed from the realities of practice and further, that practice itself is far too removed from the realities of the communities we attempt to impact. Engagement, through any means beyond a requirement to “consult” people provides invaluable information.

In addition to these two major issues, the HLF bid has been a point of discourse within the meetings, initially speculating upon the results, followed by discussing the lack of success.

However, the involvement in the group, attending these regular meetings, has MSA Prints

THE TRIAGE CENTRE given the project invaluable information through informal conversations with different individuals.

The research undertaken by the group, including community audits and a more recent local needs assessment.

They also have shared with me reports and financial documents, which are integral parts of my future architectural education, particularly preparing me for the realities of practice. There has also been conversations about fundraising and potential revenue streams, and recent discussion about the potential for me to collaboratively design a visitor’s centre to replace a vigil they have self-fabricated. The complex relationship between the group and the Council and Urban Splash, which began with anger but has become less hostile over time with the prospect of working together in the future, has begun to be unravelled through this close association.

This has lead to starting a continued conversation with Simon Humphreys, the Development Director at Urban Splash, not only about the future of the Dispensary, following the failed HLF bid, but also the status of the wider New Islington development, which has been halted by the recession, but is about the recommence construction.

Reflecting on these various interactions it can be said that they have greatly enhanced the process of understanding the people the project has been designed for and additionally giving incredible insight into the entire narrative of the community, who are

attempting to save a valued piece of architecture. They have also opened up future opportunities for architects whilst informing the resolution of the proposed architectural intervention.

Above: A vision of Ancoats Dispensary Right: Still footage of the film which illustrates the emotional qualities of the Triage Centre.

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YOUTH WRECKREATION

by Maliha Ramiza Ramlan

Recreation is important in being part of youth’s daily lives as they get to be physically active while taking care of their health and well being.

The youth in Cheetham Hill are dealing with daily problems and often face an emotional roller coaster. They don’t bother to solve their problems positively and this had created a misled judgement by adults. This made the youth instantly vanish from part of the whole community as for they feel people might not understand the things they are going through. Furthermore, they do not feel the need to be in a community / neighbourhood, they do not feel a sense of belonging in a community and are always being told what to do which has led to them becoming very rebellious against adults. However, regardless of this, they should not be seen at fault as they too are victims of crime and racial tensions between the communities in Cheetham Hill.

Young people should know that changes should come from themselves and some effort needs to be put into creating a better lifestyle for themselves.

Maybe they just need a place to talk regarding issues that might affect them in anyway or maybe they just need closure from someone who can really understand their passions as well as their weaknesses. A collection of data done by researchers observed that youths need a moment of distraction from these negative thoughts that 18

Youth Community surround them even if it only helps them temporarily. Distractions such as sports, music, dance would build up the positivity in them. Psychologists have suggested that youth should also be active outdoors in order to get things off their mind. The strategy in providing multiple activities in a space should connect them emotionally and physically which therefore could make them better and think wisely on the problems they face.

users and not the designers. Regardless, architecture should still be valued and work concurrently with the function of the spaces.

The initial part of any design process should always include background research of the surrounding site.

Residents of Cheetham Hill have a diverse background and multiple cultures, which is an important aspect that makes Cheetham Hill special. This fact has been accepted completely by A manufactures workshop at the the community and they work to fulfill Manchester School of Architecture each other’s needs. On the other hand, was a good opportunity to have an the youth have been considered as a open discussion with minority group whom are majoring “I just want to do things I love in Cheetham Hill in Psychology and and there are Social Science. The and not being judge by anyone” few activities or Adam smith, 15 exchanging of ideas spaces specially between each other’s for them. Tackling projects was very this issue would helpful as it provided make this project deep insight from both backgrounds; more memorable and more valued by Architecture and Social Science. One the youth respectively; It is time for the of the Belgian Students, voiced out youth to feel they have a voice within her opinions which had an eye opening the community. effect on the Architecture Students; many important aspects of creating It was a worthwhile experiece to be social interaction among the youth were able to talk to a few young people missing from each individual projects. while walking towards the project’s She highlighted the importance site that resides opposite the King of having social interactions and David’s School. There were teenagers engagement within a space because (preferred to be called ‘youngsters’) it is much more important than the preparing to go home after a long day value placed on building aesthetics. at school. Few questions were asked As an architecture student who regarding the things they love and what usually considers the consolidation their passions were. One young boy of spaces, the comments definitely said that he would love to roam free in a provided realisation of the importance space where there was no one in charge of users in a space. At the end of the of his activities. He had a passion for day, spaces will be maximized by the skateboarding but never got the chance MSA Prints

to do so; many of his friends also shared this passion.They were intrigued by the idea of active outdoor activities but with the lack of a friendly public space or parks in Cheetham Hill, they never got the chance. Cheetham Park which is located in the centre of Cheetham Hill Road was disliked as it is not youth friendly and is more formally designed with no playful aspects to it. Moreover, the youth in Cheetham Hill are of diverse backgrounds with different values in life and may not have the same interests as one another. As a result of engagement with the youth at King David’s School, the youth have the same interests in extreme sports such as skateboarding and rock climbing.

The United Nation also supports the ideology that sports can engage youths of all races, genders and classes. This had brought the idea of providing a youth recreation with the intention in

breaking the tensions in between the youth community at Cheetham Hill.

“I once played on my skateboard at cathedral gardens and was being scolded by the people. Isn’t cathedral gardens a public space? Why are we no different?”

Marcus James, 16

During previous development of studio work, the project focused on woring with shipping containers and the activities that could be implemented to these containers. There were many abandoned shipping containers located along the waterways of Trafford which could be reused to give new value again - trying to make something new from things that are being thrown away.

Metaphorically, this could be linked to all the neighbourhoods, to form better bonds between the communities.

These shipping containers are easy to find, transported and delivered to the site at Cheetham Hill. This creates a platform to provide a special space just for the youth at Cheetham Hill. The full advantage of using these shipping containers as a medium for integrating Architecture and skateboarding.

Integrating Architecture and skateboarding is a challenge and many design features need to be considered in a way which retains character. One must put themselves into the mindset of the skateboarder and determine where the value of the spaces lies. Conducting interviews in Platt Fields Park established that there were common structures in skate park designs. Key structural elements such as ramps, railings, staircases and attempts to form unique variations of these are integral. Using these key elements as a foundation, how can one successfully integrate the necessary components of an architectural design

Above: Skateboarding possesses deep skills that need mastering with full time practices. This has been seen as a challenge for the youth and children.

