Design Studio (Three) One BA Architecture
Jane Tankard & Thomas Grove
Jane Tankard is an architect and academic interested in natural and human equity, and the transformative potential of the architect in collective, collaborative and political contexts. Her research focuses on experimental pedagogy, marginal spaces, film and feminism.
Thomas Grove studied at Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Westminster. He works for an architectural practice in London and is interested in film, ornament, traditional modes of representation and the socio-political ramifications of architecture.
DS3.1: An Architecture Against the Grain
Students: Gabriella Abbott, Fajer Alasfour, Souleymane Avice, Andrea Betteridge, Asya Caiado, Kyrah Copeland, Hannaan Eggay, Rowan Isles, Ekta Jadeja, Sofia Najy Mezdagat, Areebah Nagi, Camila Nunes Suarez, Maria Ruano Delgado, Jerrell Singh, Declan Slonim, Zsiriah Thomas, Jessica Tofan, Abigail Williams
While Britain remains, on paper, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, recent events have revealed the dark malaise at the heart of the nation. Our public buildings are crumbling, waterways are clogged with sewage and the very air itself is unfit for consumption. Meanwhile, in sharp contrast to reality, developers continue to build great swathes of ‘premium’ properties, aided and abetted by those in government and funded by opaque corporate entities. These developments, often taking the form of ‘landmark’ monoliths, seemingly arrive from outer space and land, pre-fitted with the latest must-haves in luxury living, on sites across the City of London, only to stand empty: an invasion orchestrated by Capital of a society on the brink.
This year, DS3.1 has been imagining new futures for 2030 for a challenging area of riverside Deptford, an urban village and one of the oldest parts of the city, where the local community is fighting back against gentrification, privatisation and developer-led suburbanisation. We have focused our gaze on Convoy’s Wharf, a large riverside site to which public access has been denied to the people, and where building will soon begin on a large private, exclusive development. Through local explorations and interactions, we identified opportunities inherent in returning this ‘lost’ land to those whose daily lives circumnavigate it; to create spaces of equity with a beleaguered and angry local community. A fruitful exchange with Altinbas University in Istanbul enabled the examination of urban self-sustaining migrant village and caravanserai typologies, consolidating our studio-based research and experiments. Through studies of interstitial spaces between the everyday and the ‘other’, we have determined the potential for defining and synthesising micro-climates of diversity, challenging assumptions of how we live and share our environment as preparation for an uncertain future. Our proposals for community settlements with integrated sustainable systems address notions of nostalgia, death, contamination, equity and desire.
Guest Critics: Megan Ancliffe (DeltaQ), Reenal Argawal (Grimshaw Architects), Maria Bahrim, Sanket Ghatalia (DSDHA), Chris Hartiss (Vincent + Partners), Cameron McKay (UNITE-SAW), Alicia Pivaro, Mark Rowe (Perkins+Will), Martin Sagar (Sagar Architects)
Archive of DS3.1’s work from previous years:
