News | Tuesday, 13th June 2017

Architecture students create housing designs for town

Exhibition of postgraduate work on show in Bakewell

One of the designs on display at Bakewell: Some Ideas
One of the designs on display at Bakewell: Some Ideas

An exhibition of fictional affordable housing development designs produced for Bakewell by architecture students is to open in the town.

More than 15 postgraduate students from Continuity in Architecture, one of Manchester School of Architecture’s in-house ateliers, have created images of purely theoretical proposals as an exercise forming part of their course.

Their work will go on display at Bakewell Town Hall at an exhibition entitled Bakewell: Some Ideas.

The School of Architecture is a collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester. It is the largest school of architecture in the country and was recently placed sixth in the world listings of schools of architecture.

Over the last academic year the atelier has been working in Bakewell with the aim to examine the nature of ‘home’ and its application in the local context.

This includes investigations into the possibility and practicality of placing a substantial number of thoughtfully designed, affordable homes in the town.

Continuity in Architecture students explored homes for key workers, homes for people who may otherwise be priced out of Bakewell but are desperately needed in an effective and progressive area.

Sally Stone, Head of Continuity in Architecture, said: “The Master’s level students from Continuity in Architecture have looked at eight sites within the boundaries of Bakewell and a proposal for each site has been developed.

“The solutions range from clustered affordable housing, to live-work units, to multi-generational living.

“The projects consider many aspects of living, society and culture: the intimate investigation of function and character of the collection of homes, the form of the different buildings and the nature of the individual rooms.

“Every project considers the surrounding vernacular traditions and history of the site combined with the changing needs of a 21st Century population.

“These proposals will not be built but are simply ideas generated by the students.”

Continuity in Architecture as a postgraduate atelier has been established at the Manchester School of Architecture for more than 20 years.

The atelier runs programmes for the design of new buildings and public spaces within the existing urban environment.

The emphasis is on the importance of place and the idea that design of architecture can be influenced by the experience and analysis of particular situations.

This interpretation of place can provide a contemporary layer of built meaning within the continuity of the evolving town or city.

Ms Stone said: “It is quite a straightforward process to copy the designs of early generations.

“It is also quite easy to design something that is deliberately eccentric and flamboyantly contrasts with the surrounding context.

“But the middle ground is much more challenging.

“The design of a building that is utterly sympathetic and appropriate for the situation, but is also observes the needs and lifestyles of the population of the 21st Century is the difficult task that the students have been set.

“To look as if it has always been there, but equally is also obviously completely contemporary is a difficult and thought-provoking project.”

Bakewell: Some Ideas can be visited daily between June 16 and June 30 from 10am to 4pm at Bakewell Town Hall in The Square, Bakewell.

An open afternoon takes place on Wednesday June 21 from 2pm.

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