Hello, my name is Wenjingyu and I come from China.

I finished my undergraduate studies and Part 1 experience at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. 🎓

I am in Atelier &rchitecture now. I love basketball, music and photography. 🏀🎵📷

A fun fact about me is that I really really hate coffee. 😵‍💫

Exciting Developments & Next Steps..

After a productive first meeting with our supervisor, we are excited to share our next steps and the new roles for this week.

Action Plan Development:
This week Elaine & Wenjingyu are at the helm, drafting up the action plan for success!

Blog Catchup/Updates:
Maria will introduce and provide a project overview, as well as reflecting on our lessons learnt from the first tutorial. So stay tuned!

Treasurer & Ethics Application:
Being appointed budget holder, I will ensure our resources are managed wisely. Additionally, i'm starting on the Ethics Application, focusing on the Risk Assessment, Participant Information Sheet, & Consent Forms to uphold our commitment to ethical research.

There is some uncertainty around the Risk Assessment so we anticipate some guidance in our next tutorial later this week to clarify and strengthen our approach.

Although we have crit's approaching at the end of the week, we are still motivated to tackle these tasks head on! So, we invite you to follow our blog for detailed, updates, reflections, & progress we make!

(Posted 26 Feb 2024 11:11)

Who is the client?

Our client is Stockport City Council.

What is the Project brief?

Our task as designers is to come up with an intervention for the Merseyway Shopping Centre’s façade as a part of an ambitious, larger strategy to improve Stockport. The aim is to increase footfall in a shopping centre which has become dispensable and unnecessary for a community which has opted for the ease of online shopping. Our mission here as architects is to come up with a strategy not only for the façade but what goes on behind it; to re-think new purposes for the shopping centre and what kind of businesses would attract people to the space.

The second part of the brief is to provide our client with ideas for an underused balcony, part of the shopping centre, which overlooks a main shopping street.

We will be picturing all different characters and scenarios of people and designing for them. For example, an 80-year-old person who wishes to purchase a CD. Where do they fit in to the scheme? Do they? What else could be placed along their journey so they spend time and money at the centre? A bakery? A grocery store? These are some of the questions we will be asking.

What are the outputs?

In terms of outputs, expect a lot of freedom, mostly collages, expressive, colourful, artistic showing people interacting with the building. Views from the city, i.e. from the train, in motion, rhythm.

(Posted 9 Mar 2024)

DAY 1 - Site Visit

Today our MSA live group met each other in person for the first time. We travelled as a group from the MTC to Stockport and visited the Merseyway Shopping Centre. We took this opportunity to get a feel for the site and documented the surroundings by taking photographs and making sketches and observations. Compared to the previous visits to the shopping centre, it was a lot more busy and lively today. Afterwards, we sat down at a café to get to know each other and discuss our initial ideas.

(Posted 7 May)

DAY 1 - Initial Response to The Site

After lunch, we all gathered in a classroom to create a single image that summarised each student’s response to the site. Each student presented their ideas and first impressions of Stockport.

The main themes identified were:
1. Poor connection between upper ground and ground floor
2. Framing views
3. Lack of colour, concrete monochrome
4. Minimal green spaces

(Posted 7 May 2024 16:20)

DAY 2 - Precedent Day

Today we looked at precedents that applied to our site and project conditions. From this, we began discussing concept and programme options. In the group discussions, we critiqued the outputs, considering the feasibility, budget, relationship with the existing, and a general SWOT analysis.

Continuing from yesterday, we developed our agenda further. This includes activating the walkway with interventions that bring in a wider demographic by providing low-rent units, and attracting start-ups, artists, entrepreneurs and more.

The next steps will include spatialising these ideas, and understanding the technical details behind these concepts. When designing, we will encourage students to think of cost, environmental impact, and existing heritage.