Beech Road Park

Student Live Project and Collaborative Design Workshops, 2021

Beech Road Park is a cherished community hub, situated under a dense canopy of trees and edging Beech Road, a bustling neighbourhood high street. In collaboration with the Manchester School of Architecture’s MSA LIVE 2021 Programme, I worked with two groups of students to develop two exciting projects aimed at enhancing the park’s facilities and creating inclusive spaces for the local community. The two projects - Play by the Beech and Keen Fingers - were designed to give the Friends of Beech Road Park creative solutions to help make the park a better place for everyone.

Play by the Beech focussed on designing an inclusive play area, while Keen Fingers aimed to design an entrance archway, shed, planters, and a stage for events.

Before the students began, we led an engagement activity where local schoolchildren were asked to contribute their own ideas for the park by filling in a blank plan and this input was invaluable in shaping the final designs. Play by the Beech developed four incredible concepts, incorporating urban farms planted in tyres, inclusive play structures, hilled terrain, and graffiti spheres, while Keen Fingers developed an idea around thousands of individually painted tiles made by the community to clad a family of new structures in the park for planting, storage and seating.

The projects brought together students, local children, and the community to reimagine and revitalise a valued outdoor space. These interventions not only provided functional and imaginative spaces but also created a sense of ownership and pride among the people of the local area, reinforcing the park as a vibrant community space.