There’s Music on the High Street, But it’s in the Way!
How can visual or sonic types of disruption on the Mancunian high street create a commons for migrants that mitigates cross-cultural tensions?
My thesis aims to tackle the cross-cultural tensions that have long existed in Manchester’s most diverse neighbourhoods, especially between South Asians and white British locals. It proposes a design for a new high street in Longsight where migrant musicians can engage in fusion music rituals that express multi-cultural sounds to the public, bringing people together to break cultural barriers and promote tolerance. Temporary musical performance pavilions serve as a catalyst for permanent extensions of existing migrant businesses onto the street, pedestrianising half of it and creating a musical promenade for cyclists on the other half. The project explores how architecture informed by music can transform the high street from a space of transit to a social infrastructure and commons for marginalised migrants living in the UK’s “edge” territories. My methodology relied on notation systems that express 'frozen music' on the high street and experimental chrono-photographic methods to create new architectural forms. The building consists of elements that orient cyclists towards performances, raised walkways for pedestrians, migrant musician stages, sound absorption panels, angled roofs that reflect the sound and extensions to existing commons.
