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Location London SW7 | ARB/RIBA courses MA Architecture | Head of school Adrian Lahoud | Full-time tutors 14 | Part-time tutors 80 | Students 400 | Staff to student ratio 1:15 | Bursaries available Yes
Postgraduate
Joanna Lake
Course MA Architecture
Studio/unit brief Afterlives (ADS 8)
Project title Forest Re-Framed: New Material Cultures in the Swedish Boreal Forest
Project description This project explores the relationship between Swedish timber construction and the ecology of the North Swedish boreal forest in Sami territory. It sits in a wider framework – calling for awareness of the costs of extraction on local communities, and questioning how housing and forestry can be mutually beneficial. The proposal operates at the two ends of the timber supply chain – forest and home – challenging the distance between the two and proposing that a defined area of forest is exclusively cultivated for construction. It investigates how humans can assist in the forest’s recovery from monoculture plantation to polyculture through a series of infrastructures for landscape rehabilitation. Durable spruce and pine trees are harvested to form the bones of a house, while shorter-lived species form a protective layer.
Tutor citation Joanna’s project examines the impacts of historical injustices. She offers a rigorous critique of timber construction’s role. Margarida Waco, Imani Jacqueline Brown, Meriem Chabani
