Multi-Faith Update !

David Walker was invited to present a case study of the project "Rest and MultiFaith Space" at Westfield Straford City at the recent Conference on MultiFaith Spaces held at Manchester University. The conference covered all aspects from research, design, theology, management, policy and the international context. The WaM project was presented as an exemplar and based around the idea that we should be "creating positive space not negative space".... like ALL of our projects. It was an amazing 2 days, with presentations from academics, artists and practitioners.....and everyone i talked to was genuinely impressed with the design we had produced - even so far as to pose the question "is this the future of MFSpaces? ". i personally think not as each and every situation is going to be different. Having experience of what drives these situations though - and now greater insight into the genre has been invaluable.

Enjoy these new pics taken recently by Isabel Aram-Walker

AMV BBDO space plan

WAM were appointed by AMV BBDO to provide strategic space planning services for a fluid and demanding workplace. The existing building had been subject to ad-hoc changes to meet constantly changing workplace demands over a number of years, and the first thing was to map out and understand how the current situation worked and identify areas where the layouts could be improved. There was a DAY 1 scenario to achieve, but WAM were keen not to go down the route of looking at the bigger picture so produced midterm and long term scenarios which showed how the existing building could be maximised for effective working in a dynamic work environment. This then informed the immediate goals to produce a solution which would be sustainable in the future.Our analysis of the existing showed that some groups were using furniture which was inefficient and inappropriate for the space and task at hand. Working with Furniture supplier Steelcase, we evolved a desking solution which would be more efficient in space terms as well as encourage better communication and collaboration of teams. It was also a higher quality product with a clear design intention.