Our new extended brief is now available through the link here (click on the image above) and also on the AA website within the undergraduate school units. Please contact us at the AA if you have any questions about the unit programme for the coming academic year!

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Part to Whole

Intermediate Unit 6 will continue its investigation into integrated design and construction strategies, using realistic urban project scenarios to explore the architectural implications of technological innovation. Dividing the year into two interdependent phases, students will work in teams on experimental fabrication processes at a 1:1 scale as well as individually on design methods that implement the key qualities of a material system through spatial and performative rules. Applying these methods towards high-density housing allows us to address some of the most pressing challenges that architecture faces today, exploring new modes of urban living within contexts of limited resources and space.

In the first phase of the year we will develop experimental design and build processes aimed at producing a
single, stackable housing unit. Focusing this year on systems that consist of a ‘kit of parts’, we will take advantage of high-precision digital manufacturing technologies to separate building functions into specifically programmed parts. Combining high and low-tech methods of fabrication and assembly, we will develop design and build methods, which can produce a range of structures that are adapted to their specific environmental and programmatic requirements. In collaboration with industry partners and using visits to Hooke Park, each team will design and construct a prototype at 1:1 scale.

Starting the second phase with research for our individual projects we will visit Shenzhen and Chongqing,
two of China’s fast-growing, second-tier megacities and a laboratory for new architectural and urban typologies designed to house a new middle-class. We will respond with our own strategies for density, programmatic and social diversity, multiplying our housing units through clustering strategies that test out issues of proximity, access and light. We will set up rules to adapt units to their individual role within the collective, adding strategic variation to improve the performance of private and public space. Then we will revisit our fabrication strategies and speculate on machinic construction and growth, allowing projects to become open systems capable of adapting to the ever-changing requirements in their prolonged lives. They become part of a highly networked and dynamic urban environment, programmed to evolve over time.

image: Alexander Graham Bell with his wife, demonstrating the lightness of the space-frame structure constructed by her husband (1903)

Intermediate Unit 6 has focused on a critical investigation into innovative design and construction processes through the application of urban housing scenarios that address contexts of limited resources, infrastructure and space.
Dividing the year into two interdependent phases, we started with the collaborative design and construction of 1:1 scale prototypes based on research into existing fabrication methods. Operating in a laboratory scenario our students worked in teams of three developing an adaptable casting method with corresponding digital design tools that offer a range of variable outputs. Aiming to produce a minimal enclosure the methods varied from fabric formwork (Quiddale, Wiktor, Golshid), to adjustable pixelated formwork (Kevin, Stavros, Yu) and from flexible jump formwork (Ariadna, Harri, Thomas) to prefabricated panels made from Concrete Cloth (Jihyun, Erez, Anand). Scattered around the AA the small structures explored a range of technical issues, geometrical configurations and spatial articulations.

During the second phase of the year we have put our concepts to the test, applying them into the extremely dense, integrated and networked context of Hong Kong. After searching for three-dimensional gaps within the city fabric, our prototypical structures have been reformulated in increased numbers that operate on a range of scales exploiting issues of grounding, verticality, site constraints and infrastructures.
Keeping a close link to our fabrication strategies the projects investigated how variation can be applied to construct units that adapt to the needs of their inhabitants. Through the selection of diverse sites and multiple interpretations of the programme the student work connects our technical explorations to a range of topics that vary from environmental and site-specific constraints to the programming of different apartment types, social classes and interaction spaces.
Furthermore, Hong Kong’s high-density scenarios have allowed the projects to explore design models that can negotiate between the collective project and the interests of the individual, projecting a vision of living structures that can grow and evolve over time.

