Seven Wise Sisters. Aryan Tehrani (2016
“We cannot create a world we cannot imagine and stories are the engines of our imagination”. Josh Stearns
Following the traditions of great architects, writers and artist throughout history Unit 6 continues its research into the reimagining of cities through the conduit of other fictional narratives.
Last year Unit 6 students used imaginary narratives as a tool to propose a speculative architecture that would reinvent/reimagine Greenwich. Like writers and film makes they either used the backdrop of the ‘real’ Greenwich to support their story or reimagined Greenwich altogether as an imaginary place.
The resultant architecture was fictional and sometimes alien, but like all good fictional stories they had
a way critiquing or revealing a ‘real’ world contemporary scenario in which we play out our dramas.
This year our site is the fictional city of Lund, a parody of London. This is how the story starts:
Welcome to the fictional city of Lund, a parody of the lost city of London. It gained or independence from Mino-Britain after a historic battle that triggered the great EXIT.
Lund grew around a great river. If we sail from mouth of the estuary, from east to west, past
the great trading docks of Tilb, and the historic navel docks of Green-which, and under the
great bridge that is identifiable with this great city, we arrive and disembark at a point called the Bankment. Here, on foot, we move north, and arrive what is, arguably, the main centre of this magnificent metropolis, our destination: Nelson’s Square.
Lund is a city of many centres, but Nelson’s Square claims of being the main centre can be justified. Immediately, and just behind the great art house and to the North, is the flamboyant leisure district; to the East, the great river, and to the South West resides our beloved Queen
and, in walking distance, the city’s parliament where real democracy is at its centre.
Nelson’s Square is a square of monuments that celebrates the great heroes that fought for Mino-Britain. Here we find the architecture that celebrates the city’s very essence and makes it identifiably Lund. If you look up you will see……. (to be continued- description of the student’s
final project).
The Project:
Students will be asked to reimagine Nelson Square (aka.Trafalgar Square) as the centre of their imaginary city and to design an architecture that encapsulates and reveals the very essence of Lund.
The city’s identity can be born out of literary, filmic, artistic, utopian ideas or an aspect of an existing city itself.
- 2 year students will have to design a imaginary parliament (on a specific site on the Square)
- 3 year students will have to design a civic building/ Institute or a public building that
Note: Projects not inspired by existing literary or film fictions must invent a context in which the new city exists i.e. its time (present or future), its social, cultural, political, economical and environmental context.
Tasks:
- In search of a city’s new identity.
Students will choose a city or an imaginary place from the list of places below (or one of their own choice) and extract its ideology, its visual imagery, its materiality and design an inhabitable monument/ fragment that symbolises their new city.
- Architecture of the (re)imagined City (final project).
Students will derive a programme from the monument (or fragment) and will design an architecture that will become the symbol for the city.
Some possibilities for an imagined places or city:
| Examples of Fictional Cities Metropolis (Film)Modern LilyputNew VeniceWonderlandGotham City ( Film)
New Babylon ( Film) Plug –in City Vise City-Grand Theft Auto (Game) St Andreas-Grand Theft Auto (Game)
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Examples of Possible CitiesCity of Modern IndustryCity of Lost TraditionsDigital CityCity of EntertainmentCity of Tourism
City of History Brexit City
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Examples of Possible CitiesCity of StonemasonsCity of CraftsmenCity of AstronomersCity of ScienceCity of Entertainment
Celluloid City City of Time City of Abundance City of Austerity
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