framework for the implementation of a virtual design studio model in ...

Her interest lies in understanding the morphology of the city as a result of many
different layers of interventions through time and how economics, specific
events and culture has determined the urban fabric and its transformations.
Through design, she explores the relationships between the spatiality of a
location and the inhabitation and social interaction and how the physicality of a
location encourages inhabitation enabling social relations transforming a
location into a place and a neighbourhood into a community.
In particular she is fascinated with the shift between public and private domains
in cities. These two domains are sometimes defined in terms of ownership, use,
management, appropriation or others. Her research aims to establish a
representation system in accordance with the complexity of urban boundaries.
This would be based on and influenced by the approaches to the subject of
authors such as Meleau-Ponty, Sennet, Trías, Heidegger, Land, Seamon and
others. Part of her methodology relies on the understanding and exploration of
existing studies of boundaries in the discipline of architecture and the translation
of this knowledge into urban boundaries.
Student Profiles
The studio attracted an array of students (aged between 20-30) world-wide from
Tokyo, China, Europe and Australia from a wide spectrum of academic disciplines.
The featured degree disciplines were not only expected, mandatory Architecture
and Urban Planning based, but spanned from Landscape Planning to Exhibition
Design; from Graphic Media and Textile Design to Ceramics and Product Design.
The dynamic of multi-disciplines and diversity of backgrounds and ages of the
students and staff enriched the Porosity experience and bolstered creativity
amongst the participants.
Six Zones
As part of the Porosity Studio’s aim to immerse the students in Cardiff’s history
and infrastructure, the participants were required to produce two minute
presentations regarding at least one of the zones visited during the tour. Here, the
research was cited rather than explained and the presentations were delivered
with clarity and academic precision.
Before the tour, the students were informed that Cardiff has two centres: the city
centre and the bay, both of which are intensely developed. Between the two
centres are the older residential areas and the newly developed areas. In this ‘lost
space’ the building of more than 6,000 houses are planned over the next ten
63