Design Studio (Three) Two BA Architecture
Eric Guibert & Christopher Daniel
Eric Guibert is a gardener architect and teacher. Through his built and grown architectural practice, he researches ways of co-creating regenerative architectures with ecosystems and species that nurture and express their emergence. This Architectural Animism investigates more equal relationships between humans and their habitats.
Christopher Daniel is an architect and experience designer with systemic sensibilities and a background in designing theatres and places for performance. He is director of Polysemic and London organiser for the Long Now Foundation.
DS(3)2: The Architectures of Regenerative Rituals
Students: Ingrid Almcrantz, Sana Amir khan, Vani Arora, Antoni Canyelles, Mohamed Chemali, Sana Esmat, Gabrielle Ferreira Silva, Malak Hamid, Jameelah Hussain, Mehdi Kareemi, Caroline Moisa, Nirmit Patel, Umay Phildius, Pelin Polat, Sayyada (Naba) Rezavi, Raiyan Rizwan, Shania Stephen Paul, Matias Sterian, Anak (Della) Wendha
The Architectural Animism studio continues to speculate on regenerative design in the overlap between the fields of built and grown architectures. With increasing realisation that to imagine regenerative futures requires rethinking how we – humans – live with other-than-humans, we began the year by designing architectures and landscapes that support spiritual or everyday rituals that regenerate ecosystems as well as humans and their communities. We located our enquiries in the Lea Valley, London, on a car park built over the remains of a large Victorian fresh water filtration system.
We imagined that over decades the performance of each ritual in the designed landscape would foster a community and the need for a large ecological institution. Forming the programme for the students’ main project, these ideas included: political institutions like a council for the Lea Valley; centres for ecological conservation for pollinator species; diversified woodlands created through pollarding and coppicing tree care; and a centre for sharing indigenous knowledge through story telling. The combination of designing both the building and a landscape strategy for a large site has led to woven typologies that seem to grow or decay into the surrounding habitats. Densely built areas are situated next to existing buildings, forming an epicentre from which constructions feather, diffract, and spread through the landscape along diverse organising frameworks: cellular, gridded, or along various lines: parallel, serpentine, fanning, spiralling.
These organising principles are embodied in the structural systems that follow two main circularity approaches: some are made of biological materials – timber post and beams, or large trusses; while others of deep walls made of the surrounding ground or city – rammed earth, recycled concrete sourced from the site, locally available bricks.
These multiple woven typologies define varied mosaics of habitat and environmental conditions,
and degrees of shelter and privacy for diverse human and other living beings, forming a continuous patchwork of landscape and buildings.
Guest Critics: Melody Akanji (Croydon Urban Room), Maria Delgado (East London Waterworks Park),
Keb Garavito (Pilbrow and Partners Architects), Iliya Koprinkov (Archipower), Ben Leathes (Aukett Swanke), Guy Mannes-Abbott, Rita Martinez Romero (East London Waterworks Park),
Nathan Miller (East London Waterworks Park), Dorna Shafieioun (East London Waterworks Park), Finola Simpson (Gollifer Langston Architects), Urna Sodnomjamts
Many thanks: We are particularly grateful for the generosity of the East London Waterworks Park project, a local community-led team, who has shared their knowledge and feedback at multiple points through the year. (elwp.org.uk)
Archive of DS3.2’s work from previous years:
