Arriving into Manchester during the start of September, ready to start my first year of university and become independent. I decided it was time for a look around! I wanted to feel settled and at home in my surroundings. The first place i stumbled upon was China Town, a small yet busy, dramatic place full of colour and lights! I remembered visiting through the day and night, discovering how the place changes from one scene to another as daylight falls. This fascinated me how cities change and purely light makes this achievable, it made me want to go and explore different spaces within Manchester. In my quiet hometown, once it's dark, the place becomes a ghost town, and only natural daylight brings the pavements alive with locals. As i was looking around Manchester, i followed signs for the Northern quarter and i was shocked at how many spaces were within one place. I went into a cafe along the cobbled streets which outside was a poster advertising 'Karoke and fancy cocktails on Fridays'. I wouldn't of expected a bustling cafe full of cackling adults all talking amoung themselves over coffee to change into a night for students to 'hang out' and socialise enjoying cheap drinks and spending the night with a microphone in their hands amusing friends! It sparked off ideas for my project as the new building i think would benefit from 'change' in spaces. Why should the building not be brought to life when darkness hits the glass studio? Bright lights should egnite the building and bring vibrancy to the space. There are places around Manchester which are not recommended to go at night as it's either not lit up or it's dangerous to be alone, I want noone in the new building to feel fear of not being able to go to certain spaces in the building and i think beautiful lights/screens will bring vibrancy to different spaces. I didn't want to think too much into the project as i understand this arrivals task is just a starting point but it has set off ideas for me to hopefully develop into something potentially great. I am going to continue to look around places in Manchester and see if i can find anymore interesting spaces which change from dusk to dawn. Hopefully, this will spur on some ideas of how this could create different spaces within the new building.
I carried a little sketchbook around China Town when i visited and just scribbled some patterns and colour down into my pad to sense some inspiration, there are a few examples below: