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: Wednesday, 22nd of February, 13:00-14:00 (GMT)
Where: Online
The next Architecture + Cities Research Seminar will take place on Wednesday, 22nd of February 2023, 1pm-2pm, and will be given by two colleagues from the Active Travel Academy, Ersilia Verlinghieri and Charlie Couve. The seminar will take place online (link available above).
The School of Architecture + Cities at the University of Westminster is pleased to offer three full time studentships and three full time fee waivers only, for three and a half years, for prospective PhD students starting in October 2023 or February 2024. Amongst others, we welcome applicants looking to undertake joint PhDs in partnership with practice, industry and/or business.
Located in the heart of London, the School of Architecture + Cities is a flourishing, cross- and inter-disciplinary school with a reputation for research excellence in architecture and urbanism across a range of disciplines. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, our research was judged seventh overall in research power in our Unit of Assessment, a measure of overall number of researchers submitted and overall GPA and research staff involved in supervising PhDs are internationally recognised as leaders in their fields. Our research is organised in five research groups and four research centres. Successful applicants will be aligned with one of these entities and contribute to their research and public engagement activities.
Architectural Humanities: Proposals that consider contemporary critical questions about architecture and its contexts, employing humanities-based and/or interdisciplinary methods, such as archival and documentary analysis; oral histories; film and visual analysis; drawing; participatory research; installations; and exhibitions. For further information contact Kate Jordan, k.jordan@westminster.ac.uk or Davide Deriu, d.deriu@westminster.ac.uk or visit the research group’s webpage.
Emerging Territories: For further information contact Krysallia Kamvasinou, k.kamvasinou@westminster.ac.uk or Giulio Verdini, g.verdini@westminster.ac.uk or visit the research group’s webpage.
Making and Practice: Proposals that involve either the use of design or practice based methods and processes within their research, or on testing and evaluating design performance for climate change and human or non- human comfort in the built environment. Research methods may include drawing, fabrication, prototyping, live projects, installations, exhibitions, environmental design and analysis, or materials research. For further information contact John Zhang, j.zhang1@westminster.ac.uk or Paolo Zaide, p.zaide@westminster.ac.uk or visit the research group’s webpage.
Place and Experience: For further information contact Stroma Cole, s.cole@westminster.ac.uk or Ilaria Pappalepore, i.pappalepore@westminster.ac.uk or visit the research group’s webpage.
Transport and Mobilities: Proposals that contribute to research into making transport systems and mobilities safe, sustainable, equitable, accessible to all and promoting of health and wellbeing. Focus areas may include active travel; transport equity; sustainable freight and logistics; air traffic management. For further information contact Enrica Papa, e.papa@westminster.ac.uk or Gerald Gurtner, g.gurtner@westminster.ac.uk or visit the research group’s webpage.
Proposals are invited that contribute to one or more of the following research areas. You are strongly advised to discuss your proposal with a research group convenor or potential supervisor before submission.
For current research group news see: http://www.openresearchwestminster.org/
Applications are invited for the following awards, which are tenable for up to three and a half years of full-time study subject to minimum enrolment periods:*
One of three studentship awards comprising:
• A fee waiver at Home or International rates for three years.**
Proposals that broaden the school’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and / or deal with matters relating to climate change will be prioritised. Home and international applications will be considered for funding and supported at appropriate rates.
The academic staff member responsible for PhD admissions in the School is Dr Kate Jordan who can be contacted by email via: k.jordan@westminster.ac.uk.
Candidates should normally have a minimum classification of 2.1 in their Bachelor Degree or equivalent and preferably a Masters degree. Applicants whose secondary level education has not been conducted in the medium of English should also demonstrate evidence of appropriate English language proficiency normally defined as IELTS: 6.5 (overall score with not less than 6.0 in any of the individual elements).
Read more about out entry requirements here: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/how-to-apply-for-a-research-degree
The closing date for applications is 5pm on Friday 19 May 2023. Interviews will be held on Thursday 15 or Friday 16 June either online or in person.
The Studentship title is A+C Research Studentship.
When: Friday, 24th of February 2023 at 1pm
Where: Regent Street Cinema, 307 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW
To book tickets please go here.
