Project site : Central Retail Park, Ancoats, Manchester.
Introduction of ‘Trees not Cars’ campaign by collaborators on-site. Collaborators to give history of site, their movement and their visions for an alternative proposal.

- Public Consultation led by Trees Not Cars allowed Ancoats community members to voice their concerns and vision for the site, reflected in this diagram
- Collaborator’s vision reflects a child-friendly approach to planning and includes :
- a link between the Canal and Ancoats Marina with cycling, running and walking routes;
- playgrounds and sports facilities;
- green space for activities and family picnics;
- dog park as significant number of dog owners live around Ancoats.
affordable housing and retail services (cafes, bike repairs etc ) responding to residents’ needs

-With a background in political science, Dr Leandro Minuchin will be visiting and delivering a talk on the social role of the architect in contemporary urbanism
- The aim is to inform and enhance our proposals with a strong theoretical grounding through political contextualisation

Skills we will develop

MA Architecture and Urbanism students led workshop
- Masters students from the Architecture and Urbanism course at MSA will come in to share their proposals, analysis of existing site (Central Retail Park) and wider context
- The aim of this workshop is to produce initial sketch masterplans to show sustainable master planning principles learnt from MAA+U presentation

https://www.msa.ac.uk/study/ma/architecture-and-urbanism/

URBED led workshop
- Manchester based URBED (Urbanism, Environment and Design) Ltd are an award-winning design and research consultancy. URBED is also in partnership with Manchester School of Architecture, LULU Landscape and Urbanism is a newly formed March atelier embedded in URBED+, that combines academia and practice.
- They believe in “building sustainable towns and cities and enabling good design”.
- Teams of students will have the opportunity to have a tutorial session with URBED in an attempt to develop their masterplans digitally under professional guidance, focusing on urban design and landscape.

http://urbed.coop/
https://www.msa.ac.uk/urbed+/

Week 1 will start with meeting the collaborators on site (Central Retail Park in Ancoats) in order to get an understanding of its existing conditions and brainstorm initial ideas. Following days we will have different collaborators (MAA+U, URBED and Leandro Minuchin) joining for tutorials and workshops that will help us make sustainable design decisions. Each team to keep working on their proposals and apply design techniques learnt from various activities led by collaborators.

Week 2 will start with a trip, a Guided tour of Granby Four Street developments with Community Land Trust representatives in Liverpool which will be used for a precedent study for grass roots movements and masterplanning. The following days will be focused around learning softwares while working on the masterplans, each team will keep updating the 6 pages presentation for their design. On the final day, we will exhibit and present the 3 different proposals to all of our collaborators and Ancoats community members, with focus on the developed theory and design drivers which led it.

- The project will involve working in groups to develop three alternate proposals for the Central Retail Park.

- Each group will present their development and research as 6 page A3 presentation document that will be delivered and presented to our main collaborator, Trees not Cars. The documents will cover analysis on :

⁃ Current site ,
⁃ Ancoats Community,
⁃ Affordable housing crisis in Manchester,
⁃ Lack of Green Space in Manchester,
⁃ Design Development,
⁃ Masterplan vision.

- For the final exhibition which will take place and North Tea Power, all groups will produce A1 posters to reflect their proposal with drawings of competition standards.