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The global pandemic has both increased our online distant connections whilst also making us all focus more on our immediate surroundings; we are drawn into questioning what a local, proximity city, might mean. The project draws on ideas of the ‘15-minute’ city developed by Carlos Moreno, defined to create a ‘city of proximity’ in which you can either walk or cycle to fulfil six social functions of living, working, supplying, caring, learning, and enjoying within each individual city.
The project has two phases. In the first phase, students address their local area based on the concept of the ‘15-minute city’ and identify the special traits of that area, as well as what may be missing from a civic point of view. The second phase requires students to locate a small site and design a small building that address their reading of the area. The small building or piece of architecture will address the civic, imaginary, and a new speculative future.
With sites from Arnsberg, Berlin, Iasi, Chiari, Poznań, Tatra Mountains, Transylvania, Wołów, Wroclaw, and Zalesie Górne being featured, the unprecedented move out of London reflects the global nature of the first-year cohort.
The site is located atop a hill, facing Tarnava Valley, in the middle of Transylvania. It is built as a poem of the old beliefs in the area, and it serves as a bird-watching tower with different purposes for its various niches.
Located in a suburban housing estate in Poznań, the project uses gardening as an integration tool among the locals. It celebrates seasonality; it is fully open to the green surroundings in summer months and offers a variety of activities for the colder periods spent indoors.
Located in Lützowplatz, Berlin, the building is designed to bring back the site’s vitality and keep the spirit of its history alive. The main feature is a garden for the composers that can also act as an open-air recital space in the summer months.
Forest fire centre in southern Poland, 500m deep inside Tatra National Park. It aims to raise awareness among tourists about forest fires, simultaneously providing forest fire facilities. The design aims to reflect the designer’s point of view on local nature, showing its complexity but not overwhelming it.
Allotment gardens are a huge part of the landscape in the city of Wrocław. The project proposes a group of smaller buildings, creating a passage through the gardens. The masterplan aims to improve the space by adding missing amenities such as toilets, kitchenettes, compost bins, and to open up the area for new incomers.
The site is in Arnsberg, Germany, which has a bicycle trail going around the city centre–part of a larger 240km cycling route, Ruhrpot Radweg. The proposal is developed with cyclists’ habits in mind; trying to understand the physical and psychological aspects of this culture.
This project is the designer’s personal exploration of identity and family roots. This can be replicated to portray the experience of next generations, from the families relocated from the Eastern Borderlands after the war. The project aims to re-establish a continuity of collective memory for this specific community and place, to prevent histories being lost.
Located in Berlin-Stralau, this project aims to re-introduce manufacture and inform visitors about the area’s industrial past and its historic connection to the water.
A proposal situated in a small Polish village 30km away from Warsaw–a rural area, surrounded by forest. Existing trees create a challenge for preserving the nature and shape the design. An open plan pavilion is proposed, with different pathways leading to and winding through it.
The project proposes a path through a bridge, a new square with a recording studio, and a ticket office for the scenic space. The new square represents a meeting point to reconcile the urban fabric with a church that is no longer used due to the canal.
The site is located in Iasi, Romania, adjacent to a 16th century fortress monastery wall and chosen for its surrounding religious institutions that intertwine with the history of the area. Key spaces include a room for exhibiting flowers, a flower shop, an art studio, and exterior seating areas.