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CHARLIE EDMONDS
About our Guest:
Charlie is a recent graduate from the University of Cambridge. His master's thesis, Void Pedagogy, explores the intersection of progressive pedagogy and urban design in Tokyo. As a designer and researcher, he has worked with a wide range of collaborators from TeamLab to the University of Kyoto. His guiding focus is to explore novel methods through which architecture and urban design may contribute to social programs and combat inequality. Charlie is also part of the Future Architects' Front team, who are at the forefront of a new movement fighting for the end of exploitation for architectural assistants in the UK, recently having submitted an open letter to the RIBA that received more than 2000 signatures. You can read it here.
Image credit: ©
Charlie Edmonds
About the text:
Voids in Density is the introduction to the book Tokyo Void: Possibilities in Absence (2014) and, written by Hiroshi Naito, explains the cause and origins of the fragments of un-used spaces that appear throughout the urban fabric of Tokyo city.
Due to the short life cycle of domestic buildings in Tokyo and the fragmented planning system, void space perforates the city. In rural Japan, progressive schools utilise project-based learning as a student-led alternative to standardised testing. The teachers of these schools, known as Children's Village Schools, are generally under the impression that such institutions could not operate in the city; their curricula require a level of spatial freedom that they believe cannot be achieved in Tokyo.
In researching Void Pedagogy, Charlie studied the intersection of these topics, and endeavoured to reveal the potential therein. He proposes that void space may be formally adapted for educational purposes:
a de-centralised and regenerative school which encourages spatial freedom and project-based learning in Tokyo, inviting the Children's Village into the city.
Image credit: ©
Charlie Edmonds
Image credit: ©
Charlie Edmonds
You can watch the discussion here:
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