Interior Architecture Year 3 ARCHIVE

Tutors: Diony Kypraiou, Sam Aitkenhead, Dusan Decermic, Zoe Diakaki, Ro Spankie & Allan Sylvester

Diony Kypraiou is Senior Lecturer, an architect and researcher. Her work explores practices of polyvocalism and performativity in design, exploring analogies staged across theatre, psychoanalysis, interiors and architecture. She is a member of the Interior Educators network.

Sam Aitkenhead is a designer, researcher and maker working across architecture, interiors, graphics and product design. His work explores ways to reduce environmental impact through design and material innovation.

Dusan Decermic is an architect and experienced educator who engages with both theoretical and design practices in architecture and interior design. He set up his own practice, arclab, in 1999.

Zoe Diakaki is an architect and interaction designer whose work sits at the intersection of architecture, scenography and immersive technologies.

Ro Spankie is Assistant Head of School and Subject Lead for Interior Architecture. Fascinated by the role of the drawing in the design process, she has exhibited and published work related to the interior in the UK and abroad.

Allan Sylvester is Visiting Lecturer, a practicing architect, and founding partner of Ullmayer Sylvester Architects, a design-led multidisciplinary collaborative practice.

The Cli-Lab

Driven by the global climatic discourse, students were challenged to consider design as a promoter of climate awareness and enabler for climate action. Prompted by a fictional collective of Sci-Formers (Scientists + Performers) who collaborate to challenge wasteful practice and raise awareness through art, students speculated on novel typologies and hybrid environments emerging from the study of scientific laboratories and performance spaces. This concluded with innovative proposals to transform the London Canal Museum into a prototype Cli-Lab, as a spatial manifesto towards a more sustainable London.

This year’s Co-Production Workshop, held with medical students from Imperial College, provided guidance from practitioners, clinicians, experts and patient advocates for our group to consider how design affects our health and propose small-scale interventions in the public realm. This fed into the Thesis Project, the main pursuit for Year 3 students. Each student identifies a host building and devises a programme based on analysis and personal design interests. Ideas are explored through an array of techniques that include material research/testing and immersive technologies. The diversity of schemes and depth of speculation is indicated by a sampling of project descriptions and locations: The Comfort Food Project: Transforming the disused Stamford Hill Bus Garage into an urban farm and homeless women’s centre;Comfort Beyond Dreams: A Hydroponic cannabis farm for CBD-infused treatments at 33 Brook Street; Congregate: Transforming food mindsets for the Fulham community; Umbra Habitat: an immersive shadow-world experience for children with autism at Koko Camden Theatre; MirroR: a Mixed Reality centre training players for their journey to reach earth’s future Digital Copy; Kultur: an inclusive Turkish Community Centre in Haggerston Baths.