As an architecture student it’s easy to get caught up in the highs and lows that the course commands throughout the year. For us MSA students we are in a unique bubble of not quite UoM and kind of MMU, but really both, that gives us an extensive range of facilities and opportunities to be a part of outside of the intense studying. However, the one great group that is truly our own is the Manchester Student Society of Architecture: the UK’s largest student architecture society that you can be a part of just by being enrolled here! This year has seen a real development in the society, with several more subgroups beginning, the ‘MSSA Biweekly’ updates filling our calendars, and even an MSSA membership card giving us exclusive offers on student favourites.
Personally, I am part of the MSSA Life Drawing committee which we started last year to create a space for relaxed creative expression separate from buildings and deadlines. Working on this alongside the MSSA team, you appreciate the effort they put into creating a strong sociable culture that is so essential to life at university. The Life Drawing group has become a popular outlet this year whereby through themed fortnightly sessions, individuals are given the lightly guided occasion to work on drawing skills and meet others of the same interest. In the very same manner, we as a committee like being able to offer that space to others and have since made connections and memories and drawing revelations of our own- I am mostly just in awe of how talented everyone is. With our new committee taking over next year, we could not be more comforted in knowing of the safe hands that it is in, showing how these types of groups, including the volunteer models, mean something to all the people involved.
In an attempt to stop being biased I should talk about the other amazing subgroups too. There is the newly launched ‘MSA Active’ group which relate to all things sporty at MSA including football, basketball, and MMA that take place weekly and compete in matches as well as hosting their own social events. Other groups include the ‘idesign’ team that talk about all things interior design in architecture, giving individuals the opportunity to visit showrooms and engage in workshops. As well as the Climate Action Group, Debate Union, Nexus.
WOAH (Without A Home) is a long-standing subgroup committed to raising awareness and funding for the homeless. Last year they hosted a competition in collaboration with the MSSA Photography team which prompted people to capture “Unseen Realities”, bringing in judges from all over the country for the panel. This year, alongside a blanket making workshop, they held a competition called Social Housing Without Limits, giving students another expressive way to engage in our study beyond the required coursework and feed our conceptual ambitions.
A friend of mine and his team recently released the 11th issue of M+, MSSA’s magazine society, under the theme of Hidden In Sight. The publication encases a wide variety of submissions from students and members of staff’s experiences not only at MSA and in the MTC but in their daily lives. So carefully and meaningfully curated over many months, the publication touches on personal anecdotes delivered in a visual style that is a clear demonstration of the relentless potential we all embody, that can be actualised when given the chance and motivation to.
And that is exactly what MSSA does. Giving us necessary outlets to our creative, active, and academic sides that we’ve been yearning to tap in to since coming to university. A period that is constantly about growth, we are all looking for likeminded people to do things with, and with support from these societies as well as the members of staff who cheer these events on (some even getting involved), there is always something to look forward to even with the thought of looming deadlines and weekly tasks in the back of our heads.
One thing on everyone’s radar right now is the MSA End-of-Year Ball, our last hurrah. Planned from head to toe by the MSSA committee to be nothing short of an incredible time to mark the end of an incredible year.
That’s just what we do in MSSA.