MSA LIVE 25 is this year’s annual programme of collaborative student-led live projects. Each year the Manchester School of Architecture runs MSA LIVE to unite BA1, BA2 and MLA1 students with MArch 1 and MA+AR postgraduates in mixed-year teams. The post-graduates engage in practice-based research to organise projects, working with collaborators from the North-West and beyond to create social impact beyond architectural education. Well Done to all involved this year!
This year approximately 630 students from 5 cohorts in MSA have worked on 40 projects with over 70 external collaborators and organisations. The projects culminate in two ‘action weeks’ which are documented on the MSA LIVE 23 blog live.msa.ac.uk/2025. Topics tackled are current and active for communities and issues are always wide ranging. This year projects included retrofit and sustainable development of community use buildings, designing a new Mountain Rescue Hub in Bolton, proposing uses for recycled plastic material in Stockport, creating visions for school classrooms and play areas in Heald Green, developing co-designed gardens in Salford, constructing a mobile Possibility Machine for Arts in Oswestry, researching sensory areas in museums in Manchester, suggesting adaptive reuse of churches in Rossendale, celebrating heritage of place in Bradford, encouraging more active lifestyles in Stockport, building new garden beds in Monton, engaging children about design and architecture in Chorlton, and even designing a new floating structure in Liverpool docks!
We are always interested in working with new collaborators so if you would like to work with MSA students in your community on a project please get in touch: e.crompton@mmu.ac.uk or fill out this form and we will be in touch!
MSA LIVE 25 External Collaborators
Gorgeous Gorse Hill, Portland Basin Museum, Laura Sanderson + Oswald Road Primary School, Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, Monton Unitarian Church, Manchester Urban Diggers, Prospect Vale Primary School, For Tyldesley CIC, Wigan Building Preservation Trust, Groundwork, Lindow Moss Landscape Partnership, Valley Heritage, Rossendale Borough Council, Salford City Council, Agecroft Chapel Restoration Group, Salford Community and Voluntary Service, Tameside Council, Ridgehill Together CIO, Ridgehill Enterprises, Jigsaw Support (Jigsaw Homes), Civic and Social, Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation, Stockport8 Consortium, Resilient Cities Network, Canal & River Trust, Donald Insall Architects, Kindred, Bradford Council, Tameside Council - Greenside Mill, Growing Togetherness CIC, Friends of Buile Hill Park, Incredible Edible Salford, Salford Croquet Group, Salford Junior Park Run, Local Food First CIC, Oldham Council, Healthy Me Healthy Communities CIC, The Landing CIC, Gorse Hill Allotment Association (GHAA), Droylsden Youth Centre, Life Leisure, Age UK Stockport, Seashell Trust, Canon Burrows CofE Primary School, Friends of Hulme Parks (F.O.H.P.), Manchester Museum, Pinc College, The Grange, Blackpool Council Library Services, Burnside Centre, Rural Art Hub CIC, Delamere School, In-Situ (THIS IS NELSON), Super Slow Way, Building Bridges Pendle, StudioLab, Radio Diamond, Manchester Poetry Library at MMU, Ecohub, Blackpool Council, United Didsbury Methodist Church, Manchester Methodist Circuit, Manchester Climate Alliance, Plastic Shed, Trafford Youth Engagement Service, Sale High School and Sale Moor Community Centre.
