Meet the Team Q&A – Jenny Etheridge
Society Speaks Series
Meet the Team Q&A
Jenny Etheridge
Bio
Name: Jenny Etheridge
MSA Role: President
Manchester Practice: Ellis Williams Architects
Q+A
- Why Architecture?
From a young age I had an obsession of monitoring the local property pages! – buildings have always been for as long as I can remember a great interest. This, combined with my methodical and creative educational style, Architecture seemed to be the perfect career which blended these skillsets.
- What drives your passion for Architecture?
Architecture, design & space have a daily impact on everyone’s lives daily in some way. I am particularly passionate about how Architects have the opportunity to indirectly change how people live and work in a positive way. From how we navigate the city, to how we feel in our homes or workplaces, architecture and design play a pivotal role in shaping the way we live.
- How did your architecture education and career journey to date, bring you to working in Manchester?
I grew up in a small town in the South Lakes, opportunities for Architecture were near impossible, therefore on completion of my A-levels I left my small hometown for city life! I set my sights on the undergraduate Architecture course at Nottingham Trent University.
Following graduation from my Part1 course, in an effort to save some money I relocated back to Cumbria where I accepted the Part 1 Placement job offer from Harrison Pitt Architects in Lancaster. My year at Harrison Pitt Architects provided clarity architecture was for me and began to feel excited about what was to come in the years ahead. My part one placement equipped me with the experience and skill set required to continue with the next step of my architectural career – I enrolled on the Masters course at Manchester School of Architecture.
Having grown up isolated at the end of the Furness Peninsular, Manchester was the closet ‘big city’, I had frequently visited from a young age. The city felt familiar and in 2015 there appealed to be a really prosperous feeling about the place. I enjoyed the Masters course at MSA more than I anticipated. After graduation, Manchester’s skyline was thriving with construction activity. I had loved studying in Manchester and was eager to secure work in the city.
I secured a job at Buttress Architects in the summer of 2017 and worked at the leading design practice for five years. I sat my Part 3 exam at Buttress and was fortunate to work with really great people on some really great projects during my time there.
I am now a Senior Architect at Ellis Williams Architects, I am very excited to work with the amazing team at EWA, working within the Manchester office over this next stage of my architectural career.
- What do you enjoy the most about being an Architect in Manchester?
Manchester is a city which pays homage to its rich industrial past whilst reflecting vibrant innovative architecture across the city. It is a city with ambition & confidence – this in line with the scale of the city makes it a really exciting place to be able to make a difference.
- What was it that made you decide to run for Manchester Society of Architects President?
I became involved in the MSA around 5 years ago. Following studying, qualifying, and working in the city I was keen to give something back by contributing to the future of the city.
For me, becoming the president of the MSA enables the opportunity to work with passionate, intelligent, and creative individuals from varying roles to fulfill our society’s ethos:
‘to champion and to nuture the current and future architects of Manchester’
To be able to chair a society where we can make a potential impact to the city and its inhabitants is a daunting yet exciting and would encourage everyone to engage and become involved. I’m honored to be following in some renowned footsteps.
- What is your favourite Manchester Building?
I have two for different reasons –
Whitworth Art Gallery – The late Victorian building has been beautifully restored with a new elegant extension. I love the projection and connection to Whitworth Park, the reflections of the park back onto the glazing. The building is bold yet sensitive, subtle yet clever.
The Express Building – When I first began working in the city my morning walking commute would take me past this striking building. I was taken aback by the chrome curves and tinted glass. A real classy building standing proud on Great Ancoats Street.
- What advice would you give a young person wanting a career in architecture?
Architecture requires hard work, be prepared for this but is a very rewarding career… Ask the silly questions, explore various practices, embrace criticism, and keep sketching!
- What do you do in your spare time?
As much as I love my job, time away from my desk is important. I am a keen runner, last year completing Manchester half marathon, I have my sights set on a European marathon this year! Growing up in the South Lakes, being outdoors is important, I love a long countryside walk!
- In your opinion – energy and sustainability aside, what is likely to be the biggest game changer in our built environment in the next 50 years?
Firstly, is preparing for increased city density: Our cities need to grow at a rapid rate to accommodate the growing population. We need to find ways to address the issues of creating housing, not just for the current population but also for the additional 3billion on their way.
Secondly is AI: It is daunting to contemplate how quickly technology advances, however there is no doubt in 2070 AI will be shaping our environments in some way, therefore we need the skillset to adapt. We will learn to work differently, just like CAD and Revit didn’t displace Architects it transformed workflows. Embracing the new tools and evolving knowledge will be key, Architects must remain current and continually update their skill sets.
- What is one thing you believe we should be talking about in architecture that isn’t discussed?
