Day 5_Design Proposal

All students continued working within their own group design proposal. As the proposed use for the Kitchen Link Bridge area is very functional - public visitors’ WC and accessible WC. Students have been asked to work on an aspect of the space, such as appearance, pattern study and the idea of introducing a mixed gender toilet. With such variety approaches, each group will have their own initiative and method to responding to the research question.

Lastly, each group have presented the idea of the approach, showing the design development, key concept. By 5 pm Friday, each group have a clear idea of what will be happening for the next coming up session, a draft A1 presentation sheet is showed with everyone to assigned to a certain job task.

Day 3_Initial Proposal Ideas

A reading discussion is introduced as the first thing in the morning. From the reading list given on Monday, every group had two or three key article or chapter, alongside with extra readings if students wish to read further. Each group have summarised and shared their reading, such as the interesting points that they found, relationship to the Town Hall/ Kitchen Link Bridge, what they have learnt etc. In this way, that the whole group gained a good overall understanding in a short period of time provided.

A small presentation is followed by the reading discussion, that the final output, 1:50 model requirement is reminded and explained clearly along with more assisting information. The information package is upload on Google Drive that is accessible for Group R members only, which including the original drawings by Waterhouse, current drawings after kitchen extension, massing model of site, images of Kitchen Link Bridge and finally Purcell’s current proposed 1:50 floor plan. All of student have been asked to be aware of confidentiality of given information, in particularly not to use or show anywhere else apart from this event project. All students have then been asked to think and design the Kitchen Link Bridge. The aim of this task is to brain storm with ideas, then experimented with sketches, drawing. Also due to the reschedule site visit, students may have questions and uncertainty about the area, therefore questions or suggestions need to note and would be then asked tomorrow morning, where the site visit may straight forward resolve the confusion/ question, otherwise they may have chance to speak to the collaborator to clarify.

Overall, the group are at the stage of understanding the brief over view of the project, along with good knowledge background of conservation architecture and what can be done by us as architects.

DAY 2 “Intangible Heritage - Architecture - Us as Architects” Workshop

It is our pleasure to have Jonathan Djabarouti for such interesting workshop. Presentation was given first to introduce the aim of the workshop and gave us a good overview of the interrelationship between conservation architecture and intangible heritage. Towards the end, the interactive activity really make us as architects to think about the what to do with architecture and the intangible value behind all those tangible objects. The presentation is summarised with following key aspects.
1. Listed Buildings
2. Building Conservation
3. Heritage ‘Significance’ and ‘Value’
4. Intangible Heritage
5. Intangible Heritage Activity (Research Focus Group)
All students have enjoyed the thought-provoking session, which will definitely help with analysing the site and helps with designing in further stage. The feedback is so positive from both students and Johnathan. “Thank you for your invitation to speak, it was an enjoyable session and I was very impressed with how engaged your group was - I am sure you will all produce some great work for the kitchen link project.” - Johnathan

Model Making Test

We have chosen a part from a historical building as a sample to test the model making process in B15 workshop. The process is showing the typical preparation and finalising steps for such model making method, from making a digital 3D model to test the layers, preparing CAD drawings, to laser cut and finalising the representation of the model.

Johnathan Djabarouti Workshop Session
It is our pleasure to invited Johnathan Djabarouti to give an informal lecture/ workshop, which will be beneficial to understand the Kitchen Link Bridge project that we will be working on for 2 weeksJohnathan is an AHRC NWCDTP funded PhD candidate and Associate lecturer at MSA.
“I am an AHRC NWCDTP funded PhD candidate, studying Architectural Heritage at the Manchester School of Architecture, Manchester Metropolitan University. My current research focuses on intangible heritage. More specifically, it explores how the process of building adaptation could impact the safeguarding of 'intangible building values'. My broader research interests are driven by themes of architectural heritage, building conservation and traditional building craft; with my MSc in Building Conservation exploring the impact of traditional building craft on architectural pedagogy.” – Johnathan’s Self Introduction from ResearchGate

. A key summary/ introduction of the workshop session:
• A reading list, with key reference and supported reading.
• Overview of conservation approaches in architecture.
• What intangible heritage is?
• Methods and approaches as to how we as architects can.
• The interactive activity where we can explore as a group: a method for identifying intangible values of a building (optional activity).
potentially extract/understand intangible values of buildings.
We are really excited about the workshop and looking forward to meeting Johnathan Djabarouti next week!

Professional Conversation about Our Town Hall Project
We have met members of the Project Teams, such as Architect, Landscape Architect and Heritage Consultant from Purcell, and Communications Officer from Manchester City Council. The members of project team were kind and devoted to talk through what’s been happening since the Town Hall closed last January, and very kindly answered our questions. In particular, it was our pleasure to talk to Christina, who is the Heritage Consultant worked on the project. We had a great conversation about the project overall, and also a brief introduction on the Kitchen Link bridge from her professional aspect, which is a very exciting and challengeable project to work on!