Unit 21
import/export Abigail Ashton, Andrew Porter, Tom Holberton
Year 4 Paddi Benson, Jonathan Davis, Matthew Mitchell, Tom Savage, Katherine Scott, Sally Taylor, Yiren (Aviva) Wang, Camilla Wright Year 5 Maria Filippou, Layal Merhi, Yolanda Leung, Sophie Richards, Samson Simberg, Tomohiro Sugeta, Angeline Wee, Sarish Younis The Bartlett School of Architecture 2016
Thanks to Structural Engineer Brian Eckersley at EOC; and critics Prof Christine Hawley, Prof Stephen Gage, Dr Rachel Cruise, Sayan Skandarajah, Paul Legon, Ned Scott, Jasmin Sohi, Johan Hybschman, Mags Bursa, Tony Smart, Isaie Bloch, Francesca Hughes. Thanks to our sponsors PDP London Architects – www.pdplondon.com
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Marseille is France’s second city by population. What it lacks in terms of the grand formality of the capital it more than makes up for with its cosmopolitan and colourful complexity, defined primarily by the Mediterranean port condition. Whilst this historical condition has produced a rich social, political and cultural territory there is also now a legacy of poverty, unemployment, social division and crime. Whilst the social, political and topographical condition of the city as an ongoing framework of exchange was of interest to the unit, we also continued with our project to explore the context of the city in terms of its invisible meta-data and how this, when treated as raw material, can be deployed as a source of invention and speculation for a new architecture. Urban space is increasingly defined by the infrastructures of communications, information and social interaction through new media. However, as these contemporary technologies develop at a rapid pace, the traditional paradigms of physical space become increasingly disconnected and irrelevant. The unit continued to explore how this disconnection can be addressed and new hybrids of hard and soft architecture can be invented and emerge. The unit considered how such metaphysical data systems can be a creative opportunity for interpretation and inventiveness that might in turn create, and participate in, the cultural and experiential life of the city. Further to which, the slippages, quirks and misinterpretations through translation of such information systems provided an equally rich source for new digital constructs and material outcomes. The students were asked to identify a system of information or data set and consider how they might deploy this within a design process or strategy. Different strategies were employed, information was derived from sound, temperature, humidity and other environmental origins. Some were based on societal information, human behaviours, communications and new media data sources. Political, economic and legal frameworks were also sources of data utilized. The unit formulated methods and techniques that developed the mechanics of how this data could be translated across software platforms. The unit is interested in the manifestation of such hybrids of immaterial and physical space into outcomes that are resolutely framed as design propositions; a new morphology of data-driven architecture.