Fees, value, & the image of the Architect. Key themes which the Manchester Society of Architects will be running a series of events and conversations on over the next 12 months.
Happy New Year! – a new year message from the President
Happy New Year to all our members, partners & colleagues!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a restful break in preparation for the exciting year ahead. Since my election late last year, the MSA Council has been working hard to expand our programme from the very high bar set by my predecessors. I am delighted to report that some exciting developments are in the pipeline.
Firstly, I would like to thank everybody for your support throughout 2023. Your engagement with the society has enabled us to provide a fantastic, varied and well-attended events programme.
Looking ahead into 2024 we want to build on this programme, maintaining our society’s vision –
‘to champion and to nurture the present and future architects of Manchester’
Whilst running events which encapsulate some fundamental themes including:
- The Building Safety Act
- Sustainability, Carbon, Retrofit & Refit
- Personal development, Achievement and Resilience
- Self-Promotion & Value
Our key themes will be reinforced through a greater emphasis on knowledge sharing, providing the latest information, and promotion of Manchester Architects at every stage in their journey.
All, upcoming events will be promoted on our new website
Please get in touch with us either by signing up as a member here
Or contact admin@the-msa.co.uk – we would love to hear from you.
Happy New Year!
Jenny Etheridge.
MSA President and Architect
at Ellis Williams Architects
The MSA Dinner 2023
A sold-out success at the Halle, St Peters
This year MSA Dinner was hosted at the Halle, St Peters in Ancoats, a restored Grade II Listed former church with elegant interiors which provided a beautiful backdrop for an amazing evening. It was great to bring the architectural community together – a chance to celebrate the successes over the past year, and ultimately – to have a party. And the attendees did just that!
The night was a complete sell-out and a great success thanks to everyone who attended, and we are looking forward to starting organising next year’s shortly. It was an evening of great food, great company and great dancing! – We were delighted to welcome the RIBA president Muyiwa Oki who joined us on the night and grateful to our guest Tom Stannard for his inspiring speech highlighting on Salford’s ambitious development and wider city collaborations.
For this year’s fundraiser we chose to support Mustard Tree, a local Manchester charity fighting to combat poverty and prevent homelessness in the area. Thanks to all the companies who donated raffle prizes and all the attendees for the generous donations we raised an incredible sum of £2000.
Finally – a huge thank you to our sponsors– Wienerberger, BePlas, RGB Facades, Reynears, Velux, Mansell Building Solutions, James Hardie, SieMatic, Cosentino and RIBA NW. We couldn’t put on events of this scale and quality without their support.
Browse the highlights
Check out the fun captured in the photobooth!
MSA Award Winners 2023
One Off House Unbuilt Award Winner: TC Residence by Alter Studio
This complete transformation of an existing bungalow draws on the spirit of the locality to create a quiet cluster of domestic forms, and an intriguing enfilade of living spaces.
One Off House Built Award Winner: Vestige by Smith & Young
This modest new-build house demonstrates an extraordinary sensitivity to its suburban context and at the same time, expresses a contemporary formal and spatial dynamic; at the same time simple but beautifully detailed interiors offer a sense of calm.
Community Unbuilt Award Winner: Wellbank Community Hub by Artform Architects
This community hub design sensitively translates the barn building typology into a multi-functional building whose generous gabled porticos and epic roofs feel at home in its rural setting.
Community Built Award Winner: Church of Ascension Reconstruction by Buttress
This project is a miraculous resurrection of Salford’s Church of Ascension, destroyed by arson. Exemplary in its use of traditional materials, the reconstruction has introduced more light and universal access to a once again welcoming and resilient community facility.
Small Project Award Winner: Little Underbank by Kelsall Architects
This is a joyful restoration of a derelict Grade II Stockport building into a co-working community space and shop. This project preserves and celebrates heritage on a budget, proving the value that care and imagination are the key to the revival of places.
Commercial Unbuilt Award Winner: Florence Square, Water Lane by DLA
This scheme creates a sense of generosity at its base, with double height colonnades and generous public spaces at its base. Façade material, patterning and proportions are all handled careful to create a quietly sophisticated pair of buildings.
Commercial Built Award Winner: 11 & 12 Wellington Place by TP Bennett
The project is not only a BREAAM Outstanding office building, but it represents good urban design offering an interstitial passage and bridge, and a façade language that offers human scale and rhythm and generous streetscape language to its heritage context.
Commercial Retrofit & Extension Award Winner: Tileyard North by Hawkins Brown
This multi-building restoration of Grade II Listed mill buildings embodies their ability to provide robust new social and cultural infrastructure perfectly suited for the creative industries, but also with generous civic spaces that will enrich its wider locality.
