UG Architecture Studio 04 - London Metropolitan University

Studio 04: Urban Rural

Studio brief

Frome is one of the few UK towns to declare a housing crisis. Attracted by its distinctive character and community spirit, affluent city dwellers have been moving to the town, driving locals out of the housing market. There is now a growing demand for new affordable housing in the town. But where and what should this housing be? How do we design homes that preserve the essence of rural towns?

The intimate streets and tight groups of houses within Frome are exactly what has drawn people to it and helped grow the community that makes local people want to stay. But our countryside is littered with examples of new rural housing that is the antithesis of this close-knit townscape: houses are detached from their neighbours, streets prioritise cars over people, and homes have little architectural identity. This is neglected territory for architecture, resulting in soulless, identikit developments.

Studio 4 will take this challenge head-on and critique the generic housing models seen nationwide. We will explore ideas for new types of higher density rural housing and develop solutions that reflect Frome’s character.

Structure of the Year

We will begin by researching case studies, producing detailed drawings and physical models of key housing projects. This will form a collective studio resource and provide the foundation for your individual design projects.

Study Trip

We will travel to Somerset, basing ourselves in Frome, where we will divide our time between studying the town and nearby architectural sites and working directly on your sites for the year.

Main Project

You will design a housing scheme on a small site within or on the edges of the town. Your proposals will be rooted in a clear understanding of the place and people and will work together to build strong personal briefs for your projects. We learn fastest when there is a balance between challenge and support – your main project will be ambitious within clearly defined parameters.

We will move fluidly between the scales of the neighbourhood, home and room, developing designs and testing your proposals through group discussions.

Workshops throughout the year will further develop your understanding of housing architecture, construction techniques, and essential skills such as technical drawing, image-making, and model-making.

Collage of proposed blocks around a courtyard with historic building in the background

Details

Course	Architecture BA (Hons)
Tutors	Fran Balaam Ingrid Petit
Where	Goulston Street
When	Tuesday and Friday

Architecture studios

1/2

green and white sectional model of a building in a domestic setting with back of bentwood chair

UG Architecture Studio 01: Building and Belonging

Holly Jean Crosbie, Kieran Wardle, Owain Williams

Exploring identity, place and belonging through proposing a new cultural anchor in a coastal town

silhouette of child against window through India fabric

UG Architecture Studio 02: Spaces of Birth – Spaces of Death

Charlotte Harris and Colin O’Sullivan

Times of birth and death represent the two most momentous times of our lives, and those of our families and friends. Often, the spaces where these events are played out are ill considered and show scant regard for what is happening inside, and here too, people’s power and agency is often disregarded. We will make proposals that suggest an alternative to the current norms. “I have now decided that…….. I’d like my death to be as interesting as my life has been.” David Bowie

collage of maps and photos of people pushing a wooden object

UG Architecture Studio 03: SCHOOL OF EVERYDAY PRACTICE - Pedagogy of Play

Jane McAllister, Alex Somerville

Overview “The difference between play and what is regarded as serious employment should be not a difference between the presence and absence of imagination, but a difference in the materials with which imagination is occupied.” John Dewey ‘SCHOOL OF EVERYDAY PRACTICE’, will establish a sustainable platform to foster long-term knowledge exchange and growth for the village of Belmonte, Calabro. It will combine new industries with the everyday, initiate forms of playful governance.

Top of red sandstone tenement buildings in Glasgow showing the bay windows and turrets.

UG Architecture Studio 04: The New Tenement

Fran Balaam, Ingrid Petit

This year the studio will design a new housing typology for Glasgow: A new tenement. We will look at the specific spatial characteristics of a home in the 21st Century city in a housing crisis, and how, in a commodified housing market, a typology can create a sense of community. We will help you develop a close understanding of materials, tectonics and construction methods with proposals that are practical, robust and tied to how people live

View out from the 18th storey of a high-rise building.

UG Architecture Studio 05: Home?

Theo Thysiades, Chris Smith, Spyros Kaprinis

As the world and our environment is quickly changing around us and our lives are increasingly becoming more complex, we will ask you to think about and design a simple house whose interior is a kind of sanctuary, a place you can feel at home.

UG Architecture Studio 04 Undergraduate Architecture – Studios