Can extremes of programmatic effectiveness blend with the fragility of human habitat?

Infrastructure + Narrative
Inter 3 explores, via a strong design-oriented agenda, the crossbreeding of industrial landscape and architecture. A series of infrastructural interventions were mapped through different times and places to understand their colossal (at times stressful) contributions to human and natural habitats, and to find ways of connecting them with architecture and the city to create new urban scripts. Subterranean film-sets, waste- processing sites and urban farms were some of the means we used to approach contemporary issues from an interdisciplinary architectural stance.

Two main design projects in the first term allowed us to explore the merging of urban infrastructures with alternative programmes. One of the briefs asked how underground systems, such as sewers, tube stations, abandoned bunkers or secret passages, could be used as a set for TV shows like Big Brother. Students created highly provocative spatial propositions that articulated tantalising atmospheres through physical models and renders. Parallel to the design exercises, students also learned 3D software and basic prototyping techniques through intensive one-day workshops with tutors and guests.

At the end of the first term the unit went for a week to Istanbul, a powerful city that was the capital of several empires. The students visited aqueducts, cisterns, dams, mosques and food markets, and presented the unit work with élan at Istanbul Technical University, where they were met with enthusiasm.

The main project – for a ‘London Urban Farm’ in King’s Cross – started in the second term, in mid-January. Students mapped the site, generated their own intriguing programmes and worked with specialist consultant Nicolas Sterling, from ARUP’s Advanced Geometry Unit, to develop their ambitious individual proposals. The result: highly personal and challenging designs such as Kings Farmacy, Gastronomic Garden, Vineyards King’s Vine London and Aquaculture, among others presented on the following pages.

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