ARK626-F21 // Architectural Transformation & Environmental Care

This page collects the student material of the course ARK626 that ran in fall 2021.

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The studio

This master studio questions the conservation and transformation of the built environment in connection to sustainability and environmental care.

Sustainability is already firmly embedded in architectural and urban conservation work, for example through adaptive re-use, retrofitting, and urban preservation. In this studio such questions are further developed through design exercises, design research, lectures and reading seminars, to engage with various aspects of environmental care, including rewilding, interspecies encounters, visionary environmental imaginations, and care for precarious environments and structures. Inspiration came from, for example, sustainable transformation practices, architectural theory and history, the environmental humanities, and landscape studies/design.

Teaching team: Elke Miedema, Oscar Carlsson, Joaquim Terrasso, with additional contributions of Sven Olof Ahlberg, Bri Gauger, Tabita Nilsson, Ola Wittenberg, Bosse Lagerqvist, Naima Calenberg, Giliam Dokter, Isabelle Doucet and more.

Project site: Orust Mejeri

This year’s studio focused on the re-design of industrial heritage; a former dairy factory on Orust in Sweden. The building has gone through several stages of use and is currently in need of rigorous maintenance and or re-design.

The current users, Orust Återburk, are already using the building for a range of recycling and local production, such as a second-hand store, storage of building elements such as door and windows, and are organising events to promote local produce and handicrafts. They are curious to know what the opportunities of the building are and what needs to be done with the current building to make that possible.

The studio, with smaller teams (1-3 people) proposes a range of perspectives on possible futures for the industrial heritage located at the centre of the island.

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Analysis

The context analysis has been done with the studio as a whole and included a range of smaller and bigger components, including phenomenological sketches and photo documentation, love/break-up letters, building measurements, damage reporting, analytical models, mapping, stakeholder interviews and more. This is material can be found here.

Interventions

The final projects range from careful maintenance, small investigations, rigorous transformation and orchestrated decay. Most of all, the diversity of design ambitions and approaches show the complexity of re-designing and working with the existing structures to support future use and environmental care. Scroll down, and deep-dive into the specific projects where you like.

Click on the project you want to explore!

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Click on the project you want to explore!