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Left : Shipping containers as retail spaces Bottom : Shipping containers provide opportunities to be re-make, re-use and re-cycle for better purposes

and a skate park?

Unravelling the connections between shipping containers and skateboarding in integral to the proposal.

Skateboarding is all about spaces that are flowing, continuous and fluidly designed which symbolized motion of the skateboarders. Furthermore, skateboarders often skate on any existing structure that they see and would find many ways - utilising these varying structures. Questioning whether it is possible to form fluidity with the shipping containers became pivitol.

What if the skateboarders could skate

such as a gathering spaces, classes and event space. This has created an opportunity for the youth to learn about the community and also for the community to be part of youth as well.

After delving further into the project, there were many more ways that the youth could help their neighbourhood through skateboarding. The most important aim was to create more opportunities to enable a more cohesive and empowered community by providing a chance to the youth who are a part of it.

“Young people don’t always do what they’re told, but if they can pull it off and do something wonderful, sometimes they escape punishment. ” Rick Riordan

on the containers themselves? This lead to the idea of forming a connected skateboarding board walk towards the container’s roof surface. This form of structure will allow skateboarders to fully utilize every portion of a shipping container. Moreover, the project has also found a way of providing spaces for the neighbouring communities 20

By giving youth a greater amount of freedom to express their individual passions, it is hoped they will give more back to the community itself.

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YOUTH WRECKREATION

Skate zone II

Classes

Gathering space

Skate zone I

Rock climbing

Skate zone I

Top : Conceptual Image: 5th Year Final Project. Youth Wreckreation.

A Recreation Area just for the youth at Cheetham Hill with the addition of gathering space with respect to the neighbouring community.

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HOMELESS NETWORKS AND ASSEMBLAGES

by Dammy Fasoranti

Above: Homeless man at Southbank Centre Overleaf right: Homeless man underneath the Mancunian Way bridge

Scholarly books and journal articles have extensively delved into the subject of homelessness, ranging from government documents to social science research into how homelessness affects the society’s view on the deserving and “undeserving poor” (Daly 1996:7). Economists have documented the far reaching effects of homelessness on a city or country’s economic stability and growth (Harvey 1999, Watson and Austerberry 1986, Neale 1997); many of these articles seek to ascertain the cause of this issue and do so by examining various factors which are viewed as being causes or contributors (Daly 1996, Shelter 1992). Within such inquiries, there is a focus on discovering a precise set of reasons which can be targeted in the search of a ‘solution’ to the problem of homelessness; whilst others aim to discover who ‘they’ (the homeless) are (Timmer et al, 1994:4). These forms of research usually attempt to distinctly separate the homeless from the homed, they automatically band homeless people together as a group and therefore draw a line between ‘them’ (the community of homeless people) and the rest of society.

This sort of categorising leads to a single minded focus on uncovering something new which will perhaps validate their current situation, however, in reality, “The homeless are not a “special” group of people with “special” problems” (Timmer et al 1994:6).

Awareness of homelessness is often limited to its more visible form of rough sleepers who are seen in doorways and street corners, habitually begging for food or money. Homelessness is however made up of many aspects which are not widely known and are therefore often denied validity.

Space – both public and private, is intrinsically linked to the day to day operations of a homeless person. The way

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in which a homeless person negotiates space often determines his or her ability to survive; particularly when rough sleeping.

Urban areas are typically composed of a mixture of private and enclosed spaces; interwoven between these are spaces which are often less defined and therefore ‘public’ by inference. As a group of people without stable housing, the homeless have indirectly become ‘residents of public space’ (Kawash 1998). This informal status makes the laws governing behaviour in public space especially important for these temporary (and sometimes semipermanent) resident of public space; having a direct impact on the out working of their daily lives. A debate in which the homeless often find themselves caught in is one over who should have access to public spaces and to whom it belongs.

Daily undertakings which homed people would be able to conduct within the privacy of their own home such as the preparation and consumption of meals, sleeping and keeping warm, taking a bath and other routine hygiene practices are out of bounds for the homeless. A homeless person is also denied a space for recreation and relaxation as well as somewhere to socialise and entertain people. Without access to sheltered spaces to engage in these activities, the homeless are forced to fully maximise internal and external public spaces which contain facilities able to meet their physical need.

Regularly, the wider community is faced with a moral decision of how to respond to the appearances of homelessness commonly witnessed in public spaces as well as the hidden and unknown manifestations of homelessness (Davis 2004:19). Davis challengingly, asks “What is our responsibility to those caught in this tragic circumstance? Might our actions (or inactions) be making the problem worse?”

– society’s responses to those questions MSA Prints

not only paint a fairly accurate picture of the type of judgement being passed on the individuals in those situations, but responses also indicate what the future may look like for the homeless community (Daly 1996). Part of the moral decision a society ought to make on an individual level is one of principally acknowledging that homeless people are not instantaneously dissimilar to the homed purely based on the status of their housing. Orwell comments on the danger of assuming there lies a great deal of difference between the homed and the homeless, and the rich and the poor. Posing the question what do the majority of educated people know about poverty? He concludes that the intelligent, cultivated people, the very people who might be expected to have liberal opinions, never do mix with the poor … The average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.

(Orwell 1933:121). This encourages the wider society to not only be more tolerant and accommodating in the views they hold about the homeless and vulnerable, but also to be mindful of the similarities shared across the great divide of class and societal status; ultimately, whether homed or homeless, your circumstance does not necessarily define your character.

Charities play an important role in the facilitating and administrating of services for the homeless. Although these pressure groups and charities are not able to instigate policy change, they do a great job in raising awareness about the plight of the homeless. With the vast number of charities catering to the needs of the varying types of homeless people, it is becoming increasingly easier for the homeless community to find assistance when needed. There are limitations however to the services charities can provide; with very few night shelters available, there remains a huge gap of time when little to no services are available to the homeless. A more inclusive range of services which cater for the homeless at night would be valuable (Homeless link (Date Unknown)).

is a natural role Architects can play in the effort to solve the immediate needs the homeless have. As seen from the results of more modern shelters, building quality Architecture has a positive effect on its users; designing inclusive and welcoming open public spaces makes it easier for the homeless to take ownership of public spaces – boldly navigating through prime and marginal spaces alike. The debate discussed earlier in the thesis which established the link between homelessness and the search for home, suggest a simple solution – provide them with homes – this however

“While emergency shelters do very important work ... For every homeless person you see on a street corner, there are another nine homeless people you don’t see.”

