I have designed a Youth Centre for teenagers that specialises in the creative arts. It expands out to the community in Hulme, the most residential and youngest along the Mancunian Way. Young adults in Manchester are a forgotten demographic, left to fall through the gaps. There is a distance need in the city for a safe space for them to relax, learn and gain life skills. However, more often than not this demographic are left to their own devices and turn to the concrete city as a place of solstice. This often leads them down a bad path, getting into bad habits and getting in with bad people. For this reason, I have identified a need in Manchester for a youth service.
The word ‘creativity’ can conjure up an image of a painter leaning into an easel or a potter shaping clay, but creativity isn’t just about design and art and beauty. It’s also about using new ways of thinking and structuring something. It’s about putting the pieces together to geta better outcome. In practice, it’s a young person seeing a problem in their own life or community, having the conviction that things can be better, and finding a way to make it happen. This facility acts as a therapy service, a place to learn both life skills and creative skills, and a place to exhibit these new skills in order to build a portfolio and resume. My aim is to give the young people of Manchester the best start in life.
