In USE students follow (personal) narratives that are developed through all design stages. The atelier incorporates the techniques and working methods of other creative disciplines, in particular fine art. The topic for this year was to develop strategies that explored resistance. We asked students to investigate agents of resistance and change along and adjacent to the Floop. This theme ran throughout the atelier in all cohorts.

Projects were centred along and beside the Fallowfield Loopline (The Fallowfield Loop or Floop). Built upon the remnants of a decommissioned railway line, the Floop now forms part of the National Cycle Network running the breadth of Manchester. Multiple eras of housing, industrial and natural elements exist along the eastern part of the Floop including the ancient Nico Ditch, the secret lake, and infrastructure in the form of Thirlmere Aqueduct and several reservoirs.

In response to the topic and site students generated diverse landscape architectural drivers: animal aided design, democratic space, partition stories of India and Pakistan, reclaiming public space, celebrating decay, human responses to biodiverse landscapes, dreams and brainwaves, and restorative nature as a response to the COVID 19 pandemic.