THE AREA

This is a neighbourhood that has its challenges and whilst close to the city centre it is one of the most deprived spots in the county, ranking 11th most deprived in the UK. There is high unemployment and Ofsted reports that for local school children there is a dearth of extra curriculum activities. Young people do not ordinarily engage with art and culture outside of school and participation in art and culture generally is low.

The community today has a very mixed ethnicity with around a third white British, a third of people have African background and others represent a range of minority ethnicities, so the area is very culturally diverse but economically deprived.

Through this project, we aim to create a space that allows a diverse range of people to enjoy, explore and learn more about what architecture has to offer. We hope to create a flexible, interactive space that pushes the boundaries of creativity and exploration.

FLEXIBLE FURNITURE

One of the final outputs for this project is to design and build a 1:2 flexible furniture concept model. The furniture designed should increase the flexibility of the multifunctional space. It should be an interactive piece that encourages interaction and creativity.

The students will be split into 3 sketch-model making groups. Each group will come up with their unique idea for a multipurpose flexible furniture piece. Students will share and discuss their designs within their group and come up with a final design which could be a chosen design of one of the individuals or a new design of merged themes gathered from the group’s ideas. With a confirmed idea, students build the 1:2 sketch model. It is expected that it can show the multi-function purpose of the design and is structurally stable.

The flexible furniture design will also be drawn up in CAD/ modelled and should show the makeup of the furniture piece as well as how it is put together.

Through this task students will utilize the following skill sets: sketching, designing, communicating, model making, photographing & CAD.

WEEK 1 OVERVIEW

Firstly, we will brief the group on the project aims to ensure that everyone is familiar with the tasks that must be completed in the following two weeks. Students will also have the opportunity to visit the site and meet the collaborators to have a deeper understanding of the project. The first week consists mostly of group work that promotes social interactions allowing group mates to get to know each other better while producing the required project outputs. There will be a lot of sketching, designing, workshop, model making, photographing and group discussions.

WEEK 2 OVERVIEW

This week focuses on the design process and development and ensuring that final outputs are met. With ideas, confirmed students will begin to produce final visuals, technical drawings and models using the skills and knowledge they have learnt the previous week. After the majority of the project aims are met students will present to the TASC collaborators and amend their work according to the collaborators and groups feedback. All loose ends will be tied up and in the end, a final publication and final model should be produced along with the documentation of the entire design process from the beginning. After a group debrief we will conclude events 20 and celebrate while having tea and biscuits.