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.
When: 13:00-14:00, Thursday, 7th of February
Where: Erskine Room (M523), 5th Floor, Marylebone Campus
Sarah Milne is a Lecturer in the History and Theory of Architecture at Westminster. She is currently leading an M.Arch. seminar group centred on Cullen. Sarah is also a historian at the Survey of London, the Bartlett, UCL.
The LFA has launched its call for participants for the second annual LFA Symposium, organised in partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts. The LFA Symposium is a focal point of the LFA programme, and offers an outstanding platform for participants to share and develop their thinking while networking alongside prominent architects, academics and commentators.
The LFA invites both emerging and established architects, researchers and practitioners whose work explores the 2019 LFA theme of ‘boundaries’ to apply to take part in the Symposium, which will take place at the Royal Academy of Arts during the London Festival of Architecture in June 2019. When considering the role and application of boundaries in architecture, applicants are encouraged to consider both tangible and intangible boundaries. Examples include:
Tangible boundaries:
Intangible boundaries:
At this initial stage, potential participants are invited to submit an abstract of up to 300 words and a one-page CV by 3.00pm on Friday 25 January 2019.
The successful applicants will be invited to present their selected work at the second London Festival of Architecture symposium at Royal Academy of Arts on Friday 14 June 2019.
Read more in: Call for Participants document (pdf)
To submit entry go to: https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/symposium/
The LFA Symposium was established in 2018 by the LFA in partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts, as a focal point of the festival to offer a rich exploration of the festival’s annual theme. In 2018, the inaugural LFA Symposium – entitled Does Identity Matter? brought together 150 prominent architects, academics and commentators, and featured a range of leading figures including architect Mary Duggan alongside writer and broadcaster Tom Dyckhoff.
Tamsie Thomson, director of the London Festival of Architecture, said:
Once again the LFA Symposium promises to be a highlight of our festival programme in 2019, and our open call for participants is a brilliant opportunity to share thinking and a stage with some of the best architects, academics and commentators around. Our 2019 festival theme of ‘boundaries’ is deliberately broad, and I’m certain it will provoke a fascinating exploration of how tangible and intangible boundaries affect life in the city, and how architects can understand and unlock the many puzzles that those boundaries present.
Maya Ober, designer and research associate at the Institute of Industrial Design, FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel, responded to our call for participants for the inaugural LFA Symposium in 2018, where she presented her research into identity within the built environment. She said:
The LFA Symposium showed how important it is to foster critical reflection on the politics of design and architectural practice. Participation in the LFA Symposium has led to the further development of my research as well as facilitating establishing new professional networks.
When: Friday, 25th of January, 9:30-18:00
Where: Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA
What will urban planning be like in 2052? This one-day conference brings together policy makers, researchers and practitioners to envisage the role of urban planning in the future.
Planning for the profound political and social shifts that the future requires can feel intractable and overwhelming. Everyday realities makes it difficult to look beyond the rhythm of political cycles and yet it is critical that we do.
By brokering relationships between artists, creative practitioners and policy makers and extrapolating from bold urban planning initiatives, we will collectively engender a hopeful and practical conversation about the future role of policy in tomorrow’s economy.
If you wish to attend the conference, please email Cecilie.SachsOlsen@rhul.ac.uk to get a ticket.
Planning 2052, is part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale and programmed in partnership with the Architecture Foundation, Royal Holloway University, The British Academy and Rich Mix.
For more details about the event: https://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk/events/planning-2052
When: 25th of January 2019, 7:00PM
Where: RICH MIX, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA
British architect David Chipperfield and Swiss urbanist Simon Kretz will explore how planning shapes the city.
In 2016, acclaimed British architect David Chipperfield and the Swiss urbanist and researcher Simon Kretz began working together for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Together with 36 ETH students, they conducted an extensive study of one of London’s large and controversial development areas, the Bishopsgate Goodsyard. Through applying alternative design and planning processes to the East London site, the students created nine different projects under the guidance of Kretz.
Last year, Chipperfield and Kretz published a book to reflect on their research and the problems and possibilities of the planning system titled, On Planning – A Thought Experiment.
The book explores the wider conditions under which an ideal urban development project could flourish. Their conclusions consider how future large-scale developments elsewhere could have a more positive urban impact, both at the scale of the neighbourhood and wider metropolis.
