Studio

Landscape Atelier 1a

Landscape Atelier 1a

The project explores the idea of ‘reconnecting’ following the multi-layered disconnection of the pandemic. The restrictions on movement and social distancing changed our relationships with; the environment; friends; routines and activities; nature; streets; cities; and our role within wider society. Following the initial stages of the Covid 19 crisis and having experimented with new modes of working; forms of living and temporary civic adaptations, we explored the opportunity to rethink how we design city spaces.

Using Deansgate, Manchester as a testbed we developed proposals of how we now wish to reconnect with people, places and nature. The project provided an introduction to the interconnected relationship of cities and landscape and the opportunity to test ideas through design.

Landscape Atelier 1b

Landscape Atelier 1b

Angel Meadows has a troubled history, described by Engels in 1845 as ‘hell upon earth’ it was once home to the worst ravages of the industrial revolution. Despite the name of the site, the reality in the 1800’s was very different for the many generations of residents that suffered desperate living and working conditions. Their status as working-class migrants (mainly of an Irish Catholic background) directly impinged on their right to the city and their right to make space for themselves and their communities.

Conventional heritage projects uncover hidden histories of a site and make them visible to the visitor and user. This brief challenged us to go a step further to think about and use history in a different way: How can we use historical narratives to develop proposals that learn from the past rather than simply commemorate it?

While great leaps forward have been made in public health and working conditions and the history/ies of Angel Meadows have been documented, the history of the site raises pertinent questions for our contemporary cities.

Do we make space for everyone in our cities today?

The group proposed park designs for an under-represented group for Angel Meadows using an intuitive and iterative site design process based on Christophe Girot’s ‘Four Trace Concepts’.

Humanities

Landscape Studies 1a

Landscape Studies 1a

LS1A introduced alternative perspectives on the history of landscape architecture. The traditional canon of landscape architecture focuses on stylistic developments overlooking the social, political and cultural factors that underlie landscape creation. In this course we explored the structures of power that underpin landscape architecture through six key themes of NATURE, GENDER, RACE, CLASS, POLITICS, TERRITORY. Through these thematic discussions we questioned the traditional canon set forward in Jellicoe’s ‘The Landscape of Man’ to question the ‘imagined line of progress’ (Raxworthy 2018) and instead explore some of the ‘many different versions of history’ (John Dixon Hunt).

We adopted ‘epistemic disobedience’ (Raxworthy 2018) to reorient our approach towards landscape history, encompassing other knowledges and practices by decentring the Euro-centric, male, white, middle class dominated histories of our conventional subject textbooks.

LS1a projects included a range of case studies exploring intersectional aspects of a range of historical Landscape Architecture projects. Huaijin Jian explored the political aspects of colonial statuary in South Africa, Treicy Isamitt Letelier presented the little-known example of Koutamakkou in Togo, Africa, while Ankita Rani explored social class in Chinese Scholar Gardens through the case of The Humble Administrator’s Garden.

Landscape Studies 1b

Landscape Studies 1b

The Architecture, Climate, and Society course takes a key contemporary thematic that is at the forefront of academic and professional activities in architecture and landscape architecture: critically understanding the climate emergency. Through situating our contemporary predicament within a long history of architectural engagement with energy, nature and climate, and through engaging with knowledge from allied disciplines such as geography and sociology, the unit helped clarify student thinking in relation to addressing the climate crisis.

LS1b students created reading diaries on key texts addressing the climate crisis, they were asked to visually represent their critical understanding of each text along with a written critical narrative. The images included here show Treicy Isamitt Letelier’s creative response to the texts.

Technology

Landscape Studies 2a

Landscape Studies 2a (Technology)

Landscape Studies 2 introduces students to a range of processes and systems which are generators of landscape, and goes on to explore the materials of landscape, both living and inert, and their application in design.

Part A involves a study of materials through direct observation on a range of sites. Knowledge is acquired through drawing, analysis and supporting research, supported by presentations from a range of guest tutors, as well as dialogue and discussion between students.

Landscape Studies 2b

Landscape Studies 2b (Technology)

Landscape Studies 2 introduces students to a range of processes and systems which are generators of landscape, and goes on to explore the materials of landscape, both living and inert, and their application in design.

In Part B, students are required to apply and deepen this knowledge adopting professional conventions and best practice in communication of technical information through drawings, specifications and other documentation. Ideas are explored through carefully defined design challenges, based on case studies and site investigations, helping to ground theoretical understanding in concrete landscapes.