Studio 14 Brief: Real Time.
Real-Time…
This year Studio 14 will be thinking about architecture and the nature time – today, in a time compressed and highly mediated world of instant communication, we will question the value of ‘real time’.
It is our understanding that time is a continual irreversible progression of existence – from past, to present, to future. But our perception of time is not necessarily objective, or consistent with the idea of time as regulated by clock and calendar. There is the cyclical nature of time, while we may sense that in certain situations, building, spaces, or places there are connections between present and past; that time may be variable, or may even become timeless. Memory and imagination may therefore allow other times to co-exist, in real time.
We will to set out to explore ways in which architecture marks, records, informs, and potentially transforms our experience of time; and will locate this investigation in the City of London, at its edge in the vicinity of Fleet Street, in an area centred on Sir Christopher Wren’s St Brides Church. These are the banks of what was once the Fleet River, now lost, with a long at times dark history stretching back beyond the Roman occupation of England. Once the place of news, newspaper publication and printing; it is now dominated by the sterile vacuum that is banking.
Yet there remains hidden a community of workers, regular visitors, residents, and rough sleepers, each with differing or overlapping patterns of purpose and time of occupation. Also remaining are strands of activity related to writing, printing, performance, drama, film, and music; analogue practices with that concern time in the processes of their creation, realisation, and appreciation. It is thought that the enhanced presence of such activities might be a way of returning authenticity and vibrancy to a hollow city.
This year our project is more open-ended and is thought to offer different imaginative possibilities. As a sequence our activities will evolve from performer, informer, reformer to transformer! There will be four excursions to London. We also plan provisionally to undertake a study visit, in November or January, to either to Venice, Helsinki, or Berlin. The actual destination of the visit will be determined through discussion with the group.
In London we will begin on the south side of the River Thames with a visit to the ‘The Clock’ by artist Christian Marclay, currently on show at Tate Modern.
Studio
Studio 14 aspires to develop relevant imaginative thought provoking approaches to architecture. Our work centres interdisciplinary creative ways of working, inspired by art and the natural environment. We like to work in an intuitive, insightful experimental way, open to ideas and directions. There is no studio style for fixed approach. We enjoy diversity in approach and outcome.
However, our work demands that architecture is understood and fully appreciated as a discipline. As with any discipline it requires study, practice, time, and work. There is no short cut to this. It is particularly vital that you develop skills in communication through drawing, model making, image and writing.
You
We like students who reliably ‘turn up’ – with ideas, energy, enthusiasm, and a genuine interest in learning. We are interested in what each individual might bring to the studio, in terms of – interests, experience, culture, politics, opinions, dreams, thoughts, and imagination? However, please note that this is not a studio for the lazy, or disinterested. Yet if you’re a freethinker, outsider, maverick, or a quiet daydreamer, this could be for you. Provided that you are persistent and passionate in your work.
Our aim is to set up a great learning experience. We think it should be enjoyable; there is no point otherwise.
We look forward to meeting you.
Studio 14
Collaborators
Stephen Ryan
Asta Sabaliauskaite
Jack Wates – https://www.jackwates.com/jack/
Ian MacKay