Tag: School of Architecture + Cities

ArCCAT Climate Action Week – Monday 25th to Friday 29th of October

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT) has developed an exciting, slightly-longer-than-a-week programme of events between October 18th and October 28th to support the University’s Sustainability Month, a lead-in to COP 26 in Glasgow at the beginning of November.

Go here for further details of the University’s programme: here: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-university/vision-mission-and-values/sustainability-month. 

The ArCCAT programme is as follows: 

Monday 18 October 18.30 – 19.30

Cartographies of the Monsoon Exhibition Opening

Venue: Gallery Café, 309 Regents Street, W1B 2HW

Lindsay Bremner in conversation with Tom Corby, Associate Dean of Research, Central St Martins.

This exhibition will show a selection of the maps produced by John Cook for Monsoon Assemblages, a research project in the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster funded by the European Research Council between 2016-2021. The project drew on the environmental humanities, the natural sciences and the spatial disciplines to develop an understanding of the entanglements of the monsoon in everyday life, politics and planning in Chennai, Delhi, Dhaka and Yangon, four of South Asia’s rapidly growing cities. The maps were mechanisms through which the project team constructed understandings of the materiality of the monsoon and the many mechanisms that drive it.

Monday 25 October 12.30 – 14.30 

What about ‘the other half’ of the ‘UN sustainability goals’?

Venue: Studio

UoW students-as-co-creators project team 2021: Dana Al Khammach, Elantha Evans, Rebecca Kelly, James Mason and Lavinia Peninno.

Join us for a curated, interactive and enjoyable 15-20 min session anytime between 12.30-14.30 on Monday 25th October 2021. This is about what YOU think we can do together, and is part of a wider project about architecture, empathy and the empathic imagination. Come along! And sign up here for more info on the project and future collaborations.

Offered as part of ‘Sustainable Disclosures’ // Expanding architecture education to better nurture people, places and practices for sustainable, inclusive futures (http://eepurl.com/hFy9q1).

Monday 25 October 13.00 

Launch of Design Competition for a material reuse station for the studios

Venue: Studio

Doiny Kypraiou, Stefania Bocoletti, Paolo Zaide and Tabatha Mills.

For both students and architectural designers, the physical model is a manifestation of ideas. The act of physical model-making is central to architectural education and our studios. It presents the opportunity to test, explore, speculate, compose and further the design process. How can you as students begin to challenge wasteful practice? Can we make our studio practice more circular?

Five teams of 4 L5 students each, drawn from each of the undergraduate degrees (Interiors, Architecture, AED, Technology) will participate in this design challenge for a week.

Monday 25 October 16.00 – 17.00 

The King’s Cross journey to carbon neutrality

Venue: Robin Evans Room (M416) and online; book at Eventbrite: https://www. eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-kings-cross-journey-to-carbon-neutrality-tickets-183433162527

Organiser and Moderator: Johannes Novy

Speaker: Stephen Kellett, Sustainability Manager, Ardent Services LLP

Discussant: Roudaina Alkhani

The King’s Cross Estate is one of Europe’s most significant regeneration projects – this talk will highlight the key decisions made from the projects inception through to the design of its buildings and the management in operation that have enabled it to achieve carbon neutrality, on its journey to net zero carbon.

Monday 25 October 17.30 – 18.30 

Opening of the ArCCAT Sustainable Design + Research Exhibition

Launch of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Campaign

Venue: Marylebone Learning Platform

Speaker: Peter Bonfield

Curators: Lindsay Bremner, Grace Lancto, François Girardin and David Scott, with the assistance of Chris Meloy and John Whitmore.

An exhibition of staff and student work from the School of Architecture and Cities supporting sustainability goals accompanied by the launch of a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Campaign by the Fabrication Lab and the University’s Estates team.

Tuesday 26th October, 18.00 – 20.00 

Practicing Sustainability: from Portfolio to Practitioner

Venue: Robin Evans Room (M416) and online | to book tickets please go to Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/practicing-sustainability-from-portfolio-to-practitioner-tickets-191649176847

Organiser and Moderator: Harry Charrington

Speakers: Chris Morgan; John Gilbert Architects, Glasgow; Gordon O’Connor-Read; Rural Urban Synthesis Society and Laing O’Rourke.

How do you take the ideas and commitment of your student portfolio into architectural practice? How can you build a career that reinforces your ideals and aims, rather than compromises them? These two talks, by architects at very different stages of their careers will illustrate ‘how they do sustainable practice’, and the challenges and success they have had in addressing the concerns they had as students through their built projects.

Thursday 28th October, 18.00 – 20.00 

Environmental Design Sourcebook Book Launch and Panel Discussion

Venue: Room M416 and available on https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/

Organisers: Will McLean and Pete Silver

To coincide with Climate Action Week and the recent publication of Environmental Design Sourcebook: Innovative Ideas for a Sustainable Built Environment (RIBA Publish- ing, 2021), the authors Will McLean and Pete Silver will host a book launch and panel discussion. The discussion will feature contributors from the publication including industry collaborators, and University of Westminster staff and student researchers: Kirsten Haggart (Waugh Thistleton), Rosa Schiano-Phan, Guy Sinclair, Urangua Sodnamjamts, Pete Silver and Will McLean.

