RAVE!
"Of Collective Joy In Boiler Rooms: How Can Rave Culture Contribute To Adaptive Reuse In The City?"
Starting out as an observation of the undying nature of rave culture in Manchester, the thesis in itself is an explorative journey of Manchester’s night scene and imminent future(s) of The Warehouse Project through autoethnographic research - a lived (and shared) experience of the highs and lows of the underground.
This proposal challenges the notion of architecture beyond just the built, towards an appreciation of the disused and un-built environments in our chaotic city; “for the people, by the people” starting with the context of a rave. The design approach embraces the collective power of local creatives and communities from the ground up, specifically designed to be inclusive and practical to encourage the cyclic flow of de-individuating joy. An embodiment of “if it can handle a rave, it can handle anything”, the proposed concertina structure is also made specially to be adaptable across all scales; robust while maintaining light-touches, for meanwhile uses with evolving longings for permanence, to make spaces places we can rave about!
