Group 14
CENTRE STAGE

Using both our backgrounds in design and drawing, we aim to assist NTWAC in a lottery style bid to design a New Theatre and Community Hub in Moston. This event gives us the opportunity to be involved in a live project that will be built, as well as engaging with initial stage and concept stage design in practice alongside a qualified RIBA architect.

Thomas Charles K / James R / Néstor José RM / Robert Joseph Cameron C

Thomas Charles K
Centre Stage // Group 14 // Meet the team!

We are an eclectic mix of designers, each with different architectural backgrounds and beliefs and we are excited to be delivering Centre Stage!

We are a team 5th year architecture students, the 6 of us are as follows:

James Robinson - USE
Tom Keen - USE
Chris McManigan - USE
Rob Clarke - USE
Nestor Ruiz - &architecture
Hamza Khan - CIA
Posted 6 Mar 2020 10:33
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // A Bit About Our Main Collaborator

North West Theatre Arts Company are a business located in Moston, just North of central Manchester. As a collective NWTAC have a great relationship with the wider community teaching youngsters performing arts skills. One of their star pupils even made it to the bright lights of The West End.

NWTAC have ambitions to continue and even strengthen this bond they have with the community. If possible they see themselves broadening their oureach even further. The design of new community centre and theatre can help them to achieve this.
Posted 9 Mar 2020 13:48
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // Collaborator No. 2

Introducing - Trevor Cousins

Trevor is an RIBA qualified architect, having practiced for 30 years and working his way up to director at Northmill Associates Ltd, he opted for a career change just over a year ago to set up Forty8 Design.

NWTAC have corresponded with Trevor previously to provide some inital feasbility work on the proposed community centre.

Trevor has experience in residential, supported living, and commercial property UK wide, and feasibility studies for blue chip clients. He also has longstanding experience in the design of Premiership Football Club facilities for training, academy and hospitality use, including site wide master planning and rationalisation of space.

We will consult Trevor throughout the Events process hoping he can provide insights for us from his experience in practice.
Posted 11 Mar 2020 11:36
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // What is the end goal?

This week, we met up with Mark, our collaborator at NWTAC, to dicuss in detail our aims and objectives for the Events period. From the outset, Mark made us aware that they have already been given a small sum from a grant to start progressing towards these works. Things can change rapidly on a live project!

From the discussion we agreed that working alongside Trevor, we can collaborate to create a zine of visuals for NWTAC to use during the public consultation phase of the project.

We aim to make something that illustrates the clear vision Mark has of this project through a series of visuals, looking at atmospheres, perspectives and the media we can use to represent how exciting this scheme can be for the Moston Community.
Posted 14 Mar 2020 22:38
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // What can WE gain from NWTAC's new home?

NWTAC works in , and teaches kids in the local community. All of the performances they advertise are put on solely by members of the Company. This stems down to the script, dress and even lighting. Everything is done in house.

This provides as a platform for potentially over looked and underfunded kids in Moston to excel with assistance from the very best teaching.

However, the current centre is not fit for purpose. A new, specialised facility with an intergrated community centre allows the Company to teach more kids perfoming arts and provides a space for young people to gather, potentially keeping them off the streets.
Posted 17 Mar 2020 13:32
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // Our role within the Collaboration Team

As stated, Trevor, who works for Fourty8 Design is already consulting with Mark at NWTAC on this project, however it is at really early feasibilty stages.

This diagram shows we aim to collaborate with both Mark and Trevor to create this zine of visuals. Our aim here is use Trevor and his correspondance with Mark to create an indicative design and set of parameters for the design (as ambiguous as possible) so that we can develop a set of visuals.

These parameters will be based off previous correspondance between Trevor and Mark, our input and ultimately what Trevor believes to be feasible.

We will then take and ellaborate on these parameters to create a set of visuals to present to Mark before finalising a set in a publication.
Posted 17 Mar 2020 14:10
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // Moston 2.0

This site presents a great opportunity for a real statement piece. Surrounded by suburban accomodation and low lying architecture, as long as our proposed community centre is harmonious with the surrounding industrial typology, there is real potential for something that can spark further regeneration of the surrounding area.

It is our role to consult with Trevor, and think as designers, to suggest architectural implementations that will be contextual and encourage Mark as well as the local community to think in different ways about the potential of their site and 'what they could have'.
Posted 19 Mar 2020 20:04
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // Case Study - HOME

We're delighted to announce a guided tour of HOME on Wednesday the 29th April. This gives us a great perspective of a modern day theatre, cinema and community centre.

We can understand from HOME how theatres work in a human scale, this tour should help us to understand the underlying atmospheres community centres and theatres create as well as how architecture generates this so that we can portray these themes in our publication.
Posted 21 Mar 2020 12:18
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // Stuart Wheeler @ SimpsonHaugh

We're delighted to have organised a talk from Stuart Wheeler, an architect at SimpsonHaugh with predominant experience in the early stages of design. Stuart will talk us through some examples of community centres and theatres he's worked on during his career honing in on what makes a successful concept design and how to respresent key aspects of architectural design with imagery.
Posted 21 Mar 2020 12:46
James R
Collaging - a low tech, sketched based approach, providing powerful and playful imagery when done correctly.