This panel discussion about design for climate change is the first of a planned series exploring knowledge transfer networks and partnerships with industry. These discussions are hosted by the University of Westminster (on and off-site) and are supported by Dr Stephanie Lasalle from the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office.

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

SA+C student Jan MacBean awarded a runner up prize in WW+P’s Future of Transport Student Prize competition

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Congratulations to Jan MacBean who was presented with the runner up prize for his proposal: A Paddington Pollution Solution and the Westway Garden Path.

Jan’s proposal compromises two phases. Phase one looks to manage the dangerously high level of air pollution around the Paddington Basin by sequestering CO2 and NO2 with algae from the canal. A parasitic structure suspends the two laboratory modules that house the technology for processing algae and generating electricity, affording the building self-sufficiency. In the forum of A Paddington Pollution Solution art, installations, seminars and workshops are all component to the dissemination of information about the impact of pollution, making the exchange of knowledge accessible, helping shift the narrative on pollution and urban land use.

Jan is a second year student at the University of Westminster, during his first year he was awarded the Technical Studies Prize recognising his interest in sustainability through modular design. Eager to resolve the problems of land use, public space, ecology and fossil fuel dependence Jan will continue exploring the use of modular and parasitic structures in a public setting during this academic year.

WestonWilliamson+Partners

This prize awarded by the Weston Williamson and Partners is aimed at student projects associated with travelling in or between our UK cities. The winner could be a design project such as a new station, an urban design proposal or a research or dissertation…Anything which adds to the debate about transport in the future.

Featured Image: “System Sketch” by Jan MacBean

Join the Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT)

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT) was formed in May 2021. It comprises staff and students from the School of Architecture + Cities, the Westminster Business School and members of the University Estates team committed to meeting climate, biodiversity and planetary
system challenges. Over the next three years it aims to:

  • develop short, medium and long term strategies for the school to address the climate crisis
  • build collaborative relations between staff and students to collectively develop a more climate, biodiverse and planetary conscious curriculum
  • establish links between disciplines in the school around climate change
  • raise levels of climate change literacy in the school
  • promote climate conscious practice

ArCCAT comprises four working groups – Strategic Planning, Curriculum Change, Climate Conscious Practice and Events, Campaigns and Communications and works collaboratively with student societies – Westminster Environment Society, Westminster Architecture Society and WestCAN.

In the autumn semester of 2021 ArCCAT activities and events will include:

  • A student competition for the design of an ArCCAT logo (see below)
  • Climate Action Week (25-29 October), part of a month-long series of special events on sustainability across the university to coincide with the start of COP 26 in Glasgow
  • The launch of a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Dispose Campaign in partnership with the Fabrication Lab and the Marylebone Estates Team
  • An exhibition on the Learning Platform as part of Climate Action Week
  • A student competition for the design of a material reuse station for the studios

To join ArCCAT contact Lindsay Bremner at L.Bremner@westminster.ac.uk , or through Westminster Environment Society, Westminster Architecture Society or WestCAN.

OPEN 2021 – School of Architecture + Cities and Hamza Shaikh : ” Does university prepare you for practice?” | Online event | Friday, July 2, 2021 from 17:00 to 19:00 (BST)

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Please join us on Friday, 2nd of July from 5pm to 7pm (BST), for the last in the series of events around our graduating students’ virtual degree show OPEN2021. We will host our last year’s graduate, Hamza Shaikh, the founder and the host of the Two Worlds Design podcast, and a maker at Make Architects.

Through recounting his architectural education journey, as well as the ways in which he explored and expanded his interests in relation to the architectural profession and beyond, Hamza will help us tackle the difficult, yet important and timely question: Does university prepare you for practice? 

The event will be streamed live on the School of Architecture + Cities’ YouTube channel and Hamza Shaikh’s Two Worlds Design YouTube channel.

5pm Introduction + short film

5.30 – 6.30pm Drawing and the evolving practice

6.30 – 7.00pm Audience Q&A

Hamza Shaikh Bio

Hamza Shaikh is currently a Part 2 Architectural Assistant and Partner at Make Architects, London. He is also the founder & host of the Two Worlds Design podcast series which explores the hidden potential of Architecture by speaking with leading practitioners both within and outside of the field. In 2020 he co-founded the MAD Collective (@the_madcollective),which held multiple symposia to highlight broad issues within the field of architecture and university. He also shares experimental drawing techniques on his popular Instagram page @hamzashaikh.design. More broadly, he shares architectural guidance on his fast-growing YouTube Channel, and he has been described as an ‘Architectural Influencer’ on social media.

SA+C & LFA: Thinking, Practising, Listening; Exploring Inclusion in Architecture | Monday, June 21, 2021 from 9:30 to 13:00 (BST)

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

This online symposium will focus on the importance to architectural practice and research of listening. To listen effectively is not just to hear: it means actively seeking perspectives from those people in society whose voices are often the least audible. In exploring a wide range of voices in architectural practice, theory and history, the symposium intersects with the themes of decolonisation and inclusion, which are embedded in the teaching and research culture of the University of Westminster.

