Design Studio (Two) Four Architecture BA (Hons)

TUTORS: Camilla Wilkinson, Florian Brillet & Afolabi Spence

Reframing the Reservoir

DS[2]4 is an outward facing studio that explores urban environments that provoke critical questions in relation to architecture, process and strategy.

The urgent need to transform our approach to water supply created an opportunity to explore the relationship between water and architecture. We set out to explore how processes and approaches to develop and represent architecture could address climatic, social and economic pressures.

Our site this year was West Reservoir in Hackney, used to supply water to London but now provides an oasis for water sports and leisure. Through a series of interpretive exercises, students were invited to design an architectural proposition that expanded and enhanced our relationship with the reservoir and its ecological significance in the local context. This led to the main project to design a workshop that fabricates infrastructure for reservoirs and waterbodies.

Our field trip to Venice Biennale and visits to the Wolves Lane Centre, Triangle Site and Lea Bridge Library highlighted the value of diverse communities engaging with buildings that represent a courageous and creative optimism and helped us to re-frame the reservoir.

Archive of DS2.4’s work from previous years: