A talk by London Met’s Sandra Denicke-Polcher questioned what permanent change in architecture looks like.
Date: 17 March 2021
London Met’s Deputy Head of Architecture and member of research centre CUBE, Sandra Denicke-Polcher recently gave a talk at Manchester School of Architecture’s online PROVOCATION SERIES about Studio 3’s design approach. The event was themed "Short Exposure - Do temporary interventions bring permanent change?", and teamed with another talk by James Crawford, co-founder of Liverpool based architecture and design Studio MUTT. This was followed by a lively debate lead by Dan Dubowitz, Ray Lukas and MSA’s final year student Mike Rostock.
The discussion was an opportunity for Sandra to present Studio 3’s work which engages different cohorts in working in one location over several academic years. Since 2016 The studio engages in Crossing Cultures, a project carried out in a depopulated village in the South of Italy. The work builds "layers of temporary interventions” as a method to reactivate and achieve lasting change for the area.
The debate which followed brought up the question of what permanent change in architecture looks like and concluded with the provocation, if buildings can ever be permanent as they are made of ‘layers’ consisting of physical changes and changing inhabitation, adding to what can be considered the temporary nature of architecture.
Pictured: Sandra Denicke-Polcher