Studio 2.2 - In Real Life

“Do you feel ever more distant from the world [in such a moment]? Or has the world, in its new extremity, finally come to you?” ­– Zadie Smith, Intimations (2020) 

This year presents an opportunity to investigate recent life-changing circumstances and events through architecture. The coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the urgency of climate change, has had a profound effect on how we use and perceive our built environment, causing us to individually and collectively examine and redefine the spaces we inhabit. We believe that our everyday experiences, memories and individual cultural heritage are as important as the formal architectural precedents that we study, and we encourage you to explore your personal narratives and cultural engagement with the built environment through your design research and proposals.

Continuing on from 2019-20, studio 2.2 will be investigating a range of precedents from the Global South and North, with a focus on the African compound house as an architectural typology. Indeed, similar forms of communal housing can be found within the Global Southern context. We will develop proposals that address the theme of community through an exploration of dwelling, learning and working by studying the everyday activities, rituals and spaces that shape our lives in the context of today.

The future of cosmopolitan life depends on both understanding the differences and unearthing the commonalities that exist between the ways in which people make and inhabit a place. As a studio, we will critique the idea of the singular and universal architectural language and rather engage with local knowledge, skills and expertise. As architects we can listen and become alert to the realities of lived experience, unvarnished and unhidden; if architecture is a way of seeing the world, then where should we be looking? Put another way, what is architecture in real life?