diploma unit 4

 

Showcase 08 conclude the year agenda of Collective Urbanism. Exhibition continue to the 2nd of July 08 @ AVA, Docklands, Cyprus Station.

Students presented their building proposal and design thesis in response to the unit agenda of Collective Urbanism. Special thanks to our jurors for their invaluable comments: Jeff Turko (NEKTON), Iain Maxwell, Alan Dempsey (Future Systems), Madeleine Adams (Research Design), Federico Rossi (Zaha Hadid), Liam Young, Sarah Manning (space agencies) & Mark Boehme.

Since the beginning of the “Policy of the Open Door”, initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China has the fastest growing national economy worldwide. This growth is mirrored not only by a breath-taking urban growth but also by an incredible pace of change of urban placemaking… New China has severe trouble with the old one. On the other hand it has to be admitted that the idea of civil public space is something very new in China .                                                                                          Dr. Dieter Hassenpflug

In Beijing, one thing is obvious. Urban spaces, both interior and exterior are on the super big scale; a 72 ha museum, an 800m long public square, a 60m wide pedestrian street, a 5 storey Starbucks, yet another 6 storey bookshop. Urbanity and architecture has become politicised, from the CCTV to the Olympic Stadium. Building on the super big scale is about projecting an image of modernity to the outside world. Flashing neon lights, tower cranes, and demolition sites covering an entire city block signifies a new beginning; the New Urban China.

Yet, everywhere you go within the second ring road you feel a sense of unease. Behind the façade of modernity lies the old urban fabric, the everyday life of the city; maze of narrow alleys (the Hutong) franked on both side by courtyard houses from the Ming and Qing Dynasty era. There is a sense of urgency here; the Hutong is vanishing at a rapid pace.

Here, unit 4 continue its investigation into ‘collective urbanism’. During the visits, we examine both the ‘old and the ‘super-new’ public spaces. Engaging in conversation with emerging architect Ma YanSong and Dang Qun of MAD studio, we discussed their view on urban spaces in Beijing and some of their recent projects in China . In addition, we also met Du Liqun, the Chief Planner at the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design who delivered a lecture for the unit on the 2020 Beijing Masterplan, followed by discussion on the now and the future of the city.

The unit also participated in a 4 days intensive workshop at Tsinghua University, School of Architecture where we examined the city as a dynamic event. See Tsinghua-UEL Workshop below.

北京清华-伦敦东区大学工作室

Dynamic City – Dynamic Event       10.12.07 - 13.12.07

Diploma Unit 4 conducted a 4 day intensive joint studio workshop at Tsinghua University, School of Architecture, Beijing. The workshop examined research methodologies that enable students to approach building design from the experience of the city. While we usually view the city from the top, like an aerial photograph, the workshop looked at techniques of understanding the city and its activities from the street level. We examined the city from two different perspectives; firstly from a dynamic view point of a journey & then the observation of a dynamic event – the DongAnMen Night Market. The workshop enables the students to develop a 1:1 experience of the city. Throughout the workshop, students translated complex urban data into operative diagrams; we will develop the research into building proposals for the DongAnMen Market over the next coming months.

Participating Tsinghua students: Liang QiWei, ZhouShi, Zhang XueYi, DaiZhen, Qin JiaYu, ZhangXuan + QuiaoTuo.

Special thanks to Professor Xu WeiGuo, Dr Han MengZhen and Dr Huang WeiXin for making this workshop possible. We would also like to thank our critics at Tsinghua University : Professor Li Ziaodong & Feng Xu (Zaha Hadid Architects).

Invited guest tutor: David Leggett (Edward Cullinan Architects)

Unit 4 presented proposals for Chrisp Street Market. Projects presented examine the relationship between social spaces and material construct. We also examine the translation process from diagram to strategy. Special thanks to our jurors for their invaluable comments. Jurors: Ben Paul (Neu Architects), Sarah Manning (Space Syntax), Rob Stuart Smith (AA DRL), Robert Thum (Unit 9) & Arezo Mirzahossein Khan (SOM).

Structure is a network of connectivity. From abstraction to concrete realisation, structure joins discrete ideas or elements into a coherent entity. Structure is a skeleton or skin, points and lines or fold contour.            The metropolis dictionary of Advanced Architecture, 2003.

Over the past three weeks, the unit developed structural prototype leading to the design of a new roof and enclosure for Chrisp Street Market. Looking at how material can be organized to form emerging structural patterns and logic, students operate in research groups to develop structure prototype using physical as well as digital modelling. The research was supported by Gordon Cowley (Cowley timberwork), Peter Feldmann (Future Systems) & Rob Stuart Smith (AA DRL)

A market is a form of collective space where the pragmatic exchange of goods leads to a transient network of operations, territories and opportunities; a place of social gathering, exchange of ideas, news and gossip. Through this research, we un-folded the complex operations of an every day event and construct its spatial trajectories through representation; mapping the underlying patterns of spatial occupations in time.

We now have a new archive section - check out our projects from Domestic Urbanism 06/07

Click HERE!

This year, Unit 4 will examine the idea of the ‘new’. We will look at how ‘newness’ is being embraced culturally as an opportunity for re-invention, and ‘context’ as something that is beyond the immediate built environment.

Operating in London and Beijing , we will explore the Market as a collective space; where the pragmatic exchange of goods leads to a transient network of operations, territories and opportunities; a place of social gathering, exchange of ideas, news and gossip. We are interested in how these social functions might enable the re-territorialisation of the public realm; a type of collective urbanism.

The project for the year is to design two market buildings, one in East London and another in Beijing . We will continue our interest in complex geometries and the relationship between these and the constructions of situations that bear an accommodating potential for its user. A research into network structures will support the unit program and deliver technical and organisational prototypes.

Click Agenda for more detail.