The Virtual Market

Sep 29, 20203 min read

Updated: Dec 16, 2020

For the first week of the module TMA1402, Creative Innovation and Entrepreneurship, we were introduced to the collaborative project, The Virtual Market. As the Teams session progressed I felt intrigued by this project and the prospect of trying new skills, a new technology that I have never used before such as Virtual Reality (VR), projection mapping and so on. It is at a too early stage to be pinning down final concepts as the project is only in the initial stages, however, I feel excitement for how myself and my project workgroup will develop not only the project work itself but also as creative practitioners and how that will in pact our practice going forward in the MA.

After being placed into groups, and after getting to know one another and dissecting the brief we planned what our independent study should be around initially and planned in our next call on Microsoft Teams for Tuesday 6th October 2020 where we could share our findings, start to discuss themes and concepts that interest us.

I'm quite familiar with The Queensgate Market as I made visits to the market during my time studying my BA degree at the university. Personally, I always had mixed feelings about the market. I've never had a love for the market, nor hate for it either, however, I may add, and I've certainly never paid attention to the architecture of the market prior to this module. My visits were more focused on finding my way around and finding stalls that could suit my need at the time. I did enjoy the talks with stall owners of my more frequently visited stalls, which were often the stalls filled with books and pop culture items and collectables. After not visiting the market since graduating and after looking at images of the market and reliving memories of my visits I started my research with the building itself. I started by researching the architecture and the history of the market.

The Queensgate Market in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire is hailed as one of the most iconic buildings in the town and is known nationwide, if not worldwide, as a marvel of architecture and engineering. The market officially opened in April 1970 and was funded entirely by the Council (Huddersfield Gem, n.d.). At the time the Council was implementing a four-phase plan to rejuvenate the town centre. The market was part of phase two. J Seymour Harris Partnership and Leonard and Partners looked after the project as consultant engineers. (Huddersfield Gem, n.d.). Designed by Gwyn Roberts (1936-2004), the building has had a colourful history and looks to be in for a colourful future with plans already in place to create a new "Cultural Heart" in Huddersfield which will include the Queensgate Market in the plan. This investment is a ten-year plan and will cost £250 million to complete (Kirklees Together, 2019). From a personal point of view, I do like to see councils put in the effort and the funds to create these new spaces for art, design and culture. We see all too often that some towns and cities don't give the sector proper space to be expressive or showcase works.

Using this starting point of architecture for my research I will be sharing my findings with the team on our next call where I will be fine-tuning my research path and going forward. Check out some imagery from my research so far below.