Diploma Unit 20 marcosandmarjan
The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
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Programme 06-07: Secret Spaces / Sacred Spaces / Sublime Spaces Unit 20 has formed a particular interest in crossing boundaries of the traditional architectural practice, envisioning innovative conditions in design. By looking into advances within a wide range of sciences and art, students have been encouraged to develop a two-year individual research. Most of the projects propose a syncretic model of architecture that converges the technological with the poetic, as well as the tectonic with the ornamental. Secret Spaces are deeply personal. They are located where our intimacy unfolds and were our 'other' side can be found. They might be big or small, old or new, cute or grotesque, yet they are ours, and thus permanently protected. In times where our privacy is under threat by ubiquitous technological media, the importance of secret physical spaces becomes primordial. Architects, in particular, always have their own secret spaces, even if those are just designs of their imagination. Sacred Spaces have been for long the apotheosis of architectural genius; buildings created by great masters of architectural history, in which stylistic and spatial novelty is accomplished by the use of innovative technologies. But sacred spaces are complex in meaning, especially in a time were religious faith is under scrutiny. Sacredness and holiness imply greatness, which in turn entail spaces of utter transcendence and ineffable qualities. Such spaces have always been architecture's biggest opportunity to be experimental. Sublime Spaces are primarily associated with an experience bound up with the powers of nature. But as nature is changing so is our sense of the sublime. Sublime spaces are those that convey the expression of grand and noble passions that bring into play the emotional involvement of both the creator and user of spaces. They are sublime for their atmospheric magnificence, combining the beautiful and the ugly, the natural and the artificial, the poetic and the rational, the geometric and the formless. Students will be asked to unravel places of secrecy, interpret politics of sacredness and design their vision of the sublime. With the use of experimental model making, as well as 3D manufacturing techniques, each will consider technological, material and spatial conditions necessary to contextualise their ideas within the wider contemporary architectural discourse. Field Trip: Secret Venice Sacred Rome Sublime Alps |