(Stoops, in Lewallen, cited in Cloke et al, 2002:1)

is not sufficient to completely resolve the issues that accompany homelessness.

Initial problems faced by the homeless are primarily rooted in a lack of housing and permanent accommodation, however the longer a person remains homeless, the more susceptible they become to facing difficulties which can proliferate their complex conditions. The provision of permanent housing can therefore be a starting point in the process of helping the homeless rebuild stable lives. This process, beginning with access to accommodation, will involve administering a comprehensive

and holistic care through the use of a fluid multi-agency approach.

Temporary accommodation, although helpful as an emergency, momentary solution, creates a disconcerting culture amongst homeless users with occupants finding it problematic to settle and feel comfortable in such environments.

Parasitic solutions are inappropriate as they increase the stigmatisation of the homeless and draw more attention to this community of people, segregating them from the wider society and marking them as different and temporary, which makes it harder for them to receive acceptance from the wider community. As mentioned earlier, homeless people are not a special breed of people – separate and distinct – from the rest of society, so therefore, special accommodation is rarely necessary.

In the search for a solution to the problem of homelessness, architects as professional who have an expertise in the built environment and its spatiality ought to engage with the existing assemblage of service providers in the community.

Before attempting to design and build for the homeless, it is important to gain an adequate understanding of the individual being considered, the provision of housing which homeless people can call a home is paramount; as is the assembling of services which can cater to other needs the homeless may have such as support and assistance with settling into permanent housing and access to health care. It is only through the acceptance that the homeless community is made up of a diverse and varied group of individuals with distinct need, and constructing a network of support which is available for them, can the solution to homeless be realised.

Due to the inherent need for the homeless to acquire a ‘space’ to call their own, there MSA Prints

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THE COOP

by Dammy Fasoranti

Above: Statistics showing the demographics of homeless people in Manchester

Enabling rough sleepers through the development of a multi-agency approach to services Engagement exercises which were fundamental in the direction the project took include the Booth Centre Sleep out which took place in November 2013 and volunteering at the Cornerstone Day Centre; both of which provided a wealth of information into the type of work day centres do. Engaging in one on one conversations with rough sleepers around Oxford Road in Manchester; although initially daunting and threatening, became an important part of building connections and gaining real life stories of what it means to be a rough sleeper in Manchester.

As an architecture student, when designing as for marginalised users, attempting to engage in meaningful 24

ways with those who will utilise the space(s) being designed is of upmost importance. Through the ongoing engagement activities I took part in, especially the two garden tea parties I organised for homeless people around Oxford Road, I was able to discover the large number of resources available to the homeless. In conversation with those who attended the tea parties, it was clear that many homeless people were either unaware of the services available to them or found the procedures associated with accessing these services intimidating.

It became clear to me that there was a lack of coherent cross communication between the agencies which provided key services for the homeless and this

was resulting in many people remaining homeless and being denied the help and assistance they could be entitled to.

From the first hand research I was able to collect from these engagement activities and from online and academic research, services provided to the homeless can be divided into three categories. The first category which is termed tactile services are services, charities or organisations which deal with the homeless community on a tangible, personal scale. They also deliver productive structured activities such as arts and crafts, short courses in cooking, and languages as well as access to computers to ensure the service users can engage in meaningful exercises during the day.

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The second category is that of pioneering services are the charities and organisations which focus solely on conducting research on the subject of homelessness; these service providers such as Shelter, Crisis and

which seek to assist those who are struggling to move into permanent accommodation and regain their full independence.

Service users that have been identified as being in need of this services are

capability of a single charity or service provider.

Developing a multi-agency approach in the services being offered ensures that homeless people are more likely

Above: Profile of Alan - one of the homeless people I engaged with that impacted the development of my project

the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, concern themselves with the study and exploration of this issue and its effects on the society as well as the homeless community themselves. Another important role some of these charities play is that of signposting – providing additional support for other charities that are tactile service providers.

Finally transitional services are those

visited regularly by representatives and receive the support needed to maintain their tenancy (and potentially a form of employment) until they are able to do so independently.

As discovered through the project research, to effectively tackle the issues surrounding homelessness and provide a holistic response to the need homeless people have, it is beyond the

to correctly identify what services are available to them and are therefore more likely to make use of them.

Meaningful and thorough engagement with charities, food banks and homeless people have been crucial to the development of my studio response to the problem of homelessness in Manchester.

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CORNERSTONE DAY-CENTRE THE BOOTH CENTRE SLEEPOUT

HOMELESS AWARENESS EVENING

FAISHEL YORKS

PAUL

KATIE PARKER

MEHDI

ALAN

NOTE FROM DANIEL AND ALAN

GA R D E N TEA PARTY 1+2

THE HOMELESS HOTEL

CORNERSTONE DAY-CENTRE

MA

THE MEERVAART

THE BOOTH CENTRE

INSTROOMHUIS INTAKE HOUSE

100 FLOWERS DEEP

As a social problem which has been discussed and tackled in many different ways, homelessness is often pushed to the back of social conscience – out of sight, out of mind. However, homelessness is a huge part of society and as a problem that affects the lives of so many people, it deserves to be discussed more thoroughly.

Divided into two categories, intentional and unintentional homelessness represent the responsibility a local authority owes to the homeless in their particular area. Those classed as unintentionally homeless are those whom the LA view as vulnerable and therefore more susceptible to homelessness; these include those under the age of 17 and pregnant mothers. The intentionally homeless are 26

ANN THORPE

typically those who fall outside of these groups and are therefore viewed as being responsible for their homeless status; refusing to pay your rent can be seen as reason for intentionally becoming homeless.

Government statistics recorded detailed data about households, couples, and the single homeless who had been ‘officially’ declared homeless; however data for those who were considered intentionally homeless and those who have not presented themselves to the local authorities as homeless was unavailable.

This made it extremely difficult to ascertain the levels of hidden homelessness in Manchester as well as where these homeless people may be located.

SAM DAVIS

Above: Engagement diary showing activities, events, and organisations I engaged with between September 2013 and April 2014 Below and right: Conceptual images of the COOP centre.

