Design Studio (Two) Three BA Architecture
Shahed Saleem & Balveer Mankia
Shahed Saleem is a practising architect, teacher and author. His area of specialism is in researching under-represented architectural histories through participatory and other methods. His practice focuses on public and community buildings, and he writes on architecture, heritage, and cultural identity.
Balveer Mankia is the founding director of BAL Architecture. Formerly a partner at MAKE, he has extensive experience in the design and delivery of several award-winning buildings across the UK. He has taught at the Universities of Greenwich and Nottingham.
DS2.3: Entry Point
Students: Mona Abou Dahech, Rahin Ahmed, Rachele Airaghi, Raquel Baah-Robertson, Mohamed Chemali, Gemma Daniels, Nicolas De La Flor Rey, Deborah De Lima, Emilia Falkiewicz, Aleeza Hafeez, Yasmine Houfani, Malak Huseynova, Aiza Iftikhar, Nicola Kociuba, Ayat Laymi, Jounaid Mungralie, Elina Taraldsoey, Nimrah Tariq
This year’s work centres around migrant and under-represented communities and their unique histories and envisaged futures. The project is sited in Whitechapel and Spitalfields, which has served as an historic entry point for new migrants to London for centuries. Students conducted site visits and developed their own lines of enquiry into different types of communities, stakeholders, economies and cultures that exist in the area today or that may be present in the year 2030. These communities were understood through human experiences, needs and aspirations.
In Semester One students identified junction points in the area where two or more cultural, economic or historical aspects intertwine. These junction points then became sites for human scale spatial interventions in which each student re-imagined the key architectural elements of a stair, roof and wall, exploring how they could become conceptualised and inhabited. These interventions aimed to create new human connections across existing borders, be they physical, social, economic or cultural.
Semester Two saw students develop the ideas and themes established from their first project to inform the design of a new public building located on Shoreditch High Street. he students needed to further understand the requirements of their communities and imagine an innovative, site-specific response by developing a unique project brief and building programme. Proposals explored cultural, educational and community facilities, each with an engaging public realm designed to dissolve boundaries. The spatial, structural and material language of each proposal sought to articulate community histories, experiences and imagine new sustainable futures.
Guest Critics: Hana Alsaai, Marcus Andren, Sarah Daoudi, Danielle Elefante, Naomi Gibson, Khuzema Hussein, Sofia Karim, Mirna Pedalo, Esha Sikander, Manijeh Verghese
Archive of DS2.3’s work from previous years:
