UNBUILD TO (BETTER) BUILD

03 September 2014 Architectural Association, London Unit 3 explored and examined the city of London. The unit unbuilt influential and important parts of London in order to better invent, speculate, design and propose new imaginary worlds. During the three weeks of the summer school, Unit 3 worked as a permanent laboratory for urban discussions. Daily the whole group shared information and visions, explored new ideas and possibilities and generated debate and new points of view. We all built a different idea of the city, almost anatomising it. The daily discussions were the core part of the design process. For the unbuilding process, students developed their ideas in pairs. Then seeing overlapping themes and ideas within other groups, they formed easily and naturally into four groups to imagine different fantasies and approaches for London. A large scale model of the city of London was the masterpiece of the unit. It contained the form and culture of London that would be preserved and our four imaginary proposals for the city. Amplifying Geography proposed to link Hyde Park to Regent’s Park through a park landscape, Recovering Modernity imagined a continuous spinal city initiated at the Barbican Centre, Landscaping Urbanism imagined a new urban topography and Densifying City proposed a permanently evolving city. This extensive model of the city of London was the resulting manifesto after three intense and inspiring weeks of continuous debating, visiting, unbuilding, building, researching, exploring, speculating, inventing, discussing and making.

For more information:

Summer School 2014 - The Unbuilt

Summer School 2014 Unit 3 Brief