110316 – Dimensions – UCL, London

It has been decades since I sat in front of acres of complex drawings and been expected to say something constructive at the end of a students short synopsis. Diploma level architecture at UCL has always been heavy duty and it has not let up either in its ambitions or its production. The site for the Unit’s work was Marseille – yes, all of it, the sub plot was the Internet – yes, that infinite space. The simplified version of the brief was how aspects of the virtual world could affect Marseilles’ urban fabric. The student’s task was to represent this architecturally and there you have the dilemma. Architecture hasn’t the vocabulary to deal with multiple simultaneous spaces, time shifts, scale less locations, compressed distance, instant subject or culture transition, varying perspective, reversal, fact/fiction parallels, metamorphosis, distortion, warping, etc. When attempted once solidified into the language of architecture these meanings lose all potency. There is no shortage of intellect at UCL and the bright and prolific struggle on and some will get very close to a solution. A wonderful way to spend an afternoon and evening surrounded by the disrupters of tomorrow. 

The Surrogate Twin