Pete Silver, Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Cities has been awarded a patent from the UK’s Intellectual Property Office for his design for a helical structural framework. Hopefully, we shall be able to prototype and construct this at a large scale on campus.
Blog
“Inclusive Tectonics” with Paolo Cascone at New York Institute of Technology | Wednesday, April 27, 2022 from 18:00 to 20:00 (EST) Online
When: Wednesday, 27th of April 2022, 6:00pm – 8:00pm (EST)
Where: Online | New York Institute of Technology
To register, please go here.
Based on almost 10 years of applied research by Paolo Cascone between Europe and Africa, his work investigates the potential role of indigenous and spontaneous architecture in the contemporary debate on sustainability in architectural design: How to respond to climatic changes reconciling nature with tekné? What is the social role of technology? How architects reconsider their practices in supporting community-oriented projects?
These questions are discussed through a number of paradigmatic projects in order to shape an interdisciplinary approach that bridges different knowledge.
Paolo Cascone is a Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster and Founding Director of Codesignlab.org .
Emerging Territories Symposium: London Lab / Global Hub | Friday, May 13, 2022 from 10:00 to 18:00 (BST) in M416, Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster
When: Friday, 13th of May 2022 from 10am to 6pm (BST)
Where: M416, University of Westminster, Marylebone campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Register via Eventbrite.
Background
The ‘Emerging Territories’ research group hosts a one-day symposium on current research initiatives of the School of Architecture and Cities, which contributes to the global agenda of sustainability of the University of Westminster. We work at the interface between London-based explorative practices, and globally-relevant projects, with the aim to promote and design more resilient and inclusive communities, places, and territories, around the following priority emerging areas: Climate Urbanism; Health & Wellbeing; Urban-Rural Interfaces; Anthropocene Territories; Public Space and Diversity.
Concept
Urban and Architectural research, in recent years, is confronted with new challenges affecting cities and the built environment: the unexpected outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic, the increasing evidence of the tangible impact of climate change, and the rising tensions among nation states in a changing global scenario. This has resulted in unprecedented social and environmental vulnerabilities, and new rapidly evolving phenomena, such as the digital transition of the way of living, residing and working.
Taken together, these challenges pose serious questions that scholars in the field of architecture and planning should face, in primis the redefinition of the notion of local vs global, and the very idea of scholarly engagement across different places in the new normal. On the other hand, this can be taken as an opportunity to define new ‘emerging territories’ of research where problems can be captured, solutions can be tested, and ideas can be shared more effectively across multiple scales and contexts.
The aim of the symposium is therefore to bring together interdisciplinary research between architecture and planning, based at the School of Architecture and Cities and to share new ideas and approaches to tackle city problems and their vulnerabilities in the new global context.
Contributors
Krystallia Kamvasinou, Giulio Verdini (Co-Chairs), with Roudaina Alkhani, Lindsay Bremner, Sabina Cioboata, Corinna Dean, Shengkang Fu, Ripin Kalra, Kon Kim, Tony Lloyd Jones, David W. Mathewson, Michael Neuman, Mai Sairafi, Ben Stringer, and others to be confirmed.
For queries on the symposium, please contact:
Giulio Verdini G.Verdini@westminster.ac.uk or Krystallia Kamvasinou K.Kamvasinou01@westminster.ac.uk
Norman Foster Foundation (NFF)’s Education + Research programme 2022 – NFF Shelters Workshop | Deadline for applications, May 1, 2022
The workshop will take place from 6-10 June 2022 in Madrid, Spain and will bring together international experts and students to explore the development of tools, models and design methods to address the displacement crisis in the face of climate change, and the role of architecture and design in doing so.
To this end, the NFF will award ten scholarships to students from the diverse backgrounds of architecture, urbanism, design, arts and humanities, social sciences, engineering and environmental studies. Grants will cover all transportation and accommodation related to the week-long event in Madrid, Spain.
For more information and how to apply please go here.
Lindsay Bremner wins new British Academy Research Grant
Lindsay Bremner and an interdisciplinary and intersectoral team of researchers from India, the UK and Canada have been awarded a British Council Knowledge Frontiers: International interdisciplinary Research 2022 grant for a two-year project titled ‘Reimagining the Good City from Ennore Creek, Chennai.’
Ennore Creek is a coastal wetland and backwater of the Kosasthalaiyar River in north Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Rich with mangroves, salt flats, canals and the myriad life-forms that thrive in them, it is home to numerous fishing communities and serves as a buffer against floods and sea level rise. After the 1950s, when Chennai began associating the idea of the ‘Good City’ with industrialisation and modernisation, Ennore was rezoned for heavy polluting industries. Land-use changes and lax environmental controls resulted in pollution, coal ash leakage and dumping of toxic material into the creek, degrading its ecosystem and impacting the health and livelihoods of its communities. This project will bring together diverse communities of knowledge and practice to reimagine and rearticulate the future of the creek in the interests of local communities, in the context of permanent weather extremes, climate challenges and a state-led creek eco-restoration proposal.
