BA/MA (Hons) Architecture Catalogue 2020/21 by ESALA.ECA

BA/MA [HONS]

2020 / 2021

ARCHITECTURE

ESALA

DR. MIGUEL PAREDES MALDONADO EDITOR CALUM RENNIE CATALOGUE DESIGN JUNE 2021 ISBN 978-1-912669-31-8

BA/MA [HONS]

2020 / 2021

ARCHITECTURE

ESALA

Welcome to the second instalment of the yearly catalogue series documenting the work of the BA and MA (Hons) in Architecture programmes at ESALA. In line with the curatorial approach initiated with the first volume of the series, this document endeavours to document the totality of the courses that ran within the programme cluster in 2020-21. Such an approach intends to foreground the efforts of all contributing staff members. Working collectively, they have built a consistent, highly integrated programme of architectural education, where knowledge and skills flow smoothly across different courses and years. Far from seeking a monolithic academic experience, our collective quest for integration aims to highlight and celebrate the very broad disciplinary base of Architecture. The full spectrum of research interests and practice specialisms of staff members is represented in the programme, opening up avenues for students to forge their own learning pathway through a sustained process of integrated learning and reflection. As a consequence of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, this year has been marked by the deployment of powerful remote learning systems, which have allowed our academic community to flourish globally and across time zones. Whereas some degree of adaptation has been necessary to tackle the attendant logistical challenges, this scenario has also fostered FOREWORD

unprecedented opportunities to creatively rethink learning and teaching.

JUNE 2021

Harnessing the power of digital platforms, many novel initiatives of exemplary teaching practice have emerged in the programme. They will

DR. MIGUEL PAREDES MALDONADO -

undoubtedly find their place in a future post-pandemic context, providing a key source of inspiration in the years to come.

PROGRAMME DIRECTOR BA/MA [HONS] ARCHITECTURE

This catalogue also bears testimony to the intensity of staff and students’ engagement with all sorts of external opportunities: extra-curricular activities led by our Simpson Professors and Geddes Fellows, themed events, student-led publications, work placements, internships and academic exchanges. In a professionally accredited programme such as the BA/MA (Hons) in Architecture, the ability of its constituent community to extend relevant conversations beyond the walls of academia is an invaluable asset. As the 2019-20 catalogue anticipated, a number of critical, collective aspirations are consolidating their place in our curriculum: social justice, decolonisation, inclusion and equality in the built environment have become central themes to history and theory seminars, professional practice reflections and design studio briefs. In both our academic work and our extra-curricular endeavours, such fundamental preoccupations are necessarily intersected with a particularly urgent global issue: the need to tackle the ongoing climate emergency. Having contributed to facilitate such a rich, pertinent and ambitious collective agenda during a very rewarding 3-year term, I am now delighted to hand over the programme stewardship role to my extremely capable colleague Laura Harty. She will become the new BA/MA (Hons) Architecture Programme Director from July 2021 onward.

1—0

2—0

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

ELEMENTS

IN PLACE

p 6

p 44

TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT

ART & DESIGN

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT

p 16

p 54

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

INTRODUCTION TO WORLD ARCHITECTURE

DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING

p 26

p 56

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

ASSEMBLY

ANY PLACE

p 28

p 66

TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT

PRINCIPLES

BUILDING FABRIC

p 38

p 76

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

REVIVALISM TO MODERNISM

URBANISM & THE CITY

p 40

p 78

4—0

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

EXPLORATIONS

DISSERTATION

p 82

p 112

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TECTONICS

p 102

p 120

ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

WORKING LEARNING

LOGISTICS

p 104

p 142 CONTENTS

ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

BA/MA [HONS]

3—0

ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

REFLECTION

ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO

p 106

p 146

p 108

THROUGH THE DRAWING FLORES & PRATS GEDDES VISITING FELLOWS p 152

CLOSE IN O’DONNELL + TUOMEY SIMPSON VISITING PROFESSORS p 154

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

1—1

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ELEMENTS

1—2

ART & DESIGN

1—3

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY INTRODUCTION TO WORLD ARCHITECTURE

1—4

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ASSEMBLY

1—5

TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT PRINCIPLES

1—6

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY REVIVALISM TO MODERN ISM

1—0

1—0 BA/MA [HONS]

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIEW CRITICS Malcolm Cullen Gary Cunningham Graham Currie Chris Dobson Eilidh Izat Melissa Lawson Nicola McLachlan Christina Stuart GUEST LECTURERS Michael Collins Sean Douglas Calum Duncan Laura Harty Eilidh Izat Ivan J. Marquez Munoz Akiko Kobayashi Tolulope Onabolu Rachael Scot

ELEMENTS

1—1 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ELEMENTS

COURSE ORGANISERS SUSANA DO POMBAL FERREIRA

In Architectural Design Elements this year we took the limitations and challenges brought by the pandemic as an opportunity to develop a new working methodology and to consolidate and reformulate the spatial and programmatic enquires that we asked

COURSE SUPPORT

students to do.

Laura Harty

The course was attended by students from the BA/MA Architecture

Tolulope Onabolu

programme as well as from the BEng/Meng Structural Engineering

Clive Albert Sean Douglas

corners of the world. To start with, students embarked on a series of short exploratory tasks to learn about scale, the basic architectural elements and the making of space. They did this using their bodies as reference, studying the place they were in, and through exploring

Laura Harty

a variety of media and representation techniques. Following on

Jamie Henry

from that, students were invited to draw from their own personal

Akiko Kobayashi Derek Macdonald Claire Metivier Rosie Milne Tolulope Onabolu Jane Paterson

1—1

with Architecture programme, engaging with it remotely from all TUTORS

experiences of the pandemic, to design a (class)Room. This project challenged students to build upon the concepts of the open-air schools movement from the last century to propose a design which not only reacted to the current global health crisis but also reflected on the role of design as a means to sustain and improve people’s lives.

Rachael Scott Andy Siddall Andy Summers Julie Wilson

Although all teaching was delivered online, the focus of the course remained on analogue methods of production, requiring students to actively engage in hand-drawing and model-making throughout the whole of the semester. However, given the circumstances of the

MANULA CRAFT DEMOS

pandemic, digital methods and technologies for the presentation,

articulation, and dissemination of the work had to be adopted and

Paul Charlton Malcolm Cruickshank

used widely from the onset of the course. Great effort and care were put into developing digital teaching and learning environments which could offer multiple opportunities for collective discussions and sharing of the work. As a result, and exceeding our expectations, this blended methodology opened up further avenues for exploration, providing students with new ways to expand on their work and giving origin to an outstanding body of work.

Opposite Sunny Sun (class)Room Project Collage study -

BA/MA [HONS]

BODY SCALE & GROUND

ELEMENTS 1—1

1 Kevin Chen Body Scale studies 2 Vasilisa Litvinenko Sliced Ground model Inhabited stamp -

BA/MA [HONS]

GROUND/WALL/OPENING/ROOF

ELEMENTS 1—1

3 Jade Wu Ground, Wall, Opening and Roof project 4 Tom Peng Ground, Wall, Opening and Roof project -

BA/MA [HONS]

5 Eurus Pei Yao Feng (class)Room project Light studies and collage Precedents: Sculpture Pavillion & Nieuwmarky Playground, Aldo van Eyck 6 Charlotte Wayment (class)Room Project Plan and section collages -

(CLASS)ROOM 5 11

6 1—1

ELEMENTS

BA/MA [HONS]

7 Meihan Liu (class)Room Project Vignettes, model & section 8 Emily Grills (class)Room project Axonometric studies -

(CLASS)ROOM 7 13

4 1—1

ELEMENTS

BA/MA [HONS]

ART & DESIGN

1—2 ART & DESIGN

Rachael Scott Andrew Siddall Milja Tuomivaara Opposite Emily Grills The ground informing the route -

Informed by lectures from artists, designers, and architects reflecting on “How I think through drawing”, the course understands architectural design as a practice-based knowledge and subject. The course is made of two main components: a lecture series that present different approaches to creative practices and a series of drawing exercises and projects (informed by historical, cultural, and technical guidelines) developed both individually and in small groups. Each project is structured in different phases and aims at

1—2

TUTORS Sebastian Aedo Roberto Boettger Michael Davidson Olga Gogoleva Nikolia Kartalou Rosie Milne Nick Mols Pilar Perez del Real Giorgio Ponzo

Through a series of practical projects and lectures, the Art & Design course aims at developing conceptual and practical skills for understanding, representing, and communicating the experience of being in different kinds of spaces.

building awareness and confidence in understanding reality and communicating ideas through drawings. The students are asked to study and explore different spaces considering the relationships between their spatial and material features with the users, and to express, through different kinds of drawings, their personal understanding of a spatial experience. The drawing process includes sequences of observations, analyses, and reflections that aim at connecting the direct experience of spaces with their visual conceptualization and communication. Rather than being a skill or a technique used only to represent reality, drawing becomes a critical site of design action, a practice of design thinking that generates ideas, both in the making of the work and in its reading. The Art & Design course introduces the basic conventions of architectural representations and a range of drawing and making techniques experimenting with both analogue and digital media guiding the students towards the assembling of visual (sketchbooks and drawing exercises) and textual (written observations and analysis) documentation in an expanding personal portfolio.

COURSE ORGANISER GIORGIO PONZO

BA/MA [HONS]

1 Charlotte Wayment George Square Observations drawing #2 2 Ruoxin Tan Edinburgh University Library Shadows -

THINKING THROUGH DRAWING 1 17

2 1—2

ART & DESIGN

BA/MA [HONS]

THINKING THROUGH DRAWING

ART & DESIGN 1—2

3 Emma Astley Birtwistle Palladian Façade at Chambers Street 4 Isla Hibberd Scottish Parliament, Interlocking 5 (overleaf) Jiayu Lu Surface and texture -

BA/MA [HONS]

THINKING THROUGH DRAWING

1—2

ART & DESIGN

BA/MA [HONS]

6 Georgina Inchbald George Square Reflections 7 Alicia Gerhardstein George Square drawing #2 -

THINKING THROUGH DRAWING 6

7 1—2

ART & DESIGN

BA/MA [HONS]

INTRODUCTION TO WORLD ARCHITECTURE

1—3 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY INTRODUCTION TO WORLD ARCHITECTURE

COURSE ORGANISER

This course is a compulsory part of the MA (Hons) Architecture

programme, but also serves other degrees, including the MA

JOHN LOWREY

(Hons) Architectural History and Heritage. In addition, it is a popular elective course taken by students from across ECA and

SENIOR TUTOR

the wider University.

Anne Galastro

The course offers an introduction to architecture in a range of global contexts, beginning in ancient Egypt and concluding in Europe in the 1750s. The course takes in topics including

classical Greek and Roman architecture, the architecture of the

Danielle Smith

Middle Ages, Islam, Pre-Columbian America, and the first great

Alborz Dianat

re-evaluation of Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance. It goes on

Dimitrij Zadorin Mohona Reza Rory Lamb

1—3

TUTORS

to survey the Renaissance in Britain, Northern Europe and the Iberian peninsula and the subsequent influence of the Italian Baroque in these areas. Other significant cultural traditions in the history of architecture are introduced, such as those of India,

LECTURERS

China, and Japan.