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MISSING PERSONS

ING ONS

THE COOP TRAINING PEOPLE eVENTS ORGANISATIONS BOOKS & FILMS

MMUNION VOLUNTEERING DEPARTMENT (JILL WELLS)

LIAM HANNAN FATHER TIM

THE BOAZ TRUST

JOEY FERRIGNO

LIFESHARE

M A N C H E ST E R CENTRAL FOODBANK

LONG LIVE SOUTHBANK CA M PA IG N

SA L FO R D CENTRAL FO O D BA N K

JANE JACOBS

Following on from an investigatory journey through Manchester city centre, engagement with rough sleeper Mike and Curtis, and Brian and Scott, I became fascinated with the daily lives of those who find themselves on the cusps of society and are forced to sleep rough. Endeavouring to learn more about this hidden group of homeless people, I attempted to gain further insight through online research and discovered there was little to no information about the individuals who make up this group. This led me to begin research into what services were available for homeless people in the city in the hope that by locating these service providers, I would be able to gather more information as well as engage with the

homeless people using the services.

Through my research, I came across a host of charities, day centres, night shelters and food banks who work to provide different resources to help those who are homeless; the majority of these focused particularly on outreach for the street homeless. In an attempt to better understand how these services worked and how effective they were for their users, I began to engage with the different service providers- which led to the development of my studio project which was centred on homelessness in Manchester.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH LOUIS WOODHEAD

DF: How did the undercroft space develop into what it is today?

by Dammy Fasoranti

The Southbank Undercroft is a famous skate-park with over 40 years of history.

The Long Live Southbank campaign is an attempt to prevent the destruction of the organically grown community that has developed as well as preserving the monumental space.

Louis Woodhead expresses the motivation, struggles and significance of the Southbank Undercroft and the record breaking campaign.

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LW: It’s been skated since about … lets go back to the beginning I guess, in the (you’ll have to check) either the 50s or 60s. It was designed by the sort of Archigram school of Architects, so it was just designed as like a sort of space to be found, a space that wasn’t specifically designed for anything, it was just something for the community to just come and appropriate in their own way.

So then when that was first found by skaters in 1973, then that was just pretty … unintentionally, it was quite perfect for skating and I guess over the years it’s been popularised by the skate boarders. Then graffiti artists used to come and then BMX-ing has become more popular; they’re all different but they’ve all got a shared ethos, they’re all DIY orientated, quite ... they’ve got a lot of community values and creativity.

DF: So, who are the people ... you’ve mentioned the BMX-ers and the skaters and the people that come there to hang out, are there any other people that come to make use of the undercroft space either from the beginning or more recently?

LW: I guess I’m best off speaking about what happens now and in the last few years, I guess if you go there in a weekday morning or something, there’s quite often fashion shoots and stuff there, … two Saturdays ago, … big fashion brand was doing a shoot down there, and then like you get a lot of photographers come through, cos its obviously quite an aesthetically striking space, it’s like there’s nowhere else that really looks like here I guess, especially in central London, like its completely of its own, so a lot of photographers come through.

Like there was some time I was there at like 8 in the morning, and there were like a huge group of photographers just came through for a photography walk through London and then you get a lot of homeless people go there. And I don’t say that in an at all

negative sense, I think they add a lot to the space, like we all talk to them and chill with them, and like, you learn a lot from people - like everyone from homeless people to like - I’ve got a friend there who’s dad is like a millionaire, like literally a complete range of people, like a lot of videographers go there as well. There’s always people filming down there, skate filmers, BMX filmers, or just people making films, occasionally had free runners down there, in liners, scooters, musicians, completely such a wide range of people.

DF: Do you think that blocking the space has had a negative impact or made it a more desirable space?

LW: Not a hugely negative impact, I mean, like I never knew the big space but from what I’ve talked to other people, it’s just such a ... like some of the most famous parts of Southbank are the bits that are now closed off, like they were incredible to skate before but have all been shut down now, a lot of it is now shops. I can’t really see how it could have had a positive impact on the space, I would say it pushes you towards - makes it more of an enclosed space - because it used to be a thoroughfare - you use to be able to walk all the way through - where you could almost skate like a journey, you could take lines from one side to the other, now it’s so compact and compressed - they’ve even put the fences up, so you’re always in the public eye - it’s always like as you skate, you’re on show. It’s a funny situation, you don’t have a choice on whether you’re watched or not - that’s the point. They took away all the back bit. The old bit was only closed off in 2004/2005 so it’s recent memory, they’ve gradually closed it off, there was another bit that got shut down in the late 80’s.

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DF: What role has government policy played on the way the undercroft is used?

Above: Southbank undercroft

council’s role in it, because it is Lambeth council who play judge and jury over any planning application. With regards to what effect the Hungerford bridge site would have - it’s an irrelevance pretty much. The fact is south bank - the under croft - has 41 years of history, people come from all over the world to go there every single day because of the history and the atmosphere - because of the charisma of the place, it’s a complete one of a kind space and you can never say I’m going to pick that up and drop it somewhere else - it’s just a one of a kind space and you can’t ever like recreate a community, and re-create an atmosphere - these are things that develop over time, over 41 years, organically and like frankly you can’t just pick that up and move it - it just doesn’t work.

LW: Well it’s private property, used by the south bank centre, legally, they used to try to shut down skating there, like they use to scatter gravel to like get in your wheels so you couldn’t skate there and they used to rip up paving slabs and like all sorts so it’s not like they’ve always been cool with skaters there. Quite often they send down security and all that, it’s only recently that they’ve accepted that - hang on a minute, we’re an art centre, we should be encouraging creative uses of space, pushing boundaries and everything else. It’s something that as an art centre, a publically funded art centre, I feel they should be embracing. With regards to government policy, one thing that springs to mind is they actually made the whole building (no DF: Would you say doubt under lobbying) what makes people come “... As an art centre, a - they’ve made it unthe under croft is the list-able for an amount publically funded art centre ... history and not the space? of time - a certificate Or would you say it’s a they should be encouraging for immunity from mixture of both? creative uses of space, listing is what they got for the building, and LW: I don’t think pushing boundaries ...” that means that a route particularly the history the campaign could consciously is the thing have taken - to get the that brings people to space made into a listed building - hasn’t the space, I think it’s the atmosphere and been possible. the certificate of immunity that comes from the community, it comes from listing runs out in 2017 so -that’s new from the aesthetics of the place and also the labour that gave that to them, I think the history of the place because you do sort of secretary for architecture or something think - hang on a minute, I’m skating in like like that gave that to them - that’s one one of the most skate spots in the world government (I don’t know if that’s a policy that like all these amazing, famous skaters, or just a one off) policy that’s had a big but also graffiti artists and BMX, I’m sure, impact on the campaign for sure. like I’m a skater so I just say skaters but its everyone, all these amazing people have DF: How would you say recent legislation such as come - like been all over the years but also the south bank festival wing proposal, how do you the fact that you know you’re right next to think that has affected or could possibly affect the the river and the aesthetics of the space users of the under croft? What effect do you think and the people that go there. That’s what the acceptance of the proposal would have? makes the atmosphere first and foremost.

