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.
When: Saturday, July 1, 2023 from 10.30am to 1pm (BST)
Where: Learning Platform, Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS
The School of Architecture + Cities is delighted to host this year’s Architecture LGBT+ Pride Breakfast together with the RIBA.
It will take place at 10.30am-1pm, Saturday 1 July, on the Learning Platform.
Please book your ticket here.
All staff and students are welcome.
When: Thursday – Saturday, September 21st – 23rd, 2023
Where: Ambika P3 + Fabrication Lab, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS
The School of Architecture + Cities is excited to invite you to join us for a new international conference and exhibition on creative technology. It will be held this September 21-23 jointly in Ambika P3 and the Fabrication Lab. The conference is multimedia and the call for work is now open. We welcome contributions of films, posters, exhibits, and hands-on workshops as well as short papers from both academic and technical staff, and students and professionals.
The conference coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the Fabrication Lab and themes include Learning Through Making and an exploration of makerspaces; Design Through Making and practice-based research; and Tomorrow’s Tech, looking particularly at the opportunities and issues raised by the latest developments in artificial intelligence.
In the spirit of design through making and practice-based research, we want the conference to be a forum for the discussion of current ideas and work in progress as much as the presentation of finalised projects. Please submit an abstract of 300 words and 3 images for non-text media before the deadline on July 7. You’ll find full details here:
The conference is free to attend for Westminster students and staff.
All welcome!
When: Thursday, 22nd of June at 2pm (BST)
Where: MG14, University of Westminster Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS
How does a school of architecture + cities pursue school-wide equity? How are questions of equity emerging in student projects, and how could these projects inform school strategies? What can practitioner perspectives offer the way in which a school shapes its approach?
This inaugural symposium will bring together academics, students, and practitioners to discuss projects and exchange ideas on the notion of equity for built environment disciplines. The symposium will open with an introductory talk on the tactics and challenges of introducing a ‘cultural infrastructure’ to support the pursuit of equity in the School. This will be followed by two panels in succession: a practitioner panel, and a student panel. Members of each panel will present a short talk on one project relating to equity, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.
The projects and their themes will be wide-ranging, but all linked by a focus on the cultural approaches, forms of intelligence, and skills required to move towards greater equity. The symposium will conclude with the formal launch of ‘Urban Equity’, an Open Access online resource, followed by refreshments and networking.
Please book tickets here.
14.00 Welcome: Prof. Harry Charrington, Head, School of Architecture + Cities
14.10 Introduction – ‘Cultural Infrastructure’: Lucy Bambury (School EDI Student Champion) and Samir Pandya (School EDI Lead)
14.30 Panel 1 Short Talks: Practitioner Perspectives (Chair: Alastair Blyth, Assistant Head of School)
14:30 Shaun Ihejetoh (Director, West Port Architects): V&A Africa Fashion – Equity in Design
14.45 Mei-Yee Man Oram (Associate Director, Arup): Designing inclusive spaces
15.00 Jas Bhalla (Principal, Jas Bhalla Architects): From the ground up – delivering transformative renewal across London’s high streets
15.15 Respondent – Prof. Pippa Catterall (School of Humanities)
15.20 Panel Discussion
15.45 Q&A
16.00 BREAK
16.15 Panel 2 Short Talks: Student Perspectives (Chair: Lucy Bambury)
16.15 Nishika Diyabalanage (MA Interior Architecture): The New Women of Oxford Street
16.30 Dawn Rahman (Active Travel Academy PhD student): Mad or Magnificent? Mothers who cycle with their children
16.45 Riane Oukili (MArch/RIBA Part 2): The Archaeological Garden: Towards a decolonial archaeology
17.00 Respondent – (Wilfred Achille, RIBA Part 3 Co-Course Leader)
17.05 Panel Discussion
17.30 Q&A
18.00 Concluding comments, and formal launch of ‘Urban Equity’ (Open Access EDI online resource)
18.30 Refreshments and networking
When: Wednesday – Friday, 28th – 30th of June 2023, 10am-7pm daily
Where: Ground Floor Learning Platform Room MG28, University of Westminster Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS
We are delighted to invite you to Re-Imagining Coral Reefs – a virtual reality (VR) experience aimed at communicating the climate science of coral reef research to a wider audience.
Part of the London Festival of Architecture (LFA)’s programme of events, Re-Imagining Coral Reefs is funded by the QHT Small Grant, and co-created with students from across the School of Architecture and Cities.
Read more about the event here.
Register:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/re-imagining-coral-reefs-tickets-633628308327Background:
Hosted at the University of Westminster and as part of the London Festival of Architecture, visitors to the event venue are invited to try on VR headsets and experience healthy, degraded and re-imagined coral reefs from both human and non-human perspectives. Their virtual experiences are projected in real-time in the event space, which also contains 3D printed models of the virtual corals they’re experiencing. Coral reefs are vital ecosystems that sustain 30% of all ocean species. Their degradation is a visceral example of the Climate Crisis. Research into and restoration of these rich habitats constitute a critical enterprise that bring together the scientific community, local citizens, designers, governments, and NGOs, towards the common goal of preserving our biodiversity. Created via a range of digital tools typically deployed in spatial and game design, and utilising the audio and 3D photogrammetry data collected from the field in Indonesia, the installation is a collaborative creation between design students, marine biologists, and architects.
