Design Studio (Two) Three Architecture BA (Hons)

TUTORS: Georgio Christofi & Ursula Dimitriou

Complexity and Contradiction: A Critical History of Collecting

DS[2]3 uses narrative and visual interpretation as critical apparatus to re-imagine the relationship between story and space for the production, mediation and contestation of cultural knowledge.

Prompted by the National Gallery’s bicentenary, DS[2]3 examined the changing role of architecture in systems of collecting, curating and cultural memory. It questioned how institutions construct frameworks of spatial, material and curatorial strategies. Based on the St Vincent House site, the students’ design propositions were conceptualised as layered urban palimpsests where Roman, medieval and contemporary elements coexist.

Through the design of speculative monuments and inhabitable archives, students questioned issues of authorship, ownership and image circulation amid digital reproducibility, geopolitical unrest and environmental uncertainty. Employing analogue and digital methods, the projects balanced conservation and transformation to reconceptualise the archive as an active field, and reconsider the institution’s influence on collective memory.

Archive of DS2.3’s work from previous years: