Continuity

For centuries, we have dwelled upon the problem of how to create controlled and conditioned environments for social relationships in buildings. We live under the same sun, shelter from the same rain, and resist buffeting from same wind as our ancestors, and yet within contemporary architecture we devote ever more resources and seek ever more complexity in solving these problems. Few people are looking hard enough at the existing simple technologies that can be applied to new and existing buildings.

The Continuity atelier at Manchester School of Architecture was established in 1993. It is a studio for teaching and research. It focuses upon the sustainable design of new buildings and public spaces within the historic city and interventions within existing structures.

Continuity uses place as the starting point for every project; the students develop a proposal for a building through the analysis and translation of the particular location. Continuity is a concept that has its roots in Contextualism. It is an approach to architecture and the design of the urban environment that uses the process of analysing and understanding the nature and the qualities of place to develop new elements.

It is our belief that an elemental approach to studying architectural technology within historic settings has never been more pressing. Our experience is that the systematic analysis of how our forebears used ready means and traditional craft techniques in the context of vibrant urban environments will lead to a rediscovery of sustainable, layered, nuanced, contextual and environmentally appropriate solutions for our time.