DS1 - Sustainable Community Living
This year DS1 was engaged in designing a proposal for a sustainable, diverse community of 50-100 people in Oxfordshire, responding to our brief of “Symbiotic Living” and informed by the RIBA Sustainability Framework and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Students covered aspects such as health and wellbeing, connection with nature, the live-work paradigm, farming, community living and shared resources within both housing and commercial contexts.
With a focus on working with existing and historic building fabric in the market town of Witney and its surroundings, we engaged in both rural and urban contexts, exploring the holistic nature of sustainable design which encompasses social, technical, environmental, spatial and economic factors. By putting people at the centre of a sustainability framework and design process, students grappled with the multi-faceted nature of the real challenges that an architectural response to the climate crisis faces.
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Dr Ricardo Assis Rosa - Unit Lead
Christopher Fulton - Unit Tutor
Luke Gleeson - Technology and Sustainability Tutor
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Mina Samangooei
Andrea Placidi
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Olivia Anderson
Yusuf Aydin
Omar ElSherbini Elsayed Elsherbini
Julia Estrella Assis de Faria
Yuliya Kaizer
Mitchell Legge
Liisa Murd
Tinashe Mutero
Jade Newman
Alexia Nomikou
Aaron Osinuga
Ekaterina Petkova
Elina Savvas
Venktesh Sriram
Sudharshini Thirupathirajan
Alexia Nomikou: The Dynamic School defines sustainable community living as a habitable space where students can curate their own form of education. The project focuses on theoretical principles of education that were formed between the Agrarian Revolution to the Industrial Revolution, and how those conditions influence educational architecture.
Liisa Murd: Witney Incubator is a new development for a community located in Witney by Ducklington Lake. It prides itself with sustainable outlook, design and application. The core values of the community are sharing spaces, growing food and focussing on mental and physical well-being.
Ekaterina Petkova: This project explores ideas of sustainability on different scales, building healthy communities at appropriate density in urban environments. The proposal consists of a proposal for a masterplan for an urban block in Witney that contains housing, community facilities and green spaces. It also contains a proposal for a mixed-use building, accommodating living units and community facilities. Principles of connection to nature and bringing people together in order to build stronger communities are some of the ideas guiding the project both on a masterplan and building level.
Venktesh Sriram: The project is a sustainable living community in the Town of Witney Oxfordshire. It aspires to be a circular community with a market as the central focus with the activities of cultivation, food processing, local crafts happening around it to be sold. The concepts of modularity, incrementality and biophilia are used in the builings thus making it a self sufficient symbiotic community.
Jade Newman: The project aims to create a symbiotic relationship between people and the natural environment, through the act of meditation, providing further habitation for biodiversity to thrive and entwined with the future proofed human community. Dwellings, work opportunities as well as communal activities are provided, considering the people, planet and economy.
Julia Faria: This project aims to capitalise on three key behavioural trends: (i) the need to be sustainable; (ii) the circular economy; and (iii) co-living. Sustainability through the efficient use of scarce resources, with the added objective of preserving and caring for the environment, is probably the greatest challenge facing our generation. Architecture can play a pivotal role by creating spaces that allow people to engage with each other in a collaborative manner and with nature and the surrounding environment. The project aims to be carbon neutral by making ample use of natural light and ventilation, as well as focusing on circular production processes applied to locally grown produce. Energy will be produced from a combination of solar panels and the recycling of food waste through an anaerobic process that generates methane-rich gas.
Jade Newman: The project aims to create a symbiotic relationship between people and the natural environment, through the act of meditation, providing further habitation for biodiversity to thrive and entwined with the future proofed human community. Dwellings, work opportunities as well as communal activities are provided, considering the people, planet and economy.
Liisa Murd: Witney Incubator is a new development for a community located in Witney by Ducklington Lake. It prides itself with sustainable outlook, design and application. The core values of the community are sharing spaces, growing food and focussing on mental and physical well-being.
Mitchell Legge: This project explores the architectural implications of sound and space when applied to a sustainable community. The purpose of this community is to research new worlds for the human race to move to and produce musical culture inspired by these unique environments.
Ekaterina Petkova: This project explores ideas of sustainability on different scales, building healthy communities at appropriate density in urban environments. The proposal consists of a proposal for a masterplan for an urban block in Witney that contains housing, community facilities and green spaces. It also contains a proposal for a mixed-use building, accommodating living units and community facilities. Principles of connection to nature and bringing people together in order to build stronger communities are some of the ideas guiding the project both on a masterplan and building level.
Olivia Anderson: A technical college of three crafts, pottery, beer making and cookery that revitalises Witney’s historic identity while putting sustainability at the forefront of its design.
Mitchell Legge: This project explores the architectural implications of sound and space when applied to a sustainable community. The purpose of this community is to research new worlds for the human race to move to and produce musical culture inspired by these unique environments.
Julia Faria: This project aims to capitalise on three key behavioural trends: (i) the need to be sustainable; (ii) the circular economy; and (iii) co-living. Sustainability through the efficient use of scarce resources, with the added objective of preserving and caring for the environment, is probably the greatest challenge facing our generation. Architecture can play a pivotal role by creating spaces that allow people to engage with each other in a collaborative manner and with nature and the surrounding environment. The project aims to be carbon neutral by making ample use of natural light and ventilation, as well as focusing on circular production processes applied to locally grown produce. Energy will be produced from a combination of solar panels and the recycling of food waste through an anaerobic process that generates methane-rich gas.
Sudharshini Thirupathirajan: BIO-URBANOID | biophilic . urban . koid - symbiotic living at the crawley mill industrial estate - The project envisions sustainable development of the community through biophilic design concepts promoting well-being to the user groups. Community based biophilic design concepts that enhance communal engagement, well-being, interaction and sensory experiences makes this project unique, adaptive and self-sustaining over generations. The community functions with opportunities to co-live and co-work with spaces that encourage and flourish the creative potential of the community, making it economically sustainable as well. The unity in the Architectural language of the blocks creates a sense of belonging to the users in diversified spaces whilst providing biophilic benefits.
Yusuf Aydin: The Project aims to highlight a life cycle of industrial heritage development in Crawley Mill Industrial Estate. Proposed development aims to regenerate decayed historically successful industrial site in more sustainable ways for like-minded creative collective.
Alexia Nomikou: The Dynamic School defines sustainable community living as a habitable space where students can curate their own form of education. The project focuses on theoretical principles of education that were formed between the Agrarian Revolution to the Industrial Revolution, and how those conditions influence educational architecture.
Venktesh Sriram: The project is a sustainable living community in the Town of Witney Oxfordshire. It aspires to be a circular community with a market as the central focus with the activities of cultivation, food processing, local crafts happening around it to be sold. The concepts of modularity, incrementality and biophilia are used in the builings thus making it a self sufficient symbiotic community.
Olivia Anderson: A technical college of three crafts, pottery, beer making and cookery that revitalises Witney’s historic identity while putting sustainability at the forefront of its design.
Yusuf Aydin: The Project aims to highlight a life cycle of industrial heritage development in Crawley Mill Industrial Estate. Proposed development aims to regenerate decayed historically successful industrial site in more sustainable ways for like-minded creative collective.
Sudharshini Thirupathirajan: BIO-URBANOID | biophilic . urban . koid - symbiotic living at the crawley mill industrial estate. The project envisions sustainable development of the community through biophilic design concepts promoting well-being to the user groups. Community based biophilic design concepts that enhance communal engagement, well-being, interaction and sensory experiences makes this project unique, adaptive and self-sustaining over generations. The community functions with opportunities to co-live and co-work with spaces that encourage and flourish the creative potential of the community, making it economically sustainable as well. The unity in the Architectural language of the blocks creates a sense of belonging to the users in diversified spaces whilst providing biophilic benefits.