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London Festival of Architecture 2021 Film Screening: Aalto (Virpi Suutari 2020) + Prof Harry Charrington and Virpi Suutari in conversation | June 2, 2021 18:00-19:00

AALTO is a documentary film journey into the life and work of one of the greatest modern architects Alvar Aalto. The film shares the love story of Alvar and his architect wives Aino and Elissa Aalto. It takes the viewer on a cinematic tour to their creative processes and iconic buildings all over the world. We visit their buildings in Finland, a library in Russia, a student dormitory at MIT, an art collector’s private house near Paris, a pavilion in Venice – and many other unique places.

The film is available to watch 1-7 June. Register on Eventbrite to receive your free streaming link.

See the film trailer using event link.

Director Virpi Suutari and Professor Harry Charrington will discuss the film on 2 June 18-19.

Professor Harry Charrington, Head of School of Architecture + Cities, is also one of the main narrators and consultants in this newly released documentary film.

Tickets/Booking:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aalto-virpi-suutari-2020-film-screening-tickets-150740666391

Westminster Climate Action Network and Manchester Climate Action Group: ARCHITECTURE WON’T BE RELEVANT ON A DEAD PLANET! | Online, May 18, 2021 at 17:00 BST

When: Tuesday, 18th of May 2021, 17:00 – 18:30 BST

Eventbrite booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/architecture-wont-be-relevant-on-a-dead-planet-tickets-154547462621

Since the beginning of civilization, the human race has used architecture as a form of protection from the changing climate, sometimes referred to as the Third Skin. However, significant global climate change has brought to light the impact humanity has had on the planet due to the mass extraction of fossil fuels and other unsustainable practices. The challenge we face is not only important for humanity, but the Earth as a whole. How can architecture play a role in the survival of the planet?

Format…

The format is a panel discussion guided by a chair between two students, two tutors, and two professionals, each invited by the two universities. Each speaker will present for 3-4 minutes, after which a general discussion will follow facilitated by the chair. At this point, members of the audience are invited to ask questions in the live chat aimed at certain speakers or both panels as a whole. The questions will be selected by the chair, so that the conversation opens up into new areas, thus expanding everyone’s learning on this pertinent yet broad topic.

DEBATE THEMES…

TECHNOLOGICAL – Technology in Architecture has fundamentally shaped society, the economy and the environment. Throughout time, the rapid and continuous urbanization of the modern world has put pressure on cities to provide satisfactory living conditions for humans at the cost of the environment. Even though technology itself has caused many environmental and social problems, it could be key to addressing some of the pressing global challenges we face as a society, through helping to reduce the negative impact of the built environment on the Earth. However, the new employed technologies are facing differing opinions in regards to which solutions have greater benefits on the environment:

ECOLOGICAL – For generations humans have presented themselves as dominant over nature, exploiting and viewing it as subordinate without considering the severe repercussions on the environment. Directly relating to architecture, construction sites for instance have gradually destroyed the habitats of species which are crucial to our survival on the planet leaving them shelter-less.

SOCIAL – Through the work of social scientists and other like-minded people, the impact of the Anthropocene is being acknowledged as more than just climate science. Awareness of environmental injustice has led to the development of terms such as “the unequal exchange”, the material extraction and labour exploitation of communities for the benefit of others. In addition, these areas in the Global South will be impacted by the effects of climate change sooner. This injustice is not just between nations, but within societies, as the global top 10% are responsible for half of all global emissions (Oxfam, 2020).

Design and Build Workshop at Kangerlussuaq, Greenland from 25th of July to 9th of August 2021 | Deadline for applications: May 25, 2021

Architecture students are encouraged to apply to design and build workshop in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland that will take place between 29th of July and 9th of August.

The workshop will be located in Kangerlussuaq where the students during a period of 14 days will construct one of the several installations / structures by recycling materials from the local dump site in Kangerlussuaq. The workshop and resulting project will through re-use have a focus on environment and climate challenges on a local and global scale. We will work together with 5 students Arctic DTU in Sisimiut, Greenland.

Tens students will be selected based on 1 page A4 long free form applications. Please send max 1MB email by 25th of May to: sami@ri-eg.com

The workshop will be facilitated by architect professor Sami Rental and architect Harald Seljesæter. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangerlussuaq

https://visitgreenland.com/

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1557

https://destinationarcticcircle.com/

http://www.sisimiut.museum.gl/Kangerlussuaq_Museum-2

Workshop facts:

Location and base will be Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.

How to get to Greenland: 

Flights from Copenhagen CPH to Kangerlussuaq SFJ

The team will live together in a research station building in Kangerlussuaq. Two people may have to share a room. 

The project will cover accommodation and food during workshop. Travels must be covered by participants. No participation fee. 

Deadline 25th of June to confirm if the project is possible due to Covid-19. Negative test requested at CPH before boarding the plane, and again at Greenland after 5 days.

Current regulations request quarantine (5 days) which will be the start of the workshop design phase. The team will form a cohort. 

The project will reserve tickets with negotiated prices for the flight between Copenhagen-Kangerlussuaq (Air Greenland) for the chosen participants & payment pater. 

