Architect in Studio: Strategy (AiSS)

The Some Kind of Nature atelier is rooted in feminist posthumanist philosophy, shaped by the work of Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing and Rosi Braidotti. Our primary focus is a response to the climate crisis, which we consider the greatest challenge facing both the profession and humanity. By embracing a posthumanist framework, we foreground relationships. This leads to a particular concern with the biodiversity crisis and the inclusion of non-human actors in the design process.

We view all projects as speculative, using narrative and speculative design methods to test the boundaries of imagination, question the present, and project multiple versions of the future. Our design process is contextual, care-ful, entangled, and open to multiple, often conflicting voices, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of polyphony.

This year we focussed on memory and worked with real clients on Withington Baths, the last working Edwardian pool in Manchester. The baths were saved from demolition in 2015 by the local community which now runs as a Community Interest Company.

The original building was designed with three pools but only two were built, and today only one pool is working as the other is covered by a gym. Our client asked students to consider how the building may be developed to create more sense of community, increase the size of the café and find uses for the hidden pool and empty space on site. The brief responded directly to the needs and concerns of the community while also creating space for broader theoretical reflection.

Architect in Studio: Resolution (AiSR)

The Some Kind of Nature atelier is rooted in feminist posthumanist philosophy, shaped by the work of Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing and Rosi Braidotti. Our primary focus is a response to the climate crisis, which we consider the greatest challenge facing both the profession and humanity. By embracing a posthumanist framework, we foreground relationships. This leads to a particular concern with the biodiversity crisis and the inclusion of non-human actors in the design process.

We view all projects as speculative, using narrative and speculative design methods to test the boundaries of imagination, question the present, and project multiple versions of the future. Our design process is contextual, care-ful, entangled, and open to multiple, often conflicting voices, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of polyphony.

This year we focussed on memory and worked with real clients on Withington Baths, the last working Edwardian pool in Manchester. The baths were saved from demolition in 2015 by the local community which now runs as a Community Interest Company.

Semester two began with a critique of projects submitted for Architect in Studio - Strategy. Following this, an area of the building that included existing and proposed architecture was selected to work on in more detail, allowing for in-depth testing of architectural decisions including form, function, materiality, structures, services, landscape and more.

In addition, students worked in small groups with the brief Small Acts of Love, in which they designed permanent repairs to small but meaningful elements of the building, as identified by the client. Although modest in scale, the work offers a powerful and tangible reflection of architectural practice in microcosm. Students engaged with materials, prototyping, manufacture and installation, while also addressing tolerances, care, maintenance, risk and cost. In this context, conversations with the client and studio staff acquired a particular urgency and seriousness.