grand iftar canopy: St Mark’s

THE TEAM:Tasnia Ahmed, Khizer Mohammed, Martina Rodriguez, Ollie Beale.

The Client: Rashid Majothi and Tehseen Majothi of Bristol Sweetmart.

The Facilitators: Stuart Phelps, FRSA.

Our Collaborators: We have collaborated with UWE BA(Hons) Graphics Design Students to improve signage, and Gambia’s Technical University (USET) for a ‘live-build’.

Introduction: The Grand Iftar Roof project is based in St. Marks Road and aims to create a canopy, sheltering the road below, for events like the Grand Iftar to continue to take place. The Grand Iftar is an event that takes place every year during the Islamic Month of Ramadan when Muslims fast for 30 days, breaking their fast at dusk on each of the days. Every year, the month of Ramadan goes back by 10 days due to the Islamic calendar. This means, the Grand Iftar is at a risk of not taking place as Ramadan will soon start in the winter. Thus, to keep the Grand Iftar running, the aim is to shelter the road and create a space where the local community and wider stakeholders can continue to run this very famous event. Furthermore, there will be opportunities to run more events like Diwali and Christmas, celebrating the distinct culture and unique urban fabric through the addition of a canopy.

Methodology: We undertook a focus group consultation to understand what the stakeholders think of our schemes. They were all extremely excited and impressed with our output. They were excited to add their inputs and ideas into our design schemes. We were successful in adding many of these ideas to our schemes.

Deliverables: Our final proposal included three designs that gave our stakeholders and clients the choice to chose from. The design schemes included:
(1) the Pergola, a permanent structure
(2) the Tent, with permanent awnings along the shops and a semi-permanent canopy, and lastly
(3) Sky Diamonds, a temporary structure using tension cables and a diamond shaped structure spanning the buildings.
A fourth design scheme was also put forward after our final presentation after the feedback from our clients and stakeholders. This final scheme amalgamated schemes 2 and 3.

We were happy to learn that the stakeholders who attended our final presentation, our client, and our Facilitator, were all happy with the outcome of our work.

We are excited to see how this project is taken forward by the next cohort under the facilitation of Stuart and Tehseen!