Day 6: Sketch models and component counting

Political Installation team

The donation drop-off installation is finally constructed and in the UoM SU

Making final sketch models to test ideas!

Wood delivery for 1:1 installations!

Day 3: Making models

Day 2: 3D sketch models are coming along to explain our ideas better. Some really nice sketches too. Keep up the good work!

Group Crit brought up some really good questions about materials, connections and scale. It shaping up to be a really interesting build

Day 5: Getting to final design stages. Working through sketchup models, sketches and thinking of dims/connection details

At the presentation lecture about to pitch our event to the 1st and 2nd years!

Its great to see the rest of the Art School appreciating the good work we are doing as the School of Architecture in the community.

Some tired faces!

The installation is up and in the SU! Building on the themes presented by Andrew Turmeau on day 1, the installation aims to challenge the idea of place rather than space. The perfect section of a living room challenges our own 'places` by creating an uncomfortable space and questions the actions of those who install spikes to stop homeless people from creating 'place`.

Makeshift 'homeless spikes` finished and on their way to the SU to start putting the exhibition piece together.

Day 9: Afternoon - Papering done. Shelves done. Window done. Time to take it to the SU

Day 9: Last big push to construct the installation for the SU Exhibition. Here we've been doing a bit of wallpapering!

Great to see the guys at Emerge getting on board with our project

Day 9: We've moved to UoM SU and doing the last finishing touches to the donate-distribute unit for people to start dropping off donations

Mayed is on the hunt for donations. If anyone has any cans/clothes/books/sanitary products then please donate!

Someones excited to finish!

Day 8: Close of play - The donate-distribute unit is done! MArch group leaders are proud of everyone thats put the effort in for it to come together. Hopefully we will finish the second installation tomorrow and exhibit both in UoM SU

Day 8: Afternoon - Cladding wings starting to go on

Day 8: Morning - Frame structure has been complete and we are ready to start cladding!

Day 7: The installation group has been working hard to complete their 1:1 piece

Day 6: Quick 1:1 sketch mock-up of a potential design for the donate-distribute unit

Proposal axos by our UGs

We are picking up scrap material from Bowmer + Kirkland Holiday Inn Express site on Friday as it nears hand over. Hopefully we can add to our growing materials palette.

Check out our pinterest board set up by 1st year Eva Haselhuber. Some great precedents being found for our prototypes

https://uk.pinterest.com/evahaselhuber/reshelter/

Andrew Turmeau presented some sketch layouts of potential refurbished buildings to provide shelter for the homeless community of Lincoln.

Really successful Day 1! Some really good ideas have come out of the design process and we are looking forward to refining some of these tomorrow.

Find us on FB for updates and event locations!
www.facebook.com/groups/1192920560820327/

We will be meeting at 10am in CH807 on Day 1. Bring your sketching stuff and note books!

Today I picked up some free pallets from Houldsworth Mill in Reddish to use in the construction of our 1:1 installations. We will be breaking the pallets down into individual planks in the coming weeks.

We are excited that the contractor Bowmer & Kirkland have offered to help in supplying any waste timber from their North West sites for the project.

Jack and I visited Fallowfield Timber today and they have agreed to donate any scraps they have for the cause!

Seb and Jonny did a great job pitching our event. Looking forward to making a difference to lives of the homeless in Manchester.

https://vimeo.com/45260069

This documentary by Mike Staniforth followed the lives of homeless people in Manchester. It is a collection of interviews with people sleeping rough, allowing them to express their views on the Council's homeless policy, the conditions in which they live, the way people treat them in the street, and their day to day struggles. During Events, I would strongly urge all of our participants to watch it.

https://vimeo.com/126920990

Whilst looking at potential experimentation of materials, I found Ocean Dome which used collected waste plastic from the ocean in South Africa to construct pavilions. Markus Heinsdorff uses the plastic in a gabion cage to construct towers capable of housing people. In our events, we could potential use collected waste plastic as a building material as its malleable and water proof.

https://vimeo.com/156852806

I have been looking at potential ways of using simple materials to build large scale 1:1 pieces. Wikkelhouse is a home built entirely from carboard insulation, plywood internal facing and timber batten cladding. It also plays with the idea of modularity of components and is manufactured entirely in a factory in Amsterdam. It is transported to site as a complete unit where it is hooked up to the prepared services. In our events, we could look at using cardboard as a building material quite easily, and use some of the methods discussed in the video to maintain its lifespan.

Following discussions with Dom Sagar, he has sent me contact details for two people at Mustard Tree in Manchester. This is a charity that not only offers food, clothes and furniture, but also offers life-skills, training, volunteering, education, mentoring and employment opportunities to help people to increase their resilience and enable them to escape poverty and homelessness.

We have made initial contact and hope that they will be able to collaborate with us in either giving a lecture on the situation in Manchester, or help in the critique process of work to refine student ideas.

Unfortunately Dwelle have not responded to our request for collaboration and so we have decided to explore other potential collaborators that could help in either the detail design of dwellings and modularising components.

We are in the process of speaking to Enactus about their project ReNu in which students from the University of Manchester in partnership with Barnabus are aiming to tackle the issue of homelessness in the city. The charity empowers homeless people by teaching them workshop skills that can be transferrable into full time employment. We hope to be able to get them involved in this event either through material or workshop space donation, and experiences in working with materials in this setting.

We are pleased that Andrew Fowler from Emmaus Mossley has agreed to schedule a meeting with us prior to Events and come to speak to the undergrad students on the first day of Events. Emmaus are a charity that collect furniture and other home items and with the help of the homeless, they are up-cycled and sold.

We are in the process of contacting a number of contractors and demolition contractors for waste materials and used hoarding that they could donate. These include:
BAM
Balfour Beatty
Bowmer and Kirkland
Vinci Construction
Laing O'Rourke
Willmott Dixon
Pochins
Eric Wright
Sir Robert McAlpine
Graham
Carillion
Keltbray
McGee
Connell Brothers

We are in contact with Beth Popplewell and Phil Hopkins at Archer Architects to potentially have them come to critique proposals during Events. This will give undergrad students an opportunity of exposure to commercial practices, and an insight into how they could produce detailed technical drawings for their schemes.

We are pleased that Andrew Turmeau from AEW Architects and Designers is coming in on the first day of Events to talk to us about his work at the University of Lincoln on homelessness in Lincoln. It should be a valuable session to gain his experiences from the work he did on the streets of Lincoln and how he slept rough to fully engage with the homeless community.