Hargreaves
5th Year
Aged 24
Our design methodology seeks out encounters with people and places, to seek out affects. We actively search for these encounters, creating new situations which result in personal affect, from which we respond creatively to actual circumstances to create architectural projects. By attending conferences in connection with Manchester City Council's Generations Together programme, I sought out these encounters, enabling me to meet new people to initiate my main project for the year. At the Age Friendly City conference in November, I met with Dr Richard Ward who wanted to form an interdisciplinary team with Dr Andrew Clark, a lecturer at the School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History, University of Salford, and myself for a study that was funded by the University of Manchester's MICRA (Manchester Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Research on Ageing) network. The aim of the study was to gain an understanding of the relationship between neighbourhoods and people affected by dementia (i.e. those with a diagnosis and those who care for them), with my involvement bringing knowledge of urban design and architecture to the research. My architectural project developed in response to the real needs of people affected by dementia and explored the ways in which neighbourhood spaces are significant. The final design therefore arose from a process of community engagement, with the result being a number of interventions based around the concept of the Neighbour House and the Noticeboard.