Architecture Climate and Society

The BA2 unit on Architecture, Climate, and Society takes a key contemporary thematic that is at the forefront of academic and professional activities in architecture: critically understanding the climate emergency. Architects are well positioned to creatively engage with the demands that climate change places on the profession, but it can be too easy to concentrate on materials and technology without reference to the social, political and ethical issues posed by the climate crisis. This unit helps students to understand the importance of developing a theoretically informed position when addressing the climate emergency. Students submitted an individual essay and worked on creating manifestos relating to the issue in groups.

Inscribing the City

Inscribing the City is a series of lectures focusing on urban narratives. Framing these as narratives allows for important ideas and theories to be introduced through tangible examples; these are drawn from a wide range of cities including Seoul, Tokyo and Jakarta as well as considering field research methods, relationships between cities, nature & technology, and the approach of mapping the city. The title ‘inscribing’ the city refers to the unique nature of urban representation and presents students with examples of sequential drawings, diagramming, editing and cartography in order to show something specific about the built environment.

The assignment asks students to make a map of the city, focusing on an aspect of the urban realm which interests them and considering the best way to represent it.