unit-code
Assembled from materials of diverse ages, from the newly formed to those centuries or millions of years old, and incorporating varied rates of transformation and decay, a building can curate the past, inform the present and imagine the future, transporting us simultaneously to many different times. The stones of a building belong to the geological time they were wrought, the time they were quarried, the time they were integrated into a construction site, the ever-progressing time of subsequent environmental change, and the varied times they are experienced. We may seem to travel back in time, even as architectural materials and components have literally travelled forward to meet us.
A building does not just exist in time: it creates time, travelling forward as a message to the future. However, there is nothing as old-fashioned as a past vision of the future. We have all experienced the sense that time has reversed. An era that seemed to be in the past becomes the future. In the 21st century the environmental catastrophe of 20th century agricultural overproduction now sees hedgerows replanted, industrial pesticides discarded and farms rewilded. The low tolerance of complex building systems sees thermal comfort reassessed and traditional technologies revived.
This year students in PG12 have designed for a future time and place, and creatively considered their relations with both past and present. Flowing incessantly back and forth but never remaining the same, the river is a metaphor for the passage of time. We began the year at the strategic regeneration site of Gravesham Borough Council at the mouth of the Thames Estuary. For our field trip we studied past visions of the future and imagined future visions of the past in Edinburgh and Glasgow along the Forth and Clyde rivers. Students have subsequently designed a new civic architecture, in a time and place of their choice, with the ambition that their building is inventive and bold, considering both the need for longevity and the ability to anticipate and respond to change.