mute lines

For our second year we all coincidentally without consulting each other decided to choose studio6, and was a pleasing surprising to see each other in the first studio meeting.

"The environment we will be looking at is that of Iceland, bordering on the Arctic Circle. A cold environment that forces a certain way of life, with long summer days of perpetual light, continuously dark winters, The Polar Nights and the Aurora Borealis. An environment with extremes of glacial flow, continuous volcanic activity, snowfall and geo-thermal heat bubbling below the surface, with temperatures ranging from -24 to +24 degrees centigrade."

"We will begin the year with an investigation into methods of control and intensification of daylight and sunlight. This will be followed by an intense initial building project to develop digital and environment techniques of modeling and representation through casting, solid physical and computer modeling. This project will look at the climatic and social issues in this extreme environment, and develop architectural rules required to overcome them. The techniques developed will be used to analyse the architectural and spatial effects of the proposals. Students will be asked to develop the project on the basis of gathered and researched information of a given site in Iceland, and will be encouraged to allow the outcome to emerge through the process of investigation, rather than design."

The main assignment for the year will be a proposal that is to serve and develop this extreme environment, adapting locally to its climate, context and culture. The site will be surveyed during the field trip in November and the work will continue in London.