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Description
What goes on inside buildings? Why are some buildings not only more responsive to the needs of their users, but also more adaptable, lasting and meaningful than others? What do they mean for the people that use them and how do their meanings change over time? How can architects design both imaginatively and responsibly?
Drawing on research conducted internationally together with exposure to buildings and urban sites in the global city of London, the module moves beyond architecture as a battlefield of oppositions and conflicts, such as functionality and aesthetics, aesthetics and ethics, imagination and practicality, efficiency-driven processes and compassionate, human-centric activities. It teaches students new architectural thinking and new tools that harness spatial and social data to address the built environment and its many dimensions - social, economic, environmental, aesthetic, cultural, political, and artistic - in a holistic way.
Students learn a range of research methods and digital tools that allow buildings, building sites and urban contexts to be seen in a new light. They follow a pedagogy based on lectures, workshops and hands-on exercises, examining a wide range of building types from diverse cultural contexts around the world. From schools and universities to hospitals, libraries, and museums, from Africa, India and China to Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, from aging building stock to new building structures, and from advanced institutional and governance models to poverty, inequality, and inadequate infrastructures, the module generates exciting new conceptions of architecture and new analytical practices that can help designers to envision a better future.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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