Diploma 10 has scanned three contrasting cities, compared them and proposed complex spatial interventions that directly affect the live realm of the city and transform the urban fabric.

In Scan 1, we deployed a 1x1km perimeter, centred on Old Street Roundabout, to isolate an arbitrary part of London, which we reinterpreted as a spatial construct defined by the themes of conflict, control, exchange, fiction, groups, life, power, structures, space and time. For Scan 2, we used a similar-sized area in Amsterdam, which focuses solely on the live or direct dimensions of city, and we responded with a series of constructed situations recorded in videos and text. Using an equivalent perimeter in Scan 3, we immersed ourselves in the over-saturated live realm of politically charged Cairo and, on our return, created a spontaneous physical model, articulated by a soundtrack of individual narratives, to reconstruct this complex situation. Informed by the three scans, the proposed physical and social transformations of Scan 1 posit these questions:

Can broadcasting be used as an architectural tool to hijack the frozen land of Bishopsgate Goods Yard? 

Is it possible to distort the boundary of a high street to change the habits and interactions of its users?

Can we elevate the public realm away from the ground level to provide a more vertical experience of the city?

Are we able to retrofit value into the fabric of Old Street to facilitate the micro-economy of Tech City?

Could we reclaim the Pitfield Estate for the city to create common ground for different social groups?

How can fiction be materialised to question vacancy in an empty site?

Would a fragmented system of learning blur the boundary between educational institutions and the city’s fabric?

Can we propose structures that accommodate the need for uncertainty within prime real estate?

Is it possible to play with the concept of indeterminacy on land that is facing redevelopment?

Would physical interventions, a perception of fear or a common administrative structure unite the estranged Golden Lane and Peabody Estates?

Unit Master

Carlos Villanueva Brandt

Workshops

Scan 2, Amsterdam, Jan Willem Petersen

Scan 3, Cairo, Nick Simcik-Arese and Jan Willem Petersen

Technical, Alex Warnock-Smith Gensler, Lukasz Platkowski, Valeria Tregovia Trigueros, Trevor To and Harry Cliffe-Roberts