BSc Unit 0: Exchange
London
Murray Fraser, Kenny Kinugasa Tsui, Justin C K Lau
Unit theme:
We want our students this year to think
about and research into the concept of ‘exchange’. This term obviously carries
many meanings. Exchange is the principle for the trade of goods and services,
initially on a barter system, later of financial transaction between buyer and
seller -- whether in terms of currency, commodities, or information data in
modern communication technologies. Yet it also refers to an exchange of ideas,
or of bodily contact, or (in globalisation terms) as the cultural interchange
between ethnic groups or nations around the world. We regard architecture as a
discipline which is fully rooted in the exchange of ideas and material
expressions across multiple cultural strata. Today, in our fast moving
digital-techno-media culture, many fragments of the 'foreign', both material
and psychological, penetrate into our daily lives. Instead of viewing this as
loss of cultural authenticity, or as a process of homogenisation, we want to
treat global exchange in architecture as creative and positive. It can be
traced in many ways: building aesthetics, economic forces, construction techniques,
inside/outside thresholds, feedback system cycles, user adjustments, etc.
Main project:
Your site can be somewhere of your own choosing
in London, although we will also suggest a range of optional sites of different
sizes in the area north of Oxford Street which sit among areas of business,
shopping, education, dwelling, media, manufacture, etc. What might your chosen site
become as a place of exchange for the future? How might global influences shape
a new identity for the site as well as for surrounding London? Students’
projects will therefore explore the notion of exchange to propose new building uses
that are able to enhance forms of urban and cultural interaction.
Initial project:
To start the year, students will be asked
to examine cultural interchange by studying Chinese artefacts in the British
Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum. They will split up into groups to
research into designated themes, before designing/making individual
models/installations to explore the concept of exchange. Full-scale prototypes
will combine fixed methods of representation (models, photos, sketches,
paintings) with time-based media (video, film). Throughout the year there will
be an emphasis on research as a vital element in architectural design, and encompassing
many fields:
