Disruptive Pattern Material

This year we have examined camouflage and its potential role within architecture. The unit has investigated patternmaking in various dimensions through the inhabitation of solid and surface constructions with differentiated light and tactile qualities. The ambition has been to create a device that can be applied to address mixture at various scales: redefining spatial hierarchies, mediating adjacencies and exploring new material composites.

Analogous Constructs

Fieldwork in Shibuya, Tokyo focussed upon interconnected urban spaces and the topological, material, and temporal properties they possessed, analogous to earlier studies. Individual mappings plotted emergent patterns: complex mixtures of use within single building envelopes, overlapping or singular ownerships that extend under, in-between and over layers of transport infrastructure, the orders of signage etc.

Exclusive Context

West Silvertown, East London became the subject of a group investigation and research document from which individual strategic interests were developed. A complex armature between segregated housing, park, industrial and waterfront conditions became the site for intervention.

Hybrid Mixture

Students were asked to respond strategically by mediating between isolated uses, inhabitants, social groups, territories. The group proposed a range of strategic models to exploit the overlaps and adjacencies present. The industrial scale and typology were 'diluted' by phasing patterns of change or by providing public amenities or facilities that blurred the boundaries between the current patterns of polarised occupation.

Heterogeneous Fabric

The resolution of built fabric was based upon a redefinition of individual surface, material and volumetric interests forming a range of approaches and applications:

Perforated or expanded building skins were developed that modulate their porosity, scale and texture according to their adjacency or the uses they wrap around.
Sponge-like structures with fractal geometries were introduced, inhabiting new infrastructure as an extension of the pavement territory to mediate between differing scales and uses.
New artificial ground surfaces camouflaged the industrial present and simultaneously provided spaces of a different nature: for recreation, education and future social inclusion.