Alex Bremner Kirsten Carter McKee Alistair Fair

The course provides students with an overview of the ways in which architectural history can be understood. It looks in detail at prominent buildings and styles, and the work of important

John Lowrey

designers, but also is concerned with ‘anonymous’ buildings. It

Elizabeth Petcu

emphasises the importance of placing architecture in its wider

Margaret Stewart

social and political contexts. The course encourages a reflective approach to architecture which students can apply elsewhere in their degree programme, providing a vocabulary and analytical/ investigative frameworks which can be applied in the present. In 2021, the course was modified for online delivery, with pre-recorded lectures, interactive online seminars, and the traditional exam replaced by a new programme of assessed coursework intended to encourage a breadth of knowledge whilst also fostering research/analytical skills needed for success at university level. The course is followed in semester 2 by Architectural History 1B: Revivalism to Modernism. 26

Opposite Chateau de Blois Blois, France -

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIEW CRITICS Paddi Benson Amy Butt Andy Campbell Alice Clancy Michael Collins Calum Duncan Suzanne Ewing Chris French Kathy Li Jasna Mariotti Nicola McLachlan Giorgio Ponzo James Tait GUEST LECTURES Peter Cody Practical Fictions Simon Henley Intentional Community Michelle Man Imaginarium Tolulope Onabolu Drawing from

ASSEMBLY

1—4 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ASSEMBLY

TUTORS Clive Albert Susana Do Pombal Ferreira Sean Douglas Jamie Henry Akiko Kobayashi Derek McDonald Rosie Milne Tolulope Onabolu Jane Paterson Rachael Scott Andy Summers Julie Wilson WORKSHOPS Clarice Cao Ice Chitmeeslip Ellen Clayton Malcolm Cruickshank Amanzhol Kellett Michelle Man Kanto Maeda Felix Wilson Opposite Alex Langlois Visual diary -

‘Young People aged 16-24 feel lonely more often than any other age group of adults’ The Loneliness Experiment 2018

1—4

COURSE SUPPORT Susana Do Pombal Ferreira Tolulope Onabolu

This course introduces the theme of assembly in architectural design. This year, from a smattering of bedrooms scattered globally, our own assembly was reimagined. Through our necessary stasis, links were drawn to other periods when we might be static again. This year’s particular experience of isolation, echos other limited, temporal terrains: that of childhood, of lying-in, of illness, and of old age. Between these reverberant conditions, our projects were built.

Our investigations centred around Crookhey Hall, on the edge of Cockerham Marsh, Lancashire. This house, designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1874, served as the childhood home of the acclaimed surrealist painter and author, Leonora Carrington. As a productive imaginary, it features also as one of the manifold settings for Carrington’s 1974 publication ‘The Hearing Trumpet’. Here, we are presented with a form of communal living as a critique on the retirement home or asylum. Carrington probes the pitfalls and potentials of ageing and asks that we pay attention to the expectations, the dismissals, and the presumptions which limit our exploration and engagement with this universally shared, but individually experienced, reality.

‘Half a million older people go at least five or six days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone at all.’ Age UK, 2019 Coupling the experiences of now and then, we asked groups of students imagine the future of Crookhey as a living environoment for themselves and their group colleagues in a further 100 years. Basing projects in 2074 necessarily entails thoughts of our own ageing bodies, but also the changes to the fragile environment which houses us and our constructions. How might our isolation, experienced in 2021, help us to imagine this delicate future condition and how can our interventions now serve to secure a vibrant future for the individual and their community within our haunted assembly. 28

COURSE ORGANISER LAURA HARTY

BA/MA [HONS]

1 Alex Langlois Visual diary Contextual collage 2 Karina Rac Visual diary 3 Georgie Inchbald Crookhey | Cockerham | Climate -

EATING CROOKHEY

‘It is a great thing to be errant in time and space… The frontiers into the unknown are constructed in layers. One layer opens into a fan of other layers, which open new worlds in their turn…’ Leonora Carrington 1

2 29

3 1—4

ASSEMBLY

BA/MA [HONS]

DIGESTING CROOKHEY

ASSEMBLY 1—4

4 Thomas Everett Settling on a plan 5 Ruoxin Tan Model 6 Ester Park Model 7 Emily Grills Layered plans -

BA/MA [HONS]

8 Ruoxin Tan Formwork + framework 9 Stephen Brown Plan/section composite 10 Eurus Feng Model -

REIMAGINING CROOKHEY 9 33

10 1—4

ASSEMBLY

BA/MA [HONS]

REPRESENTING CROOKHEY

ASSEMBLY 1—4

11 Sophie McClure Design sequence 12 Eurus Feng Intervention sections 13 Jingze He Cut-away axonometric 14 Devon Tabata Visual diary -

BA/MA [HONS]

Assignment 1 Precedent Study.

1 Karina Rac, Laura Dew Soderberg Pavilion, Edinburgh Structural Analysis 2 Morgan Hadeed, Emma Astley Birtwistle Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Structural Section

Assignment 2 Live/Work Studio. 1 Connor Fyffe Wall / Roof Element Junction

PRINCIPLES

1—5 TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT PRINCIPLES

COURSE ORGANISER ELAINE PIECZONKA

This course introduces students to critical structural, technological and environmental principles that underpin architectural design. It seeks to shape an understanding of how buildings need to work functionally to keep their occupants safe,

TUTORS -

sheltered and comfortable, and how such considerations can produce deeper, more meaningful architecture.

Peter Robinson

The course is constructed around three themes; Structure,

Irem Serefoglu

Materials and Environment. The principles of sustainability is a

Pilar Perez Del Real

key topic that runs through all three subject areas. Participants

1—5

Jane Paterson

learn how buildings can be interacting systems and that structural, material and environmental strategies are interlinked. The Structures theme explores how architectural structure not only provides stable and safe enclosures for us, but also how an understanding of structure is vital in the generation of architectural form. Students explore how architectural shape and form are achievable with different materials. They are then able to understand and predict the behaviours of key structural configurations. The Materials theme examines the materials used in architecture. Starting from what we can mine and harvest. Then the creation of building components is explored and how these can be assembled to make parts of buildings. The key principles and techniques in connecting and ordering parts of a building to make good architecture are considered in detail, with hands on tutorials involving real construction material samples. The Environment theme investigates the fundamentals of sustainable development and its relationship to architecture. It examines how, at a strategic level, architecture can respond proactively to sustainable agendas. Students learn about the principles of passive solar design and applying a fabric first approach in order to make buildings comfortable whilst working with the external environment. The topic engages with energy conservation issues and carbon reduction strategies. 38

Above Alon Shahar Live/Work Studio Opposite Assignments 1 & 2 (samples) -

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIVALISM TO MODERNISM

1—6 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY REVIVALISM TO MODERNISM

COURSE ORGANISER

This course is a compulsory part of the MA (Hons) Architecture

programme, but also serves other degrees, including the MA

ALISTAIR FAIR

(Hons) Architectural History and Heritage. In addition, it is a popular elective course taken by students from across ECA and

SENIOR TUTOR

the wider University.

Anne Galastro

Architectural History 1B explores how designers and patrons between c. 1750 and 2000. It begins with the stylistic revivals

of the nineteenth century before turning to the advent of new

Kat Breen Alborz Dianat

materials and structural techniques. As the course moves into the twentieth century, the development of new architectural forms

Lucia Juarez

and approaches to space are discussed. The course includes

Scarlett Lee

focused discussion of the work of key designers such as Le

Mohona Reza Dimitrij Zadorin

1—6

responded to the idea of modernity in a series of global contexts TUTORS

Corbusier and Alvar Aalto but also stresses the contribution of others to the built environment – from the first qualified women architects of the early twentieth century to the commercial house-

LECTURERS Richard Anderson Alex Bremner Kirsten Carter McKee

builders who constructed suburbia. The course concludes with an investigation of the globalisation of modernist practice, and the reactions against Modernism of the late twentieth century. The coursework engages with the city of Edinburgh, which provides a rich series of examples for study.

Alistair Fair John Lowrey

In 2021, the course was modified for online delivery, with

Angus Macdonald

pre-recorded lectures, interactive online seminars, and the

Margaret Stewart

traditional exam replaced by a new programme of assessed

Iain Boyd Whyte

coursework intended to encourage a breadth of knowledge whilst also fostering research/analytical skills needed for success at university level. As with Architectural History 1A, the course aims not only to provide a foundational knowledge of recent architectural history but also to encourage an independent, reflective approach which sets architecture in wider contexts. The course is followed in second year by Urbanism and the City: Past to Present. 40

Opposite Cables Wynd House Edinburgh -

2—1

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN IN PLACE

2—2

TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT BUILDING ENVIRONMENT

2—3

DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING

2—4

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ANY PLACE

2—5

TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT BUILDING FABRIC

2—6

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY URBANISM & THE CITY

2—0

2—0 BA/MA [HONS]

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIEW CRITICS Liam Ross Scott Turpie Robin Livingstone

IN PLACE

2—1 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN IN PLACE

COURSE ORGANISER ANDREA FAED

The course takes the concept of site and situation as its focus. This theme is supplemented by those of public and private, place and identity. These themes collectively inform a set of architectural design exercises that have greater complexity than

COURSE SUPPORT

those tackled at Year 1.

Ana Miret

The thematic scope of the course serves as a context to introduce critical and reflexive dimensions of architectural design,

Jack Green

and the development of skills in design inquiry. The course addresses digital media and explores their consequences for the representation and fabrication in architecture.

2—1

TUTORS

Natasha Huq Mark Cousins Fiona Lumsden

‘In Place’ introduces students to a concern for buildings’ immediate location. The city is primarily shaped by social,

Pilar Perez

economic, and political processes; the city’s processes leave their

Thomas Woodcock

mark on the building. Instead of encouraging architecture to resist

David Byrne Ana Miret Nicky Thomson

such interference in its own territory, In Place suggests studying the city as a means of devising an architectural response to the urban condition.

Sebastian Aedo Yorgos Berdos

The course begins with research and analysis of precedents, followed by the analysis of the site and its environment. The findings of these two assignments forms the basis for the design of an Architecture School within the context of Edinburgh. Students work in small teams on the design of the Architecture School. Working as a team on this project it is designed to make this step-up in scale more manageable. Digital workshops are provided to supplement and support the studio project and benefit from the sharing of competencies within the group context. The Architecture School project progresses through a series of exercises that aim to improve student’s technical competence and understanding of architectural conventions as well as addressing the broader themes of the studio. The proposals are developed by teams to a reasonable level of resolution and clearly presented through a range of two and three-dimensional media.

Opposite Arada Chitmeesilp, Jaaziel Kajoba, Clarice Cao, Fah Rodloytuk Architecture School Contextual Axonometric -

BA/MA [HONS]

1 Caoilin O’Meara Grafton Architects, Vessels of light 2 Eilidh Duffy Rudolf Hall 3 Arada Chitmeesilp Joan Oliver Library, RCR Arquitectes 4 Michael Becker Glasgow School of Art, Charles Rennie Mackintosh -

PRECEDENT STUDY

3 45

4 2—1

IN PLACE

BA/MA [HONS]

ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL

IN PLACE 2—1

5 Charlotte Brooks, Mikele Perez-Jamieson, Terry Feng, Mina Pabuccuoglu, Mhairi Welsh Model collage Collage vignette 6 Arada Chitmeesilp, Jaaziel Kajoba, Clarice Cao, Fah Rodloytuk Exploded axonometric Sectional collage -

BA/MA [HONS]

7 Caoilin O’Meara, Olivia Fauel, Sara Cinca, Tallulah Bannerman, Valerie Wan Exploded axonometric 8 Gianluca Cau Tait, Athina Kotrozou, Ioanna Peponi, Tereza Staskova Section 9 Caitlin Allison, Chris Pirrie, Eve Pennington, Leyang Ding, Tubohao Yang Axonometric shadow study -

ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL 7 49

2—1

IN PLACE

BA/MA [HONS]

ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL

IN PLACE 2—1

10 Vivi Hsia, Vicki Dunnet, Sam Symes, Kim Lee, Hico Huang Model 11 Freya Charlton, Lucy Boyd, Bruce Shan, Ellie Wilkes Massing Models Sketch -

BA/MA [HONS]

Project 1 Environmental analysis and climate change adaptations of a design precedent. Mhairi Dickie, Ioanna Peponi Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Sutherland Hussey Harris, Edinburgh 1 Shadows and direct sunlight penetration; sections during Janurary, March, July, October 2 Local wind pattern and air movement analysis 3 Exploded axonometric

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT

2—2 TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT BUILDING ENVIRONMENT

COURSE ORGANISER W. VICTORIA LEE

Building on first year courses Technology and Environment: Principles and Architectural Design: Assembly, TE2A: Building Environment further develops students’ understanding, analysis, and integration of environmental design in architecture. The

TUTORS Pilar Perez del Real Elaine Pieczonka

course examines the roles of energy, light, heat, ventilation, and sound in building design. The course also introduces sustainable technologies, buildings performance assessments, building services and their implications for design.

