This year, Intermediate 6 has adopted the theme of ‘deep planning’ as a working method and ethos, applying an ‘integral, time- and user-based approach’ to architecture and urbanism. Based on this information-based mode of practice, the unit has embarked upon a detailed mapping of civic life in order to generate projects that can initiate progressive shifts within society. ‘Deep planning’ allowed us to further our understanding of the complex realities of the urban condition and to discuss the indirect role of the architect’s interventions within a dynamic reading of human activities and other mechanisms of urban life.
In Term 1, students worked in teams of three on spatial analyses of particular parameters such as environment, programme, materiality and visibility. Using the former Festival of Britain site at London’s South Bank, we produced a collective information model that was used as a laboratory to test enhancements that affected the vibrancy of public space. During our study trip to Shanghai and Tokyo, we documented a range of cultural phenomena taking place within the urban interiors of these hyper-cities. These observations demonstrated how evolving communities and three-dimensional urban planning create opportunities for enhanced cultural expression and interactions.
Throughout Terms 2 and 3, and supported by a programme of seminars, the unit students developed individual design proposals at the South Bank site, operating at both architectural and urban scales. Responding to the site’s historic traces of ambitious experimentation, our projects question the role and materialisation of a national cultural centre within an increasingly commodifying urban territory. A variety of intensified urban spaces serving both consumption and non-commercial uses, allowed students to speculate on new types of architectural systems that apply a synergetic interweaving of private and public urban domains.
Jeroen van Ameijde has been teaching at the AA the since 2007 and is co-founder and director of Urban Systems, an office specialising in generative design methodologies which is currently developing several large scale projects in China. He has previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Innsbruck and has lectured, published and taught workshops on digital design and fabrication worldwide. He studied at the Delft University of Technology and has worked with offices in Holland, Switzerland, New York, London and Hong Kong.
Brendon Carlin completed his Masters in Architecture and Urbanism at the AA. He has worked on architecture projects of various scales for offices in Holland, the UK, China and the United States. He has taught and coordinated courses and workshops at the University of Colorado, Berlage Institute, the AA and Harvard. Currently he is developing several large building and urban projects as director and co-founder of the London-based practice Urban Systems.
James Kwang-Ho Chung is an architectural designer at Urban Systems. He has worked for Foster and Partners and NEX Architecture in London on projects of various scales in the UK, China and Kuwait. James has previously taught and coordinated digital workshops at the AA.
