MArch_DS11

DS11 The studio is a supportive, open-minded, self-reflexive and critical environment. By negotiating design ambitions at large urban scales and their implications as inhabited spaces, projects carefully explore the relationships between abstracted urban genetics and unearth unexpected possibilities for material ren- dering of space. Relevant, sensitive and emotive programmes are developed in a European city each year, responding to the contextual, socio-economic and political concerns exposed through in-depth study and reflection. This year we returned to the south of Europe, in to Naples, Italy. Our teaching methodology establishes an intense and productive start with four week-long projects based on the intrinsic character of the city: ‘Par- tial Autonomy’ (pietrificato), ‘Game Plan’ (rianimare), ‘Dolled Up’ (transitorio) and ‘Opus Aggredi’ (lavoro). The studio trip this year was virtual; ‘City at Distance’ studies turned into ‘City Up Close’, from afar. A virtual city festival immersed us in Neapolitan culture: reading groups, films, web-cam gazing, pizza-making and guest seminars with Studio Vulcanica and academics from the University of Naples Federico II. The open culture of the studio resulted in diverse programmatic and typological responses: a cryo tomb research sta- tion, a new San Carlo city forum for all, an electric car plant with Formula E racecourse, a biomedical facility, and a library and new HE teaching training facility for Scampia.