You know like when you land a trick LW: Well you have to distinguish between government legislation, what the Southbank centre want to do and the MSA Prints

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Above: LLSB campaign desk at London Southbank, or like someone lands a trick, and everyone just goes crazy, it’s like you just see people walking past - the other thing that draws me to the space - this might be a personal one - it’s got a bit of like - feels a bit magic like. There was one time for example when I forgot my keys, and so I couldn’t go home after like a night out and it was like 4.00AM, and I was like- where do I go, so I went south bank and you know there’s people still there skating at like 4.30AM in the morning, and still people riding, and then you just go there and you’re new best friends with everyone and you just chill with them until you can get home at like 8.30AM in the morning and that sort of thing doesn’t happen in many other places.

That’s why it’s something special, and it’s something you can’t just re-create like that.

DF: So if for example the council, or the people doing the proposal, if they’re saying that we understand about the history but for whatever reason, we still need to use the space for something 30

else, do you think that the spatial qualities could be re-created somewhere else?

“...The Southbank Centre - they don’t even respect the space ... they compared it to a children’s playground of a pub ...”

LW: Yes it’s completely un-recreate-able.

And on one point, the Southbank Centre - they don’t even respect the space, I think if you look at the report they filed to Lambeth council when they were trying to appeal against it - it got given a certificate of community value - and they appealed against that, and in their report they compared it to a children’s playground of

a pub or something like that. It was such a glib comparison, they haven’t like we respect what you’ve done with the space, but these are the hard facts, we need the money ... that’s not how it is at all. It is genuinely a lack of respect for the space, it’s completely un-replaceable [sic] like you can never just pick that sort of atmosphere up and move it cos there’s so many examples of skate spots that have been built but don’t work when the community don’t embrace it, when there isn’t that same atmosphere, when it just gets taken over by people who want to misuse it or whatever. And this is one that has worked, beautifully and people from all over the world recognise that, like genuinely is one of the top three most famous spots in the world.

DF: Would you say then one of the main problems with the proposal is that it is not engaging with the community that is already using that space and not trying to understand their position before trying to propose something else?

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AN INTERVIEW WITH LW: Yeah, completely, it’s the festival wing plan - this is the fourth year of the plan, for the first 3 years of the plan, no one knew about it, there were no consultations with us at all, the first I heard of it was in the evening standard, that’s the first time anyone was really notified, like zero consultation till they’ve already spent like a million pounds on architects (you’ll have to just check the figures but) it’s ludicrous!

ourselves. So if there are two people trying to confront each other, we can just sort it out between ourselves. Just the same as you would do in a world without police …

DF: What are your aims, long term for the campaign, and for the under croft itself. How do you see it growing in the coming years?

LW: The aim of the campaign is literally to keep the space as it is, for there to be a legal guarantee for the space, obviously quite a LW: They’re all hyped on it man - well few times over the years, they have tried quite a lot of them are. We’ve got to shut the space down. We don’t want to 120,000 signatures on our have to re-launch the membership form and “...It’s people campaign in 10 years’ when they submitted the time or 5 years’ time interacting with the planning application form, because they decided it was the least popular Architecture ... if it was to re-start the planning planning application form application - we want just an empty boring in UK history, so you know this thing finished for - not too shabby. space, it wouldn’t be the good - a line drawn under it- so that’s the same.”

DF: I’m an architecture aim of the campaign. student and this links in with my dissertation and the studio module and the DF: Who funds the campaign? campaign as well - would you say what makes a space work is the people that use that space and LW: We’ve got a table down there how they use it? What would you say makes a selling merchandise, and like donations space successful?

- donations make loads - then obviously you can donate to us on the website and LW: Well I guess its people interacting with also you know - it’s not that expensive the architecture, because at the end of the to run. There are all these people doing day, skateboarding, graffiti, BMX-ing and these things from compassion alone everything else is just people interacting everyone is just in it for love and then like with the architecture, and without that -if it today there was this guy who works in a was just an empty boring space, it wouldn’t marketing company and he’s just managed be the same. It has got to be the interaction to get us printed 1500 posters to sell, he’s with the architecture- it’s hugely important. done it for us for free so we can go on and sell them - it all adds up, it works, enough DF: How do you maintain safety and stop crime people support us. and violence breaking out?

DF: How have the public reacted to the campaign?

LW: Well mostly, I guess violence doesn’t really happen too much. If you treat someone right, they’re usually not going to hurt you, but it’s quite self-policed, we try not to ... we don’t really want south bank centre coming there all the time to break up fight because we should be able to handle it

DF: Thank you so much for your time and all the best with the campaign.

Above: Image of the LLSB campaigners taken from the LLSB Facebook group

To support the campaign or to find out more, visit the LLSB website on: http://www.llsb.com/ or follow updates via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com LongLiveSouthbank MSA Prints

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MANUFACTURE WORKSHOP

Discussion with : Students from VUB, Belgium

by Timothy Spiller An integral event in our calendar of Manufacturing events was a day-long session with twenty-four students from the Free University of Brussels.

These students study engagement with communities through a range of subjects including sociology, philosophy and psychology. Their subject overlaps with the intentions of the MSA_Projects atelier, but can also be seen to have a direct relationship with the role of Architects.

Their focus is towards engaging with communities by organising events and participating in neighbourhoods in order to foster community spirit, which is part of our over arching architectural process, but is the focus of their studies.

We split into three separate groups and discussed ideas from our professional responsibilities to conversations about our individual projects. Their fascinating insights, from a similar but slightly different perspective were incredibly informative for our studies. Their alternative process of participating in communities assists 32

our approach, which continues the engagement and utilises to formally create architectural spaces which can then be used for community activities.

The links and understanding the students brought to us have become invaluable in understanding our specific niche as well as a greater context, globally, of how these topics are being addressed and researched by a multi-disciplinary group of students and professionals. In essence knowing that we are not alone.

What was most interesting personally from this process was their ideas relating directly to my engagement process with the homeless people of Manchester.