This discussion concludes Planning 2052, a major day-long conference exploring the future of the planning system. It acts as the final session of the day and is ticketed separately.
Book tickets here.
The next Expanded Territories Reading Group will be held on Tuesday 11th of December at 18.00 in M330.
Dr. Beth Cullen will introduce Tim Ingold’s The Life of Lines, (London: Routledge, 2015).
When: 13:00-14:00, Thursday, 13th of December
Where: Erskine Room (M523), 5th Floor, Marylebone Campus
Alessandra Cianchetta is an architect and founding partner of AWP, an architecture practice working across scales and genres.
Who: Jason Bruges, Jason Bruges Studio
When: Thursday, 6th of December, 18:00
Where: Room M416, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Jason Bruges Studio has become internationally renowned for producing innovative installations, interventions and ground breaking works. This practice involves creating interactive spaces and surfaces that sit between the world of architecture, site specific installation art and interaction design. Considered a pioneer of this hybrid in-between space, Jason has subsequently paved the way for a new genre of design studios, artists and designer-makers.
In 2002 Jason set up his own practice and now works with a talented team of people to develop and deliver interactive projects worldwide. The studio comprises of an experienced team of architects, engineers, industrial designers and computational designers as well as specialists in electronics, programming and project management.
Jason Bruges is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer based in London. Jason’s work blends architecture with interaction design and uses a high-tech, mixed media palette to explore spectacle, time-based interventions and dynamic spatial experiences. He is passionate about creating site-specific pieces that engage people with their environments.
Recently completed projects include a robotic light work for Hull – City of Culture 2017, a series of interactive resources for Tate Modern, a distraction piece for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London for children en-route to surgery, and Digital Ornithology an immersive installation of 562 LCD screens celebrating the annual bird migration at the Wadden Sea Visitor Centre in Denmark.
When: Monday, 3rd of December 2018, 6.30 — 7.30pm
Where: The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
How have the urban spaces of Lisbon, Cairo and Jerusalem been shaped by colonialism? Join our panel as we discuss the impact of colonialism on contemporary urban landscapes.
Architecture has been used politically, to shape identities, form behaviours and as a tool to channel power. However, architecture also has the potential to subvert politics and to reappropriate space.
In the second event in The Space of Colonialism series, we look at the political potential of architecture through the lens of colonialism and the city. With a focus on Lisbon, Cairo and Jerusalem, we will explore how post-colonial politics continue to transform the built environment and shape public space in these different geographical contexts.
Our panel will examine how a colonial state can demolish and construct parts of a city to assert control, organising cities into spaces in which citizens are permitted or excluded. Join us for a discussion on the city as a stage for anti-colonial struggles.
The Space of Colonialism series is guest curated by Léopold Lambert and The Funambulist, a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to the politics of space and bodies.
Ana Naomi de Sousa is a filmmaker and writer, whose work addresses history, spatial politics and identity. She has directed documentaries, including The Architecture of Violence; and Angola – Birth of a Movement, and was co-producer of the Rebel Architecture series for Al Jazeera English. She has collaborated with Forensic Architecture, most recently on the interactive documentary Saydnaya.
Aya Nassar is a PhD student at the University of Warwick, UK. She works on ordering urban space and the politics of space in Cairo. Her research looks particularly at ‘Fire’, ‘Mud’, ‘Cement’ and ‘Dust’ as key material/metaphoric elements of space that have acted on the city, to see how they can enrich our understanding of the politics of post-independence Middle East and the production of urban spaces through postcolonial statecraft.
Yara Sharif is an architect and holds a PhD from the University of Westminster. Her book Architecture of Resistance: Cultivating Moments of Possibility within the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict investigates the relationship between architecture, politics and power, and how these factors interplay in light of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
Léopold Lambert (chair) is a Paris-based architect and the editor-in-chief of The Funambulist.
For more information: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/event/the-space-of-colonialism-cities-and-colonialism
Who: Christian Male and Andy McConachi, Simpson Haugh
When: Thursday, 22nd of November, 18:00
Where: Room M416, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
When: 13:00-14:00, Thursday, 22nd of November
Where: Erskine Room (M523), 5th Floor, Marylebone Campus
Lindsay Bremner is Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture + Cities and Principal Investigator on the ERC-funded Monsoon Assemblages project.
