DS 22

In DS22 we continue our interest in social an environmental ecology and in decolonising the landscape – physical and cultural to draw attention to invisible communities whose voice is left unheard. This year, DS22 interrogated the notion of the Walled Garden as a symbolic space for collective act with its social and environmental wonders. The students explored different architectural prototypes for the garden located at the coastal edges of the Mediterranean. Using a hybrid of drawings and conceptual models the students ‘undressed’ and ‘reassembled’ the landscape to expose its hidden potentials. The garden was then proposed in its different forms to offer a space of care, production, collective act and experimentation. The projects this year varied in their scope and location. The Mediterranean coastal cities with their charm and yet, contradiction, formed the basis of our investigation. The projects covered Napoli, Alexandria, Jaffa/Tel Aviv, Beirut and also looking at Przemysl/Poland and Gherdeal/ Transylvania. All projects offered a social commentary on environmental, social and political inequalities. While celebrating the wonders of the unfamiliar, the garden became a tool to combine technical innovation with poetic narration