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.
The second Expanded Territories reading group will meet in M330 on Wednesday 06 June at 17.30.
Christina Geros will introduce:
Architecture in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Design, Deep Time, Science and Philosophy, edited by Etienne Turpin.
The book is available for download or purchase here:
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/architecture-in-the-anthropocene/
Discussion will be accompanied by wine and nibbles.
All are welcome.
The AJ has launched a free-to-enter prize aimed specifically at UK-based architecture schools, open to all students on RIBA-accredited architecture courses.
We are inviting all schools to submit the final-year projects of their two best students – one at undergraduate (Part 1) and one at postgraduate (Part 2) level. The projects must have been completed in the most recent academic season (2017/18). The AJ will publish the two entries received from each school in its annual student issue in July.
The judges – who will be announced next month – will choose two winners, one from each level, who will be announced at a prize-giving event in London this September. The winners’ work will also be covered in a September issue of the AJ.
This prize is a great platform for universities to celebrate the work of their students and their architecture departments in teaching the next generation of skilled architects.
More info on how to apply here.
Christophe Van Gerrewey, David Peleman, Bart Decroos (eds.)
In an interview from 2003, writer Sandro Veronesi talks about his education as an architect:
When you’re born in Florence, architecture is the ideal approach to learn the best of one’s tradition. It is a broad study, ranging from mathematical to humanist subjects, architecture included. I found that very attractive. I have never practised architecture, but I think like an architect: it’s a way of looking at the world.
Veronesi is a ‘product’ of the architecture education that came into being following May ’68. The humanities – history, theory, criticism, literature – become of paramount importance; architects are trained to become critical intellectuals or ‘good civilians’ with a wide knowledge of culture.
This tradition is discussed in a conversation between Peter Eisenman and Pier Vittorio Aureli (LOG 28, 2013).
‘The idea was that architecture was taught,’ Eisenman says, ‘as a way of educating – not to learn about architecture, but as a means to understand society. So when you had 7,000 students at the University of Venice, they were not all going to be architects, but they were using architecture, as previous generations used the law, as a way of understanding society.’ Aureli replies: ‘Yes, the humanities were a fundamental component of the education of an architect.’ Elsewhere in their conversation the Bologna Process (1999) is considered as another key moment in the history of European education, following ’68. ‘Bologna’ forced the educational system to yield clear ‘returns’, and to develop a professional profile that makes students independent and self-sufficient in a globalised free market. Does it still make sense to educate architects as ‘critical intellectuals’, or does this model belong to the past?
OASE invites authors to inquire what kind of architect and urban planner is or was being ‘produced’ at European schools of architecture. In which way has the classic distinction between the architect-as-engineer and the architect-as-artist been defined, and is it still valid today? What is the result of an education in architecture, and what kinds of subjectivity are formed? Can skills be defined professionally, or do they transcend the ‘tools’ that are needed to ‘work’? Do schools really define the training they offer – and how? Thanks to a legacy, or rather by means of well-known and influential tutors? To what degree do schools imitate what happens in a globalised world and in professional praxis? And what moments have been historically decisive in the European organisation of architecture education?
OASE welcomes historical case studies – about schools, methods, teachers, reforms or books – or critical analyses of contemporary European schools and educational practices. Interviews are possible, personal or institutional presentations of pedagogical projects or positions are not.
Proposals for contributions should be submitted to info@oasejournal.nl by 15 May 2018 and must include a proposed title, an abstract (maximum 300 words), as well as the contributor’s name, professional affiliation (if applicable), email address and a short bio (maximum 150 words).
http://www.islanddynamics.org/darknessconference.html
This multidisciplinary conference explores cultural and environmental aspects of darkness. Darkness is a recurring motif: as chaos and void in mythological narratives; as an aesthetic choice or driver of adaptation in architecture and design; as a marker of hidden activity on the dark web; as a source of dread, beauty, or awe in literature and film; as an ambiguously attractive quality in dark tourism; as an ideal threatened by light pollution; as a symbol of otherness in colonial encounters.
Darkness and the impossibility of visual orientation often connote danger, uncertainty, malice, even moral ruin. Indeed, darkness plays so central a role in our understandingof terror that it is deemed worthy of note when a horror film succeeds in terrifying us in the daylight (The Wicker Man (1973), Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)). Both in the past and today, Western colonialism has addressed its own anxieties by projecting them onto the non-European “dark places of the earth,” as Conrad puts it in Heart of Darkness (1899). Darkness can also be appealing. Tourists are drawn both to the illicit thrill of visiting sites of tragedy and violence and to the humbling majesty of the polar night. In a densely populated world, natural darkness is an increasingly rare experience, leading to the establishment of International Dark Sky Sanctuaries where the stars of the night sky remain visible.
