TA: Sneha LakhaniBetween the fractures, fields and flows
Latter half of the 20th century has been critical to the theoretical discourse and practice in architecture. In 1988, Philip Johnson curated an exhibition on deconstructivist architecture at the MoMA, New York. He included several architects who were experimenting with a range of thought processes and were engaged in evolving a critical discourse in architecture - making, producing highly original and individualistic results. This studio explored lateral inter-relationships between various design fields and their influences on architecture. It emphasised upon providing students with necessary freedom to engage in shared learning and assisted them in exploring independent trajectories in order to frame their individual thought within a processbased approach. The site identified for the studio lies in-between the iconic Brandenburg gate and Peter Eisenmann’s Holocaust memorial in Berlin. Remnants of ‘The Berlin Wall’, which divided the city into East and West, was taken as a point of departure to weave narratives and conceptual strategies for design of “The Wall Museum”, demonstrating the rise and eventual fall of the Wall, and further unification of the two sides. The site with its layered history, traces of past events and memories provided students with unique opportunities to envisage their individual insertions appropriate to the context and programme.
