Exchange London

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: