Studio C
INFRA-URBANISM
Justyna Karakiewicz
Studio Description
We will be looking at the consequences of climate change, in particular future frequent dramatic storm surges, flooding, and coastal erosion. You will be asked to design a bridge. Most bridges are designed for only one function, to enable movement of pedestrians, vehicles, water, and, more recently, nature, or perhaps a combination of these movements.
In this context, we will reconceive the bridge and ask the structure to do more, much more. You will redefine the purpose of bridge as “liveable and living” structure. Both the columns and the beams will have to accommodate variety of functions depending on their location and will respond to the context and the environment.
To respond to this challenge, you will not be able to think of bridges as static and completed structures in which everything is resolved and beautiful. Instead, you will be asked to think about how things can readapt, depending on ever changing environmental conditions.
Studio Outcomes
Upon completion of this subject, students should be able:
- To place urban design within a complex four-dimensional social matrix of economic, environmental, political, and cultural forces.
- To analyse the urban fabric and represent this analysis in a clear graphic language at a range of scales.
- To engage with concepts and possibilities of 'big data' and develop skills to use large data sets to directly inform design concepts and decision making.
- To develop the ability to put forward and provide convincing arguments for unconventional and provocative urban design propositions.
- To explore new urban design theories and to test their effectiveness.
- To introduce design as a form of research. To be able to identify urban design challenges; set out a design research question and aim; articulate a design approach or method, test their approach with rigor to put forward an urban design proposition; and draw conclusions identifying weakness and strengths of different approaches.
Studio Leaders
Professor Justyna KARAKIEWICZ, BArch (Hon), AA Dip, PhD, MSAI, RIBA, FRSA, trained as an architect at the Architectural Association. She taught at the Architectural Association, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London and spent 14 years as Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong. Currently Professor at The University of Melbourne. Her main research interests are related to volumetric architecture, complex adaptive systems, and ethics of design. Justyna has exhibited her work at Royal Academy, London (6 times), Venice Biennale (3 times), New York, Kyoto, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Beijing, Sydney and some twenty other venues. Her successes in international competitions include: First Prizes in: Gateway to Mecca, Crystal Palace Solar Housing Competition, Dunkerque Waterfront, Swansea Working Men’s Club, and First Prize at Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the best drawing, plus numerous second prices and merits awards. Justyna has published over 60 papers, 16 book chapters and three books.
Readings & References
- Graham, S. and Marvin, S., 2002. Splintering urbanism: networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition. Routledge.
- Ballard, J.G., 2018. Concrete Island: a novel. Picador USA.
- Rossi, A., 1984. The architecture of the city. MIT press.
- Krznaric, R., 2020. The good ancestor: How to think long term in a short-term world. Random House.
- Väliverronen, E., 1998. Biodiversity and the power of metaphor in environmental discourse. Science & Technology Studies, 11(1), pp.19-34.
- Easterling, K., 2014. Extrastatecraft: The power of infrastructure space. Verso Books.
- Easterling, K., 2021. Medium design: Knowing how to work on the world. Verso Books.
- Easterling, K., 2012. We will be making active form. Architectural Design, 82(5), pp.58-63.
- Burry, J. and White, M. eds., 2023. Urban Dystopias: Lofty Ideals to Shocking Realities. John Wiley & Sons.
- Karakiewicz, J., 2016. Interventions in Complex Urban Systems: How to Enable Modelling to Account for Disruptive Innovation. Understanding Complex Urban Systems: Integrating Multidisciplinary Data in Urban Models, pp.113-127.
- Karakiewicz, J., 2023. Pertopia: Speculative Thinking in a Short‐Term World. Architectural Design, 93(1), pp.22-29.
Schedule