Last Exit To Block X

Subject: A de-territorialised city made of autonomous blocks along an urban transportation line, where each block constitutes a political society, independent from the others, with its own government, laws and customs. Issue: Each student will develop one block and one building within a block. Collectively the unit will work as a team on the overall masterplan and programme. The projects will be designed in relation to the political, social and architectural fiction written by the students.

Writing of a Political, Social and Architectural Fiction

Term 1: Concept/Urban Scale – Time 01: City Zero Determine a moral/amoral/non moral statement; design an artefact, a flag and a pavilion; place along a route – Time 02: Block Zero Determine the urban rules; Programme adaptation (100,000m2); Schematic design – Study trip to Los Angeles, CA and the US desert

Term 2: Design/Building Scale – Time 03: Power Zero-One Mutate the artefact into the place and symbol; Architectural development in relation to: Time 01 statement, Time 02 urban rules, schematic design and the chosen site – Time 04: Block One Re-integration of a building into the block’s core; Global development and design; Technical studies; Finalisation

Unit Book

Term 3: Unit Scale – Time 05: City Onep Blocks assembling/sections (exquisite corpse); Harmonisation of graphic documents; Models and catalogue

The overall agenda of the unit will be to design a fictional city composed of autonomous blocks. Similar to Neal Stephenson’s city-states, the blocks will be designed upon fictions written by the students of which the city will be the collection.

Unit Staff

Didier Faustino is an architect by education and explores the relationships between architecture and the arts, between body and space. His approach is multifaceted, from artistic installations to experimentation, from subversive visual artworks to spaces designed as a tool for exacerbating our senses and sharpening our awareness of reality.

Kostas Grigoriadis studied architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL followed by a Master’s at the AA’s Design Research Laboratory. After winning an international competition he is currently co-designing a large-scale mixed-use development in Delhi and is pursuing a PhD in Architecture at the Royal College of Art in London.