David Seel

This course focuses on passive design strategies, but introduces

2—2

Peter Robinson mechanical (active) systems as a supplement. An emphasis is placed on the bioclimatic approach to architectural design, which advocates for designs that cater to the biology and psychology of humans whilst being responsive to the natural environment; with appropriate and thoughtful use of technology. The course covers a wide range of environmental design topics, including the following: --

Macro- and micro-climates

Solar geometry, daylighting, and artificial lighting

Passive heating and cooling strategies

Wellbeing, comfort, and other occupant needs

Building heat and energy balances

Natural and mechanical ventilation systems

Building services and water conservation

Acoustic fundamentals

Above Victor Olgay, The four interlocking and interacting components of bioclimatic design adapted from Design with Climate: bioclimatic approach to architectural regionalism (1963, 2015) Opposite Mhairi Dickie, Ioanna Peponi Project Report (Sample) -

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIEW CRITICS Asterios Agkathidis Theo Dounas

DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING

2—3 DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING

COURSE ORGANISER YORGOS BERDOS

This course represents an introduction to computational design and digital fabrication. The students explore how these two fields interact and complement each other. The technological possibilities to transform the digital into the physical by different

TUTORS Cesar Cheng Charlie Patterson

means are explored. The focus is set on parametric/algorithmic design approaches and the related digital crafting techniques. The students are introduced to digital work flows, managing data sets related to design and fabrication. The first four weeks

Mollie Claypool Opposite Tereza Staskova, Yeldar Gul, Mhairi Dickie, Athina Kotrozou, Yufei Min Field project -

Digital Turn. The students are required to complete individual and group analysis of given case studies and to present the reached conclusions. Simultaneously to this stage the students will be offered a set of tutorial hours for the dedicated software packages, and an introduction to a diverse range of digital fabrication techniques. The students are required to apply the newly gained knowledge in terms of form generation. They are expected to make extensive use of the designated online and offline learning recourses throughout the semester. We have two critical reviews of work where students present their developed projects to renowned guest specialists. The students are expected to read key literature and to maintain their reading throughout the study period. Computational design and digital fabrication are also addressed from a historical and theory-based point of view. Students are educated in developing a critical and analytical approach to computational design and digital fabrication, and great importance is given to understanding the intricate relationship between geometry, material and fabrication method. Understanding the technical and geometrical limitations of the different digital tools, both in terms of software and hardware, is a critical aspect of the design thinking: design, process and machine need to be correlated and in accordance with one another.

2—3

comprise an introduction to the theoretical approaches behind the GUEST LECTURER

BA/MA [HONS]

1, 2 Ice Chitmeesilp, Fah Rodloytuk, Clarice Cao, Jaaziel Kajoba, Leo Chiu Origami sound diffuser -

PARAMETRIC/ALGORITHMIC STUDIES 1

2 2—3

DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING

BA/MA [HONS]

PARAMETRIC/ALGORITHMIC STUDIES

DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING 2—3

3, 4 Gianluca Cau Tait, Athina Kotrozou, Ioanna Peponi, Tereza Staskova Field project Parametric tower Rotating sections -

BA/MA [HONS]

5, 6 Holly Ng, Kim Geon Yeong, Thomas Van Der Wielen, Matthew Johnson, Michael Becker Shading device Dynamic screen system -

Bracing onlyonly at vertical sides Bracing at vertical sides

4 diagonal bracing andand 2 side bracing 4 diagonal bracing 2 side bracing

Bracing Bracing onlyonly at vertical at vertical sides sides

4 diagonal 4 diagonal bracing bracing and and 2 side 2 side bracing bracing

4 diagonal bracing and and 2 side bracing 4 diagonal bracing 2 side bracing PARAMETRIC/ALGORITHMIC STUDIES

8 diagonal bracing no bracing at sides 8 diagonal bracing withwith no bracing at sides

16 diagonal bracing no bracing at sides 16 diagonal bracing witnwitn no bracing at sides

8 diagonal 8 diagonal bracing bracing withwith no bracing no bracing at sides at sides

16 diagonal 16 diagonal bracing bracing witnwitn no bracing no bracing at sides at sides

16 diagonal bracing no bracing at sides 16 diagonal bracing witnwitn no bracing at sides

69 69

5 61

2—3

DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING

½ sŃ«lªss Ń«¿«±s

W4 3' ŃEJD J WŃ

BA/MA [HONS]

PARAMETRIC/ALGORITHMIC STUDIES

DESIGN THINKING & DIGITAL CRAFTING 2—3

7, 8 Fly Luo, Antonios Mavrotas ,Lewis Watson, Fraser Winfield Folded paper tests Sketch prototype -

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIEW CRITICS Ludovico Centis

San Rocco, The Empire Manfredo di Robillant

Politecnico di Turin Tijana Stevanovic

KTH Stockholm Mark Dorrian Simone Ferracina

ESALA

ANY PLACE

2—4 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ANY PLACE

COURSE ORGANISER LIAM ROSS

This year Architectural Design Any Place used the COVID epidemic as a prompt to reflect on the architecture of dwelling. Students were invited to consider the house as an immunological structure, a device that – like a cell, a womb, a love-relationship, a face-

COURSE SUPPORT -

mask, or a national border – is designed to provide a protective interior for its occupant.

Ana Miret The course began with a series of studies on the theme of Sebastian Aedo Yorgos Berdas David Byrne Mark Cousins Jack Green

Bubbles . 1 Over the winter vacation, students analysed their own domestic ‘bubble’, paying attention to what defined its spatial

2—4

TUTORS

limits. They drew and modelled a series of small domestic architectural precedents, considering the varied means they have to ‘insulate’ their occupants. They then designed a prototype apartment, re-designing their own household, learning lessons from selected precedents.

Natasha Huq Fiona Lumsden Ana Miret

The main project was titled Islands , and it asked students to design a multi-family apartment building in one of five host

Pilar Perez

cities. Students began this exercise by analysing the apartment

Nicky Thomson

typologies and urban pattern of their selected city, considering

Thomas Woodcock

each of these a further scale of insulating structure. 2 They were then asked to bring their own prototype apartment to the selected site, and to reconfigure it in relation to local urban and climatic conditions. The resultant projects think carefully about how the thickness of a wall mediates relationships between inside and outside, public and private, occupant and neighbour. 1

The course as a whole is a response to Peter Sloterdijk’s Spheres Trilogy (Bubbles, 1998; Globes, 1999; Foams, 2004). 2

In Roman urban design, both the apartment building and urban block are referred to as Insula, small ‘islands’ that ‘insulate’ their occupants.

Opposite Buckminster Fuller A Geodesic Dome Over Midtown Manhattan 1960 -

BA/MA [HONS]

ARCHITECTURES OF INSULATION

ANY PLACE 2—4

1 James Haynes Household bubble Analysis of ‘public’ and ‘private’ spaces Architectures of insulation Analysis of Wall House, John Hejduk, showing structures that separate ‘public’ and ‘private’ spaces Apartment building A Live/Work tower for Hong Kong, with pronounced structural wall and circulation 2 Athina Kotrozou Architectures of insulation Cusicle, Mike Webb Showing technologies of ventilation and air-conditioning Apartment building Co-housing Tower, Hong Kong, showing private ‘pods’ and shared stair and kitchen area Apartment building Co-housing Tower, Hong Kong, axonometric showing layers of showing solar screening and ventilation louvres -

BA/MA [HONS]

3 Holly Ng Architectures of Insulation Pilwood House, Su Rogers Showing glazed structure for passive solar gain Prototype apartment Small house for an indoor gardener Apartment building Co-housing for gardeners, Rome 4 Caoilin O’Meara Household bubble Study of indoor/outdoor spaces and their social importance for the elderly during COVID Islands Study of external amenity spaces and shading devices, Buenos Aires Apartment building Multi-generational housing, Buenos Aires Sectional perspective showing relationship between private interior spaces and shared external amenity spaces

ARCHITECTURES OF INSULATION 3 69

4 2—4

ANY PLACE

BA/MA [HONS]

APARTMENT BUILDINGS

ANY PLACE 2—4

5, 6 Michael Becker Apartment building Plan showing two storey houses clustered around existing trees Apartment building Section showing relation to existing trees and neighbouring apartment buildings Apartment building Exploded Isometric of two dwelling, showing architectural elements reinterpreted from Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre and Peter Salter’s Walmer’s Yard -

BA/MA [HONS]

APARTMENT BUILDINGS

ANY PLACE 2—4

7 Ellie Wilkes Architectures of insulation Study of Adolf Loos Villa Muller, analysing the staircase as a means to separate public and private functions Apartment building Live/Work development, Rome Section showing work spaces within podium deck, and living units within protruding ‘periscopes’ Apartment building Visualisation of podium deck and ‘periscopes’ from street level 8 Leo Chiu Architectures of insulation Study of Scofidio and Diller, Slow House, showing use of light and compression to control privacy and openness Prototype apartment Model of a prototype live/work unit using level changes, light and compression to denote movement from public to private spaces Apartment building Live/Work tower in New York Section showing entry floor and duplex apartments above -

BA/MA [HONS]

Project 1 School Nursery. Athina Kotrozou, Iselin Dalland, Yeldar Gul, Folahan Adelakun 1 Exploded isometric of timber platform joints 2 Rendered isometric of proposed playstructure

Project 2 Community Centre. Tallulah Bannerman, Lucy Boyd, Thomas van der Wielen, Kim Geon Yeong 1 Timber panel cladding detail

BUILDING FABRIC

2—5 TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT BUILDING FABRIC

COURSE ORGANISER DIMITRIS THEODOSSOPOULOS

The course explores how building structures are shaped around their response to loads across the four main material systems (timber, steel, concrete, masonry). Construction technology is examined in typical structural schemes, the envelope and

TUTORS Jane Robertson Julio Bros-Williamson

roof, towards the achievement of environmental comfort and protection. Assessment of performance is carried out through numerical or assembly study, and how they inform the tectonic expression of these systems.

Rosie Milne

The pandemic forced a rethink of the learning environment

2—5

Georgina Allison through a digital-only approach but became an opportunity to empower student participation and explore inverting the classroom. Instead of delivering live lectures, they were prerecorded and became available to the students beforehand, who were then split into large discussion groups working at the timetabled hours. The discussion was led with case studies and students very actively explored aspects like the nature of structural loads, manufacturing and properties of materials, the effect of stiffness, shaping frames around load-paths and bending moments, assembly and performance of building envelopes etc. Illustrated essays became rich reflections by the students on the taught material, who were encouraged to study photos from site visits before lockdown. This pedagogy should inform next year’s learning environment if site visits are allowed again. Design around structural performance is explored in the first project; precise sizing and detailing of a playpark timber structure informed the architectural learning experience of children at an Edinburgh school nursery. The second project proposed a community centre in McDonald Road, Edinburgh which reflects on the unfinished planning of the fringes of the New Town and its 200-years old palette of materials represented in the road.

