MSA Stage 5 Degree Show - The Final Design Thesis and the Ethical City: Brussels
02 Jun—09 June (8 dates)
Greater Glasgow & Clyde Exhibition Research & Design
Event Summary
Explorations of the Ethical City by Stage 5 Students at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at The Glasgow School of Art
Time
10:00-17:00 (Closed Sunday)
Date(s)
02 Jun—09 June
Location
Second Floor, Bourdon Building, Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art.
View on Google Maps
Organiser
The Glasgow School of Art
The Final Design Thesis and the Ethical City: Brussels
Stage 5 Leader: Miranda Webster
Stage 5 Co-Pilot: Jonathan Fisher
The Diploma School at the Mackintosh School of Architecture has, for many years, been intimately concerned with the reciprocal relationships between architecture and the city in both their generic and specific manifestations.
Reflecting upon Glasgow whilst discovering and absorbing Brussels at once invites comparison and contrast between the two cities, their geographic situations, topographies and climates as well as the potent political, economic, social and cultural aspects which shaped, and continue to shape, their particular morphologies and character. As in any city, the relative constancy or shifting dynamics of these influential forces have variously informed the continuous process of urban repair, renewal, reinvigoration and sometimes reinvention. Finding meaningful architectural expression which harnesses anticipated change is one of the most creative challenges of any urban architecture, one which is truly relevant to place, purpose and people.
With the recent COVID 19 pandemic and the Climate Emergency, we can ask the question, what does this mean for the current city and the future of cities? Climate change exacerbates existing inequalities and ethical decision making and processes relating to the planet, society and the choices that we make can no longer be separated from architectural design.
By using Brussels as the city of investigation, the final year of architectural education is a chance for students to determine what constitutes an Ethical City and to respond through a design thesis with an ethical narrative woven through three types of architectural driver - the context, programme and technology.
Each individual thesis investigation reveals a set of ethical questions, observations and issues and architectural responses. The thesis investigations evidence the gathering, organisation, analysis, synthesis and deployment of data, research and theory, which have generated an original intellectual position, and a creative responsive architectural proposal.
Second Floor, Bourdon Building, Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art.
