Tutors: Dr Victoria Watson and Kirti Durelle
Heritage to Helios
This studio is about architecture and cosmos.
Modernism taught us we are organisms, dependent on our environment for our survival. Postmodernism taught us we are global citizens, politically, economically, ecologically and unavoidably connected to events taking place locally and all around the world. Cosmism tries to teach us about our inter-stellar connectivity, to think and feel our entanglements with the deep matter, waves, particles, stars and exploding galaxies of the cosmos.
Just like last year, Studio DS2(06) will work with the International Institute of Cosmism (IIC), which is now planning to develop a historic dockyard site, on the banks of the River Thames, in South East London. Over the summer, the IIC teamed-up with the Electric Boat Association (EBA) and together they are planning to turn the dockyard site into a Factory and Fun Palace dedicated to the project of the Great Electric Boat (to find out more about the Great Electric Boat and its importance for Cosmism see Nikolai Fedov’s essay Astronomy & Architecture).
The IIC need imaginative and talented young architects to work on the project. The teaching and learning of DS(2)06 is conceived as a training ground for just such individuals. Throughout the year trainees will study:
- The archaeological records of the historic site
- The history of seafaring & global circumnavigation
- Cosmism
- Electric energy & plasma
Ultimately, the purpose of the studio is to produce architectural design proposals of the highest quality and there is no prescribed method for doing that. However, methods of investigation and representation will include: drawing, sketching, scale drawing, model-making, orthographic projection, reading, writing, site investigation, field trips, formal analysis, technical studies, environmental studies, photography, painting, animation, documentation, poster & magazine work.
You can visit the studio records from last year at:
or on instagram at #carparktocosmos