Above Dimitris Theodossopoulos Installation of glazed curtain walling onto steel structure, Edinburgh Opposite Projects 1 & 2 (Sample) -

BA/MA [HONS]

URBANISM & THE CITY

2—6 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY URBANISM & THE CITY

COURSE ORGANISER JOHN LOWREY

This undergraduate course investigates the global history of city design and urbanism from ancient times to the contemporary period. Through an interdisciplinary course bibliography and readings in key historical texts on urbanism, students will grasp

TUTORS -

the major historical trends and philosophies of urban emergence and development.

Lucia Juarez Tutorials centred on Edinburgh site visits and training in research and writing will prepare students to perform first-hand research and compose original scholarship on the built environment. Opposite Gordon Cullen Illustration of proposals for London c. 1950 -

2—6

Nick Mols

The goal of this course is to give students a critical acumen for evaluating the architectural transformation of the urban realm across disparate cultures and far-flung geographies over time, from Antiquity to the present day.

Nikolia Kartalou

3—1

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN EXPLORATIONS

3—2

ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

3—3

ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE WORKING LEARNING

3—4

ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE REFLECTION

3—5

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

3—0

3—0 BA/MA [HONS]

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIEW CRITICS Athina Papadoupoulou James Roach Pablo Martínez Capdevila Arturo Romero Carnicero Paolo Zaide Michelle Bastian Sepideh Karami Nathalie Frankowski Cruz Garcia Martha Halliday Ana Betancour Tommy Perman Sitraka Rakotoniaina Francisca Lima Angus MacDonald Giorgio Ponzo Moa Carlsson Jamie Kinghorn Penny Travlou Catherine Middleton Stefanie Wettstein Marcella Wenger-Di Gabriele Asterios Agkathidis Kyriakos Chatziparaskevas

EXPLORATIONS

3—1 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN EXPLORATIONS

COURSE ORGANISER SIMONE FERRACINA

Explorations extends Stage 2 level architectural design and communication skills by foregrounding experimentation. The course focuses on developing familiarity with a range of relevant protocols and techniques. Students are asked to

UNIT 2

undertake a rigorous and creative exploration that investigates

UNIT 3

specific design themes based on the identification of key

UNIT 4

problems, opportunities, sources, methodologies and strategies.

UNIT 5

Seeking a more nuanced understanding of the design process, the

UNIT 6

course turns the studio into a laboratory for creative exploration,

UNIT 7

and a site for experimentation and discovery—not only for finding

3—1

approaches to architectural design research, and with the UNIT 1

answers and solutions, but for designing and pursuing questions. GUEST LECTURERS -

The course is offered in a number of parallel design studios that

Javier Arpa

sustain the overarching pedagogical aims while investigating a

David Lemm

broad spectrum of distinctive subthemes, preoccupations and

Sumayya Vally

methods. During the 2020-2021 academic year, units explored a

Tim Vincent-Smith

range of different topics: Unit 1 investigated the role of colour in

Matt Wright

architectural design, and the retrofit of a building in Edinburgh;

Dimitris Theodossopoulos

Unit 2 interrogated the reactivation and reuse of discarded and

Sam Foster Bill Black Angus MacDonald Catherine Middleton Lisa Williams

de-valued objects, prototyping new materials and assemblies;

Unit 3 developed competition proposals as a way to reclaim architectural practice as a fundamental mode of operation for architects; Unit 4 explored the model as a tool for developing spatial, tectonic and compositional languages; Unit 5 considered the spatial practices associated with a post-pandemic world, and

TECHNIQUES TUTORS Rosie Milne Toufiq Bin Mohamad Juahir

ensuing notions of normality; Unit 6 investigated participatory architectural design—the involvement of non-experts in the configuration and modification of space, particularly after COVID-19; Unit 7 set out to reveal the colonial histories resident within Scotland’s neo-classical architecture, and to repurpose them towards non-extractive futures.

Opposite Kanto Maeda, Uwais Mohd Hafizal Humanitas Ex Machina: Humanity from the machine -

BA/MA [HONS]

This unit provided an opportunity to explore colour design for architecture. Colour is a complex, ethereal and contingent phenomenon. It is an essential factor in the perception

CHROMATIC INTERVENTIONS

of material surface and our experience of space. The study of colour infiltrates almost every discipline: psychology, biology, neurology, physics, chemistry, fashion, art, literature, film, music, philosophy... and yet it has been somewhat neglected in contemporary architectural education. Through this unit, the students developed a basic understanding of the principles of colour theory, learnt a series of design methodologies and then

UNIT 1 STUDIO LEADERS Fiona McLachlan Rachael Scott

tested and applied them through an architectural retrofit project. They began by establishing an intellectual framework through reading, discussion, and a series of practical enquiries. They then developed an abstracted palette derived from a secondary source, which was subsequently developed and applied to a 1965 tower block at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. The palettes for the six projects retain the characteristics of their sources but evolved through a series of investigations: the natural environment; food ingredients and cooking, Tim Burton’s films; traditional clothes from Malaysia, Turkey and China, Autumn, and sunsets and sunrises. Students considered how the palettes could inform a strategic use of colour for their brief ‘Mind and Body’ including a community kitchen, productive garden, market place, art therapy, UNIT DESCRIPTORS

up-cycling and physical exercise spaces.

Unit 2 aims to expand the notion and practice of architectural authorship. If design depends on the exertion of control over matter from the top down, and on the orientation of materials

RADICAL CO-AUTHORSHIP

through technical chains that progressively transform them towards a specific fit or communication protocol, the unit investigates an alternative ethos and methodological approach

UNIT 2

whereby designers relinquish some control and embrace human

STUDIO LEADERS

and nonhuman others (including discarded/devalued objects) as

co-designers. We proposed an alternative model for architectural practice, one where materials precede ideas, ecologies are given priority over intents, and creativity is understood as partial, distributed and collaborative. Our work interrogated lowly industrial objects, material discards and hybrid compounds as generators of new architectural assemblages. We learnt to shift our attention from the mere design of outputs (the beautiful object as desirable project outcome) to the design of the tools, material flows, labour practices and implicit biases that promote and deploy them. We questioned not how to address the climate crisis through technical means, but what it means to reconfigure architecture (its understandings, practices, values) and ourselves as architects (our aims, habits, and evaluation criteria) to respond to the environmental and social challenges of our times.

Simone Ferracina Asad Khan

STUDIO

This unit gave students the opportunity to work on two international architectural ideas competitions, with submission

EXPLORATIONS

THE COMPETITION

dates scheduled for late October and late November, respectively. The projects to be carried out offered very different challenges

UNIT 3 STUDIO LEADERS -

and demanded responses at radically different scales. Thus, Unit 3 strategically approached both competitions as one single ‘body of work’ spanning a full semester and allowing for crosspollination between the projects.

Miguel Paredes Maldonado Ana Bonet Miró

By building the brief around these contemporary competitions, Unit 3 aimed to offer a platform for students to circulate their work among audiences beyond academia, and to situate their ideas intellectually within a critical international context. Even more importantly, this unit is committed to re-position the role of professional practice as a fundamental mode of operation for architects—one that is exploratory and speculative, but also firmly engaged with existing organisations, communities and

CONVERSATIONS THROUGH MAKING

Make it in terms of its tectonic elements, for example; skins,

3—1

stakeholders to respond to pressing issues across the globe.

frames, thick walls, thin walls, floorwalls, wall-floors, floorwall-roof, roof, dégagé (expressed disengagement as the careful articulation between elements), butt-joint, pin-joint, mastering,

STUDIO LEADERS -

dove-tailing, covering, revealing, boxes, cuts, planes, folds, facets, warps, surface, thickness, heavy, light, transparent, opalescent, translucent, primary structure, secondary structure, tertiary structure, decoration, openings, screens, moving parts,

Kevin Adams

fixed parts, ground, sky, horizon, not-ground, water collection,

Louisa Butler

water dispersion, sunlight and shadow. Architecture is about relationships between things and as architects we can make those relationships; Unit 4 uses the methodology of architectural model making to explore this by proposing a series of provocations; fragments of tectonic, spatial arrangement and thresholds, all as things in careful relationship to each other. We spent ten weeks making beautiful and precise scale models in abstraction, forming and following the relationship of the components that we conceive at various different scales, emphasising different concerns and building language. T.S. Elliot described a poem’s meaning as just the hunk of meat that the burglar throws to the guard dog to keep it occupied whilst the poem works its real magic on the reader. Perhaps we can consider our material output as the meat that we chew on whilst what really counts is how we weave this output with richness, resolve and lots of poetic relationships. The careful articulation of this is what really counts.

UNIT 4

BA/MA [HONS]

In the extraordinary present moment, romantic notions of ‘normality’ have been upturned. In this new context, we must revisit the stories we tell ourselves about history and social exchange. As we all recalibrate to new rules of conduct, we find ourselves enmeshed in a complex web of geopolitical, ecological, and sociological factors — many of which are at odds and seemingly incompatible. As new spatial practices reframe everything (as basic as human touch), we should consider

NORMAL NOW UNIT 5 STUDIO LEADERS -

how architects and designers address these global

Michael Lewis

concerns and advocate for different versions of the future we will

Andrew Friend

all occupy, together. Unit 5 uses narrative and speculative design, in conjunction with traditional architectural tools, to analyse personal experience, design broad frameworks, and situate specific architectural proposals that use storytelling techniques as a method for cultural critique. In this context, we will question traditional means of graphic communication and exploit the specific opportunities of digital formats—namely with film, animation, and immersive environments.

UNIT DESCRIPTORS

Pandemics pose spatial problems that require new ways of being and living together. Necessary measures encourage social distancing but come at the cost of reduced social contact. But

ARCHITECTURE BY YOURSELF

giving up on urbanity and social density is not the only solution. Addressing the spatial codes (rules for how we move and interact with others) of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Unit

UNIT 6

6 focused on participatory architectural design. In this studio, we

STUDIO LEADERS

explored the idea of “architecture by yourself”— the development

of methods and techniques through which the architect facilitates the participation of non-experts in the design and modification of their living environments. A radical departure from the conventional understanding of the role of architects, this entails a shift from designing buildings, environments and products for future users (a “solutionist” approach to design), to offering users the tools and materials to create their own designs (Vardouli 2013).

Moa Carlsson Yorgos Berdos

DISPATCHING MONUMENTS OF COLONIAL EXCESS UNIT 7 STUDIO LEADERS Killian Doherty Nick Mols

This unit looked at Scotland’s unseen colonial histories and current formations through neoclassical ‘architectural’

EXPLORATIONS

SITES UNSEEN:

monuments, making them visible by excavating and exhuming them—monuments that were de-commissioned and reconfigured, as a conceptual response to broader racial and environmental injustices. Using techniques of architectural representation, these ‘monuments’, as sites of privilege and excess, will be connected to unseen sites of ruinous extraction and exploitation. In the first half of the semester, ‘thick’ archival visualizations drew and revealed the ideological assemblages behind these monuments, producing artefacts such as drawings, mappings and digital/physical modelling. The unseen worlds of natural resource extraction and human labour that produced these architectures was linked and made visually explicit through artefacts. Conceptually, artefacts worked as ‘thick sectional representations’ lifting up the skin of a disturbed site to read what is below. In the second half, we analysed design precedents/ spatial practices that challenge a range of ideologies of power. The semester concluded by returning to these monuments to hack and reconfigure them. Proposed designs speculated on the deep interdependencies between racial and environmental injustices,

ACCOLADES

UNIT 1 SELECTED FOR THE COLOUR MEMORIES ONLINE EXHIBITION BY THE MUSEUM OF ARCHITECTURE, LONDON Miharu Yamaguchi, Ephra Charlton Hutchinson The colour of food Sofia King de Regoyos, Carmen Parte, Izzy Fraser Sunsets and Sunrises UNIT 3 SHORTLISTED & SPECIAL MENTION FOR INTERNATIONAL

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN COMPETITION 2021 Coll Drury, Inka Eismar, Jenna McMahon Housing Re-Framed UNIT 5 SHORTLISTED FOR THE LONDON ARCHITECTURE FILM FESTIVAL 2021 Kanto Maeda, Uwais Mohd Hafizal Humanitas Ex Machina: Humanity from the machine UNIT 6 PROJECT WORK PUBLISHED WITHIN RE-SETTING SITE-WORK

IN ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN COURSES IN 2020: PART 1 , SUZANNE EWING & ANAIS CHANON Haowen Wang, Jiacong Chen, Li Jiang, Sam Leahy, Ollie Viner, Tidings Mazomba-Felix, Olivia Baylis, Kitty O’Loan, Michael Syme

EXTRA-ACADEMIC

3—1

past and present, and in anticipation of non-extractive futures.

