Unit 15
On the Edge Maximiliano Arrocet, Alice Dietsch, Amanda Levete, Ho-Yin Ng, Raffael Petrovic
Year 4 Josh Corfield, Paddy Fernandez, Stefan Necula, Katriona Eleni Pillay, Wonseok Woo Year 5 Qiuling Guan, Jiatong Hu, Yue Ma, Sachi Oberoi, Bethany Penman, Henry Schofield, Zuzana Sojkova Thank you to Ed Clark The Bartlett School of Architecture 2017 214
Unit 15 explores the identity of places and how the transformation of a piece of city can be brought about by buildings that are rooted in their place. Our projects are driven by research into geographical, cultural and economic contexts in order to create a sense of place and community. We investigate the intersections between craftsmanship, volume production and innovative digital design tools, alongside the role narrative plays in designing a building. This year’s projects are set in Lisbon. The city’s geography is beguiling: seven hills reveal dramatic vistas at every street corner, the Tagus estuary promises so much and the line at which river becomes ocean is palpable. Lisbon’s position on the edge of Europe has shaped its identity, its architecture and the civic sensibilities of Lisboetas. Rather than being mired in European affairs, Lisbon has always looked outwards, towards the sea – towards Africa, South America and Asia. The city is an expression of its inhabitants and their relationship not only to the sea but also to history and craft: from calçada pavements to the azulejos, the predominantly blue-and-white ceramic tiles that decorate countless walls of everything from churches to bars. Lisbon is both high-octane and relaxed; it is young and diverse, tolerant and affordable, and washed in a sublime light. Today, the riverside edges of Lisbon, from where the great explorers set off, are disconnected from the city and its hills. We propose buildings that reconnect the city to its riverfront. The projects are located along Lisbon’s Arco Ribeirinho, stretching from the EXPO ’98 site in the north to the Torre de Belém in the southeast. On our field trip, we travelled from Porto to Lisbon, investigating both cities’ distinct relationships with their respective rivers, the Douro and the Tagus. We visited key buildings along our journey including the Leça Swimming Pools by Alvaro Siza, the Casa da Musica by OMA and the recently completed MAAT museum. We exchanged ideas with Afaconsult, the engineers behind Eduardo Souto de Moura’s Braga stadium, and Aires Mateus, the architects who designed EDP’s Lisbon headquarters. Students conceived their individual projects through an intensive exploration of Lisbon’s cultural, historical and physical topography. Proposals vary in scale from urban projects that look at larger parts of the city down to individual buildings which are tightly integrated into their surroundings. Together, they create a vision for a Lisbon newly reconnected to its waterfront and redefine a city’s 21st-century relationship to its river.