Open Studio is an interactive project run by the School of Architecture + Cities at the University of Westminster to make its design, research and practice-based work available online while it is happening. The site acts as a real time teaching and learning environment in which the work of both students and staff is curated and documented – the work of its design studios, or its other teaching and research groups and workshops. Read more in Blog, follow us on Twitter and like us on Instagram.
To celebrate the end of another busy and successful year, The Department of Architecture in collaboration with Westminster Architecture Society invites you to join us for the Studio Christmas Party this Thursday, 14th December at 18:30 in the 4th floor master studio.
Drinks provided, we only ask you to bring one ornament for our Christmas tree.
All welcome!
The Philip Webb Award is an annual award for recent graduates and Part II students at UK Schools of Architecture.
2018 competition will be held in 2018 for current Part II students, and recent graduates of UK Schools of Architecture who completed their studies in 2016 or 2017.
The students are invited to propose a scheme: “to revitalise a building which has been decayed or neglected, but which can be repaired and adapted for a sympathetic new use.”
The submission period for entries will open on 20 July and close at 5pm on 14 September 2018.
Read more here.
Featured images (from left to right): (2017 Third Place) Kate Nicholson; (2017 Winner) Marta Ascenso; (2017 Second Place) Alanah Honey.
Congratulations to Rhiain Bower, our MArch student who won the RIBA President’s Dissertation Medal 2017 for her thesis ‘Baricsio: The Slate Quarrymen’s Barracks in North West Wales’.
Tutored by Professor Harry Charrington, Rhiain used a combination of fieldwork, archival data, newspaper clippings, poetry and local accounts, to write a compelling study of the 19th-century barrack dwellings constructed for workers at a slate quarry in Wales. You can see parts of Rhiain’s dissertation here.
‘The remote architecture was not particularly well-documented at the time, so Bower combined her own visual documentation with accounts gleaned from the time to draw a portrait of the harsh conditions experienced by the quarrymen who lived in the stark barracks from week to week for the opportunity of a salary.’
This is the fourth year in a row that a student from the Department of Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment has won an award in the RIBA President’s Medals. An outstanding achievement!
Sir John Sloane’s Museum in Holborn is hosting a series of lectures in collaboration with James Taylor-Foster.
The series is called ‘Architecture on Display’ and aims to tackle head-on the ideas, ideologies and assumptions that underlie how we present and display architecture, whether through exhibitions, installations, pavilions, biennales, triennials, debates, lectures or other projects.
In essence, the speakers are asked to address the following: what does it mean to curate architecture and what is its purpose?
The museum is delighted to be welcoming Marina Otero Verzier, Head of Research & Development at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, on 6 December, 7–8pm.
The format is salon-style: 30 mins presentation, followed by 30 mins of discussion.
Tickets are £5 for students.
More information about the event and series (which continues in the New Year) can be found here: https://www.soane.org/whats-on/talks/architecture-display-marina-otero-verzier
When: Thursday 7th December, 6pm,
Where: Room M416
Robert Barker is one of the co-founders of Stolon Studio Ltd along with Westminster alumna Jessica Barker. He trained at the Royal College of Art before working for a number of innovative firms such as Birds Portchmouth Russum. In 2003 he jointly set up Baca Architects and went on to win numerous awards and recognition as one of the leading innovators in flood resilient and adaptable architecture. With Baca, he won the RIBA Presidents Award for Research in 2009 and 2014, for the LifE project and the CAN project respectively. Robert is an author of the Metric Handbook – Flood Chapter (2015) and RIBA book – Aquatecture (2016). Whilst a director at Baca he worked on The Amphibious House (the UK’s first); A one-off house with a floating concrete base designed to resist flooding, which featured on Grand Designs and was winner of the London Design Awards, Gold 2015.
In 2016 he set up Stolon Studio with the aim of specialising in Architectural Development – using his design skills to unlock complex sites and push the boundaries of development. Robert is also a Part 3 examiner and he sits on several design review panels.
For lecture details contact Will McLean: w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk
www.technicalstudies.tumblr.com
This presentation will disseminate the research outcome of a RIBA Research Trust funded project that explored the interplay of space and light in Le Corbusier’s sacred buildings from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Measurable and unmeasurable aspects of these divine luminous environments were investigated through extensive field work, theoretical physical and digital modelling. The findings offer new insights into the unique lighting strategies adopted by Le Corbusier for the creation of sacred luminosity in his religious buildings. A similar research methodology has now been employed for the investigation of light in Louis Kahn’s museums, and preliminary results of this research will also be presented.