BA/MA [HONS]

CHROMATIC INTERVENTIONS

EXPLORATIONS

UNIT 1

3—1

1 Miharu Yamaguchi, Ephra Charlton Hutchinson The colour of food 2 Sofia King de Regoyos, Carmen Parte, Izzy Fraser Sunsets and Sunrises -

BA/MA [HONS]

UNIT 2 3 Elida Harjo Hansen, Esther Fletcher, Skye Brownlow Floating Ecologies: Building a Post-natural Island 4 Ryan Liu, Ivy Yan, Tenny Zhang Cork-tecture -

RADICAL CO-AUTHORSHIP 3 89

4 3—1

EXPLORATIONS

BA/MA [HONS]

THE COMPETITIONS STUDIO

EXPLORATIONS

UNIT 3

3—1

5 Coll Drury, Inka Eismar, Jenna McMahon Housing Re-Framed The Future of Housing International Ideas Competition 6 Eleanor Collin, Ellen Clayton, Xingyu Li, Xinran Wang, Shiyu Zhang A Modular Ecology Penang Bay International Ideas Competition -

BA/MA [HONS]

UNIT 4 7 Jeanita Gambier, Amanzhol Kellett, Felix Wilson In Search of Collective Ground: amongst eight positions of hybrid making 8 Murray Short, Jordan Stulich Rear Window[s] -

CONVERSATIONS THROUGH MAKING 7 93

8 3—1

EXPLORATIONS

BA/MA [HONS]

NORMAL NOW

EXPLORATIONS

UNIT 5

3—1

9 Kanto Maeda, Uwais Mohd Hafizal Humanitas Ex Machina: Humanity from the machine 10 Molly Sinclair, Oriana Jopling, Jodie Horsburgh The Body in Space -

BA/MA [HONS]

UNIT 6 11 Haowen Wang, Jiacong Chen, Li Jiang Wearable Architecture 12 Olivia Baylis, Kitty O’Loan, Michael Syme Protesting in a Pandemic 13 Sam Leahy, Ollie Viner, Tidings Mazomba-Felix METAtartan 11

ARCHITECTURE BY YOURSELF 12 97

13 3—1

EXPLORATIONS

BA/MA [HONS]

SITES UNSEEN

EXPLORATIONS

UNIT 7

3—1

14 Xinyi Lu, Jakub Prusak, Kaitlyn Smith Decommissioning Dundas: re-quarrying the city 15 Reem Al Kalbani, Roula Traboulsi, Kayla Bain Unraveling Auchincruive : A Centre for Diasporic Arts 16 Francesca Scott Rehousing Dunmore: buildings for non-extractive food production -

100

16 15

BA/MA [HONS]

Sam Llewellyn Smith Policing Architecture; Transparent Spaces It was a Saturday afternoon when, in the middle of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, I spotted a policeman on horseback. Trotting towards me, he corralled me and my father into a corner by the stairs. I still remember the feeling of fear that washed over me. I was ten at the time and unaware of concepts such as performance art. I later found out that piece was by the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera. ‘Tatlin’s Whisper #5’ consists of two mounted policemen who perform crowd control techniques of varying degrees of intimidation on museum visitors. The policemen impose an ‘atmosphere of regulation’ in the space, their presence and power legitimised by their uniform and the context of the museum – it is not uncommon to see mounted police(wo)men in the City of London. 1 Indeed, the site of the performance, a museum in the centre of a capital city where the threat from terrorism fluctuates between ‘substantial’ and ‘severe’, perhaps validates the presence of the policemen. 2 While alleviating the legitimate fears of some, the police presence would have stoked the fears of those who have reason to be fearful by nature of their race and concomitant police brutality. 3 For some, the horsemen offered reassurance, for others repression. This was the first time that I realised how factors of exclusion beyond the spatial arrangement of a building could make one feel. This experience and my reading of Aidan Mosselson and Iris Marion Young’s work have led me to question how architects can design truly accessible public spaces. 4 Their respective analysis of everyday instances of control that constitute hegemonic systems of power and gendered and racial prejudices that curtail universal access to public space have been particular illuminating. As Lefebvre comments: ‘Space is never empty: it always embodies a meaning.’ 5 I think that the responsibility of designing a public building includes a commitment to transparency. This should not necessarily be translated into legible structural frames and expanses of glass which Foster + Partners purport ‘express the transparency of [...] democratic process[es]’, but more on an organisational level and through subtle tools to increase inclusion. 6 Design methodologies and organisational structures which increase engagement could include participatory design processes or ‘bottom-up’ modes where decisions are reached through consensus between equitable parties. As an architect, how can I design public spaces which are truly ‘empty’, active in their inclusive agency? -

Aidan Mosselson, “Everyday Security: Privatized Policing, Local Legitimacy and Atmospheres of Control,”

Urban Geography 40, no. 1 (June 2018): 16. 2

Dominic Casciani, “UK Terrorism Threat Level Raised to ‘Severe’,” BBC News , November 3, 2020, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54799377.

Kojo Karam, “Systemic Racism and Police brutality are British Problems too,” The Guardian , June 4, 2020,

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/04/systemic-racism-police-brutality-british-problems-black-lives-matter. 4

Mosselson, “Everyday Security: Privatized Policing, Local Legitimacy and Atmospheres of Control,”; Iris Marion Young,

Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990). 5 6

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1991), 154.

“City Hall,” Foster + Partners, accessed November 17, 2020, https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/city-hall/.

ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

3—2 ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

COURSE ORGANISER MICHELLE BASTIAN

Architectural Theory is a third year core course for BA/MA Architecture students. It introduces students to theory for the first time, while also developing their writing and critical thinking skills. The overall focus is on developing a questioning attitude,

Nikolia Kartalou Negar Ebrahimi Hafsa Olcay

inviting students to challenge their assumptions and to find new ways of thinking about key problems. Our approach is case study based, where exemplary architectural projects are read in relation to two selected texts, one from philosophy or theory, and the second from specific architectural or urban theory approaches. Looking at topics such as gender, nature, governance and technology, students explore the relationship between

3—2

TUTORS

architecture and other areas of culture, while also being provided with an expanded framework for understanding and interpreting architectural production. In 2020-2021 we moved online and students participated in a range of collaborative activities as well as new ‘Meet the Author’ sessions, where one of the authors from our weekly reading joined us to answer student’s questions directly. Focusing on topics of current interest we looked at the crisis in housing affordability, pandemic architecture, the climate crisis and architectural perspectives on issues of racial inequality raised particularly by the Black Lives Matter movement. Experienced tutors with backgrounds in architecture and design and who are active in research via their current PhD projects, provided weekly feedback and engagement via asynchronous discussion activities. In their assessed work, students develop their skills in reading complex texts and developing personal responses to them. The reflective approach of the journal helps students to focus on how the course materials shed light on their own preconceptions, studio projects, or wider social and cultural understandings. While the essay provides an opportunity to explore a particular issue in greater depth. Overall, the course asks students to develop their own critical perspectives on how architecture might respond to a range of contemporary social issues, and to deepen their ability to use writing for self-reflection and wider communication. 102

Above Tania Bruguera Tatlin’s Whisper #5 Tate Modern Opposite Sam Llewellyn Smith Critical Reflections Journal Entry -

BA/MA [HONS]

Guy Carter Insurers versus Architects The architecture industry has spent the last three years experiencing increasing trepidation as their professional indemnity (PI) insurance premiums have been climbing drastically year-on-year. The tragedy of the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017 sparked a hefty rise in annual premiums and severe exclusions being introduced into new policies. One of the major problems for architects following Grenfell has been the blanket exclusion of certain claims for many small and medium-sized architecture firms. There has been a dramatic increase in exclusions relating to cladding and fire safety issues These exclusions in the architects’ insurance cover are significantly hindering their business, and as Mark Hide of Mark Hide Associates explains; ‘You simply cannot design a building without erecting a fire compartment wall within it’. Due to the findings from Grenfell, the construction industry, and in particular architecture, is now perceived to be extremely high risk. For years, architects have been taking on responsibility for aspects they were not suitably qualified for, such as specifying cladding. Louisa Hawkins, Assistant Vice President at Allied World Assurance Company, told me that, post-Grenfell, architects immediately notified their insurers of potential claims against all their cladding projects. Architects did this to try to circumvent the more stringent terms that would be introduced with new policies. This, understandably, made insurers nervous, questioning whether they were all potentially at risk. In the past three years, architects’ premiums have risen dramatically, in some cases by over 1,000%. Architects understand that any increase in costs should be passed onto clients, but now more than ever architects are having to operate in an increasingly competitive market, so many are shouldering the extra expense just to keep afloat. Former RIBA president Marco Goldschmied is of the opinion that insurers are exploiting the Grenfell Tower disaster to rip-off architecture firms with unnecessarily high premiums on their PI cover. The question is can architects find a way to improve their situation? There are a few ways that may get around this situation. Firstly, architects could be insured for individual projects, rather than for the firm as a whole on an annual basis. The single project professional indemnity (SPPI) approach gives insurers and architects the ability to take each project on its own merit, giving them the option to structure bespoke insurance for every circumstance. Another possible approach is for architects to set up a mutual insurance fund. Marco Goldschmied wants to create a non-profit insurance company for those who really need it - the UK’s small practices. His plan is to establish a RIBA-backed mutual company where member firms would help pay the claims for one another. A third option is that government should broker a short-term solution to make PI cover more accessible on a commercial level, especially for the existing high-risk residential buildings. Many architects are currently struggling to acquire full PI cover at an affordable cost, and are now contemplating ways around traditional insurance methods, SPPI and government aid, or boycotting the insurance market all together, by establishing a mutual insurance fund. These, if they work out, will be great solutions to a tricky situation in the new post-Grenfell, post-coronavirus world. -

WORKING LEARNING

3—3 ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE WORKING LEARNING

MARK COUSINS

This course introduces the business of architecture in terms of its professional, ethical, procedural and corporate fundamentals. It also provides a framework to support students during their Practice Experience period in the second semester and facilitate an active reflection on their workplace activities. The course compliments Architectural Practice: Reflection (APR) and addresses a range of pertinent topics (such as the architect/ client relationship, the role of professional bodies, legislative framework and modes of procurement) in order to offer students a grounding in professional knowledge, preparing them for future employment.

3—3

COURSE ORGANISER

A series of lectures offered at the start of the course examines key issues including the social and technical drivers impacting the profession today. We examine modes of professional accreditation, the sequencing of work, regulatory requirements and building contracts. We explain core competencies that will be required by students seeking employment, such as preparing a CV, collating a comprehensive portfolio, interview skills, working with on-line research databases, and recording professional experience. Knowledge gained through the lecture series (and whilst on Practice Experience) is then tested through a series of distance-learning assignments. These set tasks are intended as work-based learning exercises and afford students an opportunity to analyse and reflect upon their work experience.

