Honey, I'm Home?
My thesis explores how derelict buildings in Greater Manchester can be reclaimed through squatter-led adaptive reuse as a response to the housing crisis. It is guided by the research question: How can the derelict buildings of Manchester, in the face of the lack of affordable housing, facilitate squatting? The project positions squatting not as an illegal act, but as a form of urban regeneration — challenging dominant narratives and proposing new models for sustainable, community-led development.
Focusing on the Hulme Hippodrome, a once-thriving Edwardian music hall, the proposal investigates how conservation and contemporary reuse can coexist. Drawing on my interests in heritage, adaptive reuse, and sustainable architecture, the design carefully balances the theatre’s architectural integrity with minimal, low-impact interventions to support communal living, performance, and collective self-governance.
The Hippodrome is reimagined as a performance space for marginalised users, evolving into a community-run commons. Spatial strategies include a rooftop garden bar, donation centres, communal kitchens, and a rainwater harvesting system — many of which are constructed through reclaimed materials and self-build methods. These interventions are illustrated through a series of collaged drawings, comics journalism, and speculative timelines spanning 0–100 years, capturing both the fragility and resilience of informal architecture.
Throughout, the thesis reflects on the role of the architect not just as a designer, but as a facilitator of social and environmental repair. It considers how forgotten buildings can be reframed as resources — repositories of memory and potential — and argues for a more inclusive, resourceful, and contextually grounded model of practice.
Ultimately, Honey, I’m Home? proposes that adaptive reuse, when grounded in community needs and supported by sustainable strategies, can transform dereliction into opportunity — and architecture into a tool for equity and regeneration.
