Re – Dressing Florence | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 The design process has been disrupted dramatically with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and one of its most evident applications is text-to-image-based image generation. Furthermore, this can be combined with current procedural and generative modelling methods, such as shape grammars and L-systems. Notably, Mid-Journey is a generative software system capable of creating image art from textual descriptions.
Scoring Florence | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 Scoring Florence has derived directly from the rhythms, cycles, and durations of the city. A contemporary arts space on the river Arno, the project is a gallery developed through a reconstructed digital score of the city. In the same way a musical score leaves its interpretation up to the performer, the architectural score provides the designer agency in its application and
Cimitero della Montagna Verde: Chinese Cemetery in Prato | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 Prato, renowned for its textile industry, is home to a significant Chinese population of 45,000. The relationship between the Chinese and Italian communities in Prato has experienced welcoming phases, cooperation, misunderstandings, and tension over the past three decades. The project proposes expanding the cemetery at the serpentine quarry Cava di Figline in Prato as
Isolotto Weir: Ephemerality on the Arno Riverbank | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 Driven by pneumatics and powered by the Arno, Isolotto Weir is reimagined as part of a riverside piazza that morphs and transforms as it responds to flows of pressure. Inspired by Florence’s festive culture and the event-architecture of its post-war radical architecture movement, this metamorphic piazza of fluidity and motion contrasts with the historic forms
Visualising the Intangible, Capturing Endangered Languages | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 Florence has been a theatre of language discussions since the fourteenth century. Until 1861 the Italian peninsula was formed of many states, each with its own language or dialect. Italian was adopted as the official language with the unification of Italy. Previously, the Italian language was a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by
Probobli Boboli | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 This project explores the potential of using probabilistic simulations as part of a creative process for design, rather than simply a tool for validation, to further an understanding of the implications for designing with uncertainty at each step of the process. The exploration emerged from a historical study of the banks, libraries and fountains of Florence, looking at them as
The Guild of Plastics | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 Florence is known for its architecture and craft, dating back to the Renaissance. This project focuses on the techniques behind weaving, connected to three powerful guilds. The project draws inspiration from their cooperative approach to craft and creates a collaborative workspace and gallery that brings together different crafts in the design of architecture, reminiscent of the guilds during
To Design through Gestures (at scale 1:1) | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 This project investigates the potential of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for comprehending spatial design across multiple scales. The exploration of this process commenced last year, using a diverse array of accessible tools to facilitate 1:1 scale design within a VR environment. Further experimentation was undertaken in the current year by also incorporating movement
Reframing Florence | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 Taking form as a frame-making facility serving the galleries in Florence. Reframing Florence explores the gaze as a tool. Utilising a bespoke eye-tracking headset, the gaze is integrated into the design process. A fixation capture system allows users to compose new architectures based on unique perspectives captured through experiences within the city. Emphasising the significance of the individualised perspective, not
Il Pellegrinaggio del Galluzzo | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 A museum on a route to a Carthusian Monastery. This project is developed from explorations with sound and stone; it aspires to address the rooted heritage preservation in Florence through a pilgrimage route and monastic museum extension destined to preserve a fragile historical soundscape. The project finds inspiration in the historical significance of bells in shaping identity. In
Florence Political Forum : Exploring Politics, AI, and the Uncanny | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 This project explores how artificial intelligence can be implemented into the design process and aims to play with the weirdness, quirkiness, and uncanny nature of the near-perfect state of AI. It does all of this through the lens of a political education forum within the city of Florence, Italy. Multidimensional Coffee Table