DESA1002 'Nine Quarter City' - <Ross Anderson> - Unit Coordinator

Abstract

Nine Quarter City The project for second semester advances the themes of assemblage and transformation from first semester, but with greater emphasis on the generation of a single architectural proposal in a complex urban context. It commences at an urban scale. A ‘generic city’ of strict geometry has been fused with 9 actual cities (Dubrovnik, Madrid, Isfahan, Tunis, Tokyo, Bern, Venice, Jerusalem and New York) to create 9 distinct ‘quarters’ which are nevertheless woven into an overall urban order that is stabilized by two major diagonal axes, one water and one land. Each studio group is allocated a different ‘quarter’ of the city comprising 16 adjacent blocks. A figure-ground plan (built form represented as black, and open space as white) has been created and serves as the basis for the initial tasks that will be undertaken as a ‘conversation’ with the other members of your group. You are charged with elaborating on the basic plan, deciding on a range of buildings that your quarter of the city needs, then deciding on a specific program for your allocated city block and developing a concrete architectural proposal for one building on your block. The work should be seen as a series of transformations based on an understanding that all architecture (including one’s own) is constituted by other architecture, which one appropriates, reconfigures, transforms, and makes one’s own. Once again the projected will be conducted as a series of related exercises with an emphasis on practical experimentation. The work will be drawn together into a final presentation, comprising a well-crafted model and one A1 sheet of drawings of an exhibition standard.