Cities are increasingly challenged by rapid urbanisation and resource scarcity exacerbated by the obsolescence of the buildings composing them. Civic buildings are particularly sensitive to uncertainty and disruptors, which underscores the necessity to enhance adaptability in these structures, exemplified by transit hubs. The research employs a design-driven approach to investigate how trains stations can evolve over time, concentrating on the concepts of learning framework illustrated by the participatory method offered by the movements and lack thereof within and around train stations. This investigation demonstrates how these structures live or atrophy through time, and rests on the investigation of porosity as a key factor enabling their capacity to adapt to shifting urban demands. By analysing case studies and utilising computational methods, this research aims to optimise the design of transit hubs, enhancing their resilience and integration into the urban fabric. Ultimately, the research envisions buildings as active participants, capable of learning and evolving through stakeholder engagement and experimental design processes.

As the world population continues to grow,1 cities face unprecedented challenges in accommodating their spatial needs in a context of climate and social crisis. Recognising that urban areas are complex networks of buildings, services and infrastructures that evolve over time,2 plagued by obsolescence, there is a growing interest in adaptability in both academic and professional discourse. Yet, the link between spatial adaptability in architecture and urban sprawl impacting city liveability remains unclear, as the predominant focus remains on component reuse rather than addressing obsolescence holistically within the urban realm. […]

AI in architectural visualization is in its infancy; TU Delft’s AI lab course teaches architects promising AI methodologies, an account.

Illustrator of the cartography of the map shown on page xxx and author of the illustration pages.

Bocksberger, Sophie Marianne, 'Telamonian Ajax: The Myth in Archaic and Classical Greece' (Oxford, 2022; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Jan. 2022).

Within our proposed theme: ‘Cultivating Possibilities’ and by using ‘live’ projects, Studio 4 went through a journey of observing, mapping, making and testing to create responsive architectural proposals. All are meant to explore the possibility of empowering communities and stitch their fragmented spaces.

The challenging nature of the context calls for an alternative design approach; one, which is critical and responsive to the socio/political and cultural conditions. Oscillating between ‘Cutting’ and ‘Breathing’ student tried to re-read the surface and re-draw it adding the missing layers below, above and in-between. The projects vary with speculative and pragmatic nature, all however, tried to bring forward the voice of the ordinary people, while celebrating the informal and their daily life. Consequently, notions such as invisibility and subversion were used to inform the projects. These include Guerrilla Seeding, Birds’ Living Room, Textile Farm, Digital Archive and Women’s Heaven amongst many other themes.

The key themes of the urban design studio revolve around master planning complex urban sites, in the context of real planning, economic, environmental, social and ecological issues. The theme for the studio this year has been the revitalisation and rendering as coherent, an edge of centre site of some 50 hectares in the west of Oxford City. The sub issues have been to do with creating a believable, and buildable place that is well connected and integrated into its historic and not so historic physical location. It takes on board the ambitions of the local authority to create a vibrant and mixed use, forward looking urban quarter with a distinctive and attractive identity.