MArch_DS22

This year, DS22 tried to radically rethink our cities and our way of living beyond the limitations of our private homes. We wanted to critique how work invaded our home and how the myth of ‘comfort’ resulted in a shrink and squeeze of the collective space in favour of the private. We explored Resilient Collectives to challenge the status of our current isolation and disconnection from our surrounding. We interrogated new models of inhabiting the city while promoting solidarity, participation and collective act. Models that start from home and expand to include the street, the neighbourhood and the ‘invisible other’. While Covid-19 has exposed the current absurdities, it equally opened up possibilities to re-read and re-inhabit our cities with a new perspective. The lockdown has made our streets, neighbourhoods and workspaces – ‘voids’ open for reinterpretation, available for re-appropriation and change. Equally, the return of the birds, children reclaiming the streets and the sense of solidarity that emerged, all suggest that the change for a better world can be possible if there is a collective act and a will for change. The studio started with imaginary scenarios to exaggerate the Shrinking Cities of London, Berlin and Paris. These later lead to the main design project where the students reconstructed their architectural narratives for collectives. Selection o Studio Brief