NOVEL GEOMETRIES FOR URBAN DWELLING Infrastructure, housing and trade – a case in the Persian Gulf
Unit 20 is interested in crossing the
boundaries of traditional architectural practice, envisioning innovative
conditions in design. By considering a wide range of topics from science and
art, students are encouraged to develop a two-year research study that is both
individual and collaborative. Projects in the unit aim at being poetic,
people-centric and always multi-layered. They are developed with a focus on
contemporary means of design and production while establishing an architecture
that is built up upon social, cultural and historic strata.
This year the interest of the unit lies in
exploring the underlying geometries (configurations, relationships,
typo-morphologies, lattices) of dwelling within our cities. Dwelling is
quintessential to human existence, and today, more than ever it is in the
centre of our architectural/environmental preoccupations. In a time where the
world population is rapidly growing and with the majority living in cities, the
need to house the basic needs of such a large quantity of people is
unprecedented. How do we dwell in our contemporary cities? What drives us more
and more into them? What are the social changes that are underpinning our
contemporary sense of space? Are new technologies prompting a new
paradigm of dwelling?
Dwelling is not to be confused with
housing. It is a broader concept that is at the heart of phenomenological
thinking. It questions how we occupy, reside and inhabit the spaces of our
contemporary city. It is a condition of primal importance that touches upon
notions of identity, proximity, functionality, comfort and protection.
Underlying all of these notions are the socio-politics of space, our
environment and a new emergent language of architecture that will determine the
way in which we will inhabit our future cities.
Unit 20 will study one of the most
fascinating and fast developing areas of the world today: the GULF. We
endeavour to explore various cities in the region which offer a great variety
of historic layers, geo-political complexity, cultural specificity and
environmental beauty/fragility. We will tour from Muscat/Oman, along the fortifications
of the old spice and pearl trade, via the Strait of Hormuz - the most
strategically important check point of oil trade in the world - through desert
and oasis, to reach Dubai and later Abu Dhabi/UAE.
