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.
ArCCAT would like to congratulate Hugo Reis Santos (BSc Architecture and Environmental Design Year 3) for his winning design for a logo for the Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT), as well as Grace Lancto, Stefano Towli and Winander Rachbuakao as runners-up.
Thank you to all who participated in the competition.
The awards will be presented at the opening of the Climate Action Week Exhibition on the Learning Platform at 17.30 on 25th October.
All are welcome to attend.
When: Thursday, 21st of October at 6pm
Where: Room M416 + Livestream, School of Architecture and Cities , University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Livestream Link: https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/fc7cfc71b9534b29830ec5e4ae564d16
Before air conditioning, people paid attention to materials and orientation for the natural regulation of heat.
Nzinga Mboup
Senegal’s traditional dwellings were made of earth, but that construction method has slowly been abandoned. Dakar’s sidewalks today are littered with piles of sand and stones that are mixed with cement to make cheap building blocks.
Worofila and Mboup were inspired to use modern earth bricks made from soil and very small amounts of cement and water to create a mixture that is cut into blocks, compressed with a hand-operated machine and left to dry in the sun for 21 days. Unlike concrete, earth bricks require very little embodied energy to produce. Worofila have worked with Elementerre on the construction of private homes, offices and part of a train station. Elementerre, is an earth brick manufacturer founded by Doudou Deme in 2010.
This reimagining and reengineering of earth construction remains niche and it currently costs more than concrete with many clients still unaware of this as a building material. Worofila has recently been longlisted for an Ashden Award, a British prize for climate solutions, which it hopes will raise visibility of this ‘age old’ but actually very new age natural material – locally sourced and with excellent thermal performance, which acts to moderate the internal temperature and humidity of the architecture.
https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/
For details contact: Will McLean
w.f.mclean@wmin.ac.uk
When: Thursday, 14th of October 2021, 15:30 CEST (14:30 London)
Where: You can find the link to join the session in the attached programme or directly via zoom here: https://zoom.us/j/97320816756
Giulio Verdini (BA Designing Cities) is moderating a session on ‘Climate Justice in Pedagogy and Practice‘ at I4C ‘Innovate 4 Cities’ conference IPCC / UN-HABITAT / GCoM https://www.innovate4cities.org.
The session will be an opportunity to share and discuss the results of the UoW SCUE funded projects ‘Globally-informed (or decolonising) City Climate Pedagogy and Practice’ http://blog.westminster.ac.uk/ccpp/ (2019-2021) together with a number of global scholars and practioners from all over the world. The conference will feed into COP26 in Glasgow.
Registration free.
When: Thursday, 14th of October at 6pm
Where: Room M416 + Livestream, School of Architecture and Cities , University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Link to join livestream https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/954cdae480dd42c7b74ca7c02d5e59df
HANNAH is an experimental design and research studio working across scales from furniture to urbanism. HANNAH’s projects mine the tension between machine means and architectural ends. They reclaim authorship over processes of construction that influence the way we can build – or perhaps ought to build in the future. Leslie and Sasa will discuss the ‘Ashen Cabin’ (upstate New York), which uses 3D printed concrete and locally sourced ‘waste’ ash timber.
Leslie Lok is a co-principal at HANNAH, an award-winning experimental design practice for built and speculative projects. Lok is also an assistant professor and the B.Arch Coordinator at Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Lok’s research and teaching explore the intersection of housing, urbanization, and mass-customized construction methods at multiple scales. At Cornell, Lok directs the Urban Construction Laboratory (UCL).
Sasa Zivkovic is a co-principal at HANNAH, an experimental design practice based in Ithaca, New York. Zivkovic is also an assistant professor at Cornell University AAP where he directs the Robotic Construction Laboratory (RCL), an interdisciplinary research group that develops and implements novel robotic construction technology. Interdisciplinary in nature, the work integrates cutting-edge materials, advanced fabrication, mechanical design, architectural computation, structural optimization, and sustainable construction.
https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/
For details contact: Will McLean
The School of Architecture + Cities launched ArCCAT on 20th May 2021. It is made up of staff and students from across the school committed to bringing about the cultural shift in education to meet climate biodiversity and planetary system challenges.
Current students of the School of Architecture + Cities or those who graduated in 2021 are invited to submit proposals for a logo for ArCCAT to represent its aims and build its identity and profile.
Launch: Monday 20 September 2021
Submission extended to Monday, 11th of October 2021 | 600 x 600 px jpgs to Lindsay Bremner at l.bremner@westminster.ac.uk
Prizes
Where: Gallery Café, 309 Regent St, 18 October – 15 November
When: 18 October, 18.30-19.30
Speakers: Lindsay Bremner, PI of Monsoon Assemblages in conversation with Tom Corby, Associate Dean of Research, Central St Martins.
This exhibition shows a selection of maps drawn by John Cook for Monsoon Assemblages, a research project in the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster funded by the European Research Council between 2016-2021. The project drew on the environmental humanities, the natural sciences and the spatial disciplines to develop an understanding of the entanglements of the monsoon in everyday life, politics and planning in Chennai, Delhi, Dhaka and Yangon, four of South Asia’s rapidly growing cities. The maps were mechanisms through which the project team constructed understandings of the materiality of the monsoon and the many mechanisms that drive it. At the opening, Lindsay Bremner will discuss the maps with Tom Corby, Associate Dean of Research at Central St Martins.
Monsoon Assemblages was led by Professor Lindsay Bremner, with Dr. Beth Cullen, Christina Geros, John Cook, Harshavardhan Bhat and Anthony Powis. Monsoon Assemblages was a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 679873, 2016-2021).
Featured image by John Cook.
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
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.
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
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.
Featured image: Gemma Mohajer, The Mycology Institute