Albion is the ancient name for Great Britain and the legend is that it’s first inhabitants were Giants as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth which was regarded as fact as late as the 17th  century.

The Ark is a vessel that contains representatives that are to be saved from disaster.

This year you will be looking at myths/traditions and rituals/rites as a starting point to translate into an Architecture.

 

 Project 01 [6 weeks]

The year will start with you designing a ritual for the 21st century. You are asked to look at the now but also the past and the near future.

“A ritual is a performance of acts prescribed by tradition or sacerdotal decree.”

Encyclopeadia Britannica

The Encyclopeadia Britannica continues and states that all societies have rituals and it is a means of defining or even describing those humans. You will need to reinterpret this idea and design your invented rituals for the 21st century. Your ritual may depend on the following individual/tribe, domestic/urban, solitary/communal, daily/annual, private/open, fiction/fact, rational/irrational; a “Twofold Vision” as coined by William Blake where imagination becomes a form of perception.

As all traditions are invented and designed they often rely on a narrative myth. You will be required to create devises/installations and design a Gift. These will require specific acts, objects, place and must have inherent a means of transmission to others for preservation.

 Project 02 [18 weeks]

For the third year student this will depend on and build from Project 01.

The second year student will be asked to design the British Institute for Folklore and Myths