104

Above Mark Cousins Minto House Opposite Guy Carter Reflective Essay (abridged) -

We have a sizable database of international practices who have employed ESALA students in the past but students are encouraged to approach their preferred practices. We liaise closely with the Edinburgh Architectural Association as well as professional bodies including the RIAS and RIBA. The availability of job opportunities depends upon market forces and, therefore, we recognise the benefits of other forms of experience such as construction work, architectural journalism, voluntary work, and other design spheres such as graphics, product design, interior design, acoustics, etc. Alternatively students might get involved in architectural competitions, speculative design proposals, private commissions, or independent research projects in order to extend their knowledge of the profession.

BA/MA [HONS]

Johanna Hedenskog Journal Entry No.2 As a female member of the LGBT+ community, joining a traditionally male-dominated profession (within the notoriously macho construction industry) can seem a rather daunting prospect. The visibility of LGBT+ architects, particularly in history lectures and upper management positions, remains very limited. The Old Boys’ Club reputation is one of the largest barriers to young people joining the profession, so the existence of local LGBT+ networks therefore is crucial to inspiring a more diverse younger generation to pursue a career in architecture. A survey conducted by The Architects’ Journal in 2017 showed worrying data about the state of the architectural profession in terms of LGBT+ security in the workplace. Testimony from architects suggests that the construction industry has an “ultramasculine culture” and that clients prefer heteronormative companies. The domination of straight white cis men in the profession creates a homogenous global architecture based on the ideals of a male elite which suppresses diversity. However, there is a growing consensus that LGBT-supportive policies lead to a better performing company and there are obvious marketing benefits to being inclusive. As a gay architecture student, I feel relatively protected at university since it is more progressive than ‘real life’, but even so, there is a long way to go before LGBT+ visibility in architecture schools is a natural part of the curriculum. In history lectures, we were told about Louis Sullivan’s skyscrapers, but never about his queerness, and our entire education on queer architecture was encapsuled in a single lecture entitled ‘Queer Cities’ - this is not nearly enough. The identities and work of LGBT+ architects and designers should be an integral part of our education, particularly in history. Having gay tutors and lecturers is important, but incorporating diversity into the core content creates a common knowledge base among students which will be carried over into practice. Visible diversity benefits not only minority students, but also the inclusivity of the profession at large. The national organisation Architecture LGBT+ now has a Scottish chapter and gives me hope that I can find a place for myself in the profession. It will enable me to meet successful architects who are also LGBT+ members, and I can learn from their experiences, gaining insight into how best to navigate issues within a practice. Whilst fully incorporating a diverse curriculum into architecture schools, and breaking heteronormative prejudices in practice may seem like a distant prospect, the work being done by independent organisations to promote LGBT+ concerns makes me feel hopeful. Becoming more aware of (and immersed in) this part of the architecture community has helped me gain confidence and helped engender a strong sense of self. The work underway by the Scottish Architecture LGBT+ chapter (and Marc Cairns, it’s regional director) will give young architects in Scotland a platform to feel supported and heard. It offers a more diverse set of role models for any young architect unsure of their value or identity - it could make the difference between simply giving up or emboldening one to contribute to a more inclusive society. -

REFLECTION

3—4 ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE REFLECTION

COURSE ORGANISER MARK COUSINS

This course invites critical reflection on the architectural profession whilst students are undertaking a period of Practice Experience. Students are encouraged to use their initiative to seek employment opportunities either in Scotland or across the globe. During this period a range of topics are examined through five succinct journal entries. Each entry focuses on a particular aspect to investigate the complexities of the profession outwith the confines of ESALA. The journal entries engage, provoke and/or

3—4

of architectural practice (or a related activity) and allows students

ruminate on specific issues related to architecture and provide an opportunity for students to reflect, appraise, analyse and present their newfound knowledge. This course compliments Architectural Practice: Working Learning (APWL) and forms an essential component of the MA programme as part of the vocational qualification. We also have a number of joint events with the Edinburgh Architectural Association (EAA). Much of the research is self-directed and students are asked to reflect in an active way on the profession. The Journal is intended as an academic companion to their workplace activities, however, given the vagaries of the job market, students are not penalized if they are unable to secure employment. The Journal is a vehicle for critical appraisal - informed by relevant readings (books, journals, periodicals, Codes of Practice, contract documents, competition briefs, etc). It provides a vehicle to use (and/or develop) academic research and referencing protocols. Students are expected to reflect on their experience and evidence how the Practice Experience period acts as an extension of their architectural education. Usually this is addressed by ‘working in the field’ but it can also be an opportunity to expand their understanding of architectural research and/or attaining new skills.

106

Above Allies + Morrison Pride Float Opposite Johanna Hedenskog Reflective Journal Entry -

BA/MA [HONS]

Miranda Musson The ARB maintains the register of architects in the UK but how successful are they at safeguarding the architect’s title and function? To be an ‘architect’ in the UK you must be registered with the Architects Registration Board (ARB). The Architects Register, an official list of 42,000+ UK architects, is available online, so prospective clients can easily check the accreditation of anyone offering architectural services. The ARB’s Architect’s Code: Standards of Professional Conduct and Practice , republished in 2017, sets out twelve mandatory standards for members to follow. These protect both client and architect; for example, Standard 4 ‘Competent management of your business’, includes the requirement that: ‘ You are expected to ensure that before you undertake any professional work you have entered into a written agreement with the client. ’ There must be an appointment document in writing, breaking down the architect’s fees and expectations; this helps communications and relations between client and architect, and avoids vague agreements. The ARB can investigate Code breaches and inflict disciplinary measures. In severe cases, they can expel a member, removing their claim to the title ‘architect.’ Although anyone can provide architectural services in the UK, Section 20 of the 1997 Architects Act protects the title of ‘architect’ by law. Anyone included in the ARB register is considered to have had the relevant education, training and experience, so the title ‘architect’ provides a prospective client with an understanding of the minimum level of architectural expertise. However, the ARB’s focus on title has caused controversy. In 2014, Alfred Munkenbeck, a Association of Consultant Architects (ACA) council member argued that: “ There is currently a ludicrous situation whereby a registered architect is subject to professional regulation but anyone unqualified may offer the same service without regulation. ” Many high-profile architectural figures, such as John Pawson, never finished their architectural education, and legally cannot use the title ‘architect’ - despite an abundant portfolio of outstanding architectural commissions. ARB contacted Dezeen magazine in 2013 to amend inaccurate labelling when the writer Rose Etherington referred to ‘architect John Pawson’ in an article. There followed a public outcry over the ARB’s seemingly farcical pursuit, and they themselves admitted that they are “...limited by what [they] can do, [and could not] take [her] to court or anything. ” Many argue that these are not truly fraudulent uses of the title ‘architect’. Amanda Baillieu, Building Design’s editor, suffered a similar dilemma regarding features on Renzo Piano and Daniel Libeskind, and criticized the ARB: “ All they can do is run around chasing after websites for calling people architects rather than going after big firms who don’t pay their staff, who behave incompetently, or who bring the profession into disrepute. ” The ARB safeguards the architect’s title and function, creating distinction and respect for the architect’s skillset, and holding architectural professionalism to a high standard, protecting both architect and client. However, the ARB appears more successful in safeguarding the function , as there remains a grey area regarding the title’s significance, not only in terms of regulating those without appropriate qualifications but also a lack of recognition for those with substantial architectural oeuvres. -

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

3—5 PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

COURSE ORGANISER MARK COUSINS

This BA course introduces students to architecture as a professional practice. It explores the key issues of practice including the architect/client relationship, role of professional bodies, current legislation and methods of procurement. A series of lectures in the first semester presents a wellrounded overview of practice and tackles a variety of topics business management strategies and the statutory frameworks within which projects are delivered. Students learn about the

3—5

shaping the profession. These include an introduction to

interdisciplinary relationships in the costing, procurement and realisation of architectural projects. The scope of these illustrated talks encompasses the role of the architect in society and the attendant challenges of being a responsible professional today. Guest speakers include a variety of academics and leading practitioners who talk about the organisation of their individual offices (from sole trader to employee owned business) reflecting on how their legal constitution affects matters such as liability, profit-sharing and the ethos of the practice. We outline a range of building contracts commonly used in contemporary practice, offering a comparison of their relative benefits and why things are changing from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ modes of procurement. We also consider the key individuals within the construction team and how architects charge for their services depending on the different fee mechanisms employed for different kinds of work. We examine common cost control mechanisms and the sequencing of work (based on the RIBA Plan of Work), as well as the tribulations of a real project from its initial commission to final completion. During the second semester, students submit six short essays testing the information gathered during the lecture series, and their ability to read around these issues. Building on this nascent erudition enables stidents to develop informed opinions on professional matters.

108

Above The Fountainhead, King Vidor Opposite Miranda Musson Short Essay No.3 -

4—1

DISSERTATION

4—2

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TECTONICS

4—3

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN LOGISTICS

4—4

ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO

110

4—0

4—0 BA/MA [HONS]

BA/MA [HONS]

[penia-] subordinate : a person under the authority or control of another within an organization.

DISSERTATION

4—1 DISSERTATION

COURSE ORGANISER LIAM ROSS

The dissertation course is unique in ESALA’s undergraduate curriculum, offering students a wholly research-based course. It provides an opportunity to investigate a chosen topic at length, in written form. The course supports that investigation through workshops, introducing students to methodological questions concerning issues from archival studies, and working with online sources, to selecting research paradigms, conducting qualitative research, and working with researcher bias. The principle mode of contribute to the course, this year engaging over 50 supervisors.

4—1

tuition, though, is individual supervision. ESALA’s full staff cohort As such, it calls upon a diverse range of expertise drawn from architecture and landscape architecture, history and theory, professional practice, building conservation and technology, urban and cultural studies, design research, computation and the environmental humanities. The topics chosen by our students offer a snapshot of timely and significant issues facing the discipline. This year they include studies of gender construction in the architecture of public toilets, and in the spaces of hospital staff, proposals for carehome adaptations in light of the COVID epidemic, and reflections on temporality prompted by the conservation of Modernist social housing projects, to name just a few. The aim of the course is to support students in developing a detailed understanding of their chosen topic with reference to relevant cultural, historical and philosophical themes. The best dissertations make original contributions to that topic, through clearly articulated and supported arguments. A hallmark of the dissertation course at ESALA is the way that our students bring their design training to bear upon their research. Students are asked to see the dissertation itself as an object of design, and to handle visual material sensitively and creatively, and some dissertations engage in original analysis by-design. The following three excerpts offer a glimpse of the originality and insight offered by some of those studies.

112

Opposite Sophie Lewis-Ward A Hospital Unilateralism: The body and voice of the hospital staff character within the socio-spatial hierarchies of hospital design Pages 33-34 Figure shows plan for Nuffield Transplant Unit, Peter Wormsley, courtesy of Edinburgh University Archive Department. Torn from the plan is the central, windowless service section, occupied by predominantly female nursing and service staff, zoned as an ‘unsterile’ area Supervisor: Laura Harty. -

BA/MA [HONS]

Gergana Negovanska Supervisor: Ella Chmielewska

‘The Voice of Some Other Storyteller’: An exploration of Edinburgh’s Closes. The Edinburgh closes are the most unique characteristic elements of the city’s townscape. They are habitually thought of as hidden, narrow and dark transition spaces and multiple studies on the city have predominantly taken a socio-historical approach to their examination. But how does a stranger, somebody with a completely different way of seeing, explore them and how can this provide a lens to look at them differently?