Benson Lau is a Reader and Course Leader of the BSc (Hons) Architecture and Environmental Design at the University of Westminster. He has practised as architect and environmental design consultant since 1996, and joined academia in 2005.
The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion.
Where: Erskine Room (M/523), Marylebone Campus
When: 7 December 2017, 13.00–14.00
ALL WELCOME
When: Thursday 30th November, 18:00
Where: Room M416, Marylebone Campus
Pete Silver is an architect with experience of the construction industry, public sector housing, teaching, research and private practice. During the 1970s, he worked for five years as development manager for Solon Housing Association where he was responsible both for the rehabilitation of pre-war housing stock and the development of new-build projects in the outer-London boroughs, working with architects such as Patrick Keiller, Edward Cullinan and Walter Segal.
During the 1980s, Pete Silver trained at the Architectural Association under Professor John Frazer and cybernetician Gordon Pask, and subsequently completed four years as a Research Associate in the Land Use Research Unit at King’s College London under Professor Alice Coleman. Pete Silver has worked as a studio design tutor at the Architectural Association teaching with John and Julia Frazer, Greenwich University and the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where he jointly established Diploma Unit 14 to investigate expert and real-time environmentally-responsive systems. Pete will be discussing the history of computing in architecture, machine logic and interactive design.
Pete is currently joint co-ordinator of Technical Studies at the University of Westminster, and is a director of the Chartered Practice Architects Ltd. Silver has co-authored four books with colleague Will McLean, which include Fabrication: The Designers Guide (2008), An Introduction to Architectural Technology (2013) and Air Structures (2014).
For details email Will McLean – w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk
www.technicalstudies.tumblr.com
When: Tuesday 28th November 2017, 19:00
Where: Marylebone Hall, Marylebone Campus, NW1 5LS
Access to this event is free of charge. A cash bar will be open after the talk.
Read more about Clancy Moore Architects here.
Featured image: Shatwell stairs model photograph © Clancy Moore Architects
1:30 – 2:15 Introduction to PS3: Jane Tankard + Leo Skoutas (FABE Placements)
2:15 – 3:10 The Role of the Architect: Jane Tankard
3:30 Finding the right practice: Sofia Karim, Doone Silver Kerr Architects
10:30 – 11:30 Work Stages: Scott Batty
12:00 Presenting yourself at Interview: Sophie Campbell, Sheppard Robson
1:00 Lunch
2:00 – 5:00 Applying for a job in the Architectural profession: Stride Treglown
10:30 Ethics and professionalism + the PEDR and the Year Out: Wilfred Achille
12:00 Preparing your portfolio for interview: Sophie Nguyen, Sophie Nguyen Architects
1:15 Lunch
2:00 Contracts – An introduction: Alastair Blyth
3-7 September 2018
Krakow, Poland
Call for Papers
Deadline: 9th April 2018
Over the centuries, cities across Europe and around the world have been impacted by their Jewish communities; as places of both presence and absence. Being held as part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, this Conference is dedicated to addressing Urban Jewish Heritage and the multi-layered issues it faces, and will bring together academics, planners, policy makers and community leaders to examine the pasts, presents and futures for cities with Jewish Heritage, particularly in Europe.
The Conference recognises that the threats to Jewish heritage are complex and dynamic and there is a need to identify new thinking to preserve and sustainably manage both the tangible and intangible aspects of Jewish culture and to communicate this to a wider audience. As such, it seeks to address the following questions:
• What are the pressures upon Jewish heritage in the urban context?
• How can new and sensitive uses be found for Jewish heritage in towns and cities?
• What management models can be applied to Jewish heritage to ensure its sustainability?
• What forms of relationships exist between Jewish heritage sites and urban tourism?
• What are the touristic experiences with Jewish heritage?
• To what extent is the interpretation of Jewish heritage effective and geared to an increasingly cosmopolitan and younger audience?
• What is the role of the museum in the mediation and representation of Jewish heritage?
• How is the intangible cultural heritage of the Jewish community communicated?
Organised by the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage and the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, in association with the City of Krakow and Villa Decius Association, we invite abstracts of 300 words to be submitted as soon as possible but at the latest by 9 April 2018.
Please visit our website for more details: www.urbanjewishheritageconference.wordpress.com