In 1986, on a windy October day, it seemed that the UK government was going somewhere. As then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher emerged from a bulletproof Jaguar XJ8 clad in a wool-blend suit, neck encircled by a ring of pearls and head capped with a helmet of hair being ruffled by the stiff north-easterly breeze, her ever-trusty handbag present, she stood on a sea of asphalt. The image of this event shows a single figure in a vast abyss of tarmac that stretches as far as the eye can see – to infinity. Published in black and white, the time of day is frozen and unknown. The coordinates of place are impossible to pinpoint due to the lack of any recognisable building or visible point of interest – a manipulation of real-time using digital-time by an autocratic government. But perhaps more telling is the accompanying headline, a precursor to the demise of Thatcher’s dubious reign, stating that this event was actually the opening of the M25 motorway, dubbed ‘The Road to Nowhere’.

EX5 will attempt to go anywhere and everywhere. Starting with the M25 and working inwards, we will infiltrate London – a city that has grown and expanded through the rippling series of rings that have consistently redefined its edge condition. Tracing this rural/urban dendrochronology, we will explore segments of the M25 (a), Congestion Zone (b), Circle Line (c), City of London (d) and Roman Wall (e), leading us to discover how time affects architecture, material and space at the local scale whilst uncovering economic zones, environmental crises and infrastructural systems at the global scale. We will learn how governments and institutions use time as a means to dictate everyday life, encountering alternative modes of living that unveil how cultures and inhabitants simultaneously exist within multiple time zones. These encounters will provide the social, technological and time-based constraints for each unit project.

Those who choose to join the unit will be asked to construct an architectural brief and test it through material interventions. Working with film, physical models and drawings, a series of exercises will provide students with the material to develop the locale, target group, use, duration and key questions of projects that aim to challenge the rules, codes and laws that govern our existence, allowing EX5 to warp the fourth, fifth or tenth dimensions and to go ______ where?

Bill of Quantities:

(a) 29 October 1986, 188.3km, 1 hour 40 minutes 17 seconds driving, 32 junctions

(b) 17 February 2003, 7am–6pm, Monday–Friday, £10.50–14, 30–35 days a year of noxious pollution

(c) 1863, 17 miles, yellow, 114.6 million people a year, 72 minutes sitting down, 36 stations

(d) 1849–1964, 6 miles long, 1.12 square miles, 716.80 acres, 120 minutes walking, 10 dragons

(e) 200AD, 2 miles long, 330 acres, +/- 2.75m wide, 40 minutes walking, 22 towers