FC United sign up MMU architecture students - to design dugouts at new stadium

 Source: MEN

 Architecture students will cut their teeth by designing snazzy dugouts for Manchester’s latest football stadium.

Trainee designers at Manchester Metropolitan University are being challenged to think outside the box when it comes to the traditional pitch-side shelters.

They will design eye-catching new dugouts for the £5m FC United stadium.

The community club, formed in protests at the Glazer family’s takeover of Manchester United, are building a 5,000-seat stadium on playing fields in Moston.

And a group of 180 second-year architecture students have been asked to come up with original ideas.

It follows a hands-on exercise last year, when MMU students were let loose at stately home Dunham Massey, creating a series of stunning extravagant garden ornaments. Lecturer Laura Sanderson said the new challenge would test students’ creativity.

She said: “We are working with the club to create two new dug outs. The brief to students will be that they need to break the mould and come up with an original idea.

“Although, we’re still at an early stage, we’d be looking to involve the community in getting their ideas about what they could look like.

“The project at Dunham Massey was really successful.

“Our students ended up creating six follies which were really eye-catching. It’s great experience for our students to see their ideas actually get fabricated.”

The Northern Premier League club, who currently use Bury FC’s Gigg Lane,  hope to be in their new ground for the 2013/14 season.

But the move sparked a bitter row, with many people in Moston opposed to the location on the Ronald Johnson Playing Fields.

Council bosses gave permission for the building last October, despite more than 2,200 objections.