This project is located in Withington, South Manchester, aimed at renewing an existing social housing scheme. I took cues from concepts of Arcology; providing a productive site, bounded by a workshop and grocery, with skills invested on site. Wild spaces and productive growing spaces accompany a reinstated axis through the site, reopening the area to the dynamic shopping streets that surround it.
Themes of productivity and permeability ran through this project in an attempt to create a housing scheme with functions that adapt as the needs of the residents change. These themes are integrated at multiple scales, with masterplanning informed by the needs of allotment growing spaces and transportation nodes, while the building façade is designed to be permeable with functions of growing and moving manifested as greenhouses and bright circulation routes built into the structure of the façade, creating an elevation that grows and moves alongside growth and movement of the street landscape.
Bright colours and a focus on unique and exciting material palettes run through this scheme, as a means to inject fun into the project. Landscaping is informed by the surrounding geography while creating spaces that are an antidote to the busy High Street, encouraging users to travel across the site. A play area using the same structural strategy as the housing blocks, with a slide mimicking the shape and colour of the staircases, aim to provide a further function to the landscaping.
