City Design (MA)

Head of Programme, City Design – Godofredo Enes Pereira

In 2021 we started a new stage in the development of the City Design MA, whereby digital design, analysis and visualisation tools, including moving image, photogrammetry, animation, augmented and immersive design, became drivers of both analytical and political innovation.

Core to this was the introduction of DS1 “Underground Palestine”, embracing a delinear and decolonised methodology in order to contest the prevalent instrumentalisation of archaeological sites. In parallel to the studio, the seminar series centred the lived experiences and struggles of those in the frontlines of urban transformation.

Then, in 2022/23 we started a new studio, the DS2 "Border Environment(s)'' investigating the phenomenon of "illegalised" circulations within the European Union through a spatial lens by mapping the interplay between migrant bodies and the physical, political, and cultural environment they move into. Across both studio and seminar units, our goal is to provide frameworks for autonomous and independent research to emerge.

Each project showcased here - developed in group or individually - reflects an unwavering commitment to supporting the struggles of communities in the frontlines of urban and settler colonial violence. Across the board, the work produced by students is both innovative and challenging. Be it in the form of larger than life pixels, the organising of international solidarity campaigns, the curating of strange archeological objects or an eerie goldfish swimming in the ruins of an ancestral futures, the city is thought with those that both live and suffer from it, while placing intergenerational collective politics in the forefront of urban thinking.

I would like to thank our two student cohorts for the amazing work they’ve developed, as well as all the guests that made time to join us for critical perspectives and advice. As my final year as the Head of Programme for the City Design MA I couldn’t be more proud of the work developed by this amazing group of people!

Programme Team

Godofredo Enes Pereira, Dima Srouji, Charlotte Grace, Riccardo Badano, Areej Ashhab, Helen Brewer and Patricia Forbes.

Image: Caspar Zhang - Village: The Roman Forum as a public space at a festival for children during Eid.