BARBICAN
Make London

Rennie Liffen

Studio Description

Now we find ourselves
My fortress in the Metropolis
Inside it’s another world
Dreaming of a city we once knew
The world is at our feet

Drizzle on brindle, pooling, glowing
On our street, their street, our fathers’ street
Minarets blue skyward and now distant far away
Camden was our quarter and
Our river tides ran fast and true

Issey came through, sharp and sweet
Red, black and full of life
2CV, red, white and full of life
Vivienne coloured our hearts
Katherine gave us our message
…….And Ziggy just blew our minds

Like TRB, we were just glad to be us
… you must have loved your life in the rain?

Studio D02 will develop intimate and idiosyncratic projects exploring the spatial and human dimensions of architectural composition - ‘the emotional power of space’. We will engage with the experiential and phenomenological implications of an architecture of both ‘individual’ and ‘community’. The studio project will be sited at the Barbican estate in London and students will imbue an imaginary immediate context with spatial and experiential profile. The studio will thematically focus on ‘manufacture’ as a foundation for programmatic invention and will seek to understand the social and compositional opportunity of combined making and social functions. Each student will form the functional and experiential brief for the architecture of a temporal building which both, accommodates a selected manufacturing enterprise and creates a new shared social setting for its workers and Barbican residents. Students will be directed to a series of relevant architectural references and be encouraged to embrace a reductive and legible architectural language which explores classical ideas of composition and proportion aligned with contemporary technology, materiality + colour.

The studio promotes sensitivity and humility in architectural thought and process, but also seeks opportunities within projects to explore empowerment and social equality. Context provides this opportunity and is perceived as something beyond the physical, where narrative and imagination are the surveyors of the intricate detail of fictitious places and characterful locations, creating a unique, provocative and shared setting for student projects.

Studio Outcomes

Students will explore a truly iterative design process in conjunction with the studio leader and collaborators in Melbourne and London, where abstract (orthographic) drawing and physical model-making are the central activities. A disciplined and methodical approach which uses drawing and modelmaking incrementally and values and exhibits every trace of the process as the ‘archaeology of the mind’. Through these modes of working students will develop a singular architectural composition exploring spatial experience, landscape, structure and tectonic / material qualities. Final outcomes will be restricted to specific and consistent communication tools with a focus on the representation of ‘making’ and ‘social atmosphere’. Students will be expected to produce significant and sophisticated orthographic drawings and physical models throughout the semester, communicating their intentions with clarity and passion.

Studio Leaders

RENNIE LIFFEN is a British Architect from London who has practiced in England, Europe and Australia. Rennie was involved in design studio teaching for many years in the UK and has been living, working and teaching in Melbourne since 2005. Rennie established Masters’ Design Studio 2 over a decade ago and this will be his twenty-seventh version of the studio. Rennie’s teaching was recognized in 2022 with an ABP Teaching Excellence Award.

Readings & References

www.studio2.world

• ILA BEKA & LOUISE LEMOINE – Film – Barbicania
• JULIEN TEMPLE – Film – London: The Modern Babylon
• VEGYN – Music + Video – A Dream Goes On Forever
• PAUL HAWORTH & TOM ROSENTHAL – Music + Video – Skydweller
• CARMEL KING – Writing – Made in London: From Workshops to Factories
• ILA BEKA & LOUISE LEMOINE – Conversations – The Emotional Power of Space
• THE SERPENTINE PAVILIONS – London Architecture
• STRUCTURAL EXPRESSIONISM (HI-TEC) – British Architecture
• PETER ZUMTHOR – Writing and Theory
• JUHANI PALLASMAA – Writing and Theory
• TADAO ANDO – Design Process

Schedule:
Monday 3pm - 6pm
Thursday 3.30pm - 6.30pm

Contact Handbook