‘THE VOICE OF SOME OTHER STORYTELLER’

My dissertation attempts to interrupt the way of thinking about the experience of Edinburgh’s closes and the city by looking at them through the ideas presented in Georgi Gospodinov’s book The Physics of Sorrow and Theodore Ushev’s animated film under the same name. By rethinking the idea of the labyrinth and the Minotaur, the two sources open possibilities for a new way of understanding of the city. Following the methodologies of studying the city by Kevin Lynch and Gordon Cullen, the dissertation proposes a rereading of their classical works for the study of urban form. The dissertation demonstrates the potential of the closes as an urban form and how individual memories of other places, experiences of newcomers to the city could inform a new way to study Edinburgh. This dissertation is a time-capsule. It is a box, containing various collections of texts, images, and memories, presented in several unfolding booklets. Like Gospodinov’s time-capsule novel, the sequential organisation of fragmentary stories allows the reader to follow multiple routes through the text. “I take a detour to Lady Stair’s close. I stop at the entrance, framed by its name from above and below. The name inscribed on the pavement interrupts the path. Its pattern and colour change, creating tension between the inside and the outside. The name itself reveals something about the history of the place, for which I get informed by the tablet. Then the path comes out of the darkness of the pend and I notice writings on some of the stones on the ground, which others (probably by habit) simply pass by. I start reading them one by one and as I follow the path they create step by step to read, I go down some stairs, towards the Writer’s Museum and deeper into the space of Markar’s court. As opposed to the other courts made for static contemplation, passage or simply access, here the stones demand my attention. If a path is usually only a means to an end and only the place it leads to is important, here the path itself gives meaning to the place.” -

Opposite Gergana Negovanska, ‘ The Voice of Some Other Storyteller’ , University of Edinburgh, 2021. Page 96, Extract from Appendix iii ‘Photographs’ 113

Tablets

cessions

in stone

114

Windows

Leaves

Emerging view

Dead end

Other texts

Graffiti

4—1

Doors

Gates

100

Tablets

Recessions

Names cut in stone

Lamps

101

Windows

Leaves

DISSERTATION

Emerging view

BA/MA [HONS]

Miranda Musson Supervisor: Dorian Wiszniewski

A Number of Scenes, Perhaps Kettle’s Yard: mapping (making sense of) the domestic archive.

A NUMBER OF SCENES, PERHAPS

This dissertation is an exploration of the relationships between object and person and place, to examine themes of what it means to be in a domestic space. It aims to look at the object through a deconstructivist lens and treat it in the way philosopher Jacques Derrida suggests we should treat notes in an archive, as ‘traces’ of multidimensionality. The framework through which this idea is explored is that created by the placing of natural and plastic objects in Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Kettle’s Yard was home to exTate curator (H.S.) “Jim” and Helen Ede from 1957 to 1973. Though an extraordinary example of a domestic environment – an open-house collection of modern art based on Jim Ede’s particular, to some strange, way of living (and loving), – it brings up many ordinary ideas about what may make up a ‘home’. This dissertation is not a reading of the aesthetic, but a reading of scenes – fragmentations of the whole – in which an object relates to its surroundings. The house provides boundless scenes that could be analysed, and this dissertation focuses on just four; the lemon ; the dancer ; the man ; and the pebble . Together they reveal themes of ritual, context, looking, moving, perceiving, relating, being, and placing, as part of a wider understanding of domestic space. “In A Way of Life , Ede wrote: ‘The spiral of pebbles was a case of ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. I hadn’t meant to make it.’ When he began looking for spherical pebbles, while staying in Norfolk, he was moved – by their properties, the roundness and the size, – to order them the largest in the centre and the smallest trailing at the end. And so, as Louis Kahn famously asked the brick: “What do you want, brick?”, encouraging a conversation with the (non-human) material, Ede might have asked the pebble: “What do you want, pebble ?” The pebble is not ‘mundane’ when in the right place in the context of Kettle’s Yard. The pebble is accepted and understood to be as valuable as the Henri Moore head on the mantlepiece by Ede’s bed.” -

Opposite Miranda Musson, A Number of Scenes, Perhaps , University of Edinburgh, 2021. Page 8 [of digital submission], showing physical instance of dissertation, presented as a folded map showing Kettles Yard at scale 1:100 with textual, drawn and photographic representations of four selected ‘scenes’. 115

116

4—1

DISSERTATION

BA/MA [HONS]

Ying-hao Lynd Li Supervisor: Kate Carter

Open Building: A critical review of home ownership scheme flats in Hong Kong. One of the most urgent concerns in the contemporary milieu is how to construct buildings that are inherently capable of adapting to changing needs and preferences. In a consumer-society, most approaches focus on creating a singular building that expresses the desire of the architect and the developer instead of aiming to cultivate ordinary buildings through correlating and interpreting the spatio-temporal actions of occupants. Nonetheless, there has been an increasing trend of buildings constructed in line with important principles that make building stock more adaptable. The principles are known internationally as “Open Building”.

OPEN BUILDING

This dissertation poses Open Building as an approach to concerns of obsolescence in contemporary high-rise public housing design. Following Habraken and Kendall’s primal ontology based on user participation, this dissertation outlines the most significant notion of Open Building- adaptability- in fulfilling the changing needs and preferences of occupants living in high-rise housing. Subsequently, the feasibility of Open Building in public high-rise housing in Hong Kong is investigated by searching the urban morphology underlying the evolution of Hong Kong’s public housing system. Identifying opportunities for re-activating the existing housing stock, a questionnaire survey is carried out to understand the needs and preferences of modern-day inhabitants for testing the adaptability of current unit types. In conclusion, the dissertation studies the macroscopic aspects of Open Building in relation to the vicissitudes of the global marketplace and crisis. “John Habrakan first coined the term of ‘Open Building’ architecture in the 1960s to steer building decision-making processes away from the traditional system of mass construction. He sought to exploit the full potential of flexibility, variety and quality of space whilst making sure dwellers were consulted and involved in the design stage to suit their needs for the personal environment.” -

Opposite Li, Ying-hao Lynd, Open Building: A critical review of home ownership scheme flats in Hong Kong , University of Edinburgh, 2021. Page 65, fig. 4.6 “Variations of home office layouts in standard two-bedroom unit by HKS”. 117

118

4—1

DISSERTATION

BA/MA [HONS]

REVIEW CRITICS Claire Chawke

Niall McLaughlin Architects Laura Kinnaird

Reiach & Hall Architects David Byrne

GRAS Nicola McLachlan

Collective Architecture Giorgio Ponzo Prof. Angus McDonald Laura Harty Andy Summers Ang Li

Northeastern University USA Keiran Hawkins

CAIRN

TECTONICS

4—2 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TECTONICS

COURSE ORGANISER IAIN SCOTT

Architectural Design: Tectonics is the studio culmination of the BA and MA Architecture undergraduate degrees in ESALA. These curricula have been designed to allow students to gain an and tectonic complexities embedded in any architectural design

UNIT 2

proposition. AD Tectonics extends the architectural design and

UNIT 3

communication skills gained through former stages by integrating

UNIT 4

a specific tectonic agenda in the conception of architectural

UNIT 5

design propositions and by achieving a certain degree of precision in its development and completion.

4—2

increasingly finer understanding of the contextual, programmatic UNIT 1

TECHNICAL TUTORS -

With around 120 students the course is delivered through five

Remo Pedreschi

parallel units, each delivered around a particular theme or

Victoria Lee

architectural issue. Unit studios sustain these overarching

Irem Serefoglu David Seel

pedagogical aims of precision and integration through a diverse set of approaches to the role played by technology and tectonics in design. This is done through research and analysis into context, programme, unit theme, materials, structure and environmental response. This analytical work is then synthesized in the students own design project. These two strands of thinking, (the analytical and propositional) are developed through iterative working and presented through each student’s representational strategy incorporating both analogic and digital methods of drawing and model-making. As a result of the global pandemic in 2020-21 AD: Tectonics was taught entirely in an on-line format.

120

Opposite Ellie Hudson A Fishmongers and a Woodworkers Exploded tectonic model -

BA/MA [HONS]

ON THE EDGE: COASTAL CONSTRAINTS

Unit 1 studied the coastal stretches of Edinburgh, Jinshan &

STUDIO LEADERS

Shenzhen. Three locations providing distinct constraints and

opportunities as well as a tapestry of social and cultural edge conditions, ranging from former industrial areas to contemporary

Jane Paterson Michael Collins

visitor attractions. UNIT 1 ON THE EDGE

The Unit 1 Brief was deliberately undefined and open to

UNIT 2

individual interpretation of an edge condition, whether that be

UNIT 3

physical (edge of the sea/city/road), emotional (edge of despair/

UNIT 4

exhilaration/sanity) or future (edge of climate change/history/

UNIT 5

innovation). Groups of 4-6 students were asked to analysis existing edge conditions through an initial series of exercises -

Mapping | Recording | Walking – with individual building typologies emerging from these studies. Tectonic solutions were also garnered from this group research, with a focus on the use of local and recyclable materials. A Site Scoping exercise followed when students were encouraged to seek out sites with not just physical edges but edges that were ephemeral, implied, overt or subliminal. Projects ranged from a Ballet School, Breweries, Community Use, Food Production, Piers, Research Centres, Recycling Centres, Vagrants of Leith, Watchtowers, Wellbeing Centres & Workshops.

1 Sarah Kamali Granton Lighthouse Community Centre 2 Andre Wang Fishermen’s Activity Centre & Seafood Market 3 Ellie Hudson A Fishmongers and a Woodworkers -

121

122

1 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

ON THE EDGE

123

124

3 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

LOOKING NORTH: SALT & HONEY

The physical and sensorial implications of living in or near the North are explored in this unit through speculations within the community of Duddingston (55N, -3W), a village lying on the edge of Edinburgh.

STUDIO LEADERS Andrea Faed Jack Green

LOOKING NORTH

The focus is on materials from the ground – sculpting clay and

UNIT 1

joining timber – stereotomic and tectonic – materials of differing

UNIT 2

permanence; materials dissolving into, or being left as ruins on,

UNIT 3

the ground; addressing environmental and sustainable concerns

UNIT 4

in how we can build and live using locally sourced materials and

UNIT 5

how we do this in relation to the particular demands of living in a Northern climate. With the situation being on the edge of the urban and rural, the programme this year is for a School of Rural Studies. It could be a place for academic study, studying the social, economic and political systems used to manage the coutryside and support rural businessess and communities. It could be part of the University, the High School, Primary School, Pre-school or a Charity for Adult Education. It could be a place to learn practical, agriculatural skills – growing crops or looking after livestock. It may have a residential aspect to it, or a commercial aspect – a shop or facilities for business start-ups. These investigations and observations of the relationship between people and landscape call for informed, emotive, senstive and spirited architectural responses that resonate, amplify and build on nature.

1 Andrew Dang Duddingston Library of Growing 2 Belen Velasco Prieto Arts & Pottery Complex 3 Andrew Wyness Meadowhill Housing -

125

126

1 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

LOOKING NORTH

127

128

3 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

NO BLANK SLATE: ARCHITECTURES OF REUSE

The challenge of Unit 3 was to investigate how we can transition from demolition and ‘blank slate-thinking’ to building deconstruction, disassembly and reuse. Students considered the entire life cycle of existing buildings with the goal to

STUDIO LEADERS Moa Carlsson Simone Ferracina

create architectural proposals that are made of sustainable,

NO BLANK SLATE

reconditioned or repurposed building components and materials.

UNIT 1

Working with existing buildings that have recently been granted

UNIT 2

permission for complete demolition by The City of Edinburgh

UNIT 3

Council, challenging those decisions, students were tasked to

UNIT 4

survey, repair and adapt existing structures, components and

UNIT 5

materials, turning them into high-quality buildings that are functional, sustainable and aesthetically pleasing.

1 Pauline Ramos Annandale Market 2 Gergana Negovanska The Last Straw: New Ratho Community & Visitor Centre 3 Ying-hao Lynd Li Newcraighall Material Bank and Free Market -

129

130

1 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

NO BLANK SLATE

131

132

3 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

OPEN STUDIO

Open Studio provides students with the opportunity to practice, research and learn in a partnered and supported learning environment on a project of their choice.

