URBAN DESIGN: BROADENING THE ARCHITECTURAL MIND.
A BRIEF SELF-INTRODUCTION.
Hello dear readers! My name is Adel Wahab and I am a final year post-graduate student enrolled in the M.Arch degree programme here at Newcastle University. I am an international student from the tiny tropical country of Singapore, but Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been my home away from home for about five years now – having completed my B.Arch (honours) degree programme and a yearlong work experience right here in the toon.
I first began my journey into the field of architecture right after my ‘O’ level examinations and since then I have not looked back, fully immersing myself in the subject (educationally and professionally) for almost 10 years now. It has been a long and challenging path, but a worthy one that I am grateful for, nonetheless. Initially beginning as a naïve student with general interest and knowledge in the subject, I have now developed a strong and ever-growing passion for architectural design, thinking, and making, and for other realms of design as well. I am especially intrigued by the analogue as an architectural process and enjoy expressing my ideas through methods such as cultivating a comprehensive working sketchbook and iterative model-making. As I near the end of my formal education in architecture, I hope to one day be able to pursue the kinds of architecture that I am interested in – of work processes and representation; modes of production and built form; use and bodily experience, and to express an architecture that cares.
AN ENDEAVOUR INTO URBAN DESIGN.
As an architecture student of many years, I have come to observe that the discipline, whether in an educational or professional setting, greatly prioritises built-form as its main concern. While this is in the nature of architecture – to create built-form, the imaginations of a project are more often than not confined to its perimeters. There is less attention paid beyond its immediate self, and even less so further beyond its site’s boundaries. Each architectural project ends up sitting in abstraction of each other through a tunnel vision of prettification and commodification. However, all projects ultimately form a collective that makes up the built environment, and this happens whether it cares to or not. Consequently, the realistic challenge of the in-between arises – what of the realm where people move from place to place; what of the realm where they encounter each other; what of the life that happens outside buildings? Surely this realm should not just exist as a left-over consequence of architecture and planning. I have developed an interest in the citizen and the city, and the possibilities that exist beyond the built-form and the confines of its site. Through this module, I hope to broaden my design perspective and intellectual resources by exposure to various urban design projects and alternative ways of thinking, ultimately forming a toolset that will help me to consider a wider context in the production of space with greater consideration for users and their experiences.
