Daria Szmucer

About

Daria is a spatial designer and researcher with an MA in Architecture. Her work focuses on the impact of the built environment on nature and the evolving relationship between people and nature, shaped through practices like agriculture and construction.

Her second-year project in ADS3 focused on reimagining the disappearing Almonte Marismas Aquifer in the south of Spain, affected by over 40 years of commercial strawberry farming and climate change. By turning the characteristics of aquifers and water into architectural language, she explored the imitative potential of architecture as a medium connecting the overground with the hidden and forgotten underground world. Her proposal redefined the water cycle by creating a dialogue between the aquifer, stones, and plants to design spaces that allow for living with aquifers while replenishing them.

In her first year at the RCA in ADS3, Daria explored the potential of architecture as a thinking device connecting science (nature) with emotions (culture) by designing a space for disciplines representing conflicting interests and values. She used decay, weathering, and collapsing structures as a design intention to regenerate the ecosystem, critiquing the common perception of decay as a negative process, particularly in relation to the waste produced by the food and construction industries.

Daria has a multidisciplinary approach to her work, combining research, architecture, landscape, and urban design. She uses detailed illustrations to explore and capture design interventions and unique elements of environments at various scales. Prior to starting her master’s, she spent two years working at RCKa, a London-based architecture company focused on designing socially conscious and inclusive architecture.