This is a project exploring the materials that make up the city of Manchester. It exists to encourage a different way of looking at the urban environment, pulling together new materialism, environmental history and urban theory.
The Material City operates somewhere between digital and physical. There's a small museum with bits of Manchester in jars, and there's an Instagram page with photos and other good stuff.
It's also an evolving piece of work. Check back to see what's new.
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The Material City will soon be running tours of Manchester's materials. These will be historical walking tours, covering a variety of stops representing different aspects of the city's environmental history.
Get the solid facts on Manchester's stone on a walk from Manchester Cathedral to Bridgewater Hall. This tour covers fossils, erosion, stone as a status symbol, and the deeper meanings behind how stone makes humans feel things. We'll talk about how Manchester's building materials have changed over time, from red sandstone to Portland Stone from the South Coast. There'll also be talk of deep time and stoney temporality.
Book nowGet to know Manchester's water on a deeper level on a walk from the Museum of Science and Industry to the New Union pub on Canal Street. This tour covers canal building, reshaping rivers, cholera, mythical monsters, and the class issues surrounding access to urban water. We'll say “hi” to a hidden river and think about the pros and cons of hard and soft water. There'll also be floods and mud.
Book nowForthcoming. Due to be full of info about air quality, wind speed, and urban air rights.
If you would like to be notified when tour dates are available, please join The Material City newsletter below. Let me know if there's a particular tour that interests you and I can prioritise organising that tour.