Unit 2
Urban Room Christoph Hadrys, Uwe Schmidt-Hess with Tony Fretton
MArch Unit 2 addresses urban and architectural conditions in locations undergoing critical change and over the years, has worked in North Africa, East London and other places in Europe. Through a combination of research and creative practice, we propose interventions, which respond to urban challenges and introduce elements of cultural and imaginative vigour. The Unit explores extremes of interrelated scales, from urban geographies through to building and detail qualities. In this process, strategies formulate responsiveness to global contexts, site conditions, understanding of scales, architectural sensibilities, as well as structural and material realities. We aim to create social, spatial and time-based habitats and environments. This academic year, our design research and projects focused on deprived neighbourhoods in central Athens, Greece. Within this location we explored the guiding theme Urban Room. The research area has a diverse urban history that ranges from ancient excavations, neo-classical courtyard houses and industrial buildings all the way to contemporary apartment buildings. Despite a rich local urban culture, the area fell into dereliction during the second half of the 20th century. In recent years, it has undergone substantial urban transformations with new constructions and an influx of people. In our work,
ATHENS, GREECE
we explored how public spaces and buildings can be Urban Rooms that facilitate this change and invigorate the city. We explored ways in which sharing and living together can be part of a synergetic urban life. To prepare the work in Athens, each student designed an Urban Room Prototype. We researched social narratives and architectural qualities. In Athens, each student chose a site, programme and scale for their main design project.
“Synoikismos connotes, in particular, the economic and ecological interdependencies and the creative - as well as occasionally destructive - synergies that arise from the purposeful clustering and collective cohabitation of people in space. In ancient Greece, synoikismos referred specifically to the union of several smaller urban settlements under a ‘capital’ city, thus implying a form of urban based governmentality as well as the idea of an urban system.“ Edward Soja, 2000
