DS2.3

Buildings and cities are made up from layers of stories, memories and histories. Buildings are containers of peoples’ narratives, the lives they have lived and the events that have happened to them and around them. The city, and its architecture, therefore, is the layering of a dense network of different stories which cross over, intersect and overlap. What are these stories, how do we find out about them, what is their value to us now, and how do we use them in the present and the future?



In this studio we explore how to unpack the hidden histories and stories contained within buildings and places in East London, and how to design in a way that creatively enables these histories to be part of new architecture.



In semester 1 each student studied the histories of different sites in Whitechapel and designed new buildings to represent and narrate the stories of these places.



This project was the starting point for the semester 2 project, where students developed their own ideas for new buildings that were contemporary interpretations of the historic sites they had studied.



This resulted in a diverse range of projects where new types of building were being invented and designed through the dynamic relationship that each student explored between the past and the present.



In our field trip to Andalucia we were able to see unique buildings embodying multiple layers of history. This



Khuzema Hussain (Collective Works), Alex Spicer (Matthew Lloyd Architects), Pat Woodward (Matthew Lloyd Architects), Mirna Pedalo (UW), Fiona Dunn (Building Design Partnership), Hamza Sheikh (UW), Ana Betancour (Umea), Malcolm Crayton (Form Studio), Ana-Sabina Cioboata (UW) This exhibition has been designed by:



Akramul Askaari

Janka Docs

Vlad-Ilie Necula

Mario Priore

Eleni Savvaidi

Andrijana Sitic

Dominika Sokalska