Defining and Designing the City
In response to the Rachael Whiteread retrospective at Tate Britain
Whether it’s a view which inspires us, or a dark alley we choose not to walk down, we are influenced by the architecture of the city every day. This course will look closely at how the spaces of the city are designed, and will critically question who has a say in what gets built and who goes where.
This four-week course drew on the architectural and spatial aspects of Rachel Whiteread’s work as our inspiration and starting point to explore these questions with special after-hours access to both Tate Britain and Tate Modern.
Rachel Whitread’s work responds directly to architectural notions of space, from the small-scale detail of a door-way to the voids contained within a terrace house. Her casting concretizes these absences and makes them visible, allowing us to observe spaces we are used to inhabiting. Her work provides us a with an alternative perspective to ask what these spaces mean to us, how they came to be made and how they have been lived in.
Drawing on themes from Whiteread’s work we used creative methods of drawing and model making to share our experiences of the city and equip ourselves with a working knowledge of architectural design. Developing our own ideas about the city we inhabit, and learning how to voice our own opinions about its future.
