DS 2.4
This year DS(2)4 students have begun to explore complex architectural ideas in relation to long and short term sustainable urban development. Our site is located at the access point to the Camden Highline on York Way, a bold proposal for 1.6 kilometres of linear park, reanimating a disused high level railway track through Camden.
Our first brief asked students to design an access point to the Highline on the site of the former Maiden Lane Overground Station. The initial task invited students to work in pairs to fabricate from found material a 1:1 architectural fragment comprising steps, a handrail and a surprise. The fragment had to be demountable (for public transportation) and designed to allow for disassembly and reuse.
For the second brief, and for the first time as a studio, we embarked on a deep retrofit project. We imagined forward thinking political leadership that would support the adaptive reuse of a former storage unit adjacent to the railway viaduct on York Way. The brief outlined an exploratory social and sustainable multiuse programme. At ground level we asked for a materials re use depot and at higher levels a Camden Highline Visitor Centre, exhibition, event or other imaginative programme offering modes of gathering and exchange with views across London to the City and Kings Cross.
Our studio’s approach is to learn through making. All students created a 1:50 frame of the existing building (their ‘site’) with which to experiment and test ideas of context, environment, programme, spatial design, materiality and tectonics.
Thanks go to the generosity of our guides and critics who have helped shape conversations and influence developments in our studio. Our one day field trip to Manchester and Maggies Oldham offered an invaluable experience and understanding of the value care, craft and design in architecture can bring – for 2030 and the Long View.
Tutors
Camilla Wilkinson is an architect and lecturer. She has worked in high profile practices in Germany and the UK. Camilla makes research and lectures on the 191418 war camouflage system Dazzle Painting.
Chris Bryant is a founding director of London practice Almanac Collaborative Architecture.
Guest Critics
Maria Bahrim (AFK Studios), Scott Batty, Josh Bulman, Rachel Foreman (Almanac), Holly Galbraith, Emma Hafner (Flower Michelin Architects), Chris Leung, Mirna Pedalo, Balveer Mankia, Maria Motchalnik, Tatiana von Preussen (vPPR), Dylan Radcliffe Brown (6a Architects), Kester Rattenbury, Susanne Tutsch (Erect Architecture), Paolo Zaide
Special Thanks
Trish Morgan and Maggies Centre Oldham, Duncan Laird and Castlefield Viaduct, Joseph Winters and Peckham Levels, Roisin Morrison, William Ginestier and The Camden Highline, Alice Hardy and Global Generation
DS 2.4
This year DS(2)4 students have begun to explore complex architectural ideas in relation to long and short term sustainable urban development. Our site is located at the access point to the Camden Highline on York Way, a bold proposal for 1.6 kilometres of linear park, reanimating a disused high level railway track through Camden.
Our first brief asked students to design an access point to the Highline on the site of the former Maiden Lane Overground Station. The initial task invited students to work in pairs to fabricate from found material a 1:1 architectural fragment comprising steps, a handrail and a surprise. The fragment had to be demountable (for public transportation) and designed to allow for disassembly and reuse.
For the second brief, and for the first time as a studio, we embarked on a deep retrofit project. We imagined forward thinking political leadership that would support the adaptive reuse of a former storage unit adjacent to the railway viaduct on York Way. The brief outlined an exploratory social and sustainable multiuse programme. At ground level we asked for a materials re use depot and at higher levels a Camden Highline Visitor Centre, exhibition, event or other imaginative programme offering modes of gathering and exchange with views across London to the City and Kings Cross.
Our studio’s approach is to learn through making. All students created a 1:50 frame of the existing building (their ‘site’) with which to experiment and test ideas of context, environment, programme, spatial design, materiality and tectonics.
Thanks go to the generosity of our guides and critics who have helped shape conversations and influence developments in our studio. Our one day field trip to Manchester and Maggies Oldham offered an invaluable experience and understanding of the value care, craft and design in architecture can bring – for 2030 and the Long View.
Tutors
Camilla Wilkinson is an architect and lecturer. She has worked in high profile practices in Germany and the UK. Camilla makes research and lectures on the 191418 war camouflage system Dazzle Painting.
Chris Bryant is a founding director of London practice Almanac Collaborative Architecture.
Guest Critics
Maria Bahrim (AFK Studios), Scott Batty, Josh Bulman, Rachel Foreman (Almanac), Holly Galbraith, Emma Hafner (Flower Michelin Architects), Chris Leung, Mirna Pedalo, Balveer Mankia, Maria Motchalnik, Tatiana von Preussen (vPPR), Dylan Radcliffe Brown (6a Architects), Kester Rattenbury, Susanne Tutsch (Erect Architecture), Paolo Zaide
Special Thanks
Trish Morgan and Maggies Centre Oldham, Duncan Laird and Castlefield Viaduct, Joseph Winters and Peckham Levels, Roisin Morrison, William Ginestier and The Camden Highline, Alice Hardy and Global Generation
coming soon