The team will be 10 international students + 5 students from Greenland. Work together with volunteers and local people. 

One free day with social expedition / excursion.

Inussiarnersumik Inuulluaqqusillunga! / Best Wishes!

Project Team

Student Summer Drawing Workshop: Cartographies of Imagination | Deadline: Friday, June 4, 2021

Cartographies of the Imagination festival of drawing in collaboration with Drawing Matter

The workshop is open to all students of architecture, landscape, visual arts and related.


Key information:

Weekend drawing workshop 17-18 July at OmVed Gardens (RIBA 2019 London award winning space designed by HASA)

Speculative and experimental drawing workshop run by Sayan Skandarajah and Kirsty Badenoch of The Bartlett UCL/University of Reading, in collaboration with Drawing Matter

The produced works will be displayed as part of the exhibition throughout the festival (designed by PiM Studio)

Free to take part (limited places available)

Deadline for applications 4th June

RIBA: The Wren Insurance Association Scholarship | Deadline: Friday, June 18, 2021, 5pm

Five scholarships of £6,000 each are now available to support architecture students starting the final year of their Part 2 course in September 2021.

The winners will also have the opportunity to be mentored by an architect from of one of the 67 leading UK architectural practices that make up the Wren Insurance Association, an architects’ professional indemnity mutual. 

Details can be found online at: 

architecture.com/wrenscholarships

gillian.harrison@riba.org

020 73073678

LUMIES: film making competition | Deadline: Saturday, June 5, 2021

Here’s your chance to be Part of Cinema History!

Just make a “sequel” to any of the Lumiere Brothers’ films.

The best films will be projected at the Regent Street Cinema in the summer, at the very place where the Lumiere Brothers first screened their originals to an astonished British audience, exactly 125 years ago.

The winners will receive a prestigious “LUMIE” award, and they will be world record* holders!

the longest wait for a film sequel.

For more information please go here.

Scholarship opportunity | Architecture Sans Frontières UK: Practices of Urban Inclusion – Collaborative learning programme |Deadline: Sunday, May 30, 2021

ASF-UK are offering two funded scholarships on our new part-time educational offer, Practices of Urban Inclusion, taking place this May to October 2021! Scholarships are offered to individuals working in the fields of migration and/or refugee support in the UK.

This course forms part of the Erasmus Plus programme, Desinc Live: Designing and Learning in the Context of Migration. Desinc Live is a European learning programme aimed at exploring what is needed to create cities as places of care for people with lived experience of migration, displacement and exile.

For more information you can view the Course Prospectus here https://bit.ly/3wnQBGQ
and the Call-out for participants here: https://bit.ly/3ftAO3n

British School at Rome: Scholars’ Prize in Architecture and Giles Worsley Fellowship | Deadline: Friday, May 28, 2021

British School at Rome Architecture Awards:

Scholars’ Prize in Architecture

The Scholars’ Prize in Architecture is an exciting and valuable opportunity for an early-career architect or post-Part II student of architecture to spend three months in Rome (living at the BSR), and be a member of a vibrant residential community of architects, artists and researchers. It enables somebody to pursue their own, self-directed programme of research. This research — related to the city of Rome or, if appropriate, elsewhere in Italy — may take the form of an architectural project, a theoretical study or an historical investigation, or indeed a combination of all three. It offers accommodation in a study-bedroom and board, for three months, a monthly stipend, a group exhibition, and participation in a range of interdisciplinary activities.

The Scholar’s Prize in Architecture has been made possible by donations from a number of former BSR award-holders and others, who will be actively involved in the shortlisting.  Members of the Architecture Advisory Committee will also review the applications. Final selection at interview will be by members of the Faculty of the Fine Arts of the BSR .

I have no doubt that the Scholars’ Prize was of fundamental importance to my future practice. The experience changed how I think about my own work and helped define the questions I wanted to pursue in the future.

Morgan Gostwyck-Lewis (winner of the Scholars’ Prize in Architecture, 2016–17)

For: recently qualified architects (post Part II) who have shown exceptional promise in either their student work or their early professional career, or both

Open to: those of British or Commonwealth nationality, and those who have been working professionally or studying at postgraduate level for at least the last three years in the UK or Commonwealth (i.e. since May 2018)

Duration: three months (January–March 2022) (these dates may be subject to change as we assess the ever-changing situation regarding COVID-19)

Research grant:  £700 per month

Further details are available by clicking here, and the application form here. To apply, please send your completed application form, an equal opportunities monitoring form and a curriculum vitae to londonoffice@bsrome.it.

Closing date for applications:  Friday 28 May 2021

Giles Worsley Fellowship

The Giles Worsley Fellowship is awarded for the study of architectural history. It is open to architectural historians and architects whose research in the field or architectural or urban history would benefit from the opportunity to spend three months at the BSR experiencing the reality of buildings and spaces in and around Rome which are related directly or indirectly to their subject of study. While the research carried out at the BSR may be part of a wider project, the intention is that it should be brought together and presented at the end of the Fellowship as a discrete piece of work.

Selection for this Fellowship is by a panel formed of representatives of the RIBA, the British School at Rome and the Worsley family. Applications will also be reviewed by members of the BSR’s Architecture Advisory Committee.

Giles Worsley, the distinguished architectural historian and critic, died of cancer in 2006 at the age of 44. He was an enthusiastic visitor to Italy and a great believer in the importance of Italian architecture of all periods in understanding the development of Western architecture. He was concerned that universities do not give adequate emphasis to the teaching of architectural history and that architectural historians should be encouraged to experience the reality of influential Italian buildings.

The award was an unforgettable experience that gave me the opportunity to challenge my creative output. My time in Rome, exploring both scholarly and artistic processes, was really the stepping stone for me to test what this meant to me more specifically. Being surrounded by incredibly talented scholars and artists at the BSR, and having the opportunity to learn from them, I felt privileged to be somewhere in-between.

Mariam Gulamhussein (Giles Worsley Fellow 2019–20)

For: architectural historians and architects

Open to: those of British nationality, and those who have been living and studying for at least the last three years in the UK (i.e. since May 2018)

Duration: three months (January–March 2022) (these dates may be subject to change as we assess the ever-changing situation regarding COVID-19)

Research grant:  £700 per month

Further details are available by clicking here, and the application form here. Applicants should send a completed application form, a curriculum vitae, an equal opportunities monitoring form, a statement of 500–700 words indicating the subject of their proposal and their suitability for the Fellowship, and the names and addresses (including e-mail) of two referees to londonoffice@bsrome.it. They should ask the two referees to send a reference in support of their application directly to the BSR.

Closing date for applications:  Friday 28 May 2021

A call for proposals for a forthcoming book: “Interiors in the Era of Covid-19” | Deadline: Tuesday, June 1, 2021

The Covid19 pandemic has caused people, worldwide, to be confined to their homes for longer periods of time than previously, causing many changes to take place within them, while many other interiors beyond the home, including hospitals and care homes, have had to respond to the new priorities in a variety of ways. Homes have had to accommodate the additional roles of schools, gymnasia, restaurants, cinemas, offices, making spaces and more. Above all, the home has been looked to as a site to support and enhance the well-being of its inhabitants in a variety of ways. At the same time, the work, retail, leisure, and hospitality spaces in our city centre buildings sit empty constituting a threat to the future urban environment.

A webinar on the subject of Interiors in the era of Covid-19 was hosted by the Modern Interiors Research Centre (MIRC), which is based at Kingston University, London on March 24th 2021. Following that highly successful event, and interest shown by an academic press, we are currently constructing a proposal for a book of essays, based on the themes and ideas that were raised at the webinar.

With Prof. Penny Sparke as lead editor, ‘Interiors in the era of Covid-19’ will be a collection of essays that offer reflections on the complex ways in which a variety of inside spaces have responded to Covid-19 and other pandemics/human crises. The scope of this volume is global and, while most of the essays deal with contemporary issues, others are historically based. We are keen to consider essays that address, among others, the following themes:

    •   health and well-being at home
    •   home working
    •   representing home during the pandemic
    •   interiors beyond the home
    •   collection and museum initiatives on pandemic interiors
    •   responses by interior design educators to the changing context

Some over-arching themes – including the shifting relationship between the arenas of the public and the private; the implications for people’s identities; the important roles played by technology; gender; and the importance of ‘making’ – cut across these themes. Importantly, the essays explore the roles played by designers (both amateur and professional) in accommodating changing requirements and anticipating future ones.

In addition to considering developments of the papers presented at the webinar as potential content for the proposed book, MIRC is offering an opportunity to anyone else who would like to be considered as a contributor to submit a proposal to us. We are especially interested in essays which deal with historical case-studies that address the relationship of pandemics/diseases/human crises with interiors that could help provide a context for the essays with a contemporary focus.

Please send proposals of 500 words, complete with references, to Patricia Lara-Betancourt at p.lara-betancourt@kingston.ac.uk by Tuesday 1st June 2021.

Call for Abstracts: RAPS Radicality 2021 Conference | Deadline: Friday, April 30, 2021

RAPS Radicality 2021 Conference is pleased to invite extended abstract submissions for 30th April 2021. We invite submissions from architects, academics, artists, environmental scientists, engineers, activists, sociologists and visionaries amongst others to submit 300word abstracts in link below. The Conference will explore radical visions  of  architecture practice for sustainability through six themes: Architect as Activist; Green Dream; NOT building; Ecological Entanglements; Utopian Realism; Beyond Disruptive Events – Post Pandemic Practices (https://www.rapsresearch.com/services). We are excited to be joined by radical visionaries including Etienne Turpin (ANEXACT), Malene Natascha Ratcliffe (CEO, SUPERFLEX) and Maarten Gielen (ROTOR) in the keynote and debate panel sessions in Sept 2021. The keynote sessions will be reflecting upon human and non-human multi spatial modalities and radical environmental approaches to design as well as modes of cooperative design practice for a radical organisation of the material ‘designed’ and not only ‘built’ environment.

Radical Architecture Practice for Sustainability

For more information please go here.