PG Architecture Unit 04 Postgraduate Architecture – Units

Unit brief

"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when I've finished, if the solution is not beautiful... I know it's wrong."

Buckminster Fuller

In the day and age of the Anthropocene, we urgently need to address the polluting and energy intensive act of building construction. We need to revisit the habitual use of resources, tools of design, manufacture, testing and simulation in favor of an architecture giving back more to the environment than it costs. In order to achieve this lofty ambition, we are actively addressing the 10 Climate Emergency Design Themes aiming to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals by specifically addressing biodiversity, blue infrastructure, passive design, energy production and carbon emissions, health and well-being, material use and delight using a range of digital design, assessment, simulation, manufacturing and production techniques.

Unit04 is revisiting concepts of Artificial Intelligence, 3D scanning, re-use, off-site manufacture, bespoke design and customization coupled with immersive media and 1st person design in VR enabling a seamless transition between the analogue and the digital, the real and the virtual, the narrative, and the lived experience.

We are working on two main design projects for the year. Semester 1 we are working on a public urban landscape in the historic city of Thessaloniki, Greece in collaboration with local stakeholders. In semester 2 we are collaborating with the municipality of Gothenburg, Sweden and Chalmers University of Technology on the design of a new public central bath for the city of Gothenburg.

Unit04 is asking you to position an ecological architecture at the intersection between building and landscape, architecture, and experience.