This Master programme pursues a site specific exploration of architecture defined in response to present and future global challenges. Through an immersive and iterative process of ‘research by design’, students are led by a methodology of experimentation, prototyping and direct site involvement in the form of active expeditions to extraordinary world locations. The unit works in close collaboration with local communities, institutions and experts in the field to promote innovation through technology and develop an enriched formal and spatial vocabulary within the built environment.
Travelling to locations with often challenging conditions - from natural extremes of sweltering heat or numbing cold, towards the manmade effects of pollution or chemical disaster - students are immersed within unique conditions where acute awareness of context is vital and previously unquestioned norms no longer hold precedent.