Studio 2: The Shoreditch VIBE

Studio philosophy

Shoreditch is buzzing with innovative, ground breaking small businesses, that have been created by pioneering entrepreneurs. The location offers space that has a long history and many stories of former trades and well known household names.

It locates a lively diverse cross section of people, who live and work in the area and has now become extremely popular with those who want to make a difference and seek an original and authentic locale to develop their businesses ideas.

The studio asks you to explore a large, redundant, almost empty, concrete space situated in Shoreditch and create a Co-worker hub, (New Business Start-Ups) a place where many companies can co-exist together, small or large. It will be place where not only the facilities are shared but more importantly it will encourage communication and collaboration and inter-company connections developing a spatial co-operative.

The organisation of space needs to encompass the flexibility required to accommodate change and growth, looking at kinetic and dynamic structures that provide options of movement allowing for adaptability and variable spatial solutions making this working space as exciting and resourceful as possible.

‘Fujimoto himself speaks of architecture as a hazy dream a zone of blurry areas. Everything is a subtle play of difference in space and time.’

Essay: Gleiter, J., The most extreme aesthetic: Sou Fujimoto Futurospective Architecture, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, 2012, p329.

The journey throughout, should consider the spontaneous, the chance and serendipitous encounters which will provide opportunities to cultivate a business richness. The studio will look at the possibilities of altering the structure to design a vertical language as well considering the open space, so all should enjoy being part of the whole building.

The environmental research will reveal the opportunities to develop public and private space, working creatively with sound and light. It will look at the individual identity of each occupier and how these are settled within the BT building and its new brand. We will look at the ideas of movement and being kinetic in terms of the scope within the space and also as extension of the space within the community. It will look at the idea of temporary both occupation and building, collapsible and demountable. Your concepts should add an energy that inspires,that allows for think tanks and innovation where the space instigates and is
part of the business activation.

The studio will ask some important questions. What is creative space? How does space support initiative and fresh thinking? How do people work with new technology? How do we consider the whole person and live/work issues? And how does the work place support intangible positive ideas such as spirit and attitude?

Projects

Phase 1: Year 2 & 3

The studio will research the Shoreditch area and discover the Vibe, its heritage and the creative trades that exist in the area. You are asked to investigation start up and co worker spaces and survey the site, making a scaled model of its shell.

You are asked to explore through model making and sketching ideas that will test Public and private space, light and orientation looking at flexibility and adaptability of form and space.

Phase 2: Year 2

As a second year, you are asked to take the notion of the workspace into the community, develop ideas of a Summer residence: This will link in with the 'In the Valley' School project.

Phase 2: Year 3

You are asked to take the entire area of the site, courtyard and rooftop to develop the workspace throughout, linking or connecting with the Shoreditch community.

Workshop

BeeJig: this is a collaborative project between the studio and Roots and Shoots, Borough of Lambeth to create Bee homes from found objects. Each idea will be built 1:1 scale and will be installed within the Shoreditch area.   

Stories in the sky

Taking the concepts and philosophies of the studio projects, you will be asked to translate this as art work. The artwork will be used to make the kites. We will collaborate with other studios and Hunan University in China. Both an exhibition and publication will be developed from this workshop.

Competition:We would like you to prepare for one of the following competitions, RSA, D&AD, YIDA.                       

Collaborative Partners: BDG Architects and Designers, BT, Roots and Shoots.

Study Trip: Madrid Collaboration with IADE University.

Image Credit: Kaye Newman: Netherlands Architecture Institute Rotterdam

Details

Course Interior Design BA (Hons)
Interior Architecture and Design BA (Hons)
Tutor Kaye Newman
Rentaro Nishimura
Where Studio 2, 5th Floor, Commercial Road
When Tuesdays, Fridays

Salamata Bah 

Gavin Bell 

Aishat Bello 

Emiola Brown 

Kirsty Cahill 

Deyanovski Deyan 

Selena Grasso 

Lema Karwani 

Nora Kurayshi 

Alexandra Kurpratova 

Thibaut Lintzer 

Genevieve Okwedy

Renata Bartik 

Shahnaz Shirani Bidabadi

Golzar Sadat Booshehiri 

Deiita Cole 

Elizabeth Dyulgerova 

Abtin Ebrahimi 

Farida Hasan 

Adisa Jimah 

Sepinood Kakooei 

Vaida Kuedaraite 

Charlotte McCann 

Arin Aurora Suppaya Menes 

Agathe Oury 

Angeliki Papavasileiou 

Emilie Sophie Soerby 

Ruth Tugwell 

Pavlina Vackova

Nasthasia Walia