Architecture and Generosity - Civic
Models by Year 3 student William Quaile
In the academic year 2016/2017 Zoë Berman co-tutored Unit 7 that explored the theme ‘Architecure and Generosity’. Students developed proposals to house and represent activities of communality, reciprocal care and giving.
Squeezed by budget pressures and vying priorities local authorities in the UK are struggling to support their communities. Contemporary civic architecture is barely good enough, and at times downright abysmal. We set out to turn this on its head, proposing a generous kind of architecture – one that produces spaces that are enjoyable, beautiful and accommodating, and express generosity to the citizens of the city.
We worked on a tight urban on the eastern bank of the River Taff in Cardiff, Wales. In the current developer-driven climate such a site is ripe for construction of riverside ‘luxury’ flats. Our unit challenged this trend with alternative proposals, instead developing ideas for a building or series of buildings that would host socially beneficial and not-for-profit activities. We set out to challenge conventional ideas of value – pitching economic value against civic value.
