Throughout the Foundation year we aim to provoke student’s inquisitiveness, enthusiasm, and fascination. The course celebrates the students' existing experiences and knowledge of spatial thinking, whilst challenging and broadening their outlook on what architecture could or should be. This is achieved through a variety of workshops, talks, visits and design briefs, taking place inside and outside of the studio environment.

We think about architecture as a “doing” word, and the course aims for students to learn “How To Architecture”. Through the units we develop skills in how to draw and make, how to design and present, how to engage others and translate ideas, how to be a student and finally how to ‘do a project’. The quality of work Foundation students have achieved this year is a testament to their dedication and passion for architecture as a discipline.

Architecture is a subject area with endless possibilities and multiple answers to the same starting questions. Foundation supports students to not only understand the studio environment’s practices and be able to speak “architect”, but to enable them to question those rituals and use them to imagine a better world.

Guests

Katy Marks - Citizen Design Bureau, Jewish Museum staff and volunteers, James Bruce and Daniel Proffitt - GMI, Bridge Architects, MMU Estates Staff - Matt Hill, Roy Blagg, Lachlan Fulton, James & Jordan; Anna Gidman - ACAN, Selasi Setuufe - Black Females in Architecture, Charlie Edmonds - FAF, Jake Stephenson-Bartley - Glasshouse Community-Led Design, Hayley Flynn - Skyliner, Prof. Stephen Hodder, staff and volunteers at RHS Bridgewater Gardens, Rob Vinall and Lettice Drake.

Practices

BDP, Buttress, Chapman Taylor, HTA Design, Hawkins Brown, Levitt Bernstein, SimpsonHough, Sheppard Robson, stephenson hamilton risley STUDIO. Huge thank you to these practices who provided a placement for Foundation students in November.

Special Thanks

Kevin Singh, Scott Miller & B.15 team, Pete Powell, Liz Peet - MMU Library, Brigid Callaghan - Learner Development Team.

Semester 1

PPD | Personal & Professional Development

INSIDE & OUTSIDE

Students develop key academic research and writing skills in this unit through two briefs INSIDE and OUTSIDE. INSIDE the studio environment, tasks involve exploring the history of architecture, creating a case study of an influential building, identifying and analysing an architect’s design process through a Pavilion design, and attending a series of talks from industry experts and practitioners who are challenging the status quo. OUTSIDE the studio, students undertake a series of visits - this year included Manchester Jewish Museum and a live construction site - as well as 3-day work experience placement within practices across Manchester.

CPT | Communication & Presentation Techniques

ROOM & CITY

Students begin by carrying out a series of activities to build up a toolkit of fundamental skills including visualisation, drawing, collaging, scale, perspective and graphic presentation. These are introduced in a series of workshop style sessions. The unit culminates in two creative briefs, ROOM and CITY, the first examining, documenting and suggesting an improvement to a room - this year a gallery space at Manchester Museum - and the other exploring, investigating and recording and the city, through the lens of opposites. At the end of Semester 1 students curate an exhibition where they invite friends and family, as well as MSA peers and staff to celebrate their work in progress.

Semester 2

ACT | Analytical & Conceptual Techniques

ASSIST

In this unit students utilise their drawing and making skills. The brief, entitled ASSIST, asks them to explore the function(s) for a specific user, by designing something wearable that can attach to the body, to help the person function particular to the user’s activity or needs. The aim of the project is to understand the importance of the body in relation to an action and the environment in which it takes place. As part of this unit, students also take part in MSA LIVE 24 alongside peers from five other cohorts, working in groups collaborating with external partners across Greater Manchester on a project with social impact or for community benefit.

STUDIO | Architectural Design Studio

FOLLY

Foundation culminates in a project which brings together the design, research, analysis, communication, and presentation skills acquired over the two semesters. Located this year in the RHS Bridgewater Gardens; FOLLY challenges students to design a bespoke structure for a specific client, on a site of their choosing. Students develop their own concepts and designs, resulting in a final proposal communicated in both physical and digital in drawn and model form. Offering a site-specific structure, the proposals cater perfectly to their client's needs, in an already scenic landscape and gardens.