DS 11

Tutors

Dusan Decermic

d.decermic@westminster.ac.uk

DD is an architect and designer with experience in practice and academia. In addition to teaching on MA Interior Architecture and co-leading MArch Studio DS11, he has a deep-rooted commitment to the importance of architecture in the city and for humankind. Dusan has a particular interest in exploring how the writings and theories of Jacques Lacan can support an experimental and reflective approach as part of the architecture design process.

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Elantha Evans

e.evans@westminster.ac.uk

EE is an architect and educator. Currently co-leading DS11 and working towards a PhD in Architecture Education, EE first practiced with Richard Rogers, Tim Ronalds and Evans & Shalev, before founding Serrano Evans Partnership whose projects included architecture, interior and object design, site-specific performances and installations. Commitment to improving future design practices through the careful understanding of pedagogic and institutional approaches has been developed by teaching in different UK schools, as part of RIBA Validation and as an external examiner.

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Guest Critics

Roudaina Alkhani
Mehrdad Borna
Anthony Boulanger
Tom Davison
Derin Fadina
Sam Giles
Sean Griffiths
Clare Hamman
Daria Konopko
Gill Lambert
Andrei Martin
John Ng
Ben Pollock
Layton Reid
Rosa Schiano-Phan
Geoffrey Shearcroft
Ben Stringer

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Acknowledgements

EE and DD would like to acknowledge the incredible commitment and studio morale created by the students of DS11 this year who have been unwavering in their commitment to the studio, their work and each other, despite adverse conditions and not being able to visit Naples. A remarkable and insightful feat.

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Thanks

Enrica Papa (University of Westminster), Libera Amenta, Annie Attademo, Marica Castigliano and Michelangelo Russo (University of Naples Federico II), Aldo Maria di Chio and Diego Carlo D’Agostino (Studio Vulcanica)

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Guided by Dusan and Elantha, the studio is a supportive, open-minded, self-reflexive and critical environment. By negotiating design ambitions at large urban scales and their implications as inhabited spaces, projects carefully explore the relationships between abstracted urban genetics and unearth unexpected possibilities for material rendering of space. Relevant, sensitive and emotive programmes are developed in a European city each year, responding to the contextual, socio-economic and political concerns exposed through in-depth study and reflection. This year we returned to the south of Europe, in to Naples, Italy. Our teaching methodology establishes an intense and productive start with four week-long projects based on the intrinsic character of the city: ‘Partial Autonomy’ (pietrificato), ‘Game Plan’ (rianimare), ‘Dolled Up’ (transitorio) and ‘Opus Aggredi’ (lavoro). The studio trip this year was virtual; ‘City at Distance’ studies turned into ‘City Up Close’, from afar. A virtual city festival immersed us in Neapolitan culture: reading groups, films, web-cam gazing, pizza-making and guest seminars with Studio Vulcanica and academics from the University of Naples Federico II. The open culture of the studio resulted in diverse programmatic and typological responses: a cryo tomb research station, a new San Carlo city forum for all, an electric car plant with Formula E racecourse, a biomedical facility, and a library and new HE teaching training facility for Scampia.

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