Building in Progress
My practice focuses on social, ecological, and economic sustainability. This project serves to show how environmental design can be the cheapest form of design and the most accessible in terms of constructability.
The project initially came from my desire to create a resilient building typology in the face of a new mass extinction, one that feeds off the city's waste, growing into derelict spaces. This evolved into the development of an incremental building system that fills in unused council-owned land with missing community amenities.
Creating a project that was repeatable and economically feasible were the main design drivers. I began by designing a modular system based on 10x10ft scaffolding frames. All other aspects of the basic module were then designed using as much readily available waste material as feasible, ensuring low-tech processing methods to allow for on-site manufacturing. The low-tech building system would be taught to communities so they can create spaces that will meet local needs independently. Fully trained locals can then become project staff, introducing the project to new sites and training new communities.
I piloted the system on a disused parking lot in Beswick, Manchester, working with a local charity, the 'Muslim Social Justice Initiative', to run a community design session that established the programme for the site. This informed the design of the site’s community development, growing from a serviced core into a multifunctional prayer space. Each site is also equipped with a workshop, allowing system components to be fabricated from local waste, on-site housing for project staff (enabling subsidised wages), and a full set of off-grid services to minimise ongoing service costs and reduce initial set-up expenses.
