The rapid and uncontrollable growth of cities, and the progressive disappearance of urban green spaces since the industrial revolution, have heavily contributed to global warming and climate change. Since recent years, we are witnessing a growing social awareness of the consequences of the loss of man’s relation to “mother nature” and a new approach to cities and architecture is an obvious and pressing need. The quest for climate-neutral and resilient cities is needed as an essential solution to limit the growing threats and impacts of global warming. In this line of thought, our studio for this semester
aims to design sustainable communities by exploring architecture as a space of interactions between man, the built space, and the natural environment. Two exercises are proposed: one addressing informal green spots in Beirut and the other designing educational spaces for young children in Africa. Drawing and model making are considered experimental tools in the design process for a critical investigation leading to the development and translation of thoughts and desires into architectural spaces. This exhibition features four examples of students’ works from exercise 02. The studio process involves studying precedents from seminal projects, analyzing modular typologies, spatial layouts, and inhabitation patterns. Students propose first a unit for a primary school which is followed by building a “system” of growth with inventive modes of organization and unexpected relations. The whole process aims to reveal uncommon possibilities in space permutations.