STUDIO LEADERS Douglas Cruickshank Killian Doherty

Tutors offer joint responsibility by involving everyone in the

Rachael Scott

planning of the unit – students select their own project by OPEN STUDIO

defining personal responses to the overarching tectonic course

UNIT 1

agenda. Students often choose to use their written Dissertations

UNIT 2

as a foundation for their projects, previous research and

UNIT 3

readings are used to inform design enquiries. Others draw on an

UNIT 4

elective course, or personal agenda. Personal opinions, views

UNIT 5

and experiences are fundamental to the Unit’s approach to architecture. Diversity is openly celebrated and accommodated in the studio’s approach to learning.

1 Amelia Brown Vestiges of the Material and the Immaterial An extension to Dulwich Picture Gallery 2 Oscar Sangali Peña iturri zaharretik ur berria An intervention on Plaza de la Trinidad 3 Maya Campbell Nagayasu In Praise of Shadows Single parent housing in Tokyo -

133

134

1 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

OPEN STUDIO

135

136

3 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

THE CARE HOME OF THE FUTURE (CHoF)

In the UK, care homes are often seen as a place of ‘last resort’, both to live and work in and this perception needs to be changed. There is an urgent need to promote the effective care of older people through innovative building and landscape design, with THE CARE HOME OF THE FUTURE

effective training and good practice. The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown many of these issues into sharp relief.

STUDIO LEADERS Iain Scott Mark Bingham Miguel Domingues Elise Campbell

In order to radically improve the care of older people in care

UNIT 1

homes throughout the UK it is proposed to establish a teaching

UNIT 2

and research based care home in the Lothian region. The CHoF

UNIT 3

initiative is the result of a partnership between the Universities

UNIT 4

of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier and Queen Margaret with NHS

UNIT 5

Lothian and the City of Edinburgh. With students from the MA Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture working together, the CHoF studio has invited students to propose creative ideas and solutions which can help inform the final design and delivery of the project. Based on the site of the Queen Margaret University campus in Musselburgh, East Lothian the brief proposes a series of related buildings within a designed landscape, including a care home, extra-care apartments, student accommodation and community hub and health buildings.

1 Eli-Anne Gjøs The Ecological Node of Musselburgh 2 Olivia McMahon Extra Care Facility, Musselburgh 3 Tony Li Care Home of the Future, Musselburgh -

137

138

1 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

THE CARE HOME OF THE FUTURE

139

140

3 4—2

TECTONICS

BA/MA [HONS]

LOGISTICS

4—3 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN LOGISTICS

COURSE ORGANISER FIONA MCLACHLAN

The course bridges between architectural practice experience and the design studio. It asks students to engage with an aspect of building design and procurement relevant to the workflows experienced in the design and construction sector. Students

TUTORS -

select a theme and re-contextualise it within the framework of their own parallel design studio work in AD: Tectonics.

Douglas Cruickshank Alex MacLaren James Mason Jim Grimley Andy Summers

Just like life, real life architectural practice is unpredictable, sometimes messy, sometimes frantically busy and complex. This course provides an opportunity to learn from practice and

4—3

Robin Livingstone

practitioners. The learning is subject to practice circumstances and not all students have the same experience. Students learn to be agile and responsive.

GUEST LECTURERS -

Architectural Design: Logistics is taught in 3 stages:

James Mason Nicky Thomson Graeme Acheson

Fundamentals A short series of orientation classes, providing knowledge and skills to the student in relation to specific themes; procurement and programme, sustainability, assemblage, and legislation

Reﬂection Students work in small groups to research the challenges and processes at work through a typological case study, drawn from a list of suggested Scottish contemporary architectural projects. This work is developed into an illustrated report.

Application Students use their acquired knowledge of a particular theme to consider and apply an analytical lens to enrich their own design work through an individual drawing.

142

Opposite Amelia Brown Excerpt from drawing study Vestiges of the Material and the Immaterial: Reclaimed brick -

BA/MA [HONS]

Co–living Project: Rainwater Harvesting.

Maya Campbell Nagayasu

Situated in the Shimokitazawa district of Tokyo, this co-living project is located in a climate that experiences considerable rainfall, particularly during the rainy season (tsuyu). As such, a system for rainwater harvesting will become a worthwhile investement. The main ecological benefit of such systems is the reduced reliance on mains water as toilet flushing alone accounts for 35% of average household water usage. It is also known that harvesting rainwater will reduce flooding, and improve plant growth. Whilst typical examples utilize underground tanks to store rainwater, here, the concrete foundations become part of the APPLICATION

architecture, creating a basin in which the rainwater is collected. The drains themselves take the form of a rain chain which is typical of traditional Japanese architecture where rain and water were celebrated. As a result, the collection of rainwater becomes far more than a logistical operation and instead, plays a fundamental role in the architecture of this project.

143

144

4—2

LOGISTICS

BA/MA [HONS]

ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO

4—4 ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO

COURSE ORGANISER MIGUEL PAREDES MALDONADO

The final step in the BA and MA(Hons) course sequences, Academic Portfolio: Part 1 requires students to curate the work produced during their degree and present it in the form of a single, integrated reflective document. This document – a digital

Moa Carlsson Douglas Cruickshank Killian Doherty Andrea Faed

portfolio – is defined by the Architects’ Registration Board as: ‘a comprehensive chronological record of student’s design project work together with all coursework, including reports, dissertations, sketch books and any other evidence of work, (with project briefs and examination papers), that have been assessed as part of the degree leading to an award of Part 1’.

4—4

TUTORS

Simone Ferracina Laura Harty Iain Scott

The work to curate and to present the portfolio is independent of the work from the courses themselves. Academic Portfolio: Part 1 emphasizes the design and conceptualisation skills required to integrate and present diverse knowledges and media. It is introduced during years 1, 2 and 3 to ensure that students document their work as part of a personal development plan. Ultimately, the goal of the reflective exercise carried out in Academic Portfolio: Part 1 is to demonstrate full student coverage of all ARB/RIBA criteria corresponding to Part 1 level, in accordance to the professional accreditation of the BA and MA (Hons) degrees.

146

Opposite Amelia Brown Academic Portfolio Template excerpt 1 Amelia Brown Academic Portfolio Sample page 2 Miranda Musson Academic Portfolio Sample page -

BA/MA [HONS]

SAMPLE PAGES

147

148

4—4

ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO

THROUGH THE DRAWING —

FLORES & PRATS GEDDES VISITING FELLOWS

CLOSE IN —

O’DONNELL + TUOMEY SIMPSON VISITING PROFESSORS

150

—

— BA/MA [HONS]

BA/MA [HONS]

“Many intuitive decisions taken during the development of a project are made visible through documents such as drawings, models or collages. Each one of these documents develops a small part of the story that the whole project intends to achieve. These documents are developed with their own independency, and therefore can be explained with their own logic and qualities. Then there is another stage in this process: a film comes to animate and put these documents in action by introducing movement on them, making evident situations that otherwise remain invisible. The drawings, worlds of illusions, are now animated by the films, which start to explain a new story inside them. These films become at its time new illusions, projected on the drawings which hold them and frame them. We are now trapped inside these magical pieces, alive in themselves.” Eva Prats, Ricardo Flores

GEDDES VISITING FELLOWS

THROUGH THE DRAWING FLORES & PRATS GEDDES VISITING FELLOWS

CO-ORDINATOR SUZANNE EWING

20 students from all years in Landscape Architecture and Architecture met every Monday in March as part of a workshop led by Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats - Geddes Visiting Fellows 2021. This was an adjunct to curricula work or practice, and the

SUPPORT -

workshop culminated in film screenings and a discussion open to the whole school. To begin, participants chose one of their own

Jonny Pugh

favourite project drawings. Introductory lectures and group work

Norman Villeroux

sessions led by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores included individual assistance from Jonny Pugh.

—

storyboarding and exploratory fabrications with technical STUDENT PARTICIPANTS BA/MA(Hons)

The workshops reflected on the value of film as an activator of a

Michael Becker

drawing, helping to bring the observer close to far away realities

Ellen Clayton

that a project creates, and adding its narrative condition to the

Dana Hasan

story that the drawing itself is explaining. The film, with its own

Amazhol Kellett Tanya Lee

autonomy, is always complementing the document from which it starts.

Sam Llewellyn Smith Kanto Maeda

“I had an enriching experience, exploring the narratives of

Oscar Sangalli Pena

architecture through my personal love of creating hand-drawn

Georgia Tucker

animations. Learning directly from the founders of a practice I

hugely admire, felt not only like an honour but a unique experience

MArch

different to employment, with the joy of having philosophical

Ellie Hindle

discussions, while getting to know how Eva and Ricardo work

Anqi Wang -

(Ricardo, it turns out, has a fantastic dead-pan humour)” Kanto Maeda

Landscape Arch Catherine Browne Zhuorui Chen Steffan Gwynn Quian Liu Laura Mazza Yu Ou Sreehari Radhakrishnan Flores & Prats www.floresprats.com/academic/through-the-drawing-esala-2021/ 152

Hana Shin Alex Yung Tsz Yin

BA/MA [HONS]

“We really enjoyed it, I don’t know what we expected to get from you, but … we really enjoyed the work, really appreciate the care you took, with each project and each piece, each package, the way we would open it...You brought us inside the contraption...” Sheila O’D onnell, John Tuomey

SIMPSON VISITING PROFESSORS

CLOSE IN O’DONNELL + TUOMEY SIMPSON VISITING PROFESSORS

Salma Hamed Lucy Hobman Tanya Lee Sam Llewellyn Smith Kirsty Mann Yana Markos Sofie McClure Rajni Nessa Caoilin O’Meara Mikele Perez-Jamieson Alon Shahar Devon Tabata Georgia Tucker Felix Wilson Jiahui Zhao MArch Daniel Cutler Jagoda Borkowska Jonathan Piscof Carys Marshall

This year, while in-person engagements were precluded, a novel form of analogue interaction was proposed. A competition ‘Close In’ was launched via lunchtime presentation, delivered by our 2021 Simpson professors Sheila O’Donnell + John Tuomey. The brief asked that the students:

—

STUDENT PARTICIPANTS BA/MA(Hons) James Armstrong Tallulah Bannerman Michael Becker Charlotte Brooks Amelia Brown Lucy Boyd Myrto Efthymiadi Francesca Foster Moseley

The George Simpson Visiting Professor is a position open to distinguished international architectural practitioners and thinkers. The Simpson Professorship typically incorporates a number of ESALA-wide events: masterclasses, tutorials, discussions and crits. These annual engagements continue to be vital to the life and culture of the school, each introducing a new critical dimension.

Take a piece of your current work, a piece of work that’s not quite finished…Take it apart, take it to pieces…This is to be the subject for this short study. Close In. We want you to find a moment in your own work where your imagination can dwell, or where you can dwell in your imagination. Develop the depth of the space, the light in the space, the material of the space, the sense of how it could be to be in the space. We expect you to make four small pieces of work, a part-plan, a part-section, a selective perspective and a conceptual model – each piece of work mounted at A5 and suitable to survive as a little parcel in the post. Plus four short sentences to explain your work in plain and simple language. And so a selection of distinctive packages made their way from bedrooms scattered globally to be unwrapped in Dublin. There they were unfurled, held aloft and read aloud by John and Sheila, who spent a day engaging with, considering and reflecting on the submissions. The resultant adjudication process was documented, recorded and presented at a ‘Close Out’ event in which winners were announced. Careful, hand held and minutely studied, the event staked a place for the analogue, within the whirlwind of our digital 2021. O’Donnell + Tuomey www.odonnell-tuomey.ie 154

CO-ORDINATOR LAURA HARTY

ISBN 978-1-912669-31-8

9 781912 669318