They instantly understood the challenges faced by a group that is not organised by hierarchy and does not conform to any singular typology. These complications reduce the accessibility of the students to engagement exercises. Another problem is their lack of interest in engaging with a process which is unlikely to yield any benefit to them, working towards a theoretical student project.

The student’s ideas have informed the designs I have produced, with a great focus on combating the ‘mental barrier’ which

separates homeless people from the rest of society. This barrier is imposed by society and taught to following generations and encourages us to dehumanise the homeless in order to reduce our own distress at seeing them living on the streets everyday.

VUB student’s suggestion was simply to personalise and humanise the stories of these individuals in order to break down this barrier. By telling the unique stories of the homeless, which could illicit the emotional response, that we agreed, would be required in order to better attack the scale and complex homeless problem present within the UK. When I began discussing the finer details of my project, about involving and integrating two communities together, VUB students suggested ideas about presenting common interests. By utilising shared hobbies or programmatic elements, the two communities can interact and through that process begin to humanise each other.

Their ideas gave me an alternative perspective about how to engage with the homeless community, and have fed into the resolution of The Triage Centre. Project MSA Prints

“The idea of architecture design being affected and enhanced through engagement seemed optimistic and they struggled to understand the correlation this had to the role of the architect.”

“They pointed out strong points on the importance of being in a community as well as how we as architects should see beyond AutoCad drawings and start to engage with people.”

Above: During the workshop the students were split into seperate groups

by Dammy Fasoranti From my perspective, the aim of the workshop was to present the unit position with regards to manufacturing communities through engagement and participatory methods. Divided into three groups, we explored questions such as how public engagement in architecture can contribute to rigorous academic research and how engagement can transform and assist in the manufacturing of communities. In my particular group, we shared our ecological position and discussed the importance of the mental, social and environmental ecologies in the way in which communities are manufactured and sustained.

The Belgian students found our presentation remarkably similar to some of the work they themselves did but found certain aspects difficult to grasp. The idea of architectural design being affected and enhanced through engagement seemed optimistic and they struggled to understand the correlation this had to the role of the architect. They also enquired about the process of choosing the participants, noting that through their experience, those who attend engagement activities, such as focus groups, tended to be those with strong opinions. We agreed that as productive as engagement activities were, it was limited in its resourcefulness due to the difficulty in capturing the views of all users. However we were also able to discuss the positive impact participatory methods have on communities as they provide the architect, or indeed social scientists, with the opportunity to better understand the users of a particular space.

by Maliha Ramiza Ramlan We were given the opportunity to meet Belgian Students at our Architecture School. Their background of studying social participation as a part of the course fits perfectly with MSA_Project’s architectural vision. We began to divide into groups so that everyone could interact with one another and create a more personal experience. We began the day by showing the films that we had created during our first module in our 5th year

studies. The VUB Students were intrigued by the way we presented our understanding of a ‘loved city’ as they said that they could capture a lot of moments even in just a single frame. They personally loved all of our films and started to relate them back to the work they had done previously or were currently working on. We listened explanations of their work and I could see they were very enthusiastic when talking about it, which highlighted the idea of social participation and how important it is to strengthening a community.

When it was my turn to talk about my project, I realised I talked about the way to build it more than the purpose of using it.

‘But what’s the point of building it?’ asked one of the students; this made me realise I should have put the users of my building first and figured out the engagement that could occur in the spaces I design after. They pointed out the importance of being in a community as well as how we as architects should see beyond AutoCad drawings and start to engage with people. This brought about an interesting discussion as they too were interested in our work and were amazed at the ability to design building sas an output of engagement.

By the end of our day with the Belgian Students, we had learned a great deal about social participation in architecture and our mix of disciplines enabled us to have an interesting open discussion. This was a wonderful experience as I gained a better understanding regarding the values of participations with the surrounding communities.

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TRAVEL

Amsterdam Known for many things, Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands is a busy tourist haven’t. Perhaps most famous for its canal side city status and landmark canal houses, Amsterdam has the benefits of a big city but also the charm of an intimate city.

by Dammy Fasoranti

Tourists and travellers come to Amsterdam for many things: the food, its famous flower markets, museums, its friendly bicycle culture and nightlife to name a few. What people rarely come across during their experience of Amsterdam is the city’s vulnerable and homeless citizens. Amsterdam boasts of a sophisticated system which provides networks of assistance and accommodation to care for this community of homeless people.

The HVO-Querido are an organisation which provide forms of counselling and activities in relation to housing and care. Although not exclusively targeted towards homeless people, HVOQuerido’s ethos and services provide a thorough program which caters to the homeless in the community. They aim to support clients in the developing areas of their life and assist in strengthening the individual’s position in society.

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With wide spread networks throughout the whole of Amsterdam, the HVOQuerido show through their set up that they are operating on a multiagency approach to supporting the vulnerable. The image below shows examples of day centres, hostels, night shelters, mobile teams, and an intake house which works together with the individual’s to develop a sustainable future.

Left: Faishel Yorks, Manager of Instroomhuis Intake house, Amsterdam, Below: Entrance lobby of the Instroomhuis Intake house, Amsterdam,

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On a study trip to Amsterdam, fortunate enough to visit Instroomhuis – the intake house, the most striking observation was the obvious friendship and relationship between the clients and the workers. Working together with a whole host of other organisations in Amsterdam, such as the Salvation Army, DWI and Public Health, Instroomhuis provides a model which gives its users respect, shelter and most important of all, access to a different, independent future.

They do this through the following ways: Own control - clients are given full control of their lives and thus about the care and support they receive.

A secure existence - clients are given a right to a secure existence a living environment that is normal as possible. They endeavour to provide a safe environment for both clients and employees.

Property tailor - the client is given the choice of where they would like to live and whether or not they would prefer to live alone or in a group Daytime activities tailored – daily activities that appeal to the interest of clients, their needs and capabilities.

Support is also given when educational and employment routes are sort out by clients.

Just where possible, particularly where necessary – care and support is offered to a broad range of people, tailored to specific groups such as the young homeless.

Quality of life promoting – the services offered ought to demonstrate a positive impact on the quality of life for individual based on their wants and needs.

Affected area – access to family and friends who play a key role in the social environment of the client is encouraged.This is suggested to the client in an attempt to widen their sphere of affection

Above: Storage room at the Instroomhuis Intake house, Amsterdam Below: Client’s bedroom at the Instroomhuis Intake house, Amsterdam

Experts’ contribution - experienced experts are asked to contribute to develop better and more appropriate care.

