My Year 6 thesis is an experimental renovation project of Castlefield in Manchester, along with Weining Luo. In Studio 1, we researched Castlefield in different historical periods, especially focused on Roman occupation and construction styles. In Studio 2 and Studio 3, we inserted Roman abstractions into the modern context by building a walking system across different historical layers in this area. The main building of this design stands as a "Modern Principia" with a multi-arch facade, which concept comes from the Roman architectural vocabulary.
During my two-year study in CiA, I concentrated a lot on adaptive reuse and urban context research by finishing several projects and a dissertation on heritage. Especially in the high-speed developing period, I would love to slow down to think about the good old days to get inspiration and pay tribute to history.
