A More-Than-Human City

The aim of this exercise is to develop in students a design-based familiarity with basic architectural resources such as repetition and variation. Repetition, variation, counterpoint, aggregation, and the absence and/or reiteration of modular elements are key concepts in all the arts. In music, sculpture, painting, and even architecture, the repetitive play of typological units with variations constitutes one of the fundamental bases of design. In architecture, where structural safety, control, and the economy of modular systems are an essential part of the project rationale, repetition and variation must become a fully mastered language for students.

In this exercise, the design brief is intentionally stripped of some of its functional constraints, while at the same time incorporating elements that connect it to contemporary concerns capable of engaging students’ interest. These include issues related to sustainability and recyclability, as well as broader themes that are increasingly unavoidable in today’s design culture, such as the displacement of the human being as the sole focus and protagonist of the expanded city.
The use of modular repetition as a compositional strategy, with minimal functional requirements (repeated hollow spaces for small animals), encourages freshness and creativity in the design process.

Before designing human residential units, students learn how a system (a repeated unit + a few rules) can generate richness through controlled variation, while also considering more-than-human inhabitants. Design a small “urban field” made from one repeated found-object module. We create a micro-city (streets / thresholds / clusters / landmarks), a habitat for one chosen non-human user: birds / bees / small mammals (mice, hedgehog) / pollinators, etc.
a prototype of housing logic (base unit → aggregation → public/collective space).