About Longyearbyen, Svalbard: Longyearbyen (population 2200) is the world’s northernmost town, the main settlement in the vast Svalbard archipelago. Although Svalbard is under Norwegian jurisdiction, this arctic outpost is so remote and its environment so harsh that it was first permanently inhabited in the early 20th century. Longyearbyen was founded as a coal mining town and hosts an arctic sciences university centre, yet life here today increasingly revolves around tourism: both during the summer, when the sun never sets, and in winter, when the sun never rises. The polar night lasts from late October until mid-February. Delegates will have the opportunity to experience the northern lights (aurora borealis) and the deep darkness of the arctic wilderness.
About the conference: Delegates will arrive in Longyearbyen on 13 January. On 14 and 17 January, delegates will take excursions out into Svalbard’s spectacular Arctic landscape and industrial heritage: 1) a trip into the polar night by dog sled and 2) a visit to one of Longyearbyen’s old coal mines. (The precise excursions are subject to weather.) Conference presentations by delegates will be held on 15-16 January at Radisson Blu Polar Hotel Spitsbergen. Registration covers five dinners and all conference activities.
How to make a presentation: 15-minute presentations are welcome on any aspects of darkness in culture and the environment. The deadline for abstracts is 30 June 2018. You can submit your abstract here. The deadline for early registration is 31 July, and the final deadline registration 31 October.
If you have any questions, please e-mail convenor Anne Sofia Karhio.
http://www.islanddynamics.org/extraterritoriality2019.html
This conference explores tangible consequences of territories subject to exceptional forms of governance or jurisdiction: enclaves and exclaves, autonomous zones, reservations, reserves, domestic dependent sovereignties, export processing zones, sham federacies, subnational island jurisdictions, overseas territories, military installations, protectorates, realms, free-trade zones, and any other forms of specially designated territory, the status of which creates identifiable outcomes. These outcomes include (but are not limited to) territorially conditioned differentiations in: economic policies and practices; inward or outward migration; culture, language, and traditions; health; Indigenous self-determination; military alliances and installations; scientific and research practices; environmental issues; jurisdictional capacity; and diplomatic or paradiplomatic practices.
About Longyearbyen, Svalbard: Longyearbyen (population 2200) is the world’s northernmost town, the main settlement in the vast Svalbard archipelago. Svalbard is under Norwegian jurisdiction and is administered by a Governor appointed by the Norwegian state. Nevertheless, the terms of the Svalbard Treaty (1920) have placed significant limits on Norway’s ability to control immigration to and economic activity in this distant territory. Longyearbyen is home to residents of over 40 nationalities, Russia runs the mining town of Barentsburg, and the settlement at Ny-Ålesund hosts research stations from more than a dozen countries. The polar night, when the sun never breaches the horizon, lasts from late October until mid-February.
About the conference: Delegates will arrive in Longyearbyen on 20 January. On 21 and 24 January, delegates will take excursions out into Svalbard’s spectacular Arctic landscape and industrial heritage: 1) a trip into the polar night by dog sled and 2) a visit to one of Longyearbyen’s old coal mines. (The precise excursions are subject to weather.) Conference presentations by delegates will be held on 22-23 January at Radisson Blu Polar Hotel Spitsbergen. Registration covers five dinners and all conference activities.
How to make a presentation: This interdisciplinary conference welcomes presentations addressing any region of the world as well as innovative perspectives that highlight the complex intersections of multiple peoples, places, and polities. Presentations last 15 minutes and will be followed by around 5 minutes’ question time. The deadline for abstracts is 30 June 2018. You can submit your abstract here. The deadline for early registration is 31 July, and the final deadline registration 31 October.
If you have any questions, e-mail convenor Zachary Androus.
http://www.islanddynamics.org/cultureurbanspace.html
The city cannot be understood in terms of its buildings, infrastructure, and physical geography alone. Urban materiality is inextricably linked with city life: Urban spaces are influenced by the cultures that inhabit them, and urban form shapes these cultures in turn. This conference brings together researchers, planners, designers, and architects from around the globe to explore the mutual influence of urban culture and urban form.
Impacts of past urban planning reverberate long after original rationales have become obsolete: Fortifications (walls, moats, fortresses), coastlines and land reclamation, transport infrastructure (roads, bridges, city gates), and other elements of the built environment structure future development. Aspects of urban form contribute to dividing the city into neighbourhoods, determining which areas flourish while others decay, encouraging shifts from industrial to tourism to leisure uses. The city’s architectures affect the cultures of the people who use them: Different kinds of housing foster different forms of sociality or isolation, and different networked infrastructures promote different pathways to the internal cohesion and/or citywide integration of urban cultures. Whether urban cultural landscapes evolve gradually over time or result from decisive, top-down planning, they reflect and influence the city’s multitude of identities, industries, cultural politics, ethnic relations, and expressive cultures.
