Vivir la Utopia: Barcelona Anarchist Memorial | Barcelona, Spain | Unit 21 | 2024zijie.cai.18@ucl.ac.uk Click To See Thesis The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), founded in 1910, marked the rise of Spanish anarchism, which united workers across Barcelona and Spain. Despite the decline of the CNT’s influence during the Franco regime, this project hopes to revive the movement’s legacy in contemporary memory by establishing an anarchist memorial at the former
The Infinity Valley | Barcelona, Spain | Unit 21 | 2024weitse.wang.23@ucl.ac.uk With Spain’s ongoing challenges of rising energy costs and the demand for a more independent energy grid, the Infinity Valley represents a beacon of innovation, aiming to mitigate these issues. This project proposes the transformation of Barcelona’s highest mountain, Mount Tibidabo, into a “Battery” by 1 million cubic metres of water. The Infinity Valley incorporates the integration of pumped
Depositing Bodies of Data | Barcelona, Spain | Unit 21 | 2024xavier.thanki.23@ucl.ac.uk ‘Depositing Bodies of Data’ explores how data can be encrypted within a site to respond to climatic instabilities. Addressing the rising risk of flooding in the Ebre Delta, it proposes an inhabitable dunescape that harmonises with nature, to protect the regions culturally and economically vital rice farming industry. The project aims to develop a new architectural language by
NEO-XANADU | Barcelona, Spain | Unit 21 | 2024harrison.maddox.18@ucl.ac.uk As the world experiences more extreme and frequent climatological events, as a direct consequence of the climate crisis, it is estimated that 410 million will be affected by rising sea levels by 2100. The effects of global warming have been accelerated by unsustainable energy production, extreme consumerism and outdated infrastructures & technology. NEO-XANADU is a project that attempts to explore an
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
Excavating Rhythms: The Brain as a Drawing Tool | Florence, Italy | Unit 21 | 2023 Excavating Rhythms is a case study for the use of the brain as a drawing tool. Using a digital drawing machine created in term 1, which takes brain wave data in real time and uses them to record and generate line drawings, this project explores the ways in which these drawings can create a
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
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
The Blue | Dungeness, UK | Unit 21 | 2021 The Blue is a film park that consists of multiple film galleries and filmmaker residencies that create a place of pilgrimage for Derek Jarman, a filmmaker who lived in Dungeness between 1986-1994. The project spatialises ‘Jarmanesque’ qualities architecturally in a filmic way that captures the relationship between time and landscape. Jarman developed a deep blue field of vision before his
Orchestrating Geochronology | Dungeness, UK | Unit 21 | 2021 Awarded the Bartlett School of Architecture Medal, BScAwarded First Class Honours Geochronology is the field of geology concerned with determining the age and history of Earth’s rocks, sediments, and fossils. Time is inherently encoded into the landscape; this project aims to quantify varying scales of time across numerous architectural elements. The scheme proposes a geochronology museum, archive, and research facility.
Rendering the Dungeness Percept | Dungeness, UK | Unit 21 | 2021 Awarded Distinction for Design & Distinction for Thesis The iconic image of Dungeness – the totemic object sited within a barren landscape – is synonymous with the mechanistic production of the Architectural Photograph. Disseminated by sites such as The Modern House and Dezeen, the imagery shapes our collective understanding of the place, imposing a romanticised fiction upon a
The Stone Organ | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 sebastian.coupe.21@ucl.ac.uk The environmentally positive ‘stone renaissance’ many hope is beginning within the construction industry runs contrary to an island that has suffered and continues to suffer environmental degradation of its natural landscape at the hands of the quarrying industry. Many within Portland see the preservation of its natural beauty as a crucial element in generating future tourism
How to Draw a Hyperobject | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 a.amasya.16@ucl.ac.uk Alp’s work takes Timothy Morton’s theory of ‘Hyperobjects’ as a test ground to create a drawing system that translates Hyperobject principles into architecture. The philosophical approach to high dimensional systems is spatialized through digital simulations, focusing on the Jurassic Coast of England. The project creates a drawing method performed by the fossils inhibiting the
Between the Line and the Land | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 ajay.mohan.20@ucl.ac.uk Within the fault lines of subjective perceptions, small probabilities are overlooked and rare occurrences overestimated. Psychological biases and intuitive sensibilities are the hidden noise in distorting seemingly objective entities and resolute cultural artefacts; our collective institutions become vulnerable to these speculative series of meditations, allowing entry to a series of consequential cartographic incursions
Rehabilitative Landscapes: YOI Portland | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 samuel.pierce.20@ucl.ac.uk An exploration into the benefits of integrating digital architectures in physical institutions through the design of a young offender institution that utilises virtual environments to provide personalised, therapeutic, and rehabilitative experiences that moderate the physical. The architecture utilises parametric design, incorporating user tracking and site data to provide a wide range of democratised spatial qualities
Transposing the Courtyard | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 oscar.maguire.15@ucl.ac.uk Since the 1850s The Courtyard Societies have been accommodated rent free in Burlington House, a grand neo-classical edifice built from Portland Stone, in the heart of London. Recently however the landlord, the UK Government, decided to start charging rent. The rent increases year on year at an unsustainable rate, setting the clock ticking to stay in
Defining the Architectural Foveal | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 h.loydell.16@ucl.ac.uk Within the scarred landscape of Portland, a proposed climbing research and training centre explores the agency of the eye’s gaze as a design tool. Through experiments in spatialising foveated level of detail (LOD), the fixations and saccades of the eye are utilised to encode and refine spatial narratives. Whilst utilising the same technologies to explore
Coastline Infinity | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 yat.tang.20@ucl.ac.uk The thousand-million-year geology formation’s collision with human interventions holds exciting tensions for the ever-changing coastline of Portland, which contributes to the island’s unique identity. Algorithms are developed with the notion of erosions and the carving processes of the landscape that formulates a set of design methodologies. The project dedicates to reconstructing and translating the coastline of Southern
Guerrilla Film Festival | Dungeness, UK | Unit 21 | 2021 A proposed film festival is located on the boarder of the Dungeness estate. The project speculates on the complex issues of ownership within Dungeness. A guerrilla film Festival challenges authorship of the filmic medium, relating film to the physicality of space. The typical segmented typology of a film festival is challenged. In a post pandemic future where the consumption
Lagoonscapes | Venice, Italy | Unit 21 | 2020 Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th Year work LagoonscapesVenice National Park and Marine Laboratory The project derived from initial interest and research studies concerning the unique ecosystem and ecology of the Venetian Lagoon. The morphology of the lagoon has been preserved and enhanced historically through human intervention; my project pursues and exaggerates this hybrid legacy of natural and artificial
Terrain Play | Venice, Italy | Unit 21 | 2020 Click to see Design Realisation TERRAIN PLAYMAKING OF THE FIRST HILL IN VENICE GARDEN OF EDEN, VENICEIn a dense city that is constantly battling with overtourism and space, this project hopes to improve the quality of life for Venetians. Inspired by the Venice Biennale, this project aims to create a landscape that activates the Garden of Eden, a large neglected
The Ministry Of Ground | Venice, Italy | Unit 21 | 2020 Click to see Design Realisation Project OverviewThe Ministry of Ground is an architecture that speculates on the importance of dredged material and its reappropriation within the Venice lagoon. A constantly evolving floating terrazzo landscape is formed out of dredged masonry debris and silt, dug from the Venetian canals. This landscape is made up of square components formed by