"The COVID-19 crisis will not dominate the studio's learning focus but rather reflect on how urban populations, and practitioners engage in the built environment and have contended with health crisis in the past."
This 12-day programme will ask students to explore the potential to learn from the past, as well as from present technologies and practice, in order to design healthier cities for the future; and to retro-fit today's urban spaces to cater for new challenges that may evolve. Cities and their residents will continue to face unforeseen sudden shocks, and emerging stresses across the range of environmental, social and economic contexts. While the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis will not dominate the studio's learning and teaching focus, the classes and debates will provide a space in which to reflect on how urban populations, and practitioners engaged in the built environment, have contended with pandemics and health crises in the past. A key emphasis of the programme will be a focus on Venice, the city itself, exploring how artists, architects, urban developers and denizens have responded to regenerate the built environment, and everyday urban living.