The ecological question is symptomatic of our time and a multi-disciplinary problem. The material manipulations produced by the architectural and urban design disciplines interfere with essential ecosystemic processes by introducing disruptive materialities and machinery. This work aimed to participate in shaping a solid foundation for the discursive and constructive nature of the practice.
After preliminary definitions, this essay investigates the fundamental ecological dysfunctions caused by the current urban and architectural design model and the construction industry. This preliminary part exposes the leading causes in terms of design semiotics, urban architecture and materiality.
At the urban scale, I then introduce an elementary framework intended for the urban developers, designers and authorities. I propose to establish the 'universal commons', such as air, water and soil, as the elementary infrastructure of the sustainable urban condition and implement, develop and protect them as such.
The final part is dedicated to architectural interventions and develops the previously established principles through the two scales of the site: local and remote.
My research focused on the soil condition, and the design showcases a possible application in terms of urban infrastructure, construction techniques, materiality and architectural principles, to the location of Three Mills Island, in the Lea Valley of London, UK. ... Read more

Three decades after the reunification of Germany, the History of a nation standing on the cutting line of a binary world continues to unfold and reveal its complexities. Today, many traits underlying two opposing ideologies persist in reminding the time when East and West Germany followed different paths. The condition of women is one of those. GDR’s socialist politics put the nation in a pioneering position in the way towards gender equality and women’s independency, particularly in their relation to work . In the context of cold war, visual arts played a prominent role in the construction and spreading of ideologies. From US Comics to Socialist Realism, artists participated in shaping the narrative of a binary world. German Democratic Republic, as a young nation part of the soviet bloc, was no exception. The reconstruction of East Germany was done under the light of artworks spreading the vision of the socialist ideal. Surfing on the thin line between pure Art and propaganda, countless creations, such as the notorious Unser Sandmännchen [Our Sandman] , influenced the way East German society pictured itself and envisioned the future. Given those two simple observations, it is worth wondering how GDR progressive politics regarding women’s condition reverberated in the artistic sphere, a key-element in the shaping of East German society. To this end, this article will be mainly investigating a unique data set. On the occasion of the ninth National Art Exhibition of the GDR, held in 1982, artists willing to participate were required to fill a standardized application form. This collection almost 3000 forms constitutes a sample of comparable primary data. The research will be based on the analysis of this data, the goal being to extract geographical, temporal, political, and social data, with a focus on gender distribution. As an authoritarian government adept of propaganda, the SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands [Social Unity Party of Germany]) inevitably throws a veil of uncertainty on internal social and political studies, for the eye of the researcher . The examination of raw data will allow to outline tendencies, without having to deal with state influenced studies. This will hopefully help to achieve a higher degree of trust in the depiction of basic trends in the artistic community in the GDR. Using observation and data analysis as the driver of this research, the goal is as well to develop a contextual theory on how to deal with this data, as well as how to build reliable knowledge and investigation methodology from it. ... Read more