DS 13

Tutors

Andrei Martin


Andrei Martin is a partner at PLP Architecture, a London-based multidisciplinary design practice.

Read More...

Andrew Yau


Andrew Yau is a design director at Urban Future Organization, an international practice and design research collaborative.

Read More...

Guest Critics

Marco Catena (Grimshaw and Partners)
Mahmoud Chehab
Roger Cooper (ReOrient
Budapest)
Yashin Kamel (APT London)
Jason Antony Sam (Hunters / Studio Toast)
Xin Swift ( Zaha Hadid Architects)
Larisa Tsydenova (Fosters & Partners)

Read More...

Throughout history, disease outbreaks have radically changed the city and the current pandemic is no exception. Away from the central business district, the pandemic has prompted a retreat into the country, perceived as a healthy antidote to the congestion of the city core. This has prompted us to re-examine the notion of nature within the city and ask whether nature should be reclaimed as an urban construct. Current tendencies of greening the city remain limited to domestic appropriations of nature: greenwashing strategies (green walls) or material applications (timber). Resisting these approaches, we asked whether urban nature can be amplified to establish a new aesthetics of nature entailing a fullness of experience and the construction of a new urban subjectivity. This year DS13 looked at the Square Mile, London’s financial district, endeavouring to propose alternatives for its buildings that depart from the mono-cultural schemas of floor-upon-floor of desk space. The students have reimagined the City’s buildings as hybrids between old and new, retained and proposed structures. Within their forms they have injected new constructs and have studied the myriad of interactions produced as a result.

Read More...