Research Through Design 4:
The theme EPHEMERALITY was chosen to represent Sarah’s fleeting use of the building. A temporary installation seemed the most appropriate way to represent her experience. A number of concepts were sketched, including a painted mural to illustrate the ‘Manc Commandments’, a list of house rules compiled by the residents. The squatter inhabitants were hidden during their time in the building but it is important that the installation makes their presence more widely known. The installation could be a projection on a window or a piece of street art.

Research By Design 3:
The theme of REVEAL has been represented by opening up a window or entry point. This could be on the front facade, or in fact be represented by opening up the railway arches to connect to the site.
The final concept intervention looks at opening up a single arch to allow greater footfall off Whitworth Street as it is much busier. This allowed promotion of any new businesses in the Medlock Mill.

Research Through Design 2:
The theme of OBSERVATION is illustrated through an extruded window and window seat in the basement, to represent the area where Tony would spend his time, looking out towards the river. The window may be coloured, to represent the fun experience that he had, or have a letter motif to represent his job at the Hotspur Press.

Research Through Design 1:
This page of sketches looks at how we can represent one of our characters created in the Storybook through a simple design intervention on the site, in this case, the design represents the idea of repetition of a Cotton Mill Worker

When studying the building facades, we were particularly interested in the windows. At first glance, they appear somewhat regular yet the small changes to the windows reveal wider changes in the use of the building.

The "Story" book looks at 4 characters across 4 periods of time. This was our concept drawing looking at how to display the characters daily life through a journey. The image below looks at ways we could display this, travelling past key locations/ events that summarises the culture of Manchester at that time.

Looking at how we wanted to create our Lexicon, splitting the work into two books. One that looks at the tangible "The Setting" and the other looks at the intangible "The Story". The books are read together to understand the history of Manchester from both a factual and fictional perspective.

Research into Manchester and the Medlock Mill building has revealed that both are comprised of a sequence of layers that have, over time, formed the places we see today.