Effective care - striving for efficiency, high quality service is provided at an affordable price, with the desire for clients to live independently and to ‘get out there’ to connect with their environment.

Prevention – a strong desire to play an active role in the prevention of homelessness and the elimination of the social isolation in which many people live.

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ENGAGE

101 WAYS TO CHANGE YOUR CITY

Users should be part of the design process in order to provide a better solution for both physical and social issues that are occurring now.

Afternoon Tea

Focusing on education and employment of the local residents of Old Moat and Withington which corresponds to the growing concerns over welfare cuts.

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Wardrobe

Walking Interview

Inter-Agency

Taken from the 101(ish) Ways to Change Your City book, these 12 examples show the diversity and depth of projects undertaken by previous MSAp students.

Each of these is relevant to the Citizens publication in relation to addressing consumption, waste and renewal.

Exploring the spatial barriers between people and place.

Highlighting Irk Valley to residents in Cheetham through an interactive wardrobe.

Engaging with the community of Old Moat and Withington by conducting an afternoon tea session with an intention to talk about the issues they are facing. From discussing homeshare with the local elderly residential homes to marching with the community to ‘Save Withington Baths’. Engagement is the key to understand the wants, needs and the wishes by the users of the spaces.

“To form a relationship with the communities that they will be serving and ultimately will become part of ”

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The Cool Wall

Luggage Labels An event with Harpurhey Factory Youth Zone as a means to understand the spaces children might like to see in their residential settings.

Participants are asked to write on a postcard of the activities they do or wish they could do in the city. They then place it on the ‘Cool Wall.’

This had offered opportunity of open discussions with the people.

Youth Council

Youth Zone

Students organized workshops to propose a new community centre with local charity ‘Healthy Ardwick’. allowing opportunities for locals to write and discuss their ideas.

Conducted a forum in between youths of Manchester where they could voice out their opinions regarding issue they are having with the government and the police.

Investigate work on dementia care in Manchester and contributed his architectural knowledge towards a collaborative study of the relationship between people who are affected by dementia and the neighbourhood itself. Ran a public event where residents could talk about a place of happiness and mark their places on a map of Manchester.

Maps and postcards act as catalyst to spark conversations with the local people.

Autism Engagement

A Place called Happiness

Healthy Ardwick

Engaging with staff and users of Manchester’s Contact Theatre to discover their thoughts about theatre-community relationships.

Making suggestion for its future.

Engaging with the National Autistic Society in Trafford which had brought the researcher to a mother & daughter who had live with Asperger’s everyday. Began to understand the concerns and needs of the people who are affected by Autistic spectrum condition. A professional engagement with doctors who were able to enhanced the project programme and physicality of the spatial and atmospheric qualities.

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THEORY OF PARTICIPATION

by Damilola Fasoranti

The importance of user focused participatory design is one which is being considered by more and more design disciplines. Particular focus on users that are perceived as marginalised within society, can serve as a tool for enhancing the quality and relevance of designs produced

by Architects. Although participation can be seen as undermining the responsibility and role of the Architect, there is reason to believe that participation can produce better designs and therefore enforce the role of the Architect as a facilitator and recognises that the value of the architect lies within the ability to undertake the design process.

It is important to recognise that involving users is not simply a design issue, it is an issue which impacts the wider society. In her article ‘What would a non-sexist city be like?’ Dolores Hayden questions the impact traditional principles used in the construction of contemporary American cities have on women and their role

Above: Sherry A Arnstein: Eight rungs on the ladder of citizen participation.

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in society. Hayden comments that the traditional home places an unreasonable pressure on women to “… spend more time in private housework and child care …”. For those women who seek to match their complex family requirements to options available on the market, this often proves impossible. In the search for a viable solution to this social issue, Hayden suggests that by decoding the needs of the user rather than attempting to design for an ideal user that may not exist, “… more efficient use can be made of funds now used for subsidies to individual households”. Sherry A Arnstein in his article ‘A ladder of citizen participation’ emphasizes the importance of involvement of the public (the ‘have-nots’ as he calls them); he brings up various examples of successful projects executed with the input from “grassroots people”. Nonetheless he points out that participating without redistribution of power is an empty process; when emphasising the significance of participation, it is worth noting that the motivation through which this process is carried out can often dictate its success.

Participation as explained by Rahnema, “is too serious and ambivalent a matter to be taken lightly, or reduced to an amoeba word lacking in any precise meaning, or a slogan, or fetish, or, for that matter, only an instrument or methodology. Reduced to such trivialities, not only does it cease to be a boon, but it runs the risk of acting as a deceptive myth or a dangerous tool for manipulation.”.

Upon developing the understanding of the importance of user involvement, one can ask whether or not participation is capable of improving design or whether it can become a hindrance in the development of well tested design solutions. Assemble Studios, a design collective based in London, have a similar approach to MUF with regards to the need for public involvement in public space projects. Both practices strongly believe in the potential for user-led designs to significantly transform the quality of the design process.

Stated on Assemble Studio’s website is their belief in reconnecting the public with the processes of design in their projects, involving public as both “interdependent and collaborative” contributors. Many of their projects, such as the Cinerolum and Theatre on the Fly involve creating new community event spaces often on a temporary basis. The New Addington: Central Parade project went through multiple stages of community consultation, involvement and events, prototyping proposed schemes for the area. Positive feedback followed the success of the New Addington project with a Facebook page set up and comments from people stating “It’s great to see kids being kids.”

“…It’s kids

great being

to see kids…”

Arjun Appadurai discusses in depth the ways in which participatory designs can greatly enrich the design process in his article ‘Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the Horizon of Politics.’ Focussing on the work of three civic organisations who formed an alliance in an effort to gain secure tenure of land and adequate housing for the urban poor in Mumbai. Despite the difference in their historical backgrounds, these three organisations were united in their desire and aspirations to develop projects which put marginalised users at the forefront of their efforts. The alliance recognise the deficiencies of earlier methodologies employed by social work, welfare and community organisation that follows the model of outside influence which “… teaches local communities how to hold the state to its normative obligations to the poor …” Instead, they have evolved a style which is committed to methods of

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mobilising and teaching which is based on the foundation of what the poor themselves know – the strategy acknowledges that “… no one knows more about how to survive poverty than the poor themselves.”

Users can become marginalised when they are seen as proposing a threat to the general discourse of our everyday society, and do not conform to social ideals with which the ‘mass majority’ have prescribed to. In the Examined Life Series, Judith Butler discusses the political issue and the social model of disability in conversation with Sunaura Taylor; it is described as the distinction between physical impairment (unique embodiment) and disability itself.

