BSc Unit 9 Yr2: Khalid Al Sugair; Nichola BarringtonLeach; Laura Brayne; Alexander Holloway; Yee Y Lau; Christopher Leung; Rhianon Morgan-Hatch; Linlin Wang; Clarissa Yee Yr3: Paul Leader-Williams; Keong L Lim; Louise Robson; Jack Spencer Ashworth; Richard A Sprogis; Tim Yue.
Alter Ego The term alter ego; (Latin for “the other I”) coined by psychologists in the 19th century and popularised by the psychoanalytic movement, is said to refer to a second self or double psychological life. The alter ego is often used to describe identical characters within literature and film and is also used as a tool to analyse the relationship between a character and it’s author. Alter ego is the creation of an imagined other self, making a parallel or imagined universe, or second life, both absent and present. The architecture of alter ego explores multiple identities and layered memories of place. We investigate the spaces of heterotopia, that are neither here nor there, spaces that are simultaneously physical and metaphysical. In exploring the multifaceted psychological, literary, artistic and cultural dimensions of alter ego, Unit 9 aims to delineate a non linear architecture of duality. We investigate duplicated and mirrored spaces as a means of posing questions of scale and authenticity. The concept of alter ego also encompasses ideas about the relationship between an original and its copy and of parallel spaces thus creating two figures within a figure, two references within a reference, or two cities within a city. We focus our spatial explorations of alter ego on Istanbul or Constantinople, which has historically been a city of otherness to Northern European Capitals and which marked an edge of Europe a point of confluence for Europe and Asia. Istanbul forms the site for the main building project this year.
Top and bottom right: Tim Yue. Bottom left: Alexander Holloway.
Max Dewdney and Chee-Kit Lai