Hi there, I'm Kingsley!
Atelier: &rchitecture

I'm originally from Macau and Hong Kong, but I've been in Manchester for almost five years! During my time here, I've had some fantastic experiences studying at MSA (Atelier FLUX in BA3) and being a Part 1 architectural assistant at SimpsonHaugh.

My focus in studies and practice has been on community and residential design with a colourful and practical approach. I also love making indicative diagrams! I'm excited to invite you to join us in designing an interactive space for people in Stockport. Let's work together to create something great!

This morning, we dove into our first meeting with the client! Our day started with a Teams meeting, linking up with the developer working on the High Street Regeneration project in Stockport. BA Members of our MSA Live team took turns presenting our temporary and permanent designs. Thankfully, both presentations hit the mark and we earned valuable feedback from the client on key areas like management, security, ownership, storage, and vandalism prevention.

Post-presentation, we huddled to mull over the feedback, brainstorming ways to adapt our designs. These tweaks will set us up for success as we dive into the technical design phase, leading up to our booklet presentation next week. It's all hands on deck as we refine our vision for an in-between space of Stockport's revitalised High Street!

In the afternoon, the master's students showcased their portfolios, offering a sneak peek into what future academic years might hold for bachelor students. Matt led the charge with his PS2 portfolio, delving into Infraspace's meticulous requirements for detailed master planning. His presentation covered everything from regulations to cost management, energy calculations, and practical design approaches.

Next up was Kingsley, who presented his PS2 portfolio for &rchitecture. Unlike Matt's approach, Kingsley took a creative spin, exploring futuristic interactions between people, humanity, and waste. His portfolio showcased a diverse range of creative skills, including oil pastel drawings, renderings, and model making. These presentations provided valuable insights into the standards and content expected in future academic endeavours.

The second to last day of MSA began with a review of the booklet so far! The teams combined to discuss the narrative of the booklet and have further input into the work being added. With each member having favourite drawings and so much work to choose from, it will be a difficult task to decide what makes the final cut!

After the discussions, it was time to continue to develop the proposals! One of our outputs is measured drawings that could be used to submit a planning application to take each proposal forward. The team spent some time exploring the ins and outs of AutoCAD, learning about plot styles, line weights and shortcut commands! The elevations for the permanent team will be finished off later this afternoon and taken into Photoshop to have some textures added, whereas the temporary team will focus more in-depth on a shorter section of the elevation to highlight 2 different use cases for the proposal!

This morning has certainly been an interesting one, filled with discussions, learning and skill development. We hope the team have enjoyed learning a thing or two from us! See you later for another update!

Have a look at these amazing images created by the team to showcase the proposals in use!

The temporary team have developed a modular structure that can be modified and altered to suit all purposes with ease! The use case changes from a fun, playful seating area to market stalls with seating over the weekend to bring some of the heritage from Underbank and the Stockport markets into the site. The structures are made up from wooden rods with connectors allowing for easy disassembly for the Council, to store or install the proposal across the entirety of Stockport if this first intervention is deemed a success.

The permanent team has investigated a more extensive intervention with hard landscaping being proposed to deal with the site levels and make it accessible for all. The In/Between space is plastered with colour to reflect the playful nature of the space. The canopies drawing people into the site create a sense of play with the light projecting through the recycled plastic with local artists being brought in to help develop a sense of ownership for the site.

We cannot wait to show the collaborators what we have been working on since the first initial meeting and we hope they are just as blown away by the quality and quantity of work produced by the team throughout the action weeks! See you in the morning for the final day of an amazing journey!