When: Friday, June 16 – Sunday, July 2 (Monday-Friday: 10am-6pm; Saturday-Sunday: 10am-4pm)
Where: School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS London
On Thursday, June 16 we launched OPEN2023, our graduating students’ degree show, featuring work from:
The School is committed to its Polytechnic inheritance, and its aim remains to offer ‘a transformative higher education for all’. We view the diversity of our students drawn from across London and the world as key to our success, and we see difference, and a mix of experiences and views, as critical to our exploration of architecture and place. The impact of our student-staff initiatives, such as our Equity Forum and climate action taskforce, ArCCAT, can be seen increasingly in how the School’s projects contribute to meeting our societal and planetary challenges. We embed London practitioners in our core teaching teams to keep us alive to the dynamism of contemporary practice, and continue to develop cross-disciplinary collaborations, such as with Imperial College Medical School and Westminster Council, and our Live Design Practice – currently on show at Cody Dock. That, in turn, our students are so valued by practices is hugely gratifying.
Harry Charrington, Head of School of Architecture + Cities, OPEN2023
The show was opened by Philomena Wales and it’s a part of the London Festival of Architecture. It continues daily in our Marylebone studios until July 2.
For those unable to visit us in person, the online version of the exhibition can be accessed here.
Photography by Rory Lindsay
When: Monday, 12th of June 2023 at 13:00 (BST)
Where: Online (link below)
The final Architecture + Cities Reserch Seminar for this academic year will take place on Monday, 12th of June, 13.00 – 14.000, online.
Corinna Dean will present her work on the River Lee in a presentation titled: Let’s Talk about Contamination: Green, Blue and Grey Corridors.
The link to the seminar is here.
All are welcome!
When: Saturday, 3rd of June 2023 from 11am to 1pm
Where: Cody Dock, 11c South Cres, London E16 4TL
Staff and students from the University of Westminster have designed and built a QHT funded Therapeutic Horticulture Centre in collaboration with Cody Dock, OfCA and WebbYates Engineers. The pavilion is designed as a lightweight timber structure with a butterfly roof and demonstrates that plants growing and humans can happily co-exist in one space. There will also be an exhibition about the making process.
Cody Dock is a fantastic charity and social enterprise transforming the dock into a creative industries quarter with community gardens and footpaths – opening up the Lower Lea River whilst promoting regeneration for conservation, environmental and cultural benefit.
Students took part in stakeholder engagement to better understand needs and aspirations. We then developed designs for a visionary community space based on the initial research, suitable for the local context and site. We introduce new ways of working collaboratively across sectors and take our multidisciplinary skills within academia and use these in live projects to serve communities and have a positive impact on society whilst introducing students and staff to alternative practice, providing a deeper understanding of the multiplex relationships.
This Live Project was initiated by Maria Kramer and supported by Corinna Dean.
The event is FREE.
For more information about the project please go here.
On May 22, 2023 a group of staff and students from four courses within the School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster attended a Fire Experience Training Day hosted by the Fire Service Training College. The day was sponsored by Axa Insurance, Fire Protection Association (FPA) and School of Architecture + Cities, UoW. The experience and information gathered was particularly useful with regard to the new Building Safety Bill and the developing RIBA/ARB criteria on Design for Fire and Life Safety.
Staff attending:
Students from, BA Architecture: Umi Sakai-Stoute, Rowan Isles, Oscar Chainey, Eric Turner
Students from, MA Architecture: Galina Dimova, Ramzi Ramzi, Simon McLanaghan
Students from BSc Architecture + Environmental Design: Anastasia Suzdaltseva Kazakova, Elspeth Prowse, Michelle Lai, Sara Stabiglieri
Students from Architectural Technology: Pascal Golda, Amjad Butt, Velina Drakalieva, T’Sean Blake
The School of Architecture + Cities is dighted to announce that the shortlisted project of Rūta Perminaitė, MArch student from last year’s DS22 cohort, has gone to the next stage and has been selected as one of the 12 finalist projects for the prestigious EU Mies Van der Rohe Young Architecture Talent Award, an EU prize for Contemporary Architecture.
You can view Rūta’s project here.
The announcement has taken place in Venice and the project is currently being exhibited as part of the Laboratory of Education in Venice Biennial.
The finalists will go to the third stage where 4 finalists and a winner are to be announced.
The Awards Ceremony will take place on 29th of June in Venice, in Palazzo Michiel.
The Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) aims to support the talent of recently graduated Architects, Urban Planners and Landscape Architects who will be responsible for transforming our environment in the future. YTAA has emerged from curiosity about and interest in the initial stages in these students’ development and a desire to support their talent as they enter into the professional world.
The winning projects will be distinguished for their excellence, authenticity and innovative nature, as well as their sustainable approach.
The winners will receive a financial reward and will become part of the network of awarded architects of the Prize. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to travel, visit and experience the best examples of architecture.
Featured image: “Paradise on the Edge” by Ruta Perminaite
When: Thursday, 15th of June 2023 at 6pm (BST)
Where: Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Rd, NW1 5LS
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER’S SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND CITIES INVITES YOU TO OPEN 2023
Head of School Harry Charrington cordially invites you to attend the opening of the graduating students’ degree show, OPEN 2023, featuring work from:
Preview
Thursday 15 June, 6 – 9pm
Show opened by Philomine Wales
Exhibition continues
Friday 16 June – Sunday 2 July
You can also RSVP to DCDI-Events@westminster.ac.uk
Featured image: Diana Fox, MArch
