Levelling The Playing Field by Aran Kamil-Thomas reimagines Old Trafford as a home for Manchester United Women through feminist stadium design.
The project matters because it asks a serious question about sports architecture: what would a stadium look like if care, access, family use, sensory experience and gender equity were built into the brief from the start?
Project images
What the thesis proposes
Aran is a Part II Architectural Assistant and recent graduate from Manchester School of Architecture. His thesis challenges the male-centred history of major stadium design by reworking Old Trafford around Manchester United Women and a wider range of users.
The proposal keeps the familiar stadium structure as an anchor, then uses targeted interventions to change the experience inside it. Accessible concourses, prayer rooms, sensory suites, family facilities and gender-neutral bathrooms become core parts of the architecture.
Why the design strategy is useful
- It treats inclusion as a spatial issue, not a policy add-on.
- It uses adaptive reuse to challenge the culture of an existing venue.
- It tests design through different user narratives rather than an abstract average visitor.
- It connects women’s football, care and public architecture in one clear proposition.
Portfolio lesson
If a thesis uses a political or social framework, the drawings need to prove it. Show the changed routes, rooms, thresholds and user journeys so the argument becomes architectural.
Showcase an inclusive design thesis
Architecture Social Showcase is useful for student projects that connect equality, access, adaptive reuse and public architecture.
- Make the social argument specific.
- Show the spatial changes that support it.
- Explain who the design helps and how.
Architecture Social view
Stephen’s recruiter view is that values-led projects become much more persuasive when the design is precise. Inclusion should be visible in the plan, section, circulation and programme, not only in the statement.
Connect with Aran
Aran’s public profile route gives more context for the thesis and wider work.
If this project has made you rethink your own portfolio or next move, browse current architecture jobs or contact Architecture Social for a recruiter’s view.
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