Scratching the Surface, Getting Under the Skin

How does the project address the Liveness Charter aims?

Co-production

Though this is a relatively short project, by working with organisations over several years, a dialogue is established and project spaces can be chosen to benefit the long terms needs of the organisations, as well as providing innovative learning opportunities for students.

Sustainable

The project embeds the principle of understanding the built fabric and narratives of their studied spaces and encourages students to develop methods of analysing and communicating the qualities of the existing building. It begins to suggest a design approach that demands a sensitivity to the existing context and its potential adaptations.

Experimental

Through long standing and short term partnerships with local community organisations, students explore a variety of spaces around the city. Participating venues introduce their buildings and organisations to the students, who then work in groups to survey individual spaces agreed with the venue and produce detailed orthographic drawings. 

The sharing of these drawings and representations of space is important in fostering a reciprocal relationship. For some venues, students have been able to collate drawings over a series of years, to create repository of drawings that the organisations can use as the basis for building projects, funding proposals, grant applications and exhibitions. 

Meaningful

Students work in groups to explore and survey a space in the city that most have only just arrived in, and confronts preconceived notions of architectural representation. Group work from an early stage, challenges the idea of the architect working in isolation, and promotes a culture of collaborative practice.