Design Studio (Three) Four Architecture BA (Hons)

TUTORS: Paolo Zaide & Tom Budd

Twintown

DS[3]4 speculates on the future of the built environment in the wake of seismic digital, infrastructural and environmental shifts.

In 2024, the British government’s £2.5 billion investment in new AI Growth Zones positioned digital infrastructure as critical to national development. But as digital networks expand, so too do their environmental impacts. How can we navigate between real and digital clouds? And as both natural and manmade climates evolve, how might these shifts reshape our understanding of space and architecture?

Taking London’s Royal Docks as our site, DS[3]4 explored how this former Imperial trading port could be re-imagined for a future built on digital exchange rather than physical commerce. The studio critiqued the physical presence of virtual landscapes and the intrinsic contradiction between the push for more data, speed and digital storage, and the urgent need to consume less.

Archive of DS3.4’s work from previous years: