This is an intermediate level module that questions the role of architecture in a contemporary rural context. It engages with the countryside of the future within a context of climate change where, natural and constructed, human and non-human systems form the context for new design propositions. With an overarching agenda of connected ecosystems, the module deals with strategies of mitigation and adaptation in a warming world. The core values of curiosity, consciousness, collaboration and interdependence are supported by a student-led manifesto that asks the learner to become aware and responsive to ethical societal and ecological debates, to collaborate with peers and experts in environmental activism through partnerships with different clients acting in mutually supportive practice.
The triad of landscape, ecological connections and infrastructure scaffold the module where learners design a building system connected to a wider context. This module challenges students to propose solutions for two juxtaposing challenges, flood resilience and universal design becoming aware of the potential impacts on universal design in a warming world. The module asks learners to be structurally ambitious through the design of large span adaptable spaces in tandem with the considered design of intimate scaled enclosures. Particular attention is paid to the objectives, targets, and indicators outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 10 and 13, which focus on Reduced Inequalities and Climate Action respectively.
