What We Do
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We are Unit 2, a typology-based unit in Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment. Our work is international, and underpinned by an in-depth study of a particular building type - this year housing - and more specifically mass housing - public, social, and developer led.
This year we began by studying the best public, social, and developer led housing projects from across the globe produced since 1918. We next gathered information and conducted a comparative study in a range of countries identified by ourselves. We focused on the following topics:
Each of the individual topics was allocated a team member to make an in-depth research into the subject and create an art piece representing the information in a more creative way. (see pictures)
TUTORS
With the support and feedback of Professor Alan Dunlop and David Vardy, as well as research assistance from Theodoros Dounas we have developed our understanding of the housing crisis. Our tutors have been consulting us throughout the whole process of creating the material for our research.
INDIVIDUAL WORK
Nikolas Nempis
"How does the need for mass housing lead to a country drowning in concrete? The poster represents the current situation in Greece, in terms of the housing sector. Having as major economic source the construction industry, people were able to build and design their own homes, resulting on the formation of a 'chaos'. Although some people will find this disturbing, it is now a part of the country's culture."
Stuart Campbell
"The poster intends to provoke thoughts on perception of housing and ask what the cultural differences might be between other political and economic systems. Looking specifically at Soviet climates and housing history, what might we be able to learn from this and take inspiration. Do we think that a socialist approach to housing is too far removed from our own?"
Owen Clark
"This diptych represents the artist's visual response to the current context of housing policy and regulation in the UK. Separating the work over two canvases embodies the differing situations across the border, especially with regards to housing policy. The deep, layered background - using a variety of mediums - expresses the confused and changeable political climate. Contrasting that, the raised yellow element in the foreground acts as a representation of the potential and opportunity in housing."
Debora Dimitrova
"The idea behind this poster is to compare an idea created in the 1920's to a current example of urban planning. One can clearly see the abundance of greenery between the buildings in Le Corbusier's proposal whereas in New York all the green space is situated in one central space. However, the 2 schemes are the same in terms of height and density of buildings, as well as their locations within zones."
Hugh Fish
"I hadn’t written or read any poetry since high school when I undertook this exercise, so my first trip was to the library to look for some inspiration. I was definitely felt like a fish out of water! After taking some books home, I enjoyed reading poems by Auden and Larkin and I became interested in their writing style. I wanted my poem to reflect the darkness and disparity of the housing crisis in the UK, in same way their poems echo the traumas of other aspects of life. Hopefully I achieved that, but the proof is in the pudding!"
Laura Vanazzi
"The poster would like to emphasize the different way of living over the last decades and nowadays, showing two different configurations of houses. We have on one side a more traditional style, with private houses and private spaces and a similar configuration in terms of rooms and spaces. While the other one, representing a new dwelling that is becoming more and more popular in the recent years, a co-housing system. A house where people share spaces keeping their privacy, but interacting and creating a community with the other residents. A house that has to take on new families and therefore new kind of spaces, more personal and adaptable to every situation. The poster would like also to underline who makes a house a home: people."
Alaa Beruwien
"With the cliché that sustainability is only based on environmental factors is a problem in itself. The knitted piece was, therefore, a representation on how “sustainability” in fact is not made up of a singular issue, and rather it is composed of many different “threads” intertwined together, such as in that it also involves economic and social factors. By looking at all these issues collectively, the path to sustainability can have a greater impact to instil beneficial change."
Niamh MacFarlane
"In this day and age, we have a large amount of issues with the houses that we are building as the majority are currently not suitable for purpose. With this being said, the introduction of flexible and adaptive living are somewhat answers to the ever changing life within a home. The UK itself, has had a shift in its age structure, with the population living a lot longer than they once used too. Both types of designing/ living allows us, as a society, to integrate an older generation into a community instead of segregating them away from the majority. Not only do these ideas help integrate the elderly, it also allows for a more social way of living and helps plant the seed to create communities and a more social way of living with neighbours."
Wuraola Olalere
"Like in circles we move around.
Intertwined we hold ourselves.
Not because we cannot stand alone;
But in unity our functions are found.
Cut a strand disarray we fall,
Keep us as one we will forever stay;
To sustain the present with the future in it
It begins with you and I."
Dele Fisher
"N.J. Habraken said that "Mass Housing is only an emergency measure." Mass housing has been a quick and effective way of dealing with different emergencies, from floods and earthquakes to war and the housing crisis. These illustrations show how that not only can we response to these different emergencies rapidly and efficiently, but we can also create more permanent solutions to these emergencies due to mass housing."
Eilidh Smith
"Slums are seen as some of the worst places in the world told to live. Places where people are struggling to survive. But, sometimes this is not the case. They can be places of happiness, where there is a strong sense of community, something that the UK is lacking. Is there something that we can learn from the slums and bring to the settlements of the future?"
