Academic
Academic
Academic
Academic
YEAR ONE
COMPILATION
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 1 -
Work carried out at Manchester School of Architecture 2015-2016
First year focused on the relationship between music and architecture, our first project stipulated that we design a listening chamber on the Rochdale Canal for a specific song with the proviso that its dimensions don't exceed the span of a human arm. I chose to emulate the echoic nature of a choral cathedral aria in a space no larger than a phone box, the ensuing project was an investigation into amplifying acoustics and maximising echo, the final listening chamber is an ode to Manchester's industrial past by appropriating the form of one of its no longer existent chimneys to create the necessary internal reverberation.
Subsequent projects involved the design of a transient home and artist's studio, through which the relevant themes of anthropometrics and ergonomics were explored. The final project for the year engaged a Manchester based digital platform, Manchester District Music Archive, and we were given the task of designing their new home. The brief was extensive and called for three primary programmes, an archive, a repository and a performance building, I decided to allocate each programme a dedicated building thus profiting from the existing site geometry and invigorating an inert space between each of the buildings, creating a harmonious collective and enhancing the public realm.
YEAR ONE
COMPILATION
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 1 -
Work carried out at Manchester School of Architecture 2015-2016
First year focused on the relationship between music and architecture, our first project stipulated that we design a listening chamber on the Rochdale Canal for a specific song with the proviso that its dimensions don't exceed the span of a human arm. I chose to emulate the echoic nature of a choral cathedral aria in a space no larger than a phone box, the ensuing project was an investigation into amplifying acoustics and maximising echo, the final listening chamber is an ode to Manchester's industrial past by appropriating the form of one of its no longer existent chimneys to create the necessary internal reverberation.
Subsequent projects involved the design of a transient home and artist's studio, through which the relevant themes of anthropometrics and ergonomics were explored. The final project for the year engaged a Manchester based digital platform, Manchester District Music Archive, and we were given the task of designing their new home. The brief was extensive and called for three primary programmes, an archive, a repository and a performance building, I decided to allocate each programme a dedicated building thus profiting from the existing site geometry and invigorating an inert space between each of the buildings, creating a harmonious collective and enhancing the public realm.
YEAR ONE
COMPILATION
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 1 -
Work carried out at Manchester School of Architecture 2015-2016
First year focused on the relationship between music and architecture, our first project stipulated that we design a listening chamber on the Rochdale Canal for a specific song with the proviso that its dimensions don't exceed the span of a human arm. I chose to emulate the echoic nature of a choral cathedral aria in a space no larger than a phone box, the ensuing project was an investigation into amplifying acoustics and maximising echo, the final listening chamber is an ode to Manchester's industrial past by appropriating the form of one of its no longer existent chimneys to create the necessary internal reverberation.
Subsequent projects involved the design of a transient home and artist's studio, through which the relevant themes of anthropometrics and ergonomics were explored. The final project for the year engaged a Manchester based digital platform, Manchester District Music Archive, and we were given the task of designing their new home. The brief was extensive and called for three primary programmes, an archive, a repository and a performance building, I decided to allocate each programme a dedicated building thus profiting from the existing site geometry and invigorating an inert space between each of the buildings, creating a harmonious collective and enhancing the public realm.
First year focused on the relationship between music and architecture, our first project stipulated that we design a listening chamber on the Rochdale Canal for a specific song with the proviso that its dimensions don't exceed the span of a human arm. I chose to emulate the echoic nature of a choral cathedral aria in a space no larger than a phone box, the ensuing project was an investigation into amplifying acoustics and maximising echo, the final listening chamber is an ode to Manchester's industrial past by appropriating the form of one of its no longer existent chimneys to create the necessary internal reverberation.
Subsequent projects involved the design of a transient home and artist's studio, through which the relevant themes of anthropometrics and ergonomics were explored. The final project for the year engaged a Manchester based digital platform, Manchester District Music Archive, and we were given the task of designing their new home. The brief was extensive and called for three primary programmes, an archive, a repository and a performance building, I decided to allocate each programme a dedicated building thus profiting from the existing site geometry and invigorating an inert space between each of the buildings, creating a harmonious collective and enhancing the public realm.
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 1 -
Work carried out at Manchester School of Architecture 2015-2016
YEAR ONE
COMPILATION
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 3 -
Atelier Common Ground
Atelier Leaders:
Stephen Connah
Ronan Connelley
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 3 -
Atelier Common Ground
Atelier Leaders:
Stephen Connah
Ronan Connelley
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 3 -
Atelier Common Ground
Atelier Leaders:
Stephen Connah
Ronan Connelley
BA [hons] ARCHITECTURE
Year 3 -
Atelier Common Ground
Atelier Leaders:
Stephen Connah
Ronan Connelley
CANTEEN AEDICULE
THE URBANISM OF THE POSTWAR CAMPUS
The UMIST Campus is a rare example of a complete postwar campus in a British urban centre. A cohesive cluster of campus buildings designed according to common ‘canons of design’ created in the UMIST Campus a total modernist environment. These urban principles which governed the design of the campus established codes and constraints which reconciled truth to building technology with expression of form; ensuring that the campus would retain a sense of continuity across time and in the hands of different architects.
The White City which rapidly superseded the postindustrial squalor of Manchester’s inner city industrial belt presented a bright vision of modernity, contributing to the city’s title of ‘Shock City’ of the modern age. Tall monumental buildings interspersed amongst low perimeter buildings created a varied skyline and visible symbols of a new Manchester; a technopole of faith in science and technology. At the time of its construction, the campus represented more than the estate of an emerging university, but furthermore a standard bearer for urban renewal in the postwar period. This is a history which today is fated to fade following the departure of the university to a consolidated facility, abandoning the campus to extramural market forces to determine its future.
THE URBANISM OF THE POSTWAR CAMPUS
The UMIST Campus is a rare example of a complete postwar campus in a British urban centre. A cohesive cluster of campus buildings designed according to common ‘canons of design’ created in the UMIST Campus a total modernist environment. These urban principles which governed the design of the campus established codes and constraints which reconciled truth to building technology with expression of form; ensuring that the campus would retain a sense of continuity across time and in the hands of different architects.
The White City which rapidly superseded the postindustrial squalor of Manchester’s inner city industrial belt presented a bright vision of modernity, contributing to the city’s title of ‘Shock City’ of the modern age. Tall monumental buildings interspersed amongst low perimeter buildings created a varied skyline and visible symbols of a new Manchester; a technopole of faith in science and technology. At the time of its construction, the campus represented more than the estate of an emerging university, but furthermore a standard bearer for urban renewal in the postwar period. This is a history which today is fated to fade following the departure of the university to a consolidated facility, abandoning the campus to extramural market forces to determine its future.
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Project site
Former university campus
Manchester City Centre
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Project site
Former university campus
Manchester City Centre
CANTEEN AEDICULE
Projects
2020
-
Art Gallery - Saul Hay Gallery and Castlefield Gallery
Lock 92 Castlefield, MANCHESTER
COLLIER
STREET
GALLERY
COMBINED GALLERIES BETWEEN RAILWAY AND CANAL
Occupying a narrow triangular site - inserted between a listed railway viaduct at high level, and a canal at low level - the project seeks to maximise the available space of the difficult site to create a suite of new galleries. The triangular footprint is already occupied by the monumental tower of a former Sawmill and timber wharf, standing as the solitary vestige of the site’s former industrial use. Collier Street Gallery combines two existing galleries: the Saul Hay Gallery, which occupies an existing building on the site, and the Castlefield Gallery, situated locally, to create a new cultural resource for art in Castlefield.
FLATIRON PLAN
The geometry of the plan is determined by a highly constrained site condition. Wedged between the railway at high level and the canal at low level, the building tapers to a point where an existing sawmill tower is retained.
The site is a palimpsest of Mancunian history, dating from its founding as a roman fort (shown dashed on the corresponding plan), to its industrial heritage - when the site was bisected by infrastructural routes from the railway to the canal
Plan Key
-1 - art store
00 - galleries, Canal Rooms
01 - galleries, Railway Rooms
02 - art library
03 - staff level
COMPOSITE FORM
The project is treated as a ‘composite form’ - whose architectural composition consists of a series of different elements bound together to create a whole from multiple parts. Each part of the composite addresses a different urban condition; whether it is oriented toward the land, the railway, the canal, or the existing mill tower - and expresses the gallery as a combination of two separate existing galleries.
A COMBINED CULTURAL RESOURCE
The Saul Hay Gallery is housed in a raised white cube which forms a sheltered entrance to the project, while the Castlefield Gallery is housed in a low warehouse-like brick volume which evokes the site’s industrial antecedents. Both galleries share offices on the top floor and art storage and documentation in the basement
A NEW SETTING FOR HERITAGE
The new galleries bookend the existing sawmill tower, preserving it both morphologically; as an element of the composite form, and structurally; by inserting a new armature within to reinforce the edifice. The tower is repurposed by introducing a stair within, counterposing the light interiors of the galleries with the dark interior of the tower.
HEIGHTENING URBAN CONDITIONS
In urbanistic terms, this project seeks to reinforce the canal edge and heighten the ‘as found’ condition, whilst preserving a local monument and reworking a difficult urban site.