Unit Masters
Jeroen van Ameijde
Olivier Ottevaere

Students
Ariadna Barthe Cuatrecasas
Jihyun Heo
Thomas Holan
Wiktor Kidziak
Erez Levinberg
Anand Naiknavare
Quiddale O’sullivan
Stavros Papavassiliou
Kevin Primat
Golshid Varasteh Kia
Harri Williams-Jones
Yu Zheng

Software Workshops
James Chung
Yoojin Kim
David Reeves

Consultancy
Lawrence Friesen (Generative Geometry)
Riccardo Merello (ARUP)

Thanks in Hong Kong:
Kristof Crolla, Jason Carlow, Christian Lange, Jonathan Solomon, John Lin, Laurence Liauw (HKU)
Brian Fok (10Design)
Eric Liu (Redland Precast Concrete)
Juergen Schuster, Ivan Leung (Permasteelisa South China)

Thanks to our critics:
Martin Self, Piers Taylor, Stylianos Dritsas, Sawako Kaijima, Takero Shimazaki, Jonas Lundberg, Nuria Alvarez Lombardero, Francisco Gonzalez de Canales, Christina Doumpioti, Esteban Colmenares, Ines Dantas, Maria Fedorchenko, Nathalie Rozencwajg, Alvin Huang, Brendon Carlin, Chris Pierce, Thomas Weaver, Carlos Villanueva Brandt, Miraj Ahmed, Tao Sule, Michael Weinstock, Wolfgang Frese, Ryan Dillon, Eva Eylers, Xavier de Kestelier, Ingrid Schroder, Stefano Rabolli Pansera, Shin Egashira, Marco Poletto, Barbara Campbell-Lange, Theo Spyropoulos, Dieter Dietz, Andrew Yau, Abel Maciel, Chris Lee

With special thanks:
Brett Steele, Charles Tashima, Charlie Corry Wright and Family, Marilyn Dyer, Belinda Flaherty, Kirstie Little, AA Maintenance for their patience and support.

Material Sponsor:
Concrete Canvas Ltd.

In-fill / Out-fits:
Prototypes for Urban Dwelling

Intermediate Unit 6 investigates the critical application of innovative digital design and construction processes within the context of the challenges that cities face today. Deploying fabrication-based design strategies within dense urban environments, we will develop architectural structures that negotiate their spatial and material configuration within contexts of limited resources, infrastructure and space. Structuring the year into two interdependent phases, students will work collaboratively on the design and construction of 1:1 scale prototypes, as well as individually on the development of projects addressing contextual aspects such as program and site.

Phase 1 – ‘In Vitro’:
Starting out as a laboratory for the discovery of inventive techniques of making, the first phase of the year will produce a series of physical prototypes that can be applied as small enclosure or urban shelter. Based on a rigorous exploration of existing construction methods and extracting design criteria from specific material properties, we will develop file-to-factory processes which output explores architectural vocabulary in relation to methods of construction. Assisted by intensive computational tutorials by invited experts, our digital design processes will be developed to produce a ‘living unit’; a minimum dwelling capable of being adapted to a range of different environments and living scenarios. Complementing a catalog of models with drawings that record various stages of design to production, we will develop diagramming techniques to explain our generative strategies and potential outcomes. The first phase will end with the collaborative design and construction of several proposals, sited within the premises of the AA.

Phase 2 – ‘In Vivo’:
During the second phase we will put our concepts to the test, applying them into the extremely dense, integrated and networked context of Hong Kong. There, we will be searching for three-dimensional gaps within the city fabric, in which our living units will be reformulated in increased numbers, operating on a range of scales and exploiting issues of grounding, verticality, site constraints and infrastructures. We will envision how our fabrication strategies can be developed to produce variation, adapting units to outfit the needs of their inhabitants. And how design models can be applied to negotiate between the collective project and the interests of individuals, forecasting on living structures that can grow over time.

Brendon Carlin completed his masters research in Architecture and Urbanism in the AA Design Research Lab, and an undergraduate of Environmental Design in Architecture, at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has worked for numerous offices including Plasma Studio, MAD Beijing, and UN Studio in Amsterdam and taught courses and workshops at the Berlage Institute and Harvard.

This is the blog for Intermediate Unit 6 at the AA in London.
We will use this to post the brief for the new Academic Year once finalised so please check back later.
In the meantime use the links in the menu on the right to view photos and work from the previous year.

Jeroen van Ameijde
Brendon Carlin