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India

Georgia

Vernacular extensions of modernist buildings have been created since the 1990s as an organic response to the new, “lawless” times after the fall of the Soviet Union. They increase the living space and are usually used as terraces, extra rooms, open refrigerators,It is said that a Russian journalist named them “kamikaze,” drawing a parallel between the romantic and suicidal character of such an endeavour and the typical ending of most Georgian family names “-adze.” This architecture also refers back to the local palimpsestic building technique, which since the Middle Ages has allowed new houses to be built on top of existing ones on the steep slopes of the Caucasus Mountains, thus not monumentalisation of the past but expanding on it for the future. Three residence from different flat which have extensions tell their stories, why they decide to build it and how they use this part of house. The facades of all these types of buildings look chaotic, but from the inside they are all ordered.

Cameroon

Deep in the rainforest of Eastern Cameroon is the first and only museum of the Baka pygmy people in the world. The building is like a portal from the forest to social structures like a village. In this participatory museum the Baka from Bifolone are both the actors and subject, together with the the NGO the new patrons they created a place completely displaying their needs and identy. While the Baka face the loss of their habitat and culture this building - "le grand Mungulu" (the big hut) - is a architectional landmark that displays 'we are not gone, yet'.

Georgia

Georgia

The absolute absence of cultural institutions and events in the city of Bolnisi creates a sterile environment for the community, the city is in a small vacuum where every fifth house is for sale.

United Kingdom

Progress is a video piece that was made in collaboration with Samir Chadli, Lara Jacoski and Andrew Sawyer, and which hopes to draw attention to urban, cultural and environmental changes in Morocco. ​ Working with discarded construction material and found pieces of traditional Moroccan tiles, this work addresses issues related to what is gained and what is lost through economic development and how developing countries can face the challenges of growth and changes of identity. This is synthesised in the work through a choice of colours, pace, sound and themes. Note: the sound features street recordings which are inteligible and not possible to caption.