Unit brief
This year, Unit 8 will explore the role of impermanence in architecture. The Unit will do so through an explicit focus on drawing.
Historically, an ‘ideal architecture’ was often one that was permanent, from Christopher Wren’s assertion that architecture ‘aims at eternity’ to the Vitruvian Triad of ‘firmness, commodity and delight’ that adorns the Pritzker Medallion.
In spite of this, volatile economic, cultural, political, and regulatory conditions often mean a building does not fulfil its design life. These considerations are exacerbated by climate collapse and the precarity this precipitates on institutions, individuals, and supply chains. In this fragile situation, the agency of an architect to 'aim at eternity' is diminished, perhaps even extinguished.
Subsequently, Unit 8 will investigate the idea of ‘impermanence’ in architecture, a framework that embraces ongoing transformation and material flux. In doing so, Unit 8 will attempt to establish a method of working that accepts the tensions and paradoxes of our contemporary context.
Working with Drawing Matter, Unit 8 will interrogate these themes through the act of drawing. The Unit will review different ways in which artists and architects have expressed ‘permanence’ and ‘impermanence’.
The regard for ‘impermanence’ and drawing sits alongside Unit 8’s recurrent interest in architectural reuse. Extending the research of recent years, the Unit will seek to further integrate ecology, landscape, and material economy into its work.
The programme for the year will be organised through producing a drawing each week, becoming a portfolio by the end of Semester 3. In Semester 1, Unit 8 will design a new-build house in South London. These formative thoughts will inform a larger-scale reuse project in Semester 2. To build anew immediately confronts the Unit with the question: how do architects address the demands of eternity whilst building just enough, for now?
Selected References
Drawing Matter
Building Time - David Leatherbarrow
Lightness of Touch - Alison and Peter Smithson
The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture - Pier Vittorio Aureli
The Living Mountain - Nan Shepherd
Publications and drawings by Louis Kahn, Cedric Price, Frank Gehry
Research Trips
Walsall Art Gallery
Hardwick Hall
Appleby Blue Almshouse
Birdwatching Tour
Details
| Course | |
|---|---|
| Tutors |
Takero Shimazaki (t-sa) |
| Where | Goulston Street |
| When | Monday and Thursday |
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