AJ Student Prize 2023: University of Manchester/Manchester Metropolitan University

About the Manchester School of Architecture

Undergraduate

Takumi Miller

Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief PRAXXIS (BA3)
Project title Feminist Factory of Subversion

Project description The project is set in a post-climate disaster Tokyo in 2050. The city has been totally replaced by the Radiant City, a totalitarian, heartless urban system which centralises power and segregates residents. The factory is an illegal urban occupation, hiding in the shadows of a skyscraper and built of salvaged materials. Using an anarchist approach to architecture, based on freedom and participation, its form and function are inspired by subversive tactics, allowing anyone beneath to have privacy. The programme consists of 10 tsunami pods with deployable inflated sections for debating, socialising, communication and journalism. They can deflate and submerge to conceal activity if authorities arrive.

Tutor citation This ‘feminist factory’ project is an innovative and unique proposition. It is well researched, considered and well tested, with critically developed detailing. Sarah Renshaw, Roxanne Kanda, Helen Iball

Postgraduate

Yunqi Zhang

Course MArch
Studio/unit brief &rchitecture
Project title The Spectacle

Project description Spectacle comes from Guy Debord’s 1967 book Society of the Spectacle, where the individual becomes a passive subject, controlled by imagery and commercialised information. People are audience watching the spectacle as well as being part of the spectacle. In modern society, life itself is presented as a collection of spectacles and everything that exists is transformed into an appearance. This thesis explores the relationship between seeing and being seen; to show how people live in the city of the spectacle, where they are all part of a reality show, and it is unclear what is performing or performed. Manchester is the film set for creating the city of the spectacle, with the project the ‘present’. It aims to expose separation and alienation, and construct situation, while manipulating the images to dominate senses. The narrative is developed around an escape route.

Tutor citation This project is a rigorous spatial exploration of the nature of spectacle, demonstrating the creation and translation of concepts to atmospheres to affective realisable spatial configurations. Each element of process work has been exciting and inventive, presenting a spectacle filmic narrative and explanatory appendix. Stefan White, Mark Hammond, Sam Holden