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Technical Studies Lecture Series: “Experimenting with Architecture” McCloy + Muchemwa | Thursday, October 7 2021 at 18:00, Room M416, Marylebone Campus

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Thursday, 7th of October at 6pm

Where: Room M416, School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS

The design and architecture studio of Steve McCloy and Bongani Muchemwa has its roots in Africa and is based in London. The studio’s work is an inventive exploration into design thinking and designs have included a bamboo bicycle, a reinvention of the Police ‘Tardis’, street furniture, modular housing and wearable architecture. In 2020 McCloy + Muchemwa were named in the Architects’ Journal 40 Under 40, and featured in Wallpaper* magazine’s survey of the next generation of 10 London practices.

Steve is a registered architect with experience across a variety of sectors from public installations and private homes to civic buildings, polar research stations, and sustainable urban developments. He is also published as a researcher / author and has contributed to numerous books and articles including ‘Once Upon A China’ by CJ Lim + Steve McCloy (2021). Steve has exhibited work at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, and was nominated for both the RIBA President’s Bronze and Silver Medals.

Bongani is a registered architect with significant experience at some of the UK’s most high profile architectural practices and he has won numerous awards for design excellence. His work with film and animation has been widely celebrated including at Magma Film Festival in Sicily. Bongani has exhibited work at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, and was nominated for the RIBA President’s Bronze Medal. Bongani is also a lecturer and studio tutor at the University of Westminster, a Practice Mentor at the Royal College of Art, and is a trustee of the Wakefield-based arts charity Beam.

For details contact: Will McLean

w.f.mclean@wmin.ac.uk

https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/

LET’S TALK: Changing the Culture of Architecture to fit all | Thursday, October 7 from 18:00 to 19:30

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

ONLINE EVENT

On the 7th of October LET’S BUILD is organising their 7th event in the series LET’S TALK: Changing the Culture of Architecture to Fit All. Each event brings together a diverse group of construction professionals to share their experience.

We will be discussing the architecture and construction industry and how we could make the industry more inclusive with Changing the Culture of Architecture to Fit All. We want to re-think the construction industry and provide opportunities for professionals from all backgrounds.

Let’s Build is a platform for those who want to challenge and change the status quo.

Join the debate and help us improve the industry for the benefit of all.

LET’S BUILD

For more information about the event and to book tickets please click here.

SA+C student Jan MacBean awarded a runner up prize in WW+P’s Future of Transport Student Prize competition

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Congratulations to Jan MacBean who was presented with the runner up prize for his proposal: A Paddington Pollution Solution and the Westway Garden Path.

Jan’s proposal compromises two phases. Phase one looks to manage the dangerously high level of air pollution around the Paddington Basin by sequestering CO2 and NO2 with algae from the canal. A parasitic structure suspends the two laboratory modules that house the technology for processing algae and generating electricity, affording the building self-sufficiency. In the forum of A Paddington Pollution Solution art, installations, seminars and workshops are all component to the dissemination of information about the impact of pollution, making the exchange of knowledge accessible, helping shift the narrative on pollution and urban land use.

Jan is a second year student at the University of Westminster, during his first year he was awarded the Technical Studies Prize recognising his interest in sustainability through modular design. Eager to resolve the problems of land use, public space, ecology and fossil fuel dependence Jan will continue exploring the use of modular and parasitic structures in a public setting during this academic year.

WestonWilliamson+Partners

This prize awarded by the Weston Williamson and Partners is aimed at student projects associated with travelling in or between our UK cities. The winner could be a design project such as a new station, an urban design proposal or a research or dissertation…Anything which adds to the debate about transport in the future.

Featured Image: “System Sketch” by Jan MacBean

VOTE! DS15 graduate Gemma Mohajer shortlisted for Arts Thread Global Design Graduate Show 2021

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The work of DS15 and MArch 2021 graduate, Gemma Mohajer has been shortlisted for this year’s Arts Thread Global Design Graduate Show 2021 in collaboration with GUCCI.

The public vote is now officially open, so please follow the below link to vote for her project! It takes about 2 seconds.

https://www.artsthread.com/events/globaldesigngraduateshow/product-architecture-interiors/#/project/the-mycology-institute

Featured image: Gemma Mohajer, The Mycology Institute

Call for Papers: DMJournal – Architecture and Representation | Deadline: Monday, November 22, 2021

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

DMJournal–Architecture and Representation is a new publication dedicated to the exploration of practices, histories and material cultures of drawing in architecture and related fields. Initiated by Drawing Matter in collaboration with the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), it builds upon the kind of wide-ranging inquiry into architecture’s graphic forms evident in the rich array of texts that has accumulated over recent years on the Drawing Matter website. This is a resource that now attracts some 15,000 readers each month, from a broad range of disciplines. DMJournal will extend this content by providing a complementary publishing platform that is peer-reviewed and able to host full-length articles. It will promote scholarship that is rigorous, engaging and supple, and that approaches drawing as an expansive and vital area of cultural production.

