Studio 1E – THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CITY

Studio 1E is a building design studio working in urban contexts.

The world’s cities are growing. More and more people are moving to the cities, which are being expanded and densified. Urban densification is an important strategy for creating a more sustainable society, and there is a need for architects who understand the city as a spatial and built phenomenon, architects who know the city’s typologies and structures, and who can contribute to our cities’ ongoing transformation both intelligently and empathetically.

As reflected in the title “The Architecture of the City,” our work is based on the belief that all buildings in an urban context have a responsibility to the city as a whole and should contribute spatial qualities to both the context and the city’s inhabitants in general — and not solely serve the needs and desires of specific owners or users. Regardless of program or location, we consider the city to be our most important client.

At Studio 1E City Architecture, we concentrate on current issues, but we do not necessarily approach them in conventional ways. We find it important to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the study situation and emphasise an exploratory and experimental approach.

We consider the architecture of the past as a gigantic reservoir of knowledge about what architecture can be and become: a knowledge that can be used actively in the form of redrawings and reinterpretations. Just as physical buildings can be reused and reprogrammed, new projects can be created by reusing and reprogramming existing spatial concepts and motifs.

Themes and scale

all semester assignments deal with the design of new buildings or transformation of existing structures with an emphasis on public programmes.
all semester assignments have their focal point on scale 1:200 but will include context studies on a scale of 1:1000/1:500 and detailed studies on a scale of 1:50/1:20.