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Robin Evans Lecture 2020: Eyal Weizman | November 24, 2020 from 18:30 to 20:30

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

About this Event

For the 2020 iteration of the annual Robin Evans Lecture, we are delighted to be joined by Eyal Weizman, founding director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. 

In light of the current pandemic this year’s lecture will be delivered online via the University of Westminster’s GoToWebinar account. Further details around the topic and discussion of this year’s lecture will be made available in due course.

Registration for the Lecture

You can register for the event on Eventbrite; either by scanning the QR code in the above invite, or by visiting:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-robin-evans-lecture-2020-eyal-weizman-tickets-125144022139

Upon registration on Eventbrite your name and email address will be added by the Event Coordinator to the individual GoToWebinar registration page. By registering on Eventbrite, you consent to these details being added to the GoToWebinar registration page for the event.

You will receive a separate email within 1 working day from University of Westminster (via customercare@gotowebinar.com) with a calendar invite and a unique link to join the Webinar. Please note: This link is unique to each registrant and should not be shared with others.

About the Speaker

Eyal Weizman is the founding director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The author of over 15 books, he has held positions in many universities worldwide including Princeton, ETH Zurich and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He is a member of the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court and the Centre for Investigative Journalism. In 2019 he was elected life fellow of the British Academy and appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to architecture.

Eyal studied architecture at the Architectural Association, graduating in 1998. He received his PhD in 2006 from the London Consortium at Birkbeck, University of London

About the Robin Evans Lecture Series

This series supports outstanding scholarship in the history of architecture and allied fields, building on the work of Professor Robin Evans (1944-1993). It encourages scholars working on the relationship between the spatial and social domains in architectural drawing, construction and beyond. Evans’ work interrogated the spaces that existed between drawing and building, geometry and architecture, teasing out the points of translation often overlooked.

From his early work on prison design and domestic spaces, through to his later work on architectural geometry, Evans sought to articulate the multiple points at which the human imagination could influence architectural form. His first book, The Fabrication of Virtue, analysed the way that spatial layouts provided opportunities for social reform via their interference with morality, privacy and class. In The Projective Cast: Architecture and its Three Geometries, Evans traced the origins of the humanist tradition to understand how human form influenced architectural drawing and construction, focusing on aesthetic dimensions in the production of architectural space.

This series will provide opportunities for the creation and/or dissemination of work by scholars working on similar questions of space, temporality, and architecture. In particular, it supports work that breaks the boundaries of traditional disciplines to think though these complex networks involved in the space between human imagination and architectural production.

Technical Studies Lecture Series: “Sartfell Retreat,” Greg Lomas, Thursday, October 22 at 18:00 [online via BB]

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Thursday, 22nd of October at 6pm

Event Link:  https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/6a1c461ca47949b5b6fbe718f5b076a5

‘Sartfell Retreat is one of those rare projects which appears to emerge out of the earth, providing a sense of permanence and protection for the clients to live with, and amongst the elements of the weather, wildlife and local ecology’  

Will Foster (Foster Lomas)

Foster Lomas is a UK-based architecture practice established by William Foster and Greg Lomas in 2005.  The practice has developed a diverse portfolio of work, ranging from highly tailored homes for private clients to a canal-side mixed-use development in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the multi award winning Sartfell Retreat on the Isle of Man and a 10-year masterplan for a 134-hectare site set within the Grand Sasso National Park of Abruzzo, Italy. 

Sartfell Retreat is part of a growing body of commissions through which the practice explores the relationship between landscape and self-sustaining architecture. Foster Lomas’ response to the site relates to their research and experience of drystone construction whilst working in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Building on this vernacular technology, they have reinterpreted the local Manx stone structures to create an original building in its unique setting. The rural environment inspires their architectural aesthetic and the practice’s diverse backgrounds in craft and product design, including blacksmithing and lighting, allow for continual experimentations and innovations. 

