Stage 1 Coordinators: Professor Gerald Adler and Howard Griffin
2021 saw a return to full face-to-face teaching, following the series of COVID-19 lockdowns. The Stage One team were keen to eliminate any possibility of an online learning hangover and fully embraced the use of our various teaching spaces, such as studios, large halls, darkrooms, and new computer labs. To this end, students experienced a multi-sensory event in Week 1, recording the many spatial experiences of the (roller-skating) body, setting the theme for the year’s work in Folio. Using these corporeal-spatial experiences, our Stage-Oners developed their understanding of ergonomics, and their skills in drawing, drafting, modelling using both analogue and digital methods, underpinning the design module work.
Form Finding
The autumn term module introduced students to the idea of the design project, and was structured around a series of words with an associated design exercise. Scale dealt with perhaps the most basic architectural concept, followed by step. Here, the project was to design a tower set on campus, with a view down to Canterbury Cathedral. The aim was twofold: to learn the basics of changing level, and to respond to changing views, as the human body changes its height and orientation as it ascends a tower. At the mid-term break students had to design – and make – a carapace or covering – a gown - over their own body (a joint exercise with the Folio module). This fed into the final project, Gown in Town, that sought creative ways for a group of students to inhabit a narrow infill site in Canterbury city centre. This was the students’ first foray out of the campus, to be followed by a journey to the sea at the start of the spring term.
Building Design
The design module in spring term was based in Ramsgate. A dramatic site was sourced at the foot of the cliff, for a building (‘Coracles and Clunch’) to house the local Sea Scouts, and to house a small maritime museum. The site was located close to where the Stage Three students’ design projects were based, and so we managed to establish a strong KSAP understanding of this fascinating and richly varied seaside and harbour town in Kent. We are grateful to Del Renzio & Del Renzio architects in Ramsgate for assisting with the site selection and brief writing.
List of Stage 1 tutors
Simon Barker, Anske Bax, Colin Cresser, Giacomo Damiani, Howard Griffin, Wayne Head, Rebecca Hobbs, Shaun Huddleston, Nikolaos Karydis, Bernardo Lopes, Victoria Lourenco, Andy Macfee, Patrick O’Keefe, Iliona Outram Khalili, Tim Meacham, Edward Pryke, Fiona Raley, Jef Smith, Kevin Smith, Hooman Talebi, Richard Watkins, Ron Yee, and Chloe Young.