Environmental Architecture (MA)
Introduction
The MA Environmental Architecture is at the forefront of a new era of design research concerned with exploring alternative forms of co-dependence between life forms and earth systems. In a world facing climate collapse and accelerating resource extraction, we prioritise engagement with communities on the frontlines of environmental struggles to co-develop transformative approaches to environmental and climate justice.
The MA EA is organised around multi-year research studios. In 2023/24 we launched RS6 ‘Saharan Becomings’, an investigation into the ways in which the diverse peoples of the Sahara are coming together in resistance to the desert’s ongoing colonial exploitation. In parallel, we continued RS3 ‘Alentejo Research Unit / Liquid Deserts’, now in its third year, investigating the environmental impact of monoculture in southern Europe, and RS4 ‘Anemoi: Transforming property, livelihoods and aesthetics’, now in its second year, exploring how wind can be a catalyst for architectural innovation.
Together with the theoretical and conceptual influences of our seminar and roundtable units ‘Metabolic Rifts’ and ‘Critical Future Scenarios’, we are always looking to explore new collective frameworks for environmental thinking and practice.
Each year I am privileged to witness this amazing collective process through which students develop unique ethical-aesthetic modes of architectural engagement. And so it is with immense admiration for the intelligence, creativity and care on display that I invite you to engage with our students’ designs and ideas, for they are truly ‘building a world where many worlds fit’.
Photograph credit – Gabriella Demczuk
