Year 1

BA (HONS) ARCHITECTURE YEAR 1

SUSANNE ISA + JEN WAN

“We all, adults and children, have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in the wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining things can be different…

We have an obligation to make things beautiful. Not to leave the world uglier than we found it, not to empty the oceans, not to leave our problems for the next generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and not leave our children with a world we've shortsightedly messed up, shortchanged, and crippled.” —Neil Gaiman

This quote describes the ability of individuals with imagination to change the world for the better, using creativity. It is a powerful rallying call that we all must sign up to.

The academic year has been disrupted by a global pandemic. Covid-19 is a challenge that we can work with and overcome using these skills, and I was overwhelmed and deeply moved by the strength and ingenuity shown by students and staff alike this year. To learn reflective and empathetic thinking is important if we want to move forward. Architecture by its very nature expresses both the known and the unknown, it has the capacity to help us understand how to live well. At its best architecture contains the past, the now and the future. I am heartened to think—and believe that—we have the individuals at Greenwich to achieve the obligations that Neil Gaiman outlines, as the work exhibited by the students attests to this uncompromising spirit.

A big thank you to all.

—Susanne Isa