SERIES OF PUBLICATIONS THAT TENDER THE EXTRAORDINARY CREATIVE WORK UNDERTAKEN IN THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE + CITIES’S DESIGN STUDIOS, UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER.
Studio as Book is a series of yearly publications that tender the extraordinary creative work undertaken in the School of Architecture + Cities’ design studios – in detail. The series includes undergraduate and graduate level work, and is intended to sit alongside the Open Exhibition and catalogue. Each book in the series covers the work of a single design studio over the course of at least two years. Its objectives are:
- To record, archive, and present the pedagogical programme and creative student outputs of a design studio
- To position the work of a design studio within a broader intellectual, scientific or aesthetic field
- To advance the design driven research being undertaken in the design studios
- To provide a reference for future iterations and variations of a design studio
Reducing the creative output of a multi-year design studio to a single volume, using a pre-designed book template is no easy undertaking, and it is necessarily selective. At the same time, it provides a consistent, sure platform for the wide range of approaches to the discipline of teaching architectural design which characterise the department.
Each Studio as Book has been peer-reviewed on the basis of a proposal submitted by the studio’s tutors to an editorial committee. In addition to studio briefs and student work, each book includes content that draws out the studio’s research and pedagogical agenda. The format that this takes varies from book to book – reflective essays by tutors or past students, interviews, theoretical essays from parallel fields, and so forth.
I wish to acknowledge the contribution of the following in bringing this project to fruition: Lindsay Bremner, Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange, who was the driving force behind the series, Mark Boyce, author of Sizes May Vary, A workbook for graphic design (Lawrence King, 2008) – and Mirna Pedalo and Filip Visnjic who host the Studio as Book page on the OpenStudioWestminster website.
Harry Charrington
Head of School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster
DS18 / ARCHITECTURE, ENERGY, MATTER
This edition of studio-as-book comprises a collection of essays and an edited selection of the work produced by M.Arch Design Studio 18 (DS18) tutored by Lindsay Bremner and Roberto Bottazzi, 2013-2015. The aim of the studio over this period was to approach problems of energy, energy infrastructure and resource extraction as architectural questions i.e. as political, cultural and aesthetic problems, as much as technological ones. Computational tools were used to simulate material processes and to enlist, visualise and enliven data in the service of design.
Lindsay Bremner / Roberto Bottazzi / DS18
£17.98
DS11 / THE INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC CITY
This edition of studio-as-book is edited by Andrew Peckham and Dusan Decermic, with Sam Giles and Toby Plunkett. It covers the work of M.Arch Studio 11 based on seven distinct European cities, exploring the evolving role of both public buildings and space, each providing a springboard for specific set of programmes as presented in the book, detailing studio’s research and production methodologies. Reflective essays by DS11 students, now in active practice and external contributors further elaborate on the nature of this studio’s work.
Andrew Peckham / Dusan Decermic / DS11
with Sam Giles and Toby Plunkett
Seven Cities Eight Programmes
£15.00
JID / A TALE OF TWO CITIES
This edition of Studio as Book comprises a collection of writings and an edited selection of undergraduate design work from the Joint International Design (JID) Studio, an experimental 3rd year programme based at the University of Westminster in London and taught in conjunction with the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. Against the global tide of geopolitical balkanisation, the JID Studio was created as a platform for dialogue and the exchange of ideas. In its pursuit of a global perspective in tackling increasingly shared urban challenges, the JID Studio uses Beijing and London as testbeds for a new poetics of habitation and new ways of living together in the city.
John Zhang
£18.00
DS03 / DIALOGICAL DESIGNS
This edition of studio-as-book by Design Studio 3 (DS03) comprises a collection of essays and an edited selection of undergraduate design work tutored by Constance Lau and Claire Harper, 2012-2015. The studio’s interest in multiple interpretations is approached by means of the architectural narrative. This is constructed as a design tool and employed to integrate the different facets of research material during the working process. Consequently the experience of architecture is seen as ongoing theoretical and physical responses. Design authorship furthers this practice by means of precise decisions which encourages user involvement, resulting in the creation of new meanings and different readings of the work.
Constance Lau / DS03 (2016)
£17.50
DS(2)01 / DIALOGUES AND DREAMS
This edition of studio-as-book is edited by Elantha Evans. It reflects upon the work of DS(2)01, a second-year undergraduate studio in the BA Architecture (Hons). Publishing a studio-as-book from a non-degree-awarding year is significant in declaring and demonstrating that much can be gained in that interstitial year between arrival and graduation. At the book’s core, is a commitment to deepening an understanding of the role, possibilities and expectations of a second-year studio as a carefully guided but open framework for a student’s design exploration and personal empowerment.
Elantha Evans / DS(2)01 (2020)
£13.99