The symposium will also focus on the role of universities in developing and promoting the practice of listening and will feature workshops and lightning presentations from students that explore reciprocal dialogue between teachers and learners within architectural education.

The keynote lecture will be delivered by Dr Huda Tayob, Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on migrant, minor and subaltern architectures, the politics of invisibility in space, and the potential of literature to respond to archival silences. She is co-curator of the open access curriculum Racespacearchitecture.org and the digital podcast series and exhibition Archive of Forgetfulness (archiveofforgetfulness.com).

Huda will be speaking on Transnational Architectures of Care, through her research on Somali malls in South Africa and the US.

09:30 Introduction and opening

Kate Jordan & Shahed Saleem

9.45 Session 1

Jane Tankard & Design Studio 3.1

A collaborative visual and verbal presentation emerging out of conversations with students over 7 years. The meetings were structured around speaking and listening to thoughts on pedagogy, studio, reciprocity and notions of home.

Christine Wall

How are architectural histories silenced? This question is explored with reference to two ongoing studies, one a 1970s architectural collaborative in London, and the other the Little Aden Cantonment, the 1960s extension of British colonial military accommodation which became the largest fully modular project in the world.

Tumpa Husna Fellows

Through her practice based research, Tumpa asks how can architecture amplify the voices of underrepresented communities to enable spatial justice and create social value in places, buildings and neighbourhoods? How can designing inclusive spaces help us respond to the climate injustice?

5 min break

11.15 Session 2

Maria Kramer

Leyton Community Hub; a description of the ongoing process of negotiating the complex mix of stakeholders in this project, from student engagement, public consultations & council requirements. How are these various needs and aspirations understood and managed through processes of listening and engaging?

Davide Deriu

‘Beautiful idea; beautiful building; beautiful materials…but I have problems with vertigo.’

Do practising architects listen to prospective users? How can different perceptions and experiences of space be accounted for? Drawing on his ongoing research on architecture and vertigo, this presentation shall discuss how embodied subjectivities are often neglected in the design process.

Through selected examples, this presentation will situate the issue of vertigo in relation to a broad understanding of spatial experience, and argue that a more inclusive approach might be developed through listening and care.

Elantha Evans & Design Studio 11

An introduction to an experimental research session to re-frame design studios with the empathic imagination in mind.

5 min break

12.15 Session 3

Introduction by Samir Pandya, Assistant Head, School of Architecture + Cities

Keynote

Huda Tayob, University of Cape Town

Transnational Architectures of Care

Conversation

Click here to register for the event via Eventbrite

Disassembling the Woven Pavilion at the Marylebone Campus | Tuesday, June 8, 2021, 10:30-14:00 (BST) | Apply now!

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Are you interested in construction and making?

Please come on Tuesday, 8th of June between 10.30am and 2pm, and have some fun taking apart the Woven Pavilion at the rear podium at the Marylebone Campus and learn about the construction process. After revarnishing and making good off-site some of the QHT funded arches it will be reassembled at Harrow Campus.

Please email Maria Kramer M.Kramer@westminster.ac.uk for further information.

https://www.instagram.com/uow_live_studio3.2/

http://www.room102.com/woven-pavilion.html

MORE 2020 Online Exhibition Launch and Webinar | Friday, January 22 at 17:00 GMT

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Friday 22 January 17:00 GMT

Where: More2020.net

The School of Architecture and Cities cordially invites you to attend the opening of our graduating students’ online degree show, MORE 2020, an online exhibition of the University of Westminster’s Master’s students thesis projects featuring work from Architecture MA, Interior Architecture MA, Architecture and Environmental Design MSc, Urban Design MA, International Planning and Sustainable Development MA and RIBA Part III.

The exhibition will launch with a webinar at 17:00 on Friday 22nd January with contributions from participating courses staff and students, presentation of awards for work in the show and a live performance.  A link to the webinar will be available on the MORE2020.net website from 17:00 on the day, and can also be accessed directly here

The degree show is part of the School of Architecture and Cities and the first online edition of its annual Exhibition of work, following on from the hugely successful OPEN 2020.

PLEASE SEE ATTACHED INVITATION FOR DETAILS AND TO REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE.

You can also RSVP to DCDI-Events@westminster.ac.uk

Huge congratulations to Robert Beeny from MArch DS16 on winning the RIBA President’s Silver Medal 2020!

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The School of Architecture + Cities is delighted to announce that Robert Beeny, MArch student from Design Studio 16 won this year’s RIBA President’s Silver Medal for his project Devil’s Valley Geothermal Co-operative.

This project is situated in an area of Tuscany, Italy known as the Devil’s Valley, which had become known for its production of renewable geothermal energy over the past century. To protect the livelihood of local communities relying on that energy source, Robert proposed a new rural self-build development, powered by a geothermal well, with a pipeline and manufacturing spaces cascading down the valley landscape.

Read more about the project here.

Huge congratulations to Robert and his tutors Anthony Boulanger, Stuart Piercy and Callum Perry from DS16 on this amazing achievement!

Featured Image: The Geothermal Co-operative by Robert Beeny via RIBA

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