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About the Unit

The 'Architecture as Urban Catalyst' studio is a research-led design studio that, during the academic year 2010-2011, will focus on two different contexts and sets of problematiques centred around the themes of public bathing and health in the city.

The studio will be informed by two research projects: one funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council in the UK, the other one by the EU under the Euro Med Heritage IV programme under the name of Hammamed. It will be also informed by the ongoing development of the Victoria Baths in Manchester and a close work with the local stakeholders.

Analysing two different geographic, cultural and urban contexts, the World Heritage City of Fez in Morocco and Manchester in the UK, the studio will investigate the potentially catalysing role of public bathing in both historic and contemporary urban contexts, undergoing processes of urban regeneration.

This studio will challenge views that buildings are free-standing objects of art by addressing a broad set of architectural questions related to the (urban) context - tangible and intangible heritage, cultural and social capital, regeneration, new types of populations (European expatriates in Fez, and a cosmopolitan population in Manchester). When questioning whether bathing facilities can form an urban catalyst, this studio lifts architectural problematiques beyond the mere practice of building, and aims to come to a critical understanding of the role of (architectural) design and spatial interventions in contemporary and historic urban contexts.

As such, this unit will address questions, including: how to treat cultural heritage, such as historic bathing infrastructures, with respect, yet without being afraid of the new? How to re-insert and rehabilitate such infrastructures in contemporary urban contexts? Can they become a catalyst for local and wider communities? If so, should one build for the cosmopolitan creative class alone; and should one not also be wary of too naïve expectations vis-à-vis social cohesion and community? Questions that relate specifically to bathing traditions and bathing infrastructures will be addressed in the context of sustainable practices for the 21st Century through the careful consideration of technical issues related to heating and energy saving, water consumption and recycling, and eco-labelling.

Projects during 2010/11

This studio will propose scenarios for the sustainable redevelopment of a hammam (public bath) in Fez (Morocco) and the Victoria Baths in Manchester. It will also propose a programme of new interventions based on the analyses carried out in the two urban and geographic contexts.

The first semester - 'INPUT/output' – will centre on the thorough understanding of the two proposed contexts, bathing histories and cultures, current challenges and potentials for contemporary bathing facilities. This research-led semester includes field trips to Fez and the Manchester Victoria Baths. The project will consist of three assignments: a mapping exercise of the two contexts, seen in the broadest sense (geographical, cultural, historical, morphological), a research on bathing practices (historical and contemporary) and a scenario development with a small scale design intervention.

The second semester – 'input/OUTPUT' – will centre on the development of a proposal for both contexts dealing with the historic structures and the careful insertion of a new intervention, which will be defined at the end of the first semester.