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[ Music ]
>> The Architecture Lab
for us is a test for a new form of urban life.
We expect that students look beyond the ordinary and come
up with incredibly inventive solutions that are a result
of a limited budget and question the way that we live currently.
>> So this is Megan
and Camille, and they're both dealing
with the air space above our site and looking at
different ways to inhabit the sky.
Camille's looking at a project using a flock
of kites, a field of kites.
>> Camille: The idea started with the idea
of bringing nature back to the city
and changing the whole attitude with not just wanting
to do something sustainable but working
with the environment; not just fearing the
consequences of our actions but actually thinking
about how we can make things work in a different way.
And also possibly looking at the idea of kinetic energy as well,
how the the wave created by
this is creating some energy.
>> My project's about building a self-sustaining eco-habitat
where someone can occupy the space.
>> The idea of the project is to create a large Faraday cage
which will act as a shelter to protect you
from electromagnetic radiation from a variety of sources,
from radios, from wireless networks,
from Bluetooth sources.
And I've created this essentially using a large basket
weave and it's made almost entirely out of Ethernet cables.
It should take my weight.
It's quite cozy.
It's quite cozy inside.
It's good.
>> Basically the idea is the symbiosis between tree
and radio stimulating the tree's growth by giving a small amount
of energy. All of this acts as an aerial to generate free energy which is
in the air to power a radio station.
As you can hear now it's tuned
itself into 5 Live.
>> This project is also
about engaging the students in a debate, in political
and social debate that I think we need to have
at the university level because it is them
who, once they finish, they will shape,
they'll be our future architects.
They'll be building our cities.
[ Music ]
>> It's definitely the best opportunity I've had so far
to get to terms with real materials and real architecture.
And I think it'll be invaluable in the long run.
>> It's a unique opportunity
to start actually building things rather
than just working on paper.
>> The site is a typical site
as we have quite a few of them in East London
as a result of the recession.
We're about two stories off the ground.
So with this remaining bit of viaduct
in Shoreditch, the main problem was to get access
and we've gotten a scaffolding and there's a series
of ladders that students use for access.
Obviously the site's really overgrown
and we're being very careful to trim a bit of the overgrowth
out of the way without harming trees and larger bushes
that have found a new habitat here because obviously
that would be really against the aims of our project.
>> I think one of the real successes
of the project has been the way
that the students have taken the beginnings
of what were very abstract and speculative ideas
and they have worked through them and managed
to ground those ideas in a set
of fully working physical prototypes on site.
They've been dealing with the realities of making,
of how different materials come together and the science
of a lot of new technologies, and made a series of projects
that actually do work.
>> I think I've learned a lot about working
in slightly harsher conditions.
[Laughing]
>> It's just generally good to get away
from the drawing table and to actually make something.
>> It's been really useful realising that things that I do
on paper most of the time, and there are things that you make
in your head, don't always come about the same way.
In reality you have to compromise.
It's a very good learning experience in that way.
>> These are all prototypes
and they are real.
And they go beyond an idea
because they're realised on site.
Whether they can be scaled up to the size
of a building is another question
but I don't think that's so important.
What's important is that the students have put environmental
issues right at the heart of their design approach
and it's an attitude that I want to teach them.
So when they next do a building and they design a building
in a similar way they will put these issues right
at the centre.
[ Music ]