About Macau: In 1557, Portugal established a colony on Macau, then a sparsely populated archipelago in the Pearl River Delta. Macau developed into a major trading centre and regional leader in the gambling industry. Macau became a self-governing Special Administrative Region of China in 1999. Macau’s islands were expanded through land reclamation over time. The spatial limitations arising from the territory’s enclave geography led to extreme yet phased urban densification. Macau is today the most densely populated territory in the world, with 650,000 residents concentrated in just 30.5 km², primarily on the 8.5 km² Macau Peninsula. Yet despite its small size, Macau Peninsula is a place of strong neighbourhood and functional distinction, encompassing heritage tourism zones; Buddhist, Taoist, and Christian religious sites; residential districts at all income levels; casino zones; green parks; and retail districts.
Although Macau is best known for its gambling tourism and UNESCO World Heritage status (both of which are characterised by strict regulatory regimes), Macau Peninsula in particular is rich in vernacular urban and architectural practices that flourish alongside, above, and sometimes beneath the city’s internationally oriented facade. The simultaneous preservation of colonial heritage and construction of monumental casino tourism infrastructure means that, despite the withdrawal of Portuguese colonial rule, the culture, traditions, and lifestyles of the Chinese people of Macau continue to be pushed to the margins of this hyper-dense city, necessitating creative spatial practices and clear differentiations between spaces for tourists and residents. At the same time, in an atmosphere of Western suspicion toward China, Macau’s decolonisation and re-Sinification is often framed in terms of culture loss, a framing that paradoxically echoes discourses surrounding Indigenous activism. Macau’s urban space thus contains and conditions complex negotiations regarding cultural authenticity, visibility, and practice.
About the conference: ‘Culture in Urban Space’ allows delegates to contextualise knowledge and engage with the local community. On 8-10 April, delegates will explore the morphological and cultural distinctions of Macau Peninsula, visiting diverse neighbourhoods across the city, with an emphasis on the ways in which the urban environment has transformed over the centuries. Delegates will experience Macau’s urban environment through three days of walking-based field trips, including visits to tourist gateways, religious sites, heritage tourism zones, and residential neighbourhoods, and casino zones, and commercial areas. Conference presentations will take place on 11-12 April. Special emphasis will be placed on negotiations of meaning within the urban environment, particularly in the aftermath of colonialism and other forms of cultural encounter.
How to make a presentation: This interdisciplinary conference welcomes presentations addressing any region of the world as well as innovative perspectives that highlight the complex intersections of multiple peoples, places, and polities. Presentations last 15 minutes and will be followed by around 5 minutes’ question time. The deadline for abstracts is 31 August 2018. You can submit your abstract here. The deadline for early registration is 31 October, and the final deadline registration 30 December.
If you have any questions, e-mail convenor Adam Grydehøj.
When: 22 May 2018, 6.30pm to 8pm
Where: RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD
Contact: valeria.carullo@riba.org
Tickets: £5; £2.50 for students (includes glass of wine)
For more info and to book tickets: https://www.architecture.com/whats-on/the-colin-rowe-lecture-series-tim-benton
When: Mon 30 April 2018, 18:30 – 21:00
Where: RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1NR
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/refugee-shelter-design-building-and-engagement-tickets-43742106819?aff=es2
‘Toward Healthy Housing for the Displaced’, the winning entry to the RIBA President’s Awards for Research 2017 Housing category, was written by a team of researchers from the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering at the University of Bath.
Their work highlights the neglected issue of indoor environmental conditions that displaced people are exposed to; conditions that are often extreme and can have serious implications for the health of the occupants. The reality is that there are 10’s of millions living in these ‘temporary’ camps, which often endure for years on end. Using literature review and collecting on-site longitudinal data and occupant interviews from camps in Jordan, the team sought to understand and document the range of climatic conditions faced by those living in the camps, the problems caused and the adaptions made to alleviate the situation.
With projects involving displaced peoples and camps making a regular contribution to the RIBA President’s Awards for Research, we have invited other leading researchers to present their work and provide a broader perspective on this often overlooked aspect of shelter for displaced people.
We invite you to join the discussion, along with researchers in-the-field, to explore ongoing efforts to improve the conditions of the many that find themselves forced from their homes and their normal lives.
Speakers:
#PARPresents
Submissions due by 31 May 2018
The Society of Architectural Historians Great Britain (SAHGB) is accepting submissions for two of its internationally-renowned essay prizes. These awards are the most prestigious in the country for the discipline of architectural history. They are open to all historians of the built environment, and you do not need to be a member to participate. Nominations are normally accepted from members, but unsolicited nominations will be considered on merit.
