DS6 : Prototypes for future cities:

Resilient Interfaces 2050

OxfordDS6 investigates future cities, assessing real world problems, considering the longer-term impact of our industry, and creating projects that challenge existing conditions in dense urban centres. We look at existing conditions and challenge assumptions. Our vision is to discuss agendas that aim to define new urban morphologies for future demographics, considering the world’s global ambitions for 2050.

The integration of human behaviour and experience in dense, urban conditions together with increasing demands on building performance requires an understanding of complexity and resolution of multiple criteria in built form whilst considering the ever-changing processes and systems of our industry.

Architects become choreographers of various relationships between stakeholders, interfaces for the materialisation of complex combinations of ideas. Buildings were always interfaces between public and private, form and function, people and processes, but they are also in the process of becoming interfaces between our physical and digital worlds.

Our “Resilient Interfaces” agenda will look at real-world conditions on major development sites, at different stages of evolution, to project our visions of truly resilient hubs for 2050.

Jon Tollit & Denis Vlieghe.
Technology: Yuting Cheng, Marwa Altai, Cristina Garza Lasierra.
MPL: Dagmar Binsted.
Tingyu Lin, Yiping Tao, Lalitha Subramanian, Nasios Makride, Rava Hassan, Melissa Or, Oliver Summersell, Hadi Pirmohamed, Dafanie Lee, Madhura Ramanathan, Zoe Lam, Andrew Kazaryan, Anastasia Valanidou, Quentin Rong

Andranik Kazaryan - KX Dual Reality Hub - In the future of scenario of London 2050 where the “Gaming” industry outweighs all other types of entertainment industries as we can see how the early evolving industry already overshadows film and music, the new type of space that invigorates the area that is currently acting as a boundary between the King’s Cross redevelopment area and all the other area to the north of it and instead connects & develops them. The building will facilitate private spaces for starting film and VFX businesses on the ground floor and above it would host concerts and large gaming tournaments.

Shuk Yin Lam - The Link - Water Park - The Link is to create a community hub and activate the neglected reservoir and rivers as an activity hub in the residential-led regeneration area, Meridian Water in 2050. In the future planning, Meridian Water will become a more densely populated area in London. The project aims to create inclusive facilities to enhance health and wellbeing of the communities.

Tingyu Lin - Odour Cartographer: Silvertown Foodclub as Variant Mechanism - Silvertown, once operated as a highly industrialised area in the Royal Dockland, having a rich history of the olfaction filled with malodorous air brought by factories.
Thi — Tingyu Lin - Odour Cartographer: Silvertown Foodclub as Variant Mechanism - Silvertown, once operated as a highly industrialised area in the Royal Dockland, having a rich history of the olfaction filled with malodorous air brought by factories. This project aims to generate new positive scentscape consisting of multiple odours from in-site food production. In order to control the smell movement and scent intensity, the passive design is manipulated with the hybrid system of natural ventilation, buoyancy and stake effect in regards to NZEB by 2050. Through interweaving this odorium food club with new activities and community, by 2050 it could illustrate a cartograph premised on the microcosm of smells and tastes.

Madhura Ramanathan - Creative Ecosystems - The Project is a mixed-use community that focuses on the concept of integration. The community aims to be a unique design by cascading the different typologies i.e., work+ creation, living+ leisure and socialization within the same building. • WORKSPACES- Collaboration of its users. The workspace facilitates diverse programs and promotes connection by accommodating and adapting for its users. • LIVING + LEISURE - Redefining the work- life balance. The focus is to shift towards enjoying life. Users are encouraged to connect, collaborate, and integrate with each other to create meaningful relationships. • SOCIALIZATION - Dependency on meaningful relationships The project envisions creating successful connections and to be a part of a thriving community which encourages aspects of the social lifestyle. The concept of integration and layering of the spaces is the response to creating an adaptable design that caters to the needs of its diverse users while being resilient to the future challenges.

Nasios Makrides - Steps Secondary School – S.T.E.A.M.E Learning Education System - My design studio project, studied the problems Camden Borough faces with regards to its education system, with secondary school students as a target group. Following this, I have proposed a Specialising Secondary School that follows the National Curriculum, and uses the STEAME Disciplines applied through project-based learning method. Flexible learning environments, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, interactive whiteboards, etc. All these changes lead us to the bright 2050 future with a progressive flexibility to reach it, where CO2 emissions will be zero, and learning will express itself as an 'Education 4.0 System' or who knows “Education 5.0”.

Hadi Aaseem Pirmohamed - Community Divide - With the introduction of the Meridian Water (MW) masterplan by Enfield Council, an invisible inequality line is formed due to the demographic gap between Upper Edmonton and MW.
The solution is to create a — Hadi Aaseem Pirmohamed - Community Divide - With the introduction of the Meridian Water (MW) masterplan by Enfield Council, an invisible inequality line is formed due to the demographic gap between Upper Edmonton and MW. The solution is to create an educational facility with desirable short courses to educate the community in high value employability skills, a business centre where entrepreneurs have access to communal working spaces and meeting rooms for collaboration, and a sports centre promoting social activities helping create a wider community spirit. Connection is a recuring theme, therefore is explored by connecting the proposal with its surroundings and creating spaces for users to connect.

Lalitha Subramanian - Interwoven by Meridian - The project, “Interwoven by Meridian”, based in the London Borough of Enfield, aims to fashion a creative enterprise that educates and employs the residents of Meridian Water, considering art as a growing factor of the region. Meridian Water is seen as an emerging region that is estimated to attract several visitors. It also comprises of several abandoned regions and materials that have been disposed all around the site. The aim of this project is to interweave these abandoned materials and utilise them to recreate art and provide them back to the region in several forms of art.

Melissa Or - Reimagining Millennium Mills – How can a derelict building enrich a future community? - The Millennium Mills is a derelict industrial building in Silvertown. This project reimagines this Complex as a beacon landmark that embodies the past, present and future of the Royal Docks area. Through the analysis of the socio-economic context of Newham and the existing conditions of the building, the new Millennium Mills provides 4 sectors of spaces – Cultural and Heritage, Work, Community, and Commercial – to not only attract visitors to the area but also to galvanize the community of old and new.

Oliver Summersell - The Camley Street Food Quarter - The Camley Street Food Quarter was established to address food insecurity in Camden. The Food Quarter will collaborate with the existing Health & Knowledge Quarters at Kings Cross to improve local well-being by tackling food insecurity. The redevelopment includes a crop resilience research and exhibition centre and a vertical farm retrofitted into the sites disused railway arches. Visitors can learn about vertical farming technologies, access fresh produce and explore green spaces. The project is connected to the Camden Highline, a new linear park running along a stretch of disused railway between Kings Cross and Camden.

Rava Hassan - Camden Tech & Knowledge Hub - My project is based in the Camden borough of London specifically near the Kings Cross redevelopment area. My proposal consists of a teaching and working space for art, textile and architecture students from universities across London. A space which allows for locals to also engage with the site, gain experience and develop on their skills to make them more employable. The collaboration between students from different universities across different areas coming together and using a space simultaneously as locals, to give back to the community.

DS6 : Prototypes for future cities:

Resilient Interfaces 2050

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