Unit 05

Unit brief

The year is split in two semesters. The first semesters project will focus on first hand experience and developing working method, the second on context both architectural and socio-political.

Semester 1: Collectively we engage with a series of very special singular houses; drawing, modelling and painting the interior passage of rooms from front door to garden. You will then develop a project for a small cluster of houses translating spatial research from precedent. This will be realised and presented purely through large models; sketch and timber. Timber models will promote a consideration of the weight, proportion and positioning of the elements in the buildings construction, celebrating both the accidental and purposeful. Careful photography of this will develop representation and the understanding of how powerful the photography of a scaled model can be in forming a sense of interior.

Semester 2: As has been a strong theme in previous years we are fascinated by the British desire for vertical living, flats predominate in new housing which often promotes little spatial delight in the interior. We develop methods to incorporate the spatial ideas from the work in the first semester into a high-density mansion in Central London. A critical shift in the aesthetic of London in the last two decades has been the requirement for private external space. The graceful consistency of the Georgian Terrace or the Edwardian mansion is replaced with inset or cantilevered balconies. The mansion project will consider a model akin to Private rental sector where the spaces offered are serviced and communal, we remove private amenity, we look to use communal space as a method of improving the connection between interior and exterior for all dwellings, drastically improving the experience of living in high-density. The year will culminate in a sequence of model photos from home to garden, or visa versa.

We look for students who are highly observant and are prepared to undertake a considerable amount of background reading in order to understand and thus fairly question the complex constraints of modern housing.

Image: Atelier 5 Thalmatt I, Bern