For more details contact Will McLean – w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk 

Technical Studies website – https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/

Technical Studies Lecture Series: “Natural Builder: Building with Bamboo,” Jan Balbaligo, Thursday, October 15 at 18:00 [online via BB]

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When: Thursday, 15th of October 6pm 

Event Link:  https://eu.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/guest/9aee3d5c1e2e42998b4074a8b1245dd0

… the green steel of the 21st Century 

Vo Trong Nghia

Bamboo is not a new building material, but given changing environmental design imperatives, this aggressive fast-growing plant species provides a strong and durable construction material. Bamboo is the largest member of the grass family and is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet – Moso bamboo from China can grow up 900 mm a day. Bamboo can be ready for harvest and construction use in three-five years compared with 20-25, for softwood timber. 

In January 2020, designer and Bamboo builder Jan Balbaligo working with non-profit arts and social enterprise Cosmic Convergence completed the Eco-Salon in San Pablo La Laguna, Solalá, Guatemala. The Eco-Salon is a multi-functional indoor space (85 m2) built on top of an existing public school to provide space for music, sports, arts, dance and other activities to complement and enrich the formal education. The building structure is a bamboo framework, with a bamboo lathe (bamboo splits) roof and bamboo split walls with a Bajareke (clay and sand) infill. Jan Balbaligo is a great advocate for the use of bamboo in construction and she has worked on a number of temporary festival structures and small school and community buildings and we are delighted to welcome Jan back to Westminster.

For more details contact Will McLean – w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk

Technical Studies website – https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/ 

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows’ article for RIBAJ: “Practical steps towards real inclusion”

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, an architect, researcher, and the BSc Architectural Technology Year 2 leader has published an article in The RIBA Journal on how the architects can use their skills to help improve conditions for the disadvantaged and marginalised communities and members of our society.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and highlighted the urgency for community collaboration towards positive societal changes.  The pandemic has changed our lives in many ways. My family is grieving the loss of several family members and friends (of Bangladeshi origin), living in the UK.

Research issued by Public Health England reveals that you are more likely to die from Covid-19 if you are BAME than someone who is white, and people of Bangladeshi ethnicity are twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those who are white and British. The recent global protests for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement brought to focus communities’ collective actions to rise up against racial injustice and various social and health inequalities which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The power of community action and collective response has become urgent for communities worldwide, whether they are affected by racial injustice, health inequality or new developments in their neighbourhood (sometimes resulting in eviction) and for all those passionate to change systemic racism and inequalities.

As practitioners and architects, we could act many ways to facilitate the voices of those who have been marginalised in the society. One of these is to get involved in local planning issues: for example, by alerting the planning authority to any new development that negatively affects low-income communities in the neighbourhood through gentrification.

I am passionate about being part of the change in my area, so volunteered to be part of my borough’s design review panel. There I have the opportunity to help address some of the issues and push the design team and the developers, to hear and respond to the voices of the community. Unfortunately, in all the recent projects we have reviewed (which happened to be led by influential architects), the design decisions did not reflect local engagement (in an area with one of the largest BAME communities in London), and showed a lack of communication with the community they had designed for. Very little work had been done towards any such local engagement in the design process. […]

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows for RIBAJ, October 2020

To read the full text please go here.

Technical Studies Lecture Series: “Building with Cross Laminated Timber (CLT),” Andrew Waugh from Waugh Thistleton Architects, Thursday, October 8 at 18:00 [online via BB]

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Thursday, 8th of October at 6pm

Event link:  https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/8d7c6b34eb16433cb169a07f519d9712

A mass timber building will weigh about 30% of a regular building, and so much reduced foundations … these buildings can be re-purposed, they are easy to adapt.

Andrew Waugh

Andrew Waugh of Waugh Thistleton Architects is a great advocate for the use of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) in construction and he first used it in a small project in 2003. His practice, subsequently built a nine-storey residential CLT tower in Murray Grove, Hackney, London and has demonstrated its success for the construction of dense urban housing and office projects. Waugh has also used other engineered timber products such as Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL), which is a large section of bonded timber veneers providing the equivalent cross-sectional strength of steel.

Andrew Waugh and Anthony Thistleton, met as students at Kingston University and established Waugh Thistleton in 1997. Waugh Thistleton Architects is a Shoreditch based architectural practice producing thoughtful and sustainable projects in its own neighbourhood and beyond. The practice is a world leader in engineered timber and pioneer in the field of tall timber buildings. In addition to being immersed in both design and construction, they run research projects, teach and experiment in timber, with their full-time timber engineer and the many PhD and Masters students that come to work with them.