Co-investigators on the project, which will run from April 2022 – April 2024 are historians Dr Bhavani Ramesh (University of Toronto), and Dr Aditya Ramesh (University of Manchester); anthropologist Dr Karen Coelho (Madras Institute of Development Studies); environmental chemist Dr Asif Qureshi (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad); community activist and writer Nityanand Jayaraman and K. Saravan and Pooja Kumar (Coastal Resource Centre, Chennai).
This research is supported/funded by the British Academy’s Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary research 2022 Programme.
Featured Image: Ennore Creek with the North Chennai Thermal Power Station in the background by Shafeeq Ahamed S, Age 17, 2022.
ClimateDemonstrator 2022 – Live Build Summer School | From 23rd of May to 24th of June 2022
Julian Williams, Principal Lecturer at the School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster is pleased to invite you to join ClimateDemonstrator 2022: A free live-build summer school involving students from across the School of Architecture and Cities, other Schools in the University and primary school pupils in Camden and Westminster.
The brief is to design and build interactive instruments or installations to demonstrate the science of buildings and their interaction with climate and biodiversity. The project will run from 23rd May to 24th June. You will be working in teams supported by mentors from design and architectural practices, presenting your ideas to 9-10 year olds, then fabricating the works for installation in the partner primary schools.
All the details including dates and how to sign-up are on the website: climatedemonstrator.org.uk
AHRA Research Student Symposium 2022 | University of Westminster, Marylebone Campus + Online, April 20 and 21, 2022
When: Wednesday, 21st of April (from 10am BST) – Thursday, 21st of April (to 7pm BST)
Where: University of Westminster, Marylebone campus, Room MG14, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Register via Eventbrite.
The AHRA Research Student Symposium 2022, “Voices in Architecture”, considers voices in architectural research, posing the critical questions: who speaks and for whom? How do we give voice without assuming authority? How do we listen without judgment? How do we adjust the volume of our own voices?
A key objective of the symposium will be to connect architectural research with wider political concerns around democracy, protest and populism and we are particularly attentive to processes of public engagement and empowerment, social stratification and elitism. The symposium also seeks to investigate diverse modes of production and their social worlds, explorations of vernacular traditions, informal settlements, transient and temporary architectures.
All activities are offered in blended (hybrid) form. Links to live streams (via Zoom) will be communicated before the symposium. Please indicate whether you will attend as a physical or remote guest.
Westminster Transport Group – 1971, 2021, 2071 | Online and at Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster on Friday, April 29, 2022
When: Friday, 29th of April 2022, 15:00 – 21:00 BST
Where: Online and at University of Westminster, Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
To register via Eventbrite please go here.
Join us for a celebratory event, marking 50 (+) years of the Transport Studies Group (TSG) at Marylebone, reflecting on teaching and research, past, present and future.
The event will comprise two distinct segments, the first being an afternoon session with speakers on past development, and current roles, of teaching and research in the Group, together with contributions from alumni who have attained important positions in the transport sector.
This will be followed in the evening by an informal reception for past staff colleagues, alumni and others connected with TSG’s work over the years (such as research collaborators in other institutions, external examiners) and presentations ceremony.
The event will take place in person at the Marylebone Campus, and delivered in tandem online, with a joining link to be shared with registered attendees ahead of the event. Tickets are available for in person attendance at the first session and/or reception, and for online attendees, for the first session and/or the Presentations segment of the Reception.
Exhibition: “Planetary Assemblages” at Lethaby Gallery, Central St Martins | April 5-30, 2022
When: From 5th to 30th of April 2022
Where: Lethaby Gallery, Central St Martins, Granary Square, N1C 4AA
The work of Monsoon Assemblages and the Manifest Data Lab visualises geophysical and atmospheric data as ways of making climate change perceptible and public.
Through drawings, maps, animations and models saturated with data from multiple sources, Planetary Assemblages proposes a critical engagement by bringing two groups of work into dialogue. This dialogue demonstrates the power of art and design to explore our connections to the climate crisis and motivate awareness of the material, social and cultural ways we are implicated in it.
For more details please go here.
The Fabrication Lab invites you to our unique Ceramic Patisserie: MAKE FOR UKRAINE! An Evening of Robotics + Ceramics to Raise Funds for Ukraine | Thursdays: March 31 and April 7, 2022
We’d like to invite you to an evening workshop in the Fabrication Lab to raise funds for Ukraine.
The workshop is a one-off opportunity to try out the Lab, and to work with our robots and digitally fabricated tools to help you design and make your very own ceramic patisserie. We’ll provide all the materials, tools, and help you need to create your cake, and once it’s fired, it will be yours to keep forever.
MAKE FOR UKRAINE! is open to everyone, with reduced donations for students and Westminster colleagues. All proceeds, including profits from the Lab Bar, will be donated to humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine.
Dates
Thursdays – 31st of March and 7th of April: 17:30, 18:00, 18:30 until 22:00
Minimum Donations
- UoW Students – £20
- UoW Staff + Alumni – £30
- Visitors – £50
- ViP – £100
To book tickets please go here.