MArch Studio Fall 2024, University of Hong Kong
Teachers: Joshua Bolchover (with Kent Mundle and Jersey Poon)
Architects typically operate as service providers, providing design and construction co-ordination of buildings for clients. This is emulated in the teaching of architectural design studios where students are asked to fulfil the requirements of a design brief, where constraints and deliverables are specified, thereby mirroring and perpetuating the idea of service. Can there be an alternative model for making architecture that is not dependent on a singular client, a prescribed brief, or is financed based on delivering a service?
The aim of this studio is to investigate the potential to shift the agency of the architect from a service provider to an impact entrepreneur. This means changing how we finance our projects and how we can be paid differently. It means taking control of what we do by innovating new prototypes, locating sites of intervention, finding collaborators, and pitching to investors. The studio is conceived as a start-up, pioneering creative solutions for emergent issues, and creating business models and compelling arguments for why they should be funded and built.
The studio will focus on Civic Ecologies – the vital public functions that are fundamental to the future development of these sites.