Hi everyone, I'm James!
Atelier: Infrastructure Space

I studied my Undergraduate at Sheffield Hallam University before working as a Part 1 in Manchester for JH.A, of which I worked on a variety of commercial projects.

My architectural & design interests reside within sustainable material focus, placemaking & biophilic design! Having the opportunity to work in close collaboration with a team committed to the enhancement of natural space in dedicated areas is something that really excites me. I look forward to meeting everyone and can't wait to see what we can come up with!

Hi everyone!

I’m Hayley McCaffer and I am the Population Health Programme Officer for Physical Activity and Ageing Well at Tameside Council. My role focuses on working with organisations and residents to develop projects and initiatives to help residents move more, more often, and help make Tameside a great place to live, work and grow older in.

I believe that all communities should have access to green spaces and opportunities to be active in the places they live, and this is why I asked the MSA team to design a more accessible Chadwick Dam. Movement is for everyone, and using a place-based approach involving the local community will help reduce existing health inequalities in that area.

Making Chadwick Dam an accessible place where everyone can be active, socialise or spend time being mindful will have physical and mental health benefits for the whole community. I am excited to see what the MSA students create!

Our first site visit to Chadwick Dam!

13/12/23 – Our team collectively attended the site for a full walk around with representatives of the council, talking us through the history of the site and showing us what the project needs

Discussions included previous works, community awareness and how to make the park for everyone. Hayley, who we introduced In our previous blog post, has been so cooperative and keen to get started with this project and as we formulate and configure this plan for site, we find ourselves equally sharing the same growing passion! We have a bunch of activities planned and cannot wait to start them with you all!

We hope you join us to fully explore what is possible with the natural green landscape of Chadwick Dam and those that use it.

Day 01: A Great Day To Visit Chadwick Dam!

Starting the day we were welcomed by our MLA1, BA1 and BA2, students to group 19. After a quick group briefing, we began to get our boots on ready to visit the site, not before a lovely introductory discussion about ourselves and our interests of course!

After being properly introduced to one another, we made our way to the park area for the afternoon, not a bad day for it! After taking the train to the site we separated into two distinct teams to navigate the south of the site, We informed the students of the site whilst on tour, as well as asking for their initial ideas and preconceptions of the park. After the South site tour, we met up with our collaborator Hayley from Tameside Council, of which she cheerfully guided and helped educate the students further regarding the task required for Chadwick Dam's development.

Following our sunny trip, we returned to Manchester for a quick discussion about the coming days, setting up three teams to tackle each requirement and setting up the student itinerary for the next two weeks. Exciting ideas are ahead.

Making some new friends along the way.

Day 02: Sketching, Concept & Research

Rolling into day 2 of MSA Live 24 we began the day having a collective exercise to apply our learnings from yesterday's site visit, allowing us all to collate our ideas and observations.

Moving on from this we began to split the workload into our 3 teams, each with a large contribution to the overall narrative. The result was a wealth of research and a LOT of sketches - Plenty more to come!

Starting the day we were welcomed by our MLA1, BA1 and BA2, students to group 19. After a quick group briefing, we began to get our boots on ready to visit the site, not before a lovely introductory discussion about ourselves and our interests of course!

Day 03: Proposal Development

Today, the team continued to advance their initial proposals after a round-up discussion of yesterday’s initial design thoughts. Proposals are now beginning to take form with clear design considerations for activating existing areas of the park and adding their own spin to the park outlook.

Drone footage of the site, sent by the collaborator, was used to help channel these initial considerations against on-site issues that may not have been apparent on foot. Advancing these ideas was key in preparation for tomorrow’s expected outlooks as we close in on the end of the first week of MSA Live (already!!!)

Day 04: Banding Together

Today, students from both teams began to comprise their designs together to formalise conclusions as we move into next week where the teams will aim to realise their intentions beyond their sketch concepts.

In addition to this, students were offered the opportunity to further their own designs outside of MSA Live, allowing for the MArch1 students to cast their input and sharpen any skills on show. Not only does this allow for the betterment of the BA Students' output, but also tailors these skills for an intensive (and fun!!) design week coming up in MSA Live.

Week 01: Time for a Review!

So, the first week of MSA Live has been and gone, with a swell of great design ideas, smiles and sunny days! Over the last week the students have combined to draft 3 distinct segments of design development and have prepared the foundations for next week's design realisation.

Here at Group 19 we're excited with the trajectory of our group members and the work they've brought forward. We can't wait to get started with Week 02, Stay tuned!

Day 05: Back At It!

Rolling into Week 02 and the students began to set off with their application of the design guide, combining all efforts to ensure the pamphlet for onsite use can allow users to appropriately navigate the park and be equally aware of areas that may have been hidden from them due to existing park conditions

Up next - Fine tuning those nodes!

Day 06: Finalising Designs

Today, the teams, once again, banded together to drive home the desire visual output for the key node within our masterplan overview. Masterplan ideals have been finalised too and with the design guide coming together, everything is looking great!

Next steps will be to start producing quality visuals and pulling all documents together ready to show to our collaborator on Friday, meeting on site once again. Plenty more to come!

Day 07: Closing in

Today the students continued to hone in on the final outputs for this MSA Live week, through digital models, visuals, diagrams and sketches - the document is being made ready to discuss and show off to our collaborator on the final day!

Happy to say we're proud of our students for their input! 2 Days left!

Day 08: Close to Publishing...

With it being the penultimate day before the conclusion of MSA Live 24, our students were hard at work finishing off any diagrams, drawings & visuals, all pouring into the document, which I must say is stacking up nicely! In addition, to design guide team has finished their rounds, with a printed copy readied to take to site for a meeting with the collaborator. With only one day left to go we cannot wait to show you everything we've been up to!

Design Guide Highlight!

Checkout the design guide with a quick rolling view to wet your appetite! Set to published alongside the main document, this cute little guide will be able to applied on site straight away without any proposed developments - This guide aims to activate previous areas of investment that haven't quite hit the mark, by making users more aware of them they will be able to find bits about their park they may never have known before!

Day 09: That's All She Wrote!

And so the final day of MSA live has come and as such comes our last post. Before talking about the project I just want to issue a massive thankyou to everyone who took part in our group project these last 2 weeks, ranging from the council to our students!

A final visit was conducted to take our finished designs to the collaborator as well as the community of Chadwick Dam, with enthusiastic response and finished guides issued to the 'Big Local' members, we hope this project can provide a platform to springboard the evolution of Chadwick Dam.

Once again a huge thankyou to everyone involved, we are super proud of this project and we hope when our readers see the end product, they will be able to learn something new about the area - as well as teach us a thing or two! This was a community project, and we hope the community can benefit from it!