AA Summer School, LONDON
SINGAPORE
13–31 July 2009 Minicity: Smallness in an era of city-boom slow-down
15–24 July 2009 Designed Geographies
Is the age of bigness over as the world scales back its architectural and urban ambitions? MINICITY turned its attention to the micro and the modest: diminutive buildings, tiny projects and mini-inserts in small spaces, in an attempt to understand the city as an aggregation of miniature moments instead of the heroic account of iconic projects. The twenty-first century places its great hopes in the ‘nano-’, whether increasingly powerful microprocessors or relief housing for disaster victims around the world. The Summer Architecture School examined this ‘big’ issue from a number of compelling perspectives: social, economic, ecological, cultural and technological. Once again, London served as an experimental laboratory of ideas and actions.
For the fourth consecutive year, Singapore provided the focus for broad reflections on prospective tools for dense urban fields. Designed Geographies developed cross-referencing layers of urban conditions and produced complex readings of the city. The workshop investigated experimental ways of observing the city, informed by an introduction to contemporary methods of physical and digital mapping, modelling and advanced design processes and research. Architectural ecology was placed within a larger context of environmental and artificial geographies conceived as part of a systemic approach to urban growth.
Directors Shumon Basar Natasha Sandmeier Tutors Adam Furman, Marie Isabelle de Monseignat, Steve Bates, Joshua Bonnetta, Douglas Moffat, Julika Gittner,
Sarah Entwistle, Geraldine Dening, David Knight, Finn Williams, Ulf Hackauf, Inigo Minns, Onkar Kular, Noam Andrews, Rene Barownick, Yeena Yoon
Directors Nathalie Rozencwajg Michel da Costa Goncalves
Special thanks to: School of Design (Singapore Polytechnic), Ng Lye Hock Larry (URA Singapore), Tan Szue Hann, Peng Beng Khoo
Student Assistants Calvin Chua John Naylor Kai Ong
Tutors Jeroen van Ameijde Naiara Vegara
The terrain group: a topographical reading of a nodal traffic way and surrounding programmes in Singapore.
Minicity Unit 6 models. Photo Valerie Bennett
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