Unit 2 2011-12

This year Unit 2 will focus on the theme of Open Land, exploring ways in which architectural interventions can mediate between urban contexts and diverse landscape conditions. The main sites of interest and student projects will be located along Open Land in East London, stretching from the Lea Valley to Barking Creek.

As a preparation for the main project, we will make the East London Planning Atlas, in collaboration with other academia and practice.

For further studies and inspiration, we will visit the city of Barcelona in Spain and the recent architectual scheme Accordia in Cambridge.

Green Grid and Thames Gateway by Maurice Smith, 2011-12

To prepare for the year‘s work and our diverse design environment, we will make the East London Planning Atlas. The document will comprehensively compare past and current planning schemes in East London and the Thames Gateway. We will research issues such as build form and public space, as well as design specific qualities. The Unit will work in collaboration with UEL Diploma Unit 9, local institutions and practices. The Atlas will be published as a book.

East London has a formal and informal grid of Open Land, where most traditional definitions of urban space no longer apply. These spaces range from well defined parks and canals to urban left-overs, post-industrial land, marshes and wilderness.

The concept of Open Land implies a variety of meanings and ideas. It may be public space and open to people or it is simply land that is ready to project new ideas. Furthermore, Open Land in cities also has a sense of uncertainty that carries traces from the past and has developed seemingly untouched habitats.

In recent years, the Greater London Authority introduced the concept of the East London Green Grid, in order to make sense of these unique conditions and qualities. It is a proposed network for wildlife and people.

Informal Chain of Sites by Michalis Christodolou, 2011-12

The main sites of interest and student projects will largely follow parts of the East London Green Grid. They will be located along Open Land in East London, stretching from the Lea Valley to Barking Creek. It is an informal chain of sites within an area of critical change.

To name just a few conditions, the area is subject to some of the most diverse inner urban wildlife, highly deprived neighbourhoods, but also some of the most intensive urban developments in Europe. East London‘s urban areas are changing and they transform adjacent landscapes in an ongoing process. In many cases, the interrelationship between build form and Open Land has yet to be defined. This poses interesting social, spatial and environmental questions.

As an example within the area of interest, the 2012 Olympic designs address an interdependence of urban space and Open Land. Here, intensive urban developments embrace the Olympic Park. In our work, we will ask questions beyond the Olympic event.

In the beginning of the academic year, students will explore all sites and their urban contexts, to gain a more holistic understanding of the area. Through a process of creative research and choice, each student will then focus on one of the sites for the main design project.

Site investigations will carefully address existing qualities of Open Land, adjacent urban communities and most importantly, boundary conditions inbetween. We will research potential needs and opportunities to open room for imagination.

For the main design, each student will explore ways in which strategies and architectural designs can mediate between urban contexts and diverse landscapes conditions. We will investigate how proposals can be part of a synergetic urban life and relate to particularities of Open Land. This will set the tone for interventions in a range of interrelated scales, from urban through to building and details scales.

The individual projects will focus on designing site specific buildings. Students will carefully develop architectural qualities, sense of place, logic of space, proportion, resourcefulness and programmatic precision as well as technical and material finesse. By invigorating existing and imagining new, we intend to create schemes that are both, sustainable and enjoyable.

In the build up to the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona has set a milestone in utilising large scale events for urban regeneration. The Olympics in East London follow this example. During our Unit trip in November 2011, we will visit a range of distinguished architectural projects and the legacy of 1992.

Furthermore, we will visit the recent housing scheme Accordia in Cambridge. It has subtle design qualities in a range of scales.

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