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
El Gòtic Plays Itself | Barcelona, Spain | Unit 21 | 2024 yufei.cheng.21@ucl.ac.uk Situated within the historic core of Barcelona, this project conceptualizes a center for Catalan theatre and craftsmanship, drawing on the Spanish proclivity for festivals and theatrical expressions that transmute quotidian street life into elaborate stage settings. The methodology involves documenting and translating the cyclical patterns of seasonal changes, theatrical productions, street festivals, and parades into digitally
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
A ‘Non-Extractivist’ University | Isle of Portland, UK | Unit 21 | 2022 kiran.basi.20@ucl.ac.uk For thousands of years, Portland stone has been extracted for the construction of notable buildings around the world. Whilst these buildings represent the wealth and power of their respective institutions, the Isle of Portland has been left with voids cut into its landscape and high levels of social deprivation. This project investigates how adopting a non-extractivist
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
Re-Discover Athens | Athens, Greece | Unit 21 | 2019 Awarded Distinction for Design Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th year work Click image to zoom–> As cultural trade become more economically available to everyone, cheap holiday deals and budget airlines keep popular holiday destinations filled with tourists. The ancient citadel, Acropolis, situated within the heart of Athens made its way to the top ten most visited cities in Europe. However, since
Piraeus Archipelago | Athens, Greece| Unit 21 | 2019 Awarded Distinction for Design Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th year work ‘Piraeus Archipelago’ is a redevelopment masterplan for the cruise port of Piraeus, it proposes a strategy to improve the cruise-city relationship whilst creating a rewarding experience for cruise tourists. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China’s strategy to boost trade and economic exchange across the globe, which promotes investments in
The Makers Collective | Turin, Italy | Unit 21 | 2018 Awarded Distinction for Design & Distinction for Thesis Click to see Thesis Click image to zoom–> Figures from the World Economic Forum esitmate 7.1 million jobs can be automated by 2050. The Makers Collective exists in a future economy where universal basic income and job automation change ‘capitalised labour’ or ‘work’ as we know it. Complete automation will relieve humanity of all
Tour-in Heritage | Turin, Italy | Unit 21 | 2018 Awarded Distinction for Design & Distinction for Thesis Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th year work Click image to zoom–> Torino’s first post Industrial Landscape During the 70’s and 80’s Torino’s thriving industries were hit by a huge oil crisis that halted the city’s once thriving automotive industry. This increased the levels of unemployment and the
THE MEDI-TERRAIN: A NEW THALASSOCRACY | Marseille, France | Unit 21 | 2016 Awarded Saint-Gobain Innovation Award for Design Realisation Click to see Design Realisation The project aims to re-imagine the organizational strategy of the Mediterranean region – an alliance of port cities independent of national identity holding semi-autonomy, as is generated from a networked system. The ports themselves become nodes, marked by non-monumental networked infrastructure and named the ‘Medi-Terrain’ or ‘Middle Ground’. This
PROMO-GRANATE | Marseille, France | Unit 21 | 2016 Awarded Distinction for Design Click to see Thesis When tracing the origin of Heroin you will almost inevitably find that Afghanistan is the source. Afghanistan’s economy is highly dependent on opium farming, which has funded the insurgents fighting NATO forces and corrupted the government. Foreign countries like the U.S. and UK have promoted pomegranate farming to replace the opium fields. However, a pomegranate factory in Afghanistan could not sustain
MARSEILLE: METAPHYSICAL DATA SYSTEMS | Marseille, France | Unit 21 | 2016 Click to see Design Realisation Marseille has two ports located within close proximity of the city centre. The original Vieux Port is situated near the old town of Le Panier, but maritime traffic becomes too intense and the port was extended north of the city. Port Marseille Fos was built and it now serves as the
MARSEILLE MUSIC AND CULTURAL CENTRE | Marseille, France | Unit 21 | 2016 Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th Year work Marseille is characterised by its transiency and cultural diversity seen in its importing and exporting activities that take place in the coast and expand in the mainland. The concept behind the proposed scheme for Marseille has been developed through the experience of the city as a
LOCATING HELSINKI | Helsinki, Finland | Unit 21 | 2015 A MASTERPLAN FOR THE HELSINKI METROPOLITAN AREA ASSEMBLY | Helsinki, Finland | Unit 21 | 2015 Awarded Distinction for Design & Distinction for Thesis Awarded The Bartlett Medal Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th Year Work Locating Helsinki: Using Cartographic Methods to Depict the Shifting Physical and Digital Loci of the Capital Cartography provides identity, clarity and a grounding to the understanding
EXCEPTIVE LAWS | Helsinki, Finland | Unit 21 | 2015 Awarded Distinction for Thesis & Merit for Design Click to see Thesis Exceptive Laws This project seeks to reconceptualise architectural legacy in Finland by {re}contextualising Finnish architectural development from 1917-2015 within its legislative, cultural, historical, corporeal, linguistic, and corporate conditions of the time. It has constantly been asking and re-thinking what the role of the architect and
HERNESAARI SNOW DUMPING PARK | Helsinki, Finland | Unit 21 | 2015 Awarded Distinction for Design & Distinction for Thesis Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th Year work Hernesaari Snow Dumping Park Helsinki has an average snowfall of two meters every winter, posing a major infrastructural challenge to the city. To keep the city functioning two thousand truckloads of snow are removed from the
REINVENTING WINTER IN HELSINKI | Helsinki, Finland | Unit 21 | 2015 Awarded Merit for Design Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th Year Work Reinventing Winter in Helsinki Helsinki has positioned at 60olatitude making it the third most northern capital in the world. Due to this the summer days are long with up to 19 and a half hours of daylight and temperatures up to 35oC. Outside
CITY OF EDGES: EXCAVATION | Helsinki, Finland | Unit 21 | 2015 CITY OF EDGES: THE QUARRIED THEATRE | Helsinki, Finland | Unit 21 | 2015 Click to see Thesis Click to see 4th Year Work City of Edges: Excavation Helsinki granite bedrock has been widely relied on for the construction of excavated underground structures over the last century, as techniques evolved. Besides, exposed, raw rock outcrops
BERLIN ARTSPARK | Berlin | Unit 21 | 2012 | Awarded Distinction in Design ‘Intervention in the existing city, in its residual spaces, in its folded interstices can no longer be comfortable or effacious in the manner postulated by the modern movement’s official model of enlightened tradition…[but rather through attention to continuity] of the flows, the energies, the rhythms established by the passing of time and loss of limits’ –
PANORAMA | London | Unit 21 | 2013 TROPICAL LANDSCAPE | Tremenheere Art Park, Penzance | Unit 21 | 2013 B[R]EACHING | Tangier, Morocco | Unit 21 | 2013 The Graphical Memoires of Alexandra Palace The designs explore the possibilities of physical, climatic and social manipulation in situations of varied environments. Project 01, The Graphical Memoires of Alexandra Palace, investigates the relationship of the visually apparent and the hidden views