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The City of Exiles

Part 2 Project 2006
Daniel Burt, Sam Dawkins BenOlschner, Will Wang
University of Edinburgh Edinburgh | UK
The City of Exiles is the name of the group proposal for urban renewal in Floriana, Malta. The City of Exiles instigates a process of regeneration by constructing new connective tissue of urban seams. Four architectural propositions are embedded within these seams: an Optical Space, a Market and Bus Station, a Broadcasting House, Concert Hall & Park and a Gymnasium. These proposals work alongside less specific programmes to counter the corridor nature of Floriana by regulating the flow of movement across the city - from pausing on a park bench to settling as a new resident. It becomes a city, not just a place to pass through, but a place to remain.
Daniel Burt, Sam Dawkins BenOlschner, Will Wang


The ‘City of Exiles’ is the product of a group thesis of extraordinary depth. By embedding a new system into Floriana’s fractured urban grid (a system literally drawn from an intense analysis of Valletta’s physical condition) Dan, Sam, Will and Ben create a network of seams, cuts, wells, bridges, gates, eddies and traps that operate as a geological disturbance, revealing the complex section of this limestone city. Throughout, their key strength is ‘depth’. Their work, which is beautifully documented in a series of bound reports, oscillates with ease between the heights of poetic abstraction and the depths of obsessive detail.

2006
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