We particularly encourage submissions from:
The society welcomes submissions of work relating to the history of the built environment from all disciplines, including but by no means limited to:
On as diverse a range of themes as possible, including:
We are looking for work that it is innovative, ambitious and rigorous in the history of the built environment. Previous winners of our awards and prizes have gone on to have esteemed careers in architectural history and heritage.
Please consider submitting work and encourage students, colleagues and friends to do so too. Further information and methods of submission can be found on our website.
Submission Deadline – 31st May
Graduate Students, Early Career Researchers, Academics, Heritage Professionals, Architects
Unpublished research up to 10,000 words
Prize £400, consideration for publication in Architectural History
The James Morris Essay Prize is named after James Morris (1878-1964), a British-born and -educated architect who worked in South Africa from 1902, including a period spent in the office of Sir Herbert Baker. It was generously endowed by his grandson, Dr Simon Morris. It is awarded to the best essay received on British Colonial and Post-Colonial Architecture. The prize is presented at the Society’s annual lecture.
Submission Deadline – 31st May
Graduate Students, Early Career Researchers, Heritage Professionals
Unpublished research up to 10,000 words
Prize £400, Medal, and consideration for publication in Architectural History
To encourage new architectural historians, the Society’s Essay Medal (popularly known as ‘the Hawksmoor’) is awarded annually to the author of the best essay submitted in competition. Early career and unpublished researchers are particularly encouraged to submit new work for the competition. As a permanent reminder of the winner’s achievement, a bronze medal featuring a relief portrait of Nicholas Hawksmoor based on the bust of the architect by John Cheere is awarded and inscribed with the winner’s name and date. This is presented at the Society’s Annual Lecture.
The Faculty has run the Constructionarium for Construction students for the past 10 years – with great success.
The Constructionarium offers Year 2+ students a week at the CITB HQ in Norfolk building scale models of various structures, and is a fantastic opportunity to gain hands on experience of managing and constructing a real construction project, and will allow you to demonstrate valuable site experience on your CV.
Roles undertaken by the students include project management and planning, setting out, carpentry, steelwork and laying concrete.
This year the Constructionarium will be open to Architecture students!
The Constructionarium will run from Sunday 20 – Friday 25 May.
The cost will be capped at £75 per student and for this you will get transport, accommodation, and 3 meals a day.
Here’s a link to a couple of the time lapse videos of previous trips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao_M175H–s&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fcsWYZNomo&feature=youtu.be
This year we will be constructing scale models of Ove Arup’s Brewery Wharf Bridge and Ravenspurn Oil Platform.
We now have the link available for you to make your £75 deposit which will secure your place and is all the financial contribution we require from yourselves.
We will have a pre-trip preparation day here at the University beforehand, and this is provisionally scheduled for Wednesday 16th May.
Should you wish to attend the field trip or have any questions, please email Sean Flynn at s.flynn@westminster.ac.uk with your full name and student number and use the link below to make your payment: https://store.westminster.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-architecture-and-the-built-enviroment/field-trips/constructionarium-field-trip
Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt are currently considering applications from talented and enthusiastic Part 1 & 2 qualified individuals to work on some exciting new projects. The current workload includes housing, education, cultural, community buildings and one-off houses.
The chosen candidates will be exposed to a broad range of works and will benefit from our stimulating and collaborative studio environment.
Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt foster a culture for personal development, facilitating and funding progression towards Part 3 studies.
Sound communication and graphic representation skills are essential.
While we are always looking for talented people to join us, applications would ideally be received before the 1st of June.
To apply please visit: http://acgarchitects.co.uk/about/careers/
In 1966, Aino and Alvar Aalto worked together with Leonardo Mosso on a prototypical project for a series of warehouses for the Ferrero Company. Though the project was shelved shortly before going onsite, their collaboration had produced an original outcome. A former intern in Aalto’s office, Mosso had – up to that moment – been Aalto’s local architect for his Italian commissions. Centred on a critical investigation of their Ferrero Warehouse and Office project (1966–67), our research explores the evolution of an ecologically-motivated concept of reflexive standardisation premised on repetitive components and bespoke, or flexible, joints that ‘bind the elements’. The forum will examine the impulses that informed the Aaltos’ realisations of an elastic standardisation in the 1930s and 1940s, and how Mosso, one of the pioneers of computation in architecture, interpreted and extended this method at the city-scale through computation.
Roberto Bottazzi is a Senior Tutor at the Department of Architecture. He is interested in the history and uses of computational tools in architecture and urbanism.
Harry Charrington is Head of the Department of Architecture. He worked for Elissa Aalto, and co-authored the oral history of the Aalto atelier Alvar Aalto: The Mark of the Hand (2011).
When: 5 April 2018, 13.00–14.00
Where: Erskine Room, 5th Floor
The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion.
ALL WELCOME