Multiple Residential Unbuilt Award Winner:
Passivhaus Living & Co-working at The George by Ollier Smurthwaite Architects
This project, part of a trio of substantial urban buildings, promises to be a characterful and well proportioned hybrid of residential tower and warehouse. Dwellings are well planned, neighbouring brick viaduct is playfully channelled to become a co-working hub, forming a generous gesture to the street.
Multiple Residential Built Award Winner: Project 531 by Project 3 Architects
This project successfully introduces medium density 4-plex residential typology into a low rise residential neighbourhood. Entrances and thresholds have been articulated carefully, although they lack that green threshold, the planted buffer zone that the neighbouring dwellings enjoy.
Residential Retrofit & Extension Award Winner: Ford House by LIND Studio
This project is a complex conversion of a Grade II listed building into a multi-occupancy building. At the same time extends it to create two additional dwellings. The stony character of the existing building is captured in the new extension and celebrated in both detail and in the way light is handled against the interior finishes.
Future Architect award Winner:
Topo-Licy by Thomas Lee, Alexander Wallace & Samuel Mason
This masters thesis project Topolicy is a fully developed architectural proposition that operates across multiple physical and conceptual scales. The students have deployed their critical assessment of Cumbria’s regional development policies as a springboard for the architectural imagination in the service of local communities and ecologies. Their proposed interventions – clustered buildings, landscapes and even construction methodologies are represented with rigour and extraordinary beauty.
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Stephen Hodder
This year’s lifetime achievement award goes to someone synonymous with Manchester architecture but who has also left their mark beyond. Still creating outstanding work this year marks their 40th year in practice; Stephen Hodder MBE. He founded Hodder Associates in 1992 and within a year won the Royal Fine Arts Commission/Sunday Times Building of the Year award for Colne Swimming Pool, followed by the Stirling Prize for the Centenary Building at the University of Salford. Throughout his career, Stephen has received numerous honours, including an MBE, honorary doctorates, and has served in influential positions such as RIBA President. He continues to receive recognition with over 60 major awards, including 17 for the Welcome Building at RHS Bridgewater.
Presidents Choice Award Winner: Tileyard North by Hawkins Brown
This project resurrects a group of derelict listed buildings to create a facility of national significance. Their brief was to fix a missing piece in the waterfront of Wakefield. That is achieved by faithful restoration and artful new interventions with place making at its heart.
MSA Awards 2023 Highlights
Our mission is ‘to champion and nurture the present and future architects of our city region’. This event is all about championing the excellent work that you all produce and so it’s great to see you turn out in force to celebrate the achievements of Manchester’s Architects. This year’s presentation event took place in an example of that work with New Century Hall being a fantastic refurbishment project by Sheppard Robson. We were pleased to be joined on the night by friends and colleagues from across the construction industry.
We couldn’t put on events of that scale and quality without the support of our amazing sponsors. A huge thank you to – Wienerberger, Beplas, RGB Facades, Solos, Reynaers Aluminium, QPSL, SieMatic, Cosentino and of course the RIBA North West!
The achievements of our members and us coming together each year to celebrate that is well matched to the very definition of society. There were a good number and range of submissions this year and competition in some categories was very strong so unfortunately there were some very worthy schemes that didn’t pick up a prize. Thank you to everyone that entered and well done to all the winners.
Our independent judge for this year was the only UK architect to have received the RIBA’s Stirling Prize, The Manser Medal (twice!), RIBA House of the Year and the Stephen Lawrence Prize – Alison Brooks. Raised in Ontario before moving to London, Alison founded her practice in 1996. Much of her career has been dedicated to housing including the outstanding Stirling Prize winning Accordia in Cambridge, and Stirling shortlisted Newhall Be. Recently the Smile, a timber pavilion for the 2016 London Design Festival attracted global attention. We were delighted she could join us in person on the night to present the awards.
Browse the highlights
MSA Award Winners 2022
Judge’s Comments
01 Commercial unbuilt
Winner: Coal Chutes
Although set in the commercial category, the project explicitly puts the community first. It operates according to the architect’s 5 sustainable de-growth principles that align perfectly with the client’s aspiration to have a light, locally sourced, affordable workspace scheme. We commend the project for its successful efforts in thoroughly implementing local materials, reusing existing structures and providing ample space for the community to inhabit with their own activity.
02 Commercial built
Winner: First White Cloth Hall
The project incorporates a listed heritage building which is restored, repaired and extended. The new additions present a clear hierarchy between the old and the new. The contemporary does not override the existing but ensures equal dignity, highlighting the monumental and the original. In this way, the new provides knowledge of the past.