This style is a combination of images, renderings and sketches, making the visualisations more memorable. Enabling the visualisations to provide animation and texture using layers.

This style is more about creating the impression of an idea or an emotion, rather than giving an accurate rendering of the space. Its extreme style is achieved through aesthetic colour combinations, textures and use of space; works by the artist layering differing styles and techniques to create an overall narrative. This style captures more of a potential feeling of a place, rather than its architectural properties, and may lend itself more to conceptual buildings.
Posted 23 Mar 2020 12:01
James R
Photo-real Computer Generated Imagery - Provides the ability to excite people with the placement of proposals within context.

Using natural lighting cues, shadowing and colouring, this style gives viewers the crux of what the design would be like within the context, to be lived in, or around.

However, as you cannot hide behind aesthetics, this is one of the most difficult styles to execute. If you go too far, you may end up with an almost sci-fi looking scene. 3D artists who can create this kind of image must have a mastery of materiality and human perception. Above all, mimicking how light moves in real life is key – and the ability to manipulate and render light takes years of experience.

However, when executed properly, the result is an architectural visualisation that shows a building as though it is already constructed.
Posted 23 Mar 2020 12:02
James R
Sketches - A Low-tech or combined approach between digital and analogue can provide an emotive and detailed approach to creating exciting visuals.

Using the layering of lines provides the visual with texture, shadows and movement. This allows the style to be more abstract and highlight key areas of a scheme through a narrative.

With the more artistic approach, sketches provide a different visual excitement to normal visualisations, with the look of complexity, and often recognised as time consuming pieces. They allow the creator to express a more individual or narrative side to a project, from the artistic style of the creator, highlighted elements, use of colour or textured shading and the medium they are created in, wherever it be pencil, fine liner or another medium.
Posted 23 Mar 2020 12:03
James R
The semi-realistic style – like that of watercolours, scaled back to an extent, but it is not a photorealistic form of art. Both virtual and real elements are combined in this style to enhance the looks of real-life 3D renderings.

These visualizations are used in creating an idealistic vision, suitable for an atmosphere. While creating contextual compositions and panoramic views, you can use this style.

Using the right mix of colour and contrast, you can alter the overall mood of the image. For example, certain designers desaturate certain iterations in order to create a feeling of tension. Others opt to stir up the feeling of brightness and astonishment by integrating vivid colours in their images, these qualities can be used to excite viewers with the over dramatic style but with this approach, is also important to ground the piece with context or otherwise it can be lost and end up looking like a sci-fir movie or dramatized piece of art.
Posted 23 Mar 2020 12:03
Robert Joseph Cameron C
Group 14 // Centre Stage // What will be achieved during the event?

A brief account of the project considerations and objectives that we will aspire to achieve over the course of the event.
Posted 24 Mar 2020 20:47
Néstor José RM
Group 14 // Centre Stage // How will our publication help?

National Lottery Funding - Our publication will provide a solid background delineating how our proposal will improve life in the community. This will push the project as a strong contender to be awarded The National Lottery Fund, which would make the development of the NWTAC a reality.

The publication will have a strong focus on how the community will benefit itself from being part of the NWTAC Theatre and Community Centre. It will showcase an age-friendly programme accessible to the community, with the spotlight in an attractive performance space which would engage the young community in developing their creative skills.
Posted 24 Mar 2020 20:58
Néstor José RM
Group 14 // Centre Stage // How will our publication help?

Collaboration with Trevor Cousins - Working in conjunction with Trevor Cousins, our publication will show the perspective from a qualified architect in the proposal. It will describe the elements which can make the scheme feasible in the early design stages, describing the main architectural qualities which would make it an engaging project.
Posted 24 Mar 2020 21:22
Néstor José RM
Group 14 // Centre Stage // How will our publication help?

Public Consultation - The document published can be presented to the community in order for them to understand the drivers of the proposal. It will clearly communicate the benefits that the project aims to tackle, focusing on an engaging programme for the people of Moston.

Following this consultation, the community can provide feedback to the designers. This will improve the quality of the proposal, directly tackling the needs and requests of the community. In the same way, the community can feel an active part of the design process, and in consequence, they will see the new theatre and community hub as their own.
Posted 24 Mar 2020 22:07
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // Session plan - Week 1

Introducing the finalised session plan for our team! Spanning from the 28th of April to the 1st of May, we will be touring SimpsonHaugh, Home and NWTAC to gain inspiration for our zine. We're really excited to get started and kick start funding for NTWAC to help the surrounding Moston community.
Posted 31 Mar 2020 11:57
Thomas Charles K
Group 14 // Centre Stage // Session plan - Week 2

During week 2, spanning from the 4th of May to the 7th, we will be pushing on our deliverable of the Zine for NTWAC. During this time we aim to develop our understanding of how visuals can create emotions and how this publication can document our design process in an intuitive way. Working with Trevor, by the end of this week, we will have a fantastic document for NWTAC to show to funders and the community during consultation.
Posted 31 Mar 2020 12:02