Articulated Grounds: Mediating Environment and Culture

Work from the AA's Diploma Unit 2 fuses two seemingly mutually exclusive paradigms in recent architectural discourse, mediating between technological performance as well as the manipulation of grounds, defined here as the external and internal circulatory systems that structure social organisations. In the process, the unit defines a new social agenda and aesthetic philosophy for transforming established design strategies, and lends conventional notions of sustainable design a new civic and cultural relevance. The projects are all either located within or influenced by a Brazilian context, rich in sculptural, variegated landscapes and African as well as indigenous Indian influences. Innovative design proposals shown in this book illustrate symbiotic relationships between urban society, environmental conditioning and landscape by articulating ground organisations to mediate and synchronise both environmental and cultural flows.