Design Yearbook 2017

Stage 5
Stage 5 is a year for in-depth experimentation: for exploring architecture in all its cultural, social,
political, material and historical contexts, for testing new approaches to design, representation and
technology. Briefs emphasize critical thinking and require students to engage with current debates
in architecture and society at large. The year’s work focuses on a particular international city – this
year Rotterdam – beginning with an intensive week long study visit, including architectural tours,
excursions, talks, group urban analysis and social events. Students undertake a critical reimagining
of the city through two semester long projects which challenge them to work at two radically
different scales – first urban, then detail. Framing design as a rigorous, as well as speculative process,
they foster design-research skills and interests in preparation for Stage 6.
In semester one, ‘Plan Rotterdam’ asked students to engage with the urban fabric of the city, its
historical layers, cultural currents and social differences. The project was taught as five distinct
studios that each took on a different urban area and issue. Common themes include the interplay
of buildings, infrastructure, land and water in a city below sea level, architecture’s role in the
production of images, experiences and lifestyles, and the politics of regeneration in a place
renowned for visionary architectural and urban ideas. The project is paired with the ‘Tools for
Thinking about Architecture’ module, which introduces a range of critical approaches through
lectures, workshops and seminars.
Semester two’s ‘Rematerializing Rotterdam’ switched focus to material and technical imagination,
taking detail, construction and atmosphere as opportunities for creative and critical exploration.
The brief asked students to interrogate a [g]host architecture – built or unbuilt, in Rotterdam
or elsewhere – and to reimagine it in the contemporary city. A detail and environment lecture
series, supported by expert consultancies, encouraged students to pursue a technical specialism that
embodies the intentions of the project.
Year Coordinators
James Craig
Stephen Parnell
Project Leaders
Bethan Kay
Ivan Marquez Munoz
James Craig
Laura Harty
Ken MacLeod
Nathaniel Coleman
Stephen Parnell
Students
Abigail Murphy
Adam Hill
Adel Kamashki
Alexander Blanchard
Alice Ravenhill
Alina Tamciuc
Babatunde Ibrahim
Clare Bond
Cynthia Wong
Daniel Sprawson
Demetris Socratus
Emma Gibson
Emma Kingman
Elizabeth Holroyd
Henry Brook
James Anderson
James Hunt
Jessica Goodwin
Jessica Mulvey
Karl Mok
Laura McClorey
Lorna Clements
Luana Kwok
Matthew Turnbull
Oliver Wolf
Preena Mistry
Robert Douglas
Robert Wills
Sophie Baldwin
Theodora Kyrtata
Thomas Sharlot
Thomas Cowman
Erasmus Students
Cyrillus Carpreau
Elin Stensils
Mirjam Konrad
Contributors
See pg.201
88
Text by James Craig
Opposite - Sophie Baldwin