Disability is seen as the social repression of disabled people through lack of appropriate housing, career opportunities, social isolation and cultural aversion.

Not only are those that are categorised as disabled physically impaired, they are socially impaired by societies that are unaccepting and unresponsive to their needs, thereby marginalising them by creating an environment that is not enabling for those who need the most help. As well as the disabled, the homeless and older generations within society are often marginalised. Attitudes towards old age, particularly from the young, are of an undignified process that leads to individuals and groups that have little

Above: Assemble Studio: Providing opportunities for play, The square at New Addington importance or relevance for the wider society. Underlined in ‘A Manifesto for Old Age,’ the report seeks to outline tactics and strategies which are particularly liberal to empower the elderly in a developing socioeconomic world.

‘Open Kitchen or Cookery Architecture’, an article by Kim Trogal, takes a critical stance regarding the role of the architect

the outcome of the project.”

Through community engaged practices, Architects are able to act as facilitators in the sharing and re-appropriation of architectural design as well as other social issues; by breaking down the power structure which exists through traditional methods, participatory methods reverse the assumption that the expert architect

“The process of working together produces a dynamic environment where the outcome is ‘not always the expression of an anterior identity but can be understood as a development of identities” and aims to develop a better understanding of how to go beyond merely designing buildings to becoming engaged in the “…transformation of social, political and economic conditions”. Community engaged practices and transformative community development approaches to design have the potential of enhancing the design outcome, and in turn could improve cities. Communities that develop through participatory engagement can encourage the “…act of ‘making the object together’ rather than just the object itself. The process of working together produces a dynamic environment where the outcome is ‘not always the expression of an anterior identity but can be understood as a development of identities’, that is to say the participants shared involvement and experience changes both themselves and

has authority over the lay person and empowers the user in a way which allows them to work creatively with the Architect – this ultimately transforms the city into a place where all become active participants in the process of creating an inclusive city for all.

Below: Arjun Appadurai, Deep Democracy

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COLLABORATORS Salford

Tae’s Restaurant

Greater Manchester

Cornerstones Day Centre

Manchester City Council

Manchester Central FoodBank The Booth Centre

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The 8th Day Cafe

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Amsterdam

Instroomhuis Meevaart

Long Live SouthBank

London MSA Prints

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Manchester Central Foodbank Avila House 335-337 Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PG www. manchestercentral.foodbank.org.uk

Cornerstones Day centre 104b Denmark Rd, Manchester M15 6JS 0161 232 8888 www.cornerstonecds.org.uk

De Meevaart

Manchester City Council

Balistraat 48A, 1094 JN Amsterdam, Netherlands

Town Hall Albert Square, Manchester 0161 234 5000

www.meevaart.nl

Instroomhuis, Intake house 215 Zeeburgerdijk the 1095th AC Amsterdam (020) 462 63 60 www.hvoquerido.nl/instroomhuis.html

www.cornerstonecds.org.uk

Long Live South Bank Campaign London Southbank www.llsb.com

Tae’s Restaurant

MMUnion Volunteering

187 Chapel Street, Salford M3 5EQ

99 Oxford Rd, Manchester M1 7EL 0161 247 1162

www.taestavern.co.uk

www.mmunion.co.uk/studentactivities/ volunteering

The Booth Centre

Ancoats Dispensary Trust

Pimblett Street Manchester M3 1FU 0161 835 2499

For more information visit: www.ancoatsdispensarytrust.co.uk/

www.boothcentre.org.uk

The 8th Day Cafe

King David’s School

111 Oxford Rd, Manchester M1 7DU 0161 273 4878

Eaton Road Crumpsall Manchester, UK M8 5DY

www.8thday.coop

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MSA Prints

MSA Prints Editor in Chief Stephen Lovejoy

Associate Editor Konrad Koltun

Design Editors

Madeleine Mooney, Will Priest, Tuan Viet Pham, Tim Spiller, Amaobi Ike

Content Editors

Dammy Fasoranti, Adrian Coelho, Matthew Shanley, Alexander Watts, Emma Naylor

Communications Team

Maliha Ramiza Ramlan, Nawal Nabila, Michele Lim, Wan Syafiqah, Nedelcu Adelina, Archontia Manolakelli

CITIZENS Edition Contributors Damilola Fasoranti Maliha Ramiza Ramlan Timothy Spiller

MANUFACTURING COMMUNITIES: DESIGNING REAL PLACES A five-part series from the students of the MSA_Projects atelier at the Manchester School of Architecture, the final part being a special Housing edition.

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MSA Prints

Assemble MSA Prints PRESENTS

MANUFACTURING COMMUNITIES: DESIGNING REAL PLACES PART 1

Territory INCludINg aN INTErvIEW WITH

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mOrag rOSE

prESENTS

maNuFaCTurINg COmmuNITIES: dESIgNINg rEal plaCES parT 2

PARTICIPATORY DESIGN IN SINGAPORE

FrEE CHaT

HOW PARTICIPATORY DESIGN WAS USED IN BIRLEY FIELDS

publIC, prIvaTE Or COmmONS?

LECTURE FROM TORANGE KHONSARI

gaTEd publIC SpaCES

dO CITIZENS OWN THE CITY?

HOW DOES ARCHITECTURE GET PEOPLE INVOLVED? THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT

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COMMUNITY MEETING PLACE

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SUBOPTIMAL DESIGN MSA Prints

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Excess * tHe cHeetHam Hill issue *

includinG an interview witH

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ann tHorpe

presents

Manufacturing coMMunities: Designing real Places Part 3

NEIgHbOurHOOd pOTENTIal

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CuraTINg SpaCE

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OpEN EvENTS

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FrEE SpaCE

Housing+ * SPECIAL EDITION *

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a wasted space THE GAME closed-loop permaculture HOUSING CRISIS GloBalised consumerism LIFESTYLE + GENDER

PUBLIC / PRIVATE

How do we address consumerism in modern society?

Grow your own

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tesco town-ed

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retHink

RE- APPROPRIATION

PRAXIS | HOUSING | COMMUNITY | EVERYDAY | PARTICIPATION MSA Prints

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MANUFACTURING COMMUNITIES: DESIGNING REAL PLACES A five-part series from the students of the MSA_Projects atelier at the Manchester School of Architecture, the final part being a special Housing edition.

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