ADS5: Camping in a High Rise

ADS5 is interested in exploring the spatial qualities of buildings through an intuitive enquiry into form and modes of inhabitation. The studio is driven by a process of learning from buildings we like and understanding their underlying logic. This process relies as much on meticulous formal analysis as it does on intuition and pure observation.

This year we developed the projects backwards. First, students designed the building, then speculated on its use, site and agenda. The design of each building was based on a selection of references from our collective ‘Atlas’ of architectural images. Inspired by these images students designed and formulated an architectural principle for a model at the scale of 1:20 – a scale in which you can simultaneously experience notions of structure, tectonics, form and space.

Secondly we focused on the interior – the inhabitation of the model. Students treated the programme with skepticism, like a ‘guest’, assuming that the function of each building would ultimately change throughout its lifespan. Adopting the nimble mindset of the camper helped us develop an alternative approach to inhabiting a landscape (see building), taking into account the building’s infrastructure, as much as a lightweight and experiential approach to modern life.

Christopher Dyvik, Max Kahlen and Isabel Pietri