  1. About
  2. Call for Papers 2021/22
    Architecture and the Geological Imagination (Guest Editor: Kurt Forster)
    Drawing Instruments: Instrumental Drawings (Guest Editor: Paul Emmons)
  3. Submission Process
  4. Issues
  5. Editorial & Advisory Committees

Join the Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT)

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT) was formed in May 2021. It comprises staff and students from the School of Architecture + Cities, the Westminster Business School and members of the University Estates team committed to meeting climate, biodiversity and planetary
system challenges. Over the next three years it aims to:

  • develop short, medium and long term strategies for the school to address the climate crisis
  • build collaborative relations between staff and students to collectively develop a more climate, biodiverse and planetary conscious curriculum
  • establish links between disciplines in the school around climate change
  • raise levels of climate change literacy in the school
  • promote climate conscious practice

ArCCAT comprises four working groups – Strategic Planning, Curriculum Change, Climate Conscious Practice and Events, Campaigns and Communications and works collaboratively with student societies – Westminster Environment Society, Westminster Architecture Society and WestCAN.

In the autumn semester of 2021 ArCCAT activities and events will include:

  • A student competition for the design of an ArCCAT logo (see below)
  • Climate Action Week (25-29 October), part of a month-long series of special events on sustainability across the university to coincide with the start of COP 26 in Glasgow
  • The launch of a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Dispose Campaign in partnership with the Fabrication Lab and the Marylebone Estates Team
  • An exhibition on the Learning Platform as part of Climate Action Week
  • A student competition for the design of a material reuse station for the studios

To join ArCCAT contact Lindsay Bremner at L.Bremner@westminster.ac.uk , or through Westminster Environment Society, Westminster Architecture Society or WestCAN.

MArch DS15 graduate Michelle Barratt’s painting selected for this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Huge congratulations to Michelle Barratt, a DS15 graduate from 2020 whose painting Room was selected to be featured in this year’s Royal Academy Summer Show. The painting was a part of Barratt’s MArch project Technical College, Barking.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021 features over 1, 000 works selected by the coordinator Yinka Shonibare and a panel of artists under the theme of ‘Reclaiming Magic’.

The exhibitions will be open from the 22nd of September 2021 to the 2nd of January 2022.

Open Call | Architecture LGBT+ presents: DESIGNING ‘OUT’ | Deadline for submissions – Monday, August 16, 2021

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Architecture LGBT+ are launching an OPEN CALL for an exhibition of talent from beyond professional practice to be exhibited at the Roca London Gallery for the month of September. The exhibition will be part of the Open House festival, London Design Festival and within the Pride In London month. Alongside the opportunity to be part of the physical exhibition, selected participants will be invited as guests onto our upcoming podcast and featured on our website. All work submitted to the Open Call will be presented in an online showcase that chronicles LGBTQIA+ voices emerging across the built environment. A panel of judges (listed below) will make a selection of submitted work to be part of the physical exhibition at Roca London Gallery and all those that submit will be invited to an exhibition opening event at the gallery. We hope this will be a great opportunity to show off the remarkable talent in our community and a chance to come together and reflect on the importance of LGBTQIA+ perspectives in architecture; especially given all those that have missed out on the opportunity to show their work physically over the past two years as a result of lockdown restrictions.  

We are looking for work across architectural academia from Undergraduates, Postgraduates, PhD candidates, Tutors and independent researchers who identify as LGBTQIA+ or community allies who have created work pertaining to the wider Queer community.

To be eligible you must meet the following criteria:

  1. The project must be concerning the fields of architecture and the built environment and must have been created outside of professional practice.
  2. If produced at Undergraduate or Postgraduate level priority will be given to academic year 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, projects from outside of these years will be judged on their merit.
  3. If produced at PhD level, by an Independent researcher or by an academic tutor it must be from the past ten years or an ongoing project.
  4. Those applying must identify as LGBTQIA+ (there is no requirement for the project to include LGBTQIA+ themes) or be an Ally who has created a project directly pertaining to the LGBTQIA+ community.

After checking your eligibility and collecting information about you and your project we will ask you to submit an A1 Portrait presentation board no larger than 15MB. The board must include your project title and your name. The presentation board will be used in the judging process and in the online showcase of all submissions. A selection of submitted projects will be made by a panel of judges for participation in the physical exhibition.

The Open Call for submissions will close on 16th August 2021, selected participants will be contacted from 19th August via email. 

OPEN 2021 – School of Architecture + Cities and Hamza Shaikh : ” Does university prepare you for practice?” | Online event | Friday, July 2, 2021 from 17:00 to 19:00 (BST)

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Please join us on Friday, 2nd of July from 5pm to 7pm (BST), for the last in the series of events around our graduating students’ virtual degree show OPEN2021. We will host our last year’s graduate, Hamza Shaikh, the founder and the host of the Two Worlds Design podcast, and a maker at Make Architects.

Through recounting his architectural education journey, as well as the ways in which he explored and expanded his interests in relation to the architectural profession and beyond, Hamza will help us tackle the difficult, yet important and timely question: Does university prepare you for practice? 

The event will be streamed live on the School of Architecture + Cities’ YouTube channel and Hamza Shaikh’s Two Worlds Design YouTube channel.

5pm Introduction + short film

5.30 – 6.30pm Drawing and the evolving practice

6.30 – 7.00pm Audience Q&A

Hamza Shaikh Bio

Hamza Shaikh is currently a Part 2 Architectural Assistant and Partner at Make Architects, London. He is also the founder & host of the Two Worlds Design podcast series which explores the hidden potential of Architecture by speaking with leading practitioners both within and outside of the field. In 2020 he co-founded the MAD Collective (@the_madcollective),which held multiple symposia to highlight broad issues within the field of architecture and university. He also shares experimental drawing techniques on his popular Instagram page @hamzashaikh.design. More broadly, he shares architectural guidance on his fast-growing YouTube Channel, and he has been described as an ‘Architectural Influencer’ on social media.