For more details contact Will McLean – w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk

Technical Studies website – https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/

Technical Studies Lecture Series: “The Shape of Green” Mick Pearce, Thursday, October 1, 18:00 [online via BB]

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Thursday, 1st of October at 6.00pm

Event link: https://eu.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/guest/2415664a77cb470bb266d845cf4bcb76 

Michael Pearce is a graduate of the AA and was a student of the socio-technology gurus Reyner Banham and Cedric Price. Pearce was responsible for the design and supervision of the award-winning Eastgate Centre in Harare and the CH2 (Council House 2) Municipal offices in Melbourne Australia. The metaphor for Eastgate was the termitary, the metaphor for CH2 is the tree. Pearce believes that the architecture and its visual expression should respond to the natural, socio-cultural and economic environment of its location in the same way that an ecosystem in nature is embedded in its site. 

Pearce has been working in Zimbabwe and Zambia for 33 years. His experience covers a wide range from building in remote parts of Central Africa to converting buildings in north east England and large-scale city developments in Harare, Zimbabwe. Committed to appropriate and responsive architecture, Michael Pearce has specialised in the development of buildings which have low maintenance, low capital and running costs and renewable energy systems of environmental control. His most recent work involves developing passive control systems in small-scale single storey buildings as well as large-scale commercial multi-storey buildings using building methods which rely even less on imported materials, technologies or human resources. He has been closely involved in the development of rammed earth construction for low cost housing in remote locations in Zimbabwe where transport and energy are the largest costs in producing buildings.  

The Architecture Drawing Prize 2020 | Entry deadline: October 2, 2020

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The Architecture Drawing Prize is an international competition that celebrates the art and skill of architectural drawing. The prize is curated by Make Architects, Sir John Soane’s Museum and the World Architecture Festival.

In the spirit of many great architects of the past, from Palladio and John Soane to Le Corbusier and Cedric Price, it’s an ideal platform for reflecting on and exploring how drawing continues to advance the art of architecture today.

Entries are welcomed from architects, designers and students from around the world, in the following categories: hand-drawing, digital and hybrid.

The winning and commended entries will go on display at a dedicated exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. The winners will also receive a delegate pass to the World Architecture Festival where they have their work on display and they will be presented with their award.

For more information please visit here.

School of Architecture + Cities featured in Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival School Show

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

University of Westminster architecture students share “varied design approaches” across 9 projects

A dementia clinic that celebrates the joy of eggs and a dance school for the over 60s feature in this VDF school show of work from the University of Westminster‘s architecture students.

Of the more than 750 graduates and undergraduates that make up the university’s School of Architecture and Cities, nine students’ work is showcased below, spanning disciplines from environmental and urban design to interior architecture.

Dezeen.com

For more info and to see the featured students’ work please visit here.

Featured image: The Really Really Real by Sinead Fahey, MArch DS15

OPEN2020 Rolling Programme and Launch

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The OPEN2020 has been revised to more accurately reflect its nature as a rolling programme of events and an evolving platform being created by the School’s staff and students.

As a result, the schedule of events is planned to take place as follows:

6.30pm, Thursday 2 July

  • Introduction to the VirtualOPEN2020 programme and the collaborative OPENwestminster.london exhibition platform
  • OPEN2020 Catalogue and Film presentation

11am, Monday 6, Wednesday 8, and Friday 10 July

Digital Employability Skills for the Post Covid-19 World Webinar Series – for all SA+C students, hosted within the construction site of the Virtual OPEN2020 platform.

6.30pm, Thursday 16 July 

  • Opening of the VirtualOPEN2020 Exhibition Platform
  • Opening speech by Prof Sadie Morgan

Congratulations to MArch DS23 5th Year Student Hamza Shaikh on being featured on Design Boom!

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Hamza Shaikh is an MArch student at the School of Architecture and Cities, who has just completed his RIBA Part 2 Diploma in DS23, and is well-known for his popular podcast series on architecture and design Two World Design.

His MArch final project “The Sleep Institute” was recently featured on Design Boom.

To read more about his project and look at his fantastic portfolio please visit here.

Featured image by Hamza Shaikh