Join the University of Westminster’s Schools of Architecture + Cities, the Humanities, Law, and the Social Sciences for a screening of the new film The Oil Machine on 24 February, 13.00 – 14.30 at the Regent Street Cinema, 307 Regent St., London W1B 2HW for an inspiring screening and conversation on our energy future.
The Oil Machine explores our economic, historical and emotional entanglement with fossil fuels by looking at the conflicting imperatives around North Sea oil & gas. This invisible machine at the core of our economy and society now faces an uncertain future as activists and investors demand change. Is this the end of oil?
The film brings together a wide range of voices from oil company executives, economists, young activists, oil workers, pension fund managers, and considers how this machine can be tamed, dismantled or repurposed
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Lindsay Bremner, School of Architecture + Cities with discussants Lucy Bond, School of Humanities, Julia Chryssostalis, Westminster Law School and member of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty campaign, Ruth MacKenzie, Westminster Law School, Wojciech Ostrowski of the School of Social Sciences and architecture students Antoni Canyelles and Maja Kurantowicz.
The screening is free, but booking is required as cinema numbers are limited.
When: Thursday, 9th of February, 09:30-14:30 (GMT)
Where: Ground Floor, Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS
The University of Westminster School of Architecture and Cities (UoW), in collaboration with the Zaha Hadid Foundation (ZHF) welcome applications for an interdisciplinary PhD studentship funded by Technē under its Doctoral Training Partnership Scheme, to begin in September 2023. Applicants will be shortlisted via the UoW online application and interview arrangements and be subject to approval via the subsequent Technē online application process.
Zaha Hadid was the first woman and Arabic architect to win architecture’s Pritzker Prize (26th Laureate), yet there are few academic studies of her ground-breaking career as an international pioneer in the continuation of Modernism and the emergence of ‘parametric’ design. This first PhD project with the newly formed ZHF will combine reinterpretations of her ethnic and gendered context with detailed exploration of her seminal role in reshaping architecture through digital production. The ensuing work will contribute to the development of a major research foundation.
This PhD may span or link three key areas. The work will chart and analyse the translation of her world-famous speculative paintings through emerging digital technologies to inform major innovations in architectural practice; will test her often-vehement criticisms of professional barriers to gender, especially women and those from global minority backgrounds; and will combine these to offer new histories and interpretations of her work. Moreover, the outcomes will test, in practice at the ZHF, how the capturing of digital and process-driven design can shape the construction of architectural archives.
On Jobs.ac.uk:
On the UoW website:
On Find a PhD:
Featured image: Zaha Hadid with Zaha Hadid Architects, London 2066, Vogue Magazine (UK), 1991 © Zaha Hadid Foundation
On Monday, December 6, Professor Kester Rattenbury received the biannual 2022 RIBA Annie Spink Award at the RIBA President’s Medals Awards ceremony.
“The prestigious biennial prize is awarded to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of architectural education, in a school of architecture anywhere in the world that offers courses validated by the RIBA.
Rattenbury is an architectural teacher, critic, writer and academic, who has taught design studio for 30 years: first at the University of Greenwich; then since 2000 at the University of Westminster in London. Here she ran the experimental studio DS15 with Sean Griffiths and also devised and spearheaded the research group EXP (Experimental Practice) with its leading projects the Supercrit series and the Archigram Archival Project – which was rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She was made FRIBA in 2005 and Professor at Westminster in 2014. ”
RIBA
Read more here.
Featured image: Kester Rattenbury by Clare Banstead (source: RIBA website)
The 2022 Sustainability Workshop organised by Norman Foster Foundation took place in Madrid, Spain, between 10th and 14th of October.
Georgios spoke about his experience to University of Westminster’s News:
“The Workshop aimed to explore the concept of sustainability at the intersection of natural and artificial. During the week-long programme, we aimed to generate projects and prototypes that demonstrated the transformative potential of combining different types of intelligence, namely ecological, human, and technological.”
To read more, please go here.
When: Thursday, 8th of December, 6pm (GMT)
Where: M416, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS + Online (see tumblr page below for link)
Michael Jones is a deputy head of studio at Foster + Partners