More sketches

More Ideas

Looking back at all my images and thinking about what encapulates Manchester for me there was one thing that stood out, Beetham Tower.

I know its not very steam punk but to me it stands tall as one of the most iconic buildings in the city. Theres no reason I can't reimagine the building in the desired style, whilst retaining what makes it stand out. The tall slender shape,  the lip halfway, even the hum in emits during high wind.

 This was a quick sketch done to try and steam punk up the tower, I think it could work.

 

The idea here was that the tall tower somehow provided power or somthing similar to nearby buildings. I thought a multitude of tubes and pipes reaching down from the tower would look pretty cool. 

  

Another sketch looking at how the scale could work.

  

A look at how the hanging tubes could appear.

  The pipes from the tower could only really reach so far. Secodary buildings could act as substations passing power further from the tower. The reach of the tower could create two seperate zone, those in the inner ring able to buy power direct, while those in the outer ring must pay increased cost to sub station owners.

 This sketch looks again at the zones powered by the tower/s, maybe the land out of reach has become desolate, run down and uninhabitable.

 This takes the idea of powered zones and applies it to a modern day map of manchetser, the tallest building in the city act as the power stations or life support keeping the zones alive. Id really like to incorporate as much of modern manchester as possible to make it recognizable, albeit in a steam punk style.

 The idea of using tall buildings as the centre of these zones could fit well with the concept of a blanket of thick cloud/smog/fog covering the ground. The tall structures would reach through the clouds to gather resources of some kind, maybe fresh air is pumped down the tubes to the citizens below, or solar power is harnessed to great effect to power the city below.

Airships could be another way for people to live above the smog.  

 Habitable areas are restricted to the near tall towers, various zones could exist within the Manchester area.

Having this blanket of cloud cover would provide two quite differnt worlds. The grimy smoggy city below against the sunny open skies above. I could image a section of the level where the player acends through the cloud layer for the first time, the bright sun light dazzling them before there eyes adjust to clear blue skies and a picturesqe blanket of cloud below.

 

 Another concept, trying to show the city beneth the cloud layer with the tower dissapearing above.

Ideas continued

These are a bunch of random ideas for the project jotted in my note book, figured it would be quicker just to scan the pages so here you go.

You need to read the right hand page first with this one. Kind of liked it actually, the idea of a blanket of fog or smog blocking out the sunlight could be good.

Oh and there was this...

More Manchester

I headed into town again yesterday to get some pictures around the northern quarter and try and capture some of the finer details, I took a few pictures while at Piccadilly Station too.

 Most of the intresting and old stuff at Piccadilly is high up above your head where you hardly notice it. The network of riveted beams and supports that hold up the roof is very impressive.

Floral detailing and motifs are used to decorate the roof supports.  

This design was tooked away up high above the pillars, they run the full length of the station but are now mostly obscured by cableing and light fixtures.

 Floral designs are used again to decorate the supports at the top of pillars.

  A close up of the design used at the top of each pillar. Its suprising how much detail went into somthing so high up and likely unseen.

 The design continues at the base of each pillar.

 

 

 

Some nice factory/warehouse buildings. Lots of windows in neat rows.

 Thought this was pretty narrow building, not much like the blocky warehouse like buildings seen above. The alleyway and fire escape were other nice features.

 

More detail hidden up high.

 Nice mix of grimy building, boarded up windows, fire escape, plant growing from wall and the odd metal thing on top of the building.

 

 A selection of railings, most of the uprights seemed to be topped with Fleur de Lys type spikes.

 More nice details on these fire escape supports.

This air vent reminded me of some of the gears I saw at the Science and Industry Museum, and Ninja stars.

  Some of the entrances on these old buildings were pretty extravagent. There seemed to be lots of detailing around them, I images as these areas would be seen often they were made to look impressive.

 

It's not a very old building but I like how the tower block is sort of framed by the buildings in this shot, which in turn draw your eye to the central tower. Perhaps the building could be re imagined in a steam punk style?