PG Architecture Unit 07 Postgraduate Architecture – Units

Unit brief

Why build simply and what are the consequences of doing so? Furthermore, why is precision important to this notion, or even thesis, about design? 

Architecture is just one of many disciplines that have to deal with the pressing issue of mitigating the effects of climate change. Consequently, we must learn to build in a more lean fashion with materials that require less energy to extract, process and deliver to site, whether adapting an existing building or constructing anew.

Building simply does not mean to take the path of least resistance with regard to design, but to rigorously question the needlessly and unnecessarily carbon-intensive construction processes that are currently pursued due to a preference for certain supply changes and favoured modes of construction used by overly large and overly powerful construction firms and developers.

Building simply can enable a building’s construction to be more easily understood by its users, especially if they are partly or wholly involved in building it and less difficult, and therefore cheaper, to realise.

Building simply should or could result in an architecture that is purposefully uncomplicated in its design but is nuanced in its formal resolution. Walter Segal pursued this idea in the design of a number of rigorously simplified housing types that have led to their previous and current owners, through simple adjustments and additions, being able to live in a manner that they have determined themselves.

If construction is to be simplified, it must be done so rigorously. This can be achieved through clearly defined intentions and a cultured pragmatism that can result in subtly beautiful outcomes. We still need this in our world. Decoration or ornament is sometimes important to architecture, but not always necessary. To what degree is it desirable or necessary in low cost buildings?

And what about precision? It’s not everything, but if pursued when designing a building or buildings, can protect its users from future technical problems, whether they own the building or it is rented. Precision can be difficult to achieve and requires care and tenacity from the designer and the maker. Precision can be achieved by machines, but is always richer for having being attained using one’s own eyes, hands and head.

This year, again through the lens of Poetic Pragmatism, we will be undertaking a live project (of which the unit and its teachers have completed many), in this case, the construction of a greenhouse on long redundant farmland in Arkley, North London.

After recovering from the physical and mental exhaustion (and joy) that can result from such an endeavour, students will be asked to make meticulous drawings of early wooden architecture from different geographical and cultural contexts. They will be then asked to re-imagine these rich precedents in contemporary dimensioned lumber or engineered timber elements and address the types of insulation, linings, glazing and cladding elements required to augment them.

The major project will address a self-build settlement in a part of North London’s Green Belt that has become a little more ‘grey’ than green.