This is an intermediate level module that questions the role of architecture in a contemporary rural context. It engages with the countryside of the future within a context of climate change where, natural and constructed, human and non-human systems form the context for new design propositions. With an overarching agenda of connected ecosystems, the module deals with strategies of mitigation and adaptation in a warming world. The core values of curiosity, consciousness, collaboration and interdependence are supported by a student-led manifesto that asks the learner to become aware and responsive to ethical societal and ecological debates, to collaborate with peers and experts in environmental activism through partnerships with different clients acting in mutually supportive practice.
The triad of landscape, ecological connections and infrastructure scaffold the module where learners design a building system connected to a wider context. This module challenges students to propose solutions for two juxtaposing challenges, flood resilience and universal design becoming aware of the potential impacts on universal design in a warming world. The module asks learners to be structurally ambitious through the design of large span adaptable spaces in tandem with the considered design of intimate scaled enclosures. Particular attention is paid to the objectives, targets, and indicators outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 10 and 13, which focus on Reduced Inequalities and Climate Action respectively.
Indicative syllabus covered in the module and / or in its discrete element
- Site and fieldwork
- Preparation of individual manifesto
- Appraisal, calculation and application of fresh water management strategies and fresh water ecosystem expansion.
- Engagement with client group(s) partnerships.
- Preparation of group drawings, gathering, analysing and collating research data for distribution.
- Presentation of site quantitative and qualitative research data in a variety of methods
- Design of a building involving a compound brief and different client requirements.
- Design in a contemporary countryside/rural context using natural and constructed ecosystems as context.
- Large span structures: organisational circulation systems over multiple floors, tectonic approaches, Universal design strategies and landscape strategies for climate change
- On line and off line exhibition curating and portfolio preparation
- Group work
- Random round table reviews: student directed and led
- Silent submission of process-work for formative feedback by teaching team
- Online submissions for grading/ formative feedback by invited experts and teaching team.
- Random round table reviews: invited national and international critics student led.
- Group exhibition: ‘red-dot' review student directed; student and tutor selection of work for comparative public discussion.
- Lectures related to specific landscape and ecological agendas delivered by invited experts and teaching team.
- Readings and group discussion on specific texts
- Case study analysis and student led comparative discussion.
- Desk tutorials in conjunction with random round table reviews
- Workshops and Seminars,
- Field trip national to engage with constructed, ‘natural, human and non-human ecosystems: walking and drawing
- Self-directed learning during and outside contact hours.
The Studio is the primary learning and teaching environment through which individual and group tutorials, reviews, peer learning, collaborative group work, and the iterative production of both process and presentation material takes place.
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 100 |