Student visit from Sheffield

Last week, we had a group of students visiting Common(s)Lab amongst other initiatives and practices during their field trip within the MA course on Performative Architecture, led by architects Helen Stratford and Amro Aghi (who also happen to be my fellow PhD students, colleagues and friends). Melissa and I prepared a wall collage showing the work-in-progress so far – with the evolving concept, stakeholders, maps of the neighbourhood and wider area and other bits and pieces. The students were really curious and whitty in the way they were asking questions regarding the project and it was great to get an outsiders’ perspective. Our presentation was followed by a mapping workshop, where students were asked by Helen and Amro to map the different spatial, human, organisational and financial conditions surrounding each project they had seen (next to ours, they had visited ZK/U, raumlabor (Floating University), and ON/OFF (Diskospäti). The questions were as follows:

The student group analysing Common(s)Lab (Nig Ning, Chin & Mengxia Hu) compared the project to an interdependent system of different elements which, once set in motion, keep each other in movement, growing in size through a snowball effect. For us, this was a very positive and new way to look at the project, so we are really thankful for this analysis and hope to build on it in the perpetual development of Common(s)Lab. Thanks to all the students, Helen and Amro for their inspiring visit!