This studio consisted of 2 exercises:
The first starts with a personal exploration of an Urban Alleyway – A Zaroub in Beirut. The nature of the Alleyway as a transient place was questioned and represented as a sequence of moments. The exercise aimed at providing a different reading of the Alleyway focused on the notion of threshold. The students then picked a particular moment along the passageway and designed a mechanical object inscribed within a 2x2x2m cube reflecting a transformation or a change from an initial state to another. The final outcome of the exercise is a translation of the threshold into a new alleyway. The models and drawings of the project were developed at scale 1/50.
In the second exercise, the students reflected on the outcomes of the previous exploration and designed a dwelling for a particular user siting on a site described as an edge between the city and the sea. The students first proposed 3 significant moments tailored for their client through a series of iterations at scale 1/50. They have then combined their 3 moments into a final project developed at scale 1/20.
This studio emphasizes design as a process of thinking rather than a final outcome. It aims at developing personal working methods and encourages learning by making.