DS 2.2

This year the studio challenged students to reconsider the architect’s role in shaping our cities and imagine radical new ways to tackle the issues of our time. Our explorations began with student installations on site, designed to engage the community in a dialogue, uncover local issues and generate ideas for reimagining the built environment, responding to material scarcity while developing social value for the community. City Island and the Leamouth peninsula was our area of exploration for the year. Recent developments locally are changing the face of this forgotten backwater, transforming the character of the area and erasing it’s rich history as an industrial heartland. In semester one, students developed a ‘Provocation Pavilion’ in response to local issues identified through their group installations. Semester 2 proposals speculated about an alternative future, developing community centred projects combining Industry and Culture. The result was a series of inventive propositions including redesigning the Thames embankment to create habitat for otters and educational space for humans, a proposal for the reclaiming the10 thousand trees cut down in London each year and 24-hour Oasis for the vast number of local night workers.