Durability & Change: Long-Life, Loose-fit
This year Studio 3 will continue to look at environmental conditions as a means to better understand our relationship to our built environment.
A changing context
Within the last year the social and political context surrounding climate change has shifted dramatically. Declarations only count when they lead to tangible change in actions and behaviour. The cultural impact on architecture will be as profound as the technical impact – in particular the materials from which architecture is made.
A changing architecture?
For much of its history architecture has - in substantial part – been a response to the prevailing climate and available resources. From the mid-twentieth century onwards much architecture lost a rooted connection to locality. Cities and buildings increasingly look the same. This is experiential as well as environmentally impoverishing. Architecture needs to articulate a response that questions many of the professions’ norms. Simply doing less harm will no longer be adequate. The architectural profession, like so many others, will be compelled to rethink and challenge much of its own basis. There will be a fundamental shift away from shiny new buildings towards reuse and regenerative design.
Is there climate emergency architecture?
In response to this, within Studio 3 we will ask what the architecture of the climate emergency will be like? To this end we will explore two connected projects that pose the question how do we build enduring buildings? And if they can’t endure how can they be re-used or re-made? We will focus on the circular economy and how it will inform the approach of architects in the future. How are cities supplied and how does this relate to energy & circular economy? Our cue will be taken from the Ellen McArthur Foundation’s circular cities research. We will look at the 1.5 degree lifestyle and Science Based Targets. We will look at Sustainable Ventures, the largest sustainable tech start-up incubatory in the Europe and the businesses and technologies being developed, which are centred on Food & Agritech, Mobility, Future Energy and Building Tech.
Recyclable and Reusable – Container and Content
We will start by looking at a lightweight, recyclable building. This will then be followed by a reusable building where the container will be used for two different programmes. Within both there will be an emphasis on fabric over services and an understanding of materials, their properties and provenance.
Throughout the year Studio 3 will continue to be concerned with design through making and you will be encouraged to think critically about the spatial and environmental conditions between architecture that is: Light and dark; Heavy and lightweight; Reactive and stable; Warm and cold; Expansive and enclosed; Linear and vertical. We will be considering architecture to be the accumulation, repetition and diversification of material actions and we will focus on construction (as opposed to massing, or diagramming) to develop architectural proposals.
