THE RADICANT
Architecture and migration
Engagement: Urban Cultures, Campus Brussels
Tutors: Caroline Sohie and Cecilia Chiappini
Academic year 2019-20
Human mobility is higher than ever before and continues to surge, becoming one of the global phenomena defining the 21st century. An estimated 272 million¹ people are international migrants in the world. Migration has a radical impact on both the place left behind, and on the place where migrants temporarily or permanently settle. It alters the geo-political, economic as well as the socio-cultural fabric of place.
The design studio:
– Explores the connection between migration, cultural identity and the built environment, and how relocation and displacement inform the medium of Architecture.
– Raises fundamental questions about a changing global and local society:
What is the nature of architectures arising from migration?
How are collective identity and social relations be reconstructed and
negotiated when flux and transition is the new norm?
How do global migratory movements inform notions of belonging,
and how are roots, tradition and heritage manifested in space?
How can the ‘genius loci’ be amplified to embody a hybrid spectrum of
multiple ‘other’ origins, all at once?
– Encouraged to learn from other fields of artistic practice- multi-media arts, installation, performance – and test alternative pathways in design/research practice by testing new ways to engage with site, concept and communication.
– Tests and concretise these reflections on architecture and migration through speculative design projects.
– Sets within one of Brussels most cosmopolitan urban areas:
the European Quarter and the Matongé neighbourhood; a geography in constant flux.
For detailed information, please read the Studio brief.
Interested students can join THE RADICANT Facebook group to access material on: maib24 THE RADICANT
¹ United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (UN DESA) – International Migrant Stock 2019, Workbook: UN_MigrantStockTotal_2019.xlsx
The studio of 2019-2020 consisted of two components;
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1) THE SITE ANALYSIS
This was undertaken in 3 groups:
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2) THE FINAL PROJECTS
This was undertaken on an individual/ pair basis. Each of the submissions has a reflection paper and a presentation (Ppt with voice over or mp4)