PUBLIC CITY / PRIVATE ROOM

1. observing barnsbury

We will begin the year with a precedent study of the ‘architecture of Canonbury square’ and the typological specificity of this period in London’s architectural history, observing its numerous details and spatial configurations in which the threshold between the public and private realm are defined. Students are asked to select an element of the architectural vocabulary of this 18th century square that is integral to the private internal - as well as public external - conditions, in which to base their analysis through measurement, drawing, modeling and photography.

2. building on history

‘invention in architecture happens only in small incremental stages where the issues of the present re-examine the answers of the past’.

Students are asked to redesign the element observed in their precedent study, mindful of contemporary conditions of construction and regulatory concerns.

During November we will make our study trip to Amsterdam, where we will be visiting many of the newly created neighbourhoods that are loosely inspired by the spatial qualities of the historic city centre.

Upon our return we will shift our focus to the principal area of study for the year, Stratford in East London.

3. group urban project

On the fringe of the Olympics regeneration area, Stratford has seen - and continues to experience - significant change to its physical environment, economic vitality and social cohesion.

In groups of four students we will develop a 1:500 scale, area wide neighbourhood ‘plan’ that looks at physical development, land use, public space configurations and strategic pedestrian and vehicle movement. This project will take place over a series of jointly coordinated workshops and is intended as a rapid exercise in establishing the principle moves and strategies for urban change. This work is intended to set the context from which students will select and take on the design of a specific public space, and its urban configuration.

4. Public Space and Urban Configurations

The Carpenters Estate built in the 1960s is a mixed low-rise housing development dominated by three 18 storey towers blocks and is not untypical of urban planning from this time. However the monofunctionality of this neighbourhood, combined with the negative way in which these urban configurations form the public realm, creates an environment deficient in its public spaces and void of any convivial qualities for the public habitation of the city.

Within this context of mixed private and public ownership, through limited and strategic demolition of the existing fabric, combined with the careful addition of new buildings, students are challenged to create a piece of the city, which through its reconfiguration and chosen programs engender city space of ‘pedestrian desire’.

In particular we will look at physical edges, thresholds and facades and consider their potential to negotiate transitions between ‘private room and public city’. These may exist upon a corner, a junction, square, or street. Earlier observations made during studies one and two may inform students about the detail qualities that their building might have and the way in which their buildings can at once be private, whilst at the same time serve positively the public city of which they are a part.