Design Studio 22 Master of Architecture (MArch RIBA Part 2)

Nasser Golzari & Yara Sharif

Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif are award-winning architects and academics with an interest in design as a means to facilitate and create resilient communities. Combining research with design, their work runs parallel between their architectural practice, NG Architects, their research team, PART, and their Design Studio, DS22, at the University of Westminster. Golzari and Sharif have won a number of prestigious awards including the 2013 Agha Khan Award, 2014 Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction, and 2013 & 2016 RIBA President’s Award for Research.

The way they run the studio is very similar to how they run the practice, with a combination of design, drawings, testing and making.

DS22: The ‘Not’ So Ordinary Heroes

Yr1: Wizana Ahmed, Nedal Harris Ghosheh, Yasmin Pathan, Alexandra Sapte, Esma Sharif

Yr2: Saya Agha, Rima Almesri, Elissa Dergham, Janka Docs, Taravat Eshghabadi, Alya Hazinedaroglu, Karolina Hejduk, Sameera Kaddoura, Ghalia Lazrak, Alexandra-Clara Popescu, Mohammed Rafsan Raja

The exploitative approach that has shaped the morphology of our cities, has slowly invaded to reach our neighbourhoods, streets and homes to create social and spatial segregation…we find ourselves trapped within visible and invisible walls to mark the private space and isolate us further from our surrounding.

Lina Ghotmeh

How to learn from ordinary heroes who defy in their resilient practice exploitation and injustice?

Ordinary heroes can be those on the margin away from the spotlight, who actively participate in empowering their communities through self-build initiatives that rely on mutual support for their survival. They are the ones who transform and adapt their architecture and way of life to respond to their surroundings, breaking down the threshold between private and public space. These heroes also reject the trap of mass production, choosing instead to create resilient, locally-focused solutions that foster collective well-being.

This year, DS22 tried to rethink our surroundings critically. We utilised architecture and drawing as tools to reimagine new collectives as alternative modes of living. These are inspired by ordinary heroes. While so doing, we used drawings and model-making to tell untold stories.

We tried to re-read our landscape through the lens of a society where some are compelled to change their priorities and practices in response to emergencies and scarcity.

The resulting projects varied in their scope and location. Students chose their own brief and the city that formed the host for their scheme. From Havana to Kosova, Bucharest to Damascus, sites spanned the globe and cultures.

@ds22westmin

Guest Critics: Alessandro Ayuso, Angela Brady (Brady Mallalieu Architects), Andrew Carr (tempo Architecture), Richard Difford, François Girardin, Adam Khan, Mary Konstantopoulou, Cesary Marek, Samir Pandya, Ben Pollock, Ben Stringer, Sun Yan Yee (Grimshaw Architects)

Special thanks: Andrew Carr (tempo Architecture) for his valuable input and ongoing support for the students throughout the year, and to Professor Ruslan Munoz, Head of Faculty of Architecture (Technological University of Havana José Antonio Echeverría).