Design Studio 01

Rewilding Centre

Anuar Zahin

Anuar (Odeng) pursued an ambition to generate architecture which induces happiness.  His proposal picks up on George Monbiots theories for rewilding the UK environment.  The project includes an animal hospital.  It is situated in an Oxford scrap yard close to the Thames.

A Journey of Displacement

Adnan Fakhouri

Adnan created a complex project derived from the Accommodating Refugees ‘disruption’ and combining it with an insight derived from his own experience coming from Syria.  His proposal creates an architecture which illustrates how ‘newcomers’ are a positive asset to the hosting nation. 

 Woodland City

Ben Chaney

Ben derived his project from a personal interest in woodland environments, proposing that the city can be reconfigured as an inhabited woodland.  Semester one disruptions were used to test his hypothesis which he put into practice by planting over 1,000 trees this year.

Sky Network

Hariish Kumar Thiagaraja

Hariish, recognising how existing infrastructure is obstructive, developed a new layer of vehicle free track above the existing city, connecting its parklands and nature reserves.  It then doubles as a computer game playground by the superimposition of an augmented virtual reality.

Cirquefest

Haseeb Chudri

Haseeb picked up on the Festival Fortnight ‘disruption’.  Derived from Cedric Price’s fun palace, only on a far larger scale, it is reminiscent of club culture and pop festivals.  His proposal is in start opposition to the drab conservatism so prevalent in Oxford.

Nature Nurtures

HuiWen Toh

HuiWen proposes an environment which connects nature and architecture through a new typology by fusion of both these opposites.  It weaves across the landscape into buildings and creates a strong sense of place which accommodates diverse social activities. 

LAB City

Irenee Fan

Irenee’s project is a celebration of renewable energy, an idea which is manifest as both machine and architecture, yet with strong allusions to a botanical garden.  The project also discretely provides facilities for the homeless who inhabit riverside territory in Oxford.

ORCA

Jack Too

Jack proposes a fascinating project which is designed to transform with the rising of global sea levels.  It is a seed bank and university college which serves as a climate change warning It also speculates about what it might be like to inhabit Oxford-by-the-Sea.  

Routes to Restoration

Katie de Silva

Katie pursued an interest in the fusion of arboriculture and architecture which results in a proposal for the Oxford Citizens Assembly, doubling as educational facilities for children.  It bridges the river Cherwell reaching towards the Oxford botanical gardens and is constructed entirely from timber.

Soil Petri Dish

Lee Ming Yin Mindy

Mindy’s obsession is the health of soil.  Her research centre steps lightly over the landscape with shear walls constructed of rammed earth.  A reed bed filter pond forms the central space within her proposal which is sited in a nature reserve.

Stella Turris

Merrick Baltruschat

Merrick proposes to reduce light pollution in Oxford and having achieved this he exploits darkness by the creation of a new urban observatory adjacent to the original 18th century Radcliffe Observatory. The proposal includes elderly in residence who educate the public about the universe to overcome loneliness.

ANOTHER WONDER The Extended Allotment PARTY

Najwa Harzani

Najwa initial interest was in the city providing more of its own produce.  She proposes a regeneration of Wonderland with a seed bank and allotment support facility connected to a local school.  The form of the TEA Party theme, not unlike toppled crockery, is both delightful and playful.

Zero Carbon

Roberto Lozano Bernabeu

Roberto is passionate about the relationship between health and nature and seeks to propose a light touch herbarium which will offer organic herbal and homeopathic remedies.  The project will also provide an environment conducive learning about mediation.

Rendezvous

Shayne Quiseo

Shayne proposes to make the public realm a more sociable space by the provision of dance facilities at a high-profile junction of three city roads.  Traffic reduction is part of her proposal as is the ability of the project to generate electricity through piezo dance surfaces.

The Compound

Siti Nadiah Zainurin

Nadia has rethought the food distribution and retail activity and proposes a progressive alternative to the supermarket on a site currently occupied by Tesco and its associated car park.  The proposal also provides restaurant and student accommodation on the upper floors.