Bureau of Situated Curiosities
Our questions delved into an understanding and ongoing evaluation of how we use spaces, appropriating findings to construct reactions rooted in specific contexts and consequently projects were human-centric not form-centric. Guided by a set of specifications, the Bureau asked its members to view site selection as part of the process of site investigation resulting in a unique set of sites scattered across the world with a range of territorial and cultural conditions. From Rabat to Shanghai, Altrincham to Fuengirola, Limoges to Bataan, Porto to Istanbul, these places were transported to our virtual studio space through drawings and discussions.
Embracing resourcefulness in a year of online learning, members interrogated their territories remotely to discover latent qualities, contextualised habits and unique opportunities for design. Each semester included a series of incremental briefs in the form of ‘responses’ and ‘intents’ which aided members of the Bureau to build their own personal interpretations of the agenda.
The journey of design included exercises on expanded site drawings, diagrams crystallising moments, displacement of case studies and taxonomies of optioneering. Through these members contributed to the collective discussion about the ways in which architecture supports or restricts behaviours, culminating in proposals for housing – a programme in which questions of situated curiosities are arguably the most exposed.
Students
Rafael Do Prado Holanda, Vera Vong, Fatihah Rasch, Crystal Campbell, Laudalia Indira Cassama, Disha Rajwani, James Altillero, Sandeep Deol, Hamisha Kundhadia, Vanshika Allola, Shadell Bryan, Sumiya Mohamed, Ruth Asfaw, Sara Dera, Joe Field, Wanqi Wang, Amaree Beckford Rodriques, Rebekah Lapina, Ethan Fraser, Steven Xu, Andrei Basilio, Indira Gomes Soares Cassama
Studio tutors
Selim Halulu and Arjun Rajah