03 Multi-residential Unbuilt
Winner: Phoenix Works
The project has a compact, clean, simple internal scheme and elegant appearance. The unit floorplans are functionally well resolved. Particularly impressive are the collective spaces and amenities. The attention to their design results in a high-quality domestic environment that enhances a sense of community. Additionally, the quality materialisation of the interior and the façade with the bay windows exude exceptional dignity and appeal.
04 Multi residential Built
Winner: Campus East Gateway Student Residences, University of York
The building is well embedded in the campus and its landscape. The attention given to framing the views and enhancing the relationship with the surrounding pastoral landscape is a remarkable feat. The architectural expression is clear and rational, and the material detailing in brick and concrete gives it refined sophistication.
05 One off unbuilt
Winner: Moor House
The category was full of high-quality projects, but this project stood out with its soft and almost dreamy presentation that immediately communicates the house’s atmosphere. The project draws from the local vernacular architecture and does so in a sensible yet contemporary way, resulting in a rich mixture of materials, textures and light. Even in this design phase, it shows attention to detail expected from later execution stages. The functional distribution in the floor plan is well resolved.
06 One off unbuilt
Winner: Project 465 The Firs Bowdon
The family house extension presents itself well to the public through an elegant elevation from the street. The sleek gabled volume clad in dark brick on top of a concrete base is a simple yet powerful gesture, brilliantly attached to the old structure with a refined glass link.
07 Community unbuilt
Winner: The Iron
An appealing architectural folly that sits beautifully in the landscape. Its complexity is hidden in the execution, which we hope to encourage by giving this accolade. Achieving the wanted texture, sloping of the walls, as well as the sharpness of the edges is quite a feat in construction—an extremely promising project.
08 Community built
Winner: Yoko Ono Lennon Centre
The distribution of spaces is brilliant – stacking the auditoriums results in a compact footprint and allows for a good connection with the campus. The appearance of the Centre is fitting to its programme – it is immediately recognisable by the brick colour and intricate details but imposing in the simplicity of the overall volume.
09 Small project
Winner: Photographers studio
As an annexe to the main house, the studio assumes its character in the same material and volume. However, detailing and appearance communicate the presence of a contemporary aesthetic, both on the outside and inside. Extremely well executed.
10 Future Architect
Winner: Benjamin Carter
The selected project balances well between the ever-present economic and environmental demands for reinvention and retention. The design chooses to diversify the homogeneity of the existing camps by bringing in new functions complementary to the existing architectural typologies. New additions are placed where necessary and coherently connect to the existing complex. Seeing this level of mature thinking and presentation at a student level is impressive.
MSA Awards 2021 Highlights
After an unprecedented 18 months, it was great to see so many people come along to celebrate the achievements of Manchester’s Architects at the annual MSA Awards.
The sigh of relief felt across the Manchester Albert Hall was almost palpable on the night as the room started to fill to over 500 attendees.
This year’s awards was like no other, with two years worth of projects all vying for top spot – you certainly made it hard for this year’s judge. The last couple of years have been difficult, but as a society and a community, you’ve been resilient and adaptable. You’ve kept going and produced work of the highest calibre. The number and quality of entries this year was astonishing and testament to that strength of character.
That said, our achievements as architects are allied to a wider team of other professionals, contractors, manufacturers and suppliers. And, of course, every great building needs a great client so it was a pleasure to welcome wider members of the construction value chain to come along and take part in the celebration.
The awards were judged by immediate Past President of the RIBA President, Professor Alan Jones.
For the last two years as President of the Royal institute of British Architects, he’s championed social mobility and led a reorientation of current and future architects and the RIBA itself. He has judged for the RIAS, RIBA, Civic Trust Awards and chaired the 2020 and 2021 Royal Gold Medal and the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize so we were honoured to have him judge our awards.
A huge thank you should go to all the entrants for their efforts, to the runners up who were all of the highest quality and of course, congratulations to the worthy winners.
Finally – a very special thank you to the Award sponsors, Wienerberger, AluK, Beplas, Concept Cubicle Systems, and George Barnsdale windows for their generous support. Without whom, we simply couldn’t put on the level of event that we did.
We intend to be back to our normal June slot for the awards in 2022. We can’t wait to see you all then and another selection of amazing projects.
View the highlights of the event here:
Norman Foster receives MSA Lifetime Achievement Award
2019 Judge and Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Norman Foster
In 2019, we were honoured to have Lord Norman Foster judge our awards and accept the MSA Lifetime Achievement Award, probably the only award he’d yet to win! Here he is, accepting his award and explaining his personal connection to our great city:
MSA Annual Dinner
In 2019, we welcome’d the industry’s most prominent architects and construction professionals for an evening of gourmet food, cocktails and live entertainment. You can see the image gallery from the 2019 event and reminisce the good times!
MSA Annual Dinner 2019
Image Gallery
Browse the highlights
