We are living in a time of profound metabolic overstretch — of consuming energy from millions of years ago while creating seemingly endless new architectures, objects, hyperobjects, cityscapes and datascapes. In this era of epic resource-extraction, mass crises and accelerationist transformation – ecological and cultural – what we preserve, discard and create reveals our values and determines what survives.
‘No ideas but in things’
William Carlos Williams
How can we, as architects of the future (in all senses), become dextrous in response to this paradox of simultaneous extinction and overproduction?
It is Unit 20’s assertion that conservation and preservation are radical acts. Through conservation and preservation, we decide not only what gets taken forward but also what is allowed to die.
In 2008, UNESCO established its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which seeks to safeguard treasures of the humankind world. Living traditions, cultural practices, and ephemeral moments are being given recognition and protection alongside the tangible. What can we borrow from this ethos? What if buildings, objects and artefects are, like bodies, not static monuments but living entities, capable of renewal and re-imagination?
‘This year, we navigate conservation and preservation through the widest scale of heritage — from the tangible to the intangible, from world geoparks to living traditions, from skyscrapers to fragile ecosystems. We challenge ourselves to think beyond the object, to understand the animate systems we are part of – to make room for and to sustain the lives by which we’re surrounded.
David Hemingway and Jake Moulson
The MArch Architecture is a two-year full-time or three-year part-time programme offering exemption from ARB/RIBA Part 2. It combines rigorous professional training with creative and speculative design exploration. In the first year, students join a themed design unit to undertake a creative building design project combined with a technical and professional report. In the second year, students pursue a comprehensive speculative architectural design project, and an in-depth theoretical thesis tailored to their personal interest. The programme fosters independent thinking, innovation, theoretical and technical excellence, preparing graduates for advanced architectural practice and ongoing professional development in a dynamic global context.
See further details on our prospectus page.
