Design Studio 20 Master of Architecture (MArch RIBA Part 2)
Maria Kramer & Shahed Saleem
Maria Kramer co-founded the Live Design Practice/Projects Platform to develop Community Projects, and is part of the Professional Practice Part III Course team. She led the award-nominated ‘The Growing Space’ Live Project, and is director at Room 102, an architecture studio which focuses on public realm and community-driven projects.
Shahed Saleem is an architect and teacher exploring under-represented architectural histories through participatory and collaborative processes. His architectural practice focuses on public and community buildings, and he writes on architecture, heritage and cultural identity.
DS20: Civic Permeability in Brent Cross
Yr1: Kajana Chaounthara Gnanan, Fraser Doyle Morgan, Emily-Ioana Ivan, Joseph Kuforiji, Yamon Kyaw, Anna Long, Jake Milsom, Tugce Yigit
Yr2: Kitty Emery Rainbird, Isabel Liu, Alex Marton, Hardeepak Panesar, Yael Schnitzer, Alistair Search, Yuelin Zhou
This studio is dedicated to investigating the intricate relationships between society, culture and nature, particularly within the realms of architecture and landscape. Our site this year is based in a complex area of north London where the Welsh Harp Reservoir, the Brent Cross Shopping Centre and major urban redevelopments meet local neighbourhoods and community spaces including Clitterhouse Farm, the site of our Live Project. In this tangled mix of land uses, which are intersected by extensive road and rail transport infrastructures, established diverse communities are confronted with a wholly new scale of city-making and visions of the future.
Throughout the year, urban conditions were explored, examining thresholds and how these occur across scales; from the urban, political, economic and social to the personal and intimate. Students’ projects sought to create civic spaces and experiences of permeability with new typologies where the existing ordering regimes of city-making were challenged.
This year’s Live Project was based at Our Yard at Clittterhouse Farm, an innovative community-led exemplar for whom the studio designed and co-built a multifunctional canopy collectively that serves as a connector and a catalyst for community activation. We learnt about community building and the complex relationships between council, developer and locals.
Guest Critics: Roudaina Alkhani, Cany Ash, Alessandro Ayuso, Toby Burgess, Harry Charrington, Kate Cheyne, Dusan Decermic, Liza Fior, Adam Khan, William McLean, Johannes Novy, Nabiha Qadir, Mark Rowe, Esha Sikander, Ben Stringer, Issias Yohanes
Special thanks: Alastair Blyth, Anna Brown, Jim Coleman, Paul Dwyer, Alexander Fleming, François Girardin, William Hudson, Emily Ivan, Krystallia Kamvasinou, Justine Kenyon, Ken Kinsella, Alex Marton, Jake Milsom, Simon Myers, Enrica Papa, Mirna Pedalo, Andy Pitchford, Nick Runeckles, Jordan Scammell, Daniel Scroggins, Paulette Singer, Ro Spankie, Steve Webb
Archive of DS20’s work from previous years:
