We have been closely working alongside Group 19 - Turned on its Head, for the past two weeks during the events programme! It was a perfect way to end the year as it tied up all of the hard work we have been involved with during the academic year!

Fellow MSAp students came along to the exhibition to view the hard work which they undertook within their design projects in professional studies 1, during their first semester at the Manchester School of Architecture.

Another shot from the final exhibition, showcasing the MSAp film which we displayed during the whole event.

This was the final exhibition when it was set up, this showcased all of the work combined. We would like to thank everyone for their hard work and engagement throughout the whole events programme!

In preparation for the opening of our exhibition, we made final touches to the exhibition stands, deciding as a group which stands would display the different research and design work conducted by the students during this academic year.

We set up the stands for the exhibition, with the final addition of the roof, which gave the finishing touch of our house shaped exhibition. This enabled us to display the research conducted in PHASE through the spatial capacities report, work undertaken by fifth MSAp students in their first semester, the board games presented at the community engagement session we hosted and the films created throughout the week by our filming team.

The venue for the first showcase of our exhibition was the South Atrium of the MMU Business School. We are all looking forward to showcasing the exhibition over the summer in several locations around Greater Manchester!

Transporting the timber framework to the South Atrium of the MMU Business School where we exhibited the prototype roadshow we have been working on with the undergraduates.

All the team helping to move all of the elements of the exhibition South Atrium of the MMU Business School, to start the set up of our exhibition.

This afternoon was spent moving all of the elements comprising of our exhibition to the venue we have set for the final exhibition. Both the curation and construction team from both groups 04 and 19 helped, alongside the undergraduates to speed the process!

Hannah (fifth year student), accompanied by Sarah (first year student) interacting with one member of the ageing community in today's community engagement session.

They took part in the co-housing game, which entailed the individual choosing their favourite typology, typical unit, typical plan, type of community space and preference in the amount of green space provided in their 'perfect house', through exploring the 23 different schemes designed by the fifth year MSAp students in their professional studies 1.

The community engagement session we hosted this afternoon took place at 70 Oxford Road. We spent the morning setting up the venue with the undergraduate students assisting us along the way. We set two tables up to divide the two games which the visiting community and undergraduate students would take part in. One table was set to accompany the co-housing game and the other for the spatial capacities game.

We would like to thank everyone for their hard work this week and wish you all a lovely weekend!

Just a quick reminder to follow us on our instagram page @msa_phase to keep on track with the events programme of groups 04 and 19 as the days go on! Make sure to keep an eye out for our community engagement event on Monday!

This morning was spent cutting down our exhibition boards to fit the cuboid timber framework the team have constructed over the course of the week.

Some of our group spent this morning preparing the set for filming our film in the Benzie lecture theatre, which will be shown at the final exhibition. The film explores the work that the MSAp and PHASE Research Methods students undertook during their first semester at the Manchester School of Architecture. We look forward to showcasing the final film to the audience!

Yesterday's round table discussion went to plan and was productive for everyone involved! All the students took an active role within the day, from welcoming the visitors to providing refreshments and involving themselves in the discussion. The informal chats at the end proved to be vital as it allowed everyone to understand the role that we play as architecture students and how it is applicable to real life situations. It proved to be an insightful activity in preparation for the community engagement that we have set up for next week!

Some very productive and proactive discussions happening between academics and students at the end of the round table event today.

This event proved to be very engaging between everyone and we will be taking the information gathered from today, and feeding this into our community engagement event taking place next week! We are looking forward to it!

Roz Fox (Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at Manchester Metropolitan University and Non-Executive Director of ForViva Group Board). Roz has research expertise in social housing, regeneration, community engagement, community development, tenant involvement and user involvement. Research interests include anti-poverty strategies, development of neighbourhood services, methodologies to demonstrate social impact and use of arts in community work.

Today she discussed the pivot of her work at ForViva, which is bringing together the community, driven through eight domains which she thoroughly explained. A key part of the discussion was how there is embedded responsibility in the eight domains she discussed, what the Greater Manchester Council can do and why we are becoming more disconnected to society and fragmented between day to day life - not just towards architecture and design.

Sheila Peace (Professor of Social Gerontology). Her interests lie within ageing and social gerontology particularly within environmental gerontology.

She raised interesting questions to the rest of the table within the discussion we had at the round table today, in regards to adaptation and if social housing can expand.

She also elaborated on the work she has been involved in, ‘Option recognition’ in later life: variations in ageing in place. This touched on the point at which change impacts on an individual's independence and well being, when adaptive behaviour cannot rebalance the macro- and micro-environmental press. The ‘option recognition’, leads to a range of strategic responses including: modification of behaviour or environment; structural support using formal and informal services; and relocation; all of which impact on self-identity. This led onto wider discussions with the rest of the table, in specific relation to feeling a sense of belonging and identity within an environment, an alarming and significant issue when designing housing for the older generation.

Adam Park (Associate Architect at BDP). His expertise lies within age-friendly housing and environments. He specifically works on housing and healthcare projects at the interdisciplinary design practice BDP, with a particular interest on expanding the delivery and quality of housing for older people.

He gave an insight into the work he has been involved in, discussing the significance of co-deisning and participation with older residents in our communities.

He also briefly discussed a project he is currently working on at BDP in York, alongside York City Council, which includes varying housing typologies, in the attempt to improve the density and mixture of tenures within one scheme.

We would like to thank everyone for their hard work and involvement with the design of the exhibition!

A productive and intriguing visit to the fabric shop this morning with some of the members of our team. We explored the various types of printing methods and fabrics available to print on ,which gave us an insight into costing and production time. 📌

We hope everyone had a good Easter break! We'd like to start the Events programme off by meeting you all in Chatham 514 at 9.45am this Wednesday (18th). The timetable above shows the Events in place for the forthcoming two weeks, please note that some venues and times will change each day.

We look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday!

Welcome to the Spinning Perceptions team!

We are really excited to meet and work alongside you all! We have also collated the report from our work in PHASE and have assembled the findings which we are looking forward to sharing with you all!

Our Instagram page has launched this morning! Follow us @msa_phase to track the progress of Spinning Perceptions (Group 04) and Turned on its Head (Group 19)