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The James Phillips Travel Prize – Application deadline 2nd May 2017

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The James Phillips Foundation is a charity established in 2015 in memory of James Phillips who died, aged 27, on Sunday 21 September 2014.

James was a partner at Make Architects, and studied architecture at the University of Kingston. The day after he died would have been his first day on Westminster’s Part 3 course. His brother Daniel completed his Part 1 BA Architecture here in 2015 (getting a First).

James cared about architecture, photography and travel, and for his MA “Common Ground: An analysis of public space on an International basis” he travelled to 24 countries to document – and photograph – their most significant public spaces.

The Prize

In 2016 the James Phillips Foundation very generously set up a travel prize of £1000 per annum for a Westminster architecture student in memory of James.

The only conditions are that the prize money must be used to facilitate travel, and that the goal of that travel should be photographed and archived on the James Phillips Foundation web-site within 6 months of the award being made.

Last year’s winner Zhini Poh was a DS10 MArch student. Her proposal consisted of researching three buildings: Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI, BMW Central Building and SANAA’s EPFL Learning Centre, which would take her to three cities: Rome, Lausanne and Leipzig, over the course of nine days. These three buildings would constitute case studies for her final dissertation project.

Applications

The prize is open to all students enrolled at the Department of Architecture at the time of application, although the travel can be undertaken after graduating. Students should make a proposal of maximum 300 words + images demonstrating:

  • How the travel will enable investigation of: either a subject beyond the normal academic requirements of their course, or a specific study for their course that would otherwise be unaffordable (e.g. dissertation, extended essay, studio project).
  • Why they have chosen a particular destination, or destinations, and what aspect of ‘common ground’ they plan to investigate – and how.
  • A draft travel schedule (in addition to the 300 words)
  • How they use photography to enhance their work

Proposals will be judged against the following criteria:

  • To what extent the proposed travel research will document and enhance knowledge of some aspect of common ground or public space.
  • Feasibility of the proposed travel
  • Timetable

Proposal deadline: Tuesday 2 May (beginning of term 3) submit to Rita Darch: R.A.Darch@westminster.ac.uk

Announcement of Winner: Friday 16 June (OPEN Awards Evening)

Under exceptional conditions, this time limit may be extended.

 

Symposium: Monsoon [+other] Airs, 20-21 April, University of Westminster, Marylebone Campus, M416

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Monsoon [+ other] Airs is the first of three annual symposia that will be convened by the ERC funded Monsoon Assemblages project at the University of Westminster. It will interrogate questions of monsoon atmospheres, politics and media and comprise a keynote lecture (Thursday 20th April) followed by a one-day long symposium (Friday 21st April). It will be accompanied by an exhibition of graphic, audio and video works.

The keynote lecture will be given by architect Sean Lally of Weathers. Symposium speakers will include meteorologist Andrew Turner (University of Reading) and philosopher Etienne Turpin (MIT Urban Risk Lab). The exhibition will include work by students of DS18 and Victoria Watson (University of Westminster).

Keynote Lecture – Thursday 20th April 18:30 : Sean Lally (Architect, Weathers)

Symposium – Friday 21st April, 9:30-17:00 :

Andrew Turner (Department of Meteorology, University of Reading)

Nerea Calvillo (Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick)

Victoria Watson (Department of Architecture, University of Westminster)

Anasuya Basu (The Telegraph, Kolkata)

Rifat Islam Esha (Dhaka Tribune)

Neha Lalchandani (Times of India, Delhi)

Hannah Swee (Disaster Risk Reduction, Copenhagen, Denmark)

Cleo Roberts (PhD Candidate, Art History, University of Cambridge)

Etienne Turpin (Research Scientist, MIT Urban Risk Lab)

Stine Simonsen Puri (Department of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen)

Harshavardhan Bhat (PhD Candidate, University of Westminster)

Exhibition – Friday 21st April 18:30 : Sean Lally, Nere Calvillo, Victoria Watson, Vishal Gowtham B, Vinusha Keshav, Koushik Krishna N, Aishwarya KV, Keerthana Muralidharan, Tom Benson, Cid Schuler, Calvin Sin

This event is FREE, but please register at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/monsoon-other-airs-tickets-32121558446

Digital 3D Additive and Subtractive Skills: World Tile Workshop

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Each year, at the beginning of their first term, a full second year cohort of architecture students is given a workshop in the use of digital routing and 3D printing – so called additive and subtractive digital fabrication, as well as in more traditional casting techniques.

The students are given an introductory lecture on the 3D software Rhino, with a focus on extrusion and Boolean operations, and are subsequently asked to choose a “tile” – fractions of cities drawn in figure / ground at a scale of 1:1250.

In order to produce a 3D plan, students are then asked to scan their plan, convert it into vector lines and to each extrude a specific block, based on their own research and interests. Each group is then invited to first digitally test their file on RhinoCam.

After they produce a tile on a 300gsm foam, students are asked to pick an interesting building featured in their tile and use a 3D printer to produce a more precise model of it.

The workshop is run by Francois Girardin and it takes place in the Fabrication Lab.

 

Final year BA and MArch Students: Visiting Consultant Sessions, Friday 24th March, 14:00-18:00

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Technical Studies are organising Visiting Consultant Sessions for the 3rd year BA students and 2nd year MArch students to meet and discuss their work with various professionals in the field of architecture, engineering and environmental design.

To sign up please go to the notice board next to M503.

The consultants this year are:

Scott Batty – UOW / Scott Batty Architects (Detailing / Materials)

Chris Leung – Bartlett / UCL (Environmental Design and Engineering)

Will McLean – UOW

Andy Whiting – Hut Architecture (Detailing / Materials)

Yashin Kemal – Robin Partington and Partners (Detailing / Materials)

Ed Hollis – StructureMode (Structural Engineering)

Benson Lau – UOW (Architecture, Climate & Environmental Design)

Oliver Houchell – Houchell Studio (Bridge and Structural Design / Architecture)

Dave Heely – Morph Structures (Structural Engineering)

Teaching and Learning Forum: “Why Theory?” with Douglas Spencer, Thursday 23rd March, 13:00, M523

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The last Teaching and Learning Forum of this year will be held 1-2pm this Thursday 23rd March in the Ralph Erskine Room, M523.

Douglas Spencer will give a brief talk and then chair a discussion.

All staff and students are welcome.

 

WAS Symposium: Negotiation in Architecture, 27th March, 17:00, M416

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Negotiation in Architecture will be an open floor discussion with a distinguished panel. The aim is to look at the issues regarding negotiating design decisions which will lead to a debate on the current and possible future role of the architect within the construction industry.

The event will take place on the 27th March at 17:00 in Robin Evans Room (M416), Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster.

More information on speakers soon to follow.

“Mies & Stirling: Contemporary Reflections” at the RIBA, 21st March, 19:00

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Shumi Bose, writer and academic, who teaches the M.Arch History and Theory module and runs Dissertation Group I: Design of the Deal at the University of Westminster will chair a panel discussion Mies&Stirling: Contemporary Reflections on the 21st March, 19:00, at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The key figures involved in two of the most significant schemes of the 20th century in London will have an opportunity to give their account of the history of Mansion House Square and recently listed Number One Poultry. Panel members are Lord Peter Palumbo, architectural patron and commissioner of the Mansion House Square and Number One Poultry; Laurence Bain, project architect of Number One Poultry; Adrian Gale, liaison architect for Mansion House Square scheme; Gavin Stamp, architectural historian; and MJ Long, employee of James Stirling.

This event is part of the exhibition ‘Mies van der Rohe & James Stirling: Circling the Square’.

More information: https://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/March2017/MiesStirlingContemporaryReflections.aspx

 

 

WAS Open Lecture: “James Stirling: Inspiring Places and Spaces” by Alan Berman, 3rd April,13:00, M416

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The Westminster Architecture Society is pleased to announce the last Open Lecture of the term. James Stirling: Inspiring Places and Spaces will complement the month-long events held by the RIBA to honour Stirling’s contribution to modern architecture in anticipation of the eponymous annual Stirling Prize.

The lecture will take place on 3rd April, 13:00 in Robin Evans Room (M416), Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster.

Alan Berman is founder of Berman Guedes Stretton Architects and also works at Studio Berman. Alan gives the architecture lecture series at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and is a lecturer at University of Liverpool. He edited Jim Stirling and the Red Trilogy: Three Radical Buildings and Stirling+Wilford American Buildings.

 

M.Arch History and Theory Open Lecture: Teresa Stoppani, 16th March, 18:30, M416

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The series of lectures organised by the M.Arch History and Theory continues on Thursday 16th March at 18:30 in Robin Evans Room (M416), Marylebone Campus with Professor Teresa Stoppani’s Architecture & Paradigm.

‘Paradigm’ (Gr. paradèigma, ‘example, exemplar’) is an action and relation word that contains within itself the possibility of variation and movement; it indicates oscillation and multiplicity rather than fixity and one-ness.  As an intellectual operation the paradigm defines a distance of the object from itself, removing the object from its singularity to then return it to another singularity.  It also enables a distancing from acquired historical, morphological and typological preconceptions and classifications that are well known in architecture and urbanism.  The paradigm as a cultural operation works towards the production of a non-dialectical form of knowledge, which does not aim to achieve the universal and to derive principles (rules) from it.

This lecture argues that the architectural and urban ‘project’, as a cultural construction around its object, performs in the city the relational operation of the paradigm.

Teresa Stoppani is an architect and architectural theorist. She has taught architectural design and theory in Italy, Australia and the UK, and is currently Professor of Architecture at Leeds Beckett University, where she directs the PhD in Architecture programme. Her research interests are the relationship between architecture theory and the design process in the urban environment, and the influence on the specifically architectural of other spatial and critical practices. She is author of Paradigm Islands: Manhattan and Venice (Routledge 2010) and Unorthodox Ways to Rethink Architecture and the City (Routledge 2018) and editor with G. Ponzo and G. Themistokleous of This Thing Called Theory (Routledge 2016).