Migratory Hides 

Newcastle Universty Charrette Week Workshops 650+ students, 13 studios, 5 days, 1 celebration…

Over the week each group are challenged to create a structure that will function as an urban social observation hide. Each structure should to be constructed from a minimum of 70% recycled or salvaged materials echoing the anarchic shelters of migrant jungle in Calais. To Kick start the workshop each group will undertake a warm up exercise by creating a wearable item of vernacular camouflage. Over the course of the week a vernacular Harvest will unfold. Your groups will Identify materials of abundance with the urban environment. Structures will be developed using simple but effective frameworks or forms. Their construction should be accomplished using simple hand tools and clad using there found materials. The resulting hides will become capsules that reflect vernacular material trends, considering the sculptural qualities of your found materials experiment with how surface can affect societies perception of form and its surrounding environment. 

The weeks project will culminate with a interactive exercise where the groups will be challenged to document the spectacle of the social migration that unfolds during the Charrette week opening event. To achieve this you will need to develop and deploy a system to record the events and social encounters unfolding around there hides. In you groups you should consider the advantages of developing either a fixed location shelter or portable structure that can follow the crowds. At the end of the project you hides will need to be collapsed and dismantled. Your group will need to consider the legacy, impact and traces that your structure leave behind. You should devise ethical form of urban bush craft, at the design stage and consider or if there structure you produce is biodegradable or how the materials used could be recycled.