Manchester, UK
September update: Basing myself in Manchester close to site at the UMIST Campus, I undertook a concerted period of fieldwork primarily surveying the condition of the campus and its urban design. On site I documented the campus through photography, sketch, and walked the campus with project collaborators. Additionally, I used the opportunity to re-evaluate the design decisions I made as part of the Aula project - the first design stage - on site. Whilst this first project stage addressed the campus through an architectural project, this period of fieldwork re-affirmed the essence of the campus is derived from the urban quality which arises from the relationship between buildings. The second design stage will address the campus through this lens, whilst my research will focus on how campus planners have attempted to evoke urbanity as the fundamental criterion of the campus.
Much of the research undertaken in this period will be consolidated into an 'Atlas' of the UMIST Campus, which will document the architecture, urban design, and landscape of the campus through drawings, photographs and essays. The format of the Atlas will resemble that of an earlier study I undertook on Churchill College, Cambridge. Given the threat to the campus of comprehensive redevelopment, the aim of this document is to record the campus buildings and its collective structure in the long term, whilst, in the short term, to publicise its remarkable urban form.
In addition to this, I undertook a number of supplementary activities while based in Manchester:
- Campus Visits: in addition to UMIST, more rudimentary case study visits to Chancellor's Court at the University of Leeds, (another rare example of a postwar urban university campus) and the University of York. The write-ups for these visits are posted below.
- Exhibitions: Forensic Architecture exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery, and Carbon Counts Exhibition at Manchester Technology Centre. The latter proved useful in comparing the embodied carbon in differing materials, particularly as the focus of the project shifts to an adaptive re-use premise.
- Archive Consultations: UML Special Collections, MMU Special Collections, and Visual Resources Centre. These visits were exceptionally useful in understanding the original UMIST Campus planning process (committee minutes); the evolution of the campus masterplan (architectural drawings); and the original condition of the campus buildings, whose integrity has been diminished by later additions (original publicity photographs); as well as unrealised proposals for the campus (masterplans).
- Presentations: A presentation given to MA A&U students at Manchester School of Architecture on the history, urban theory, and redevelopment of the UMIST Campus. The students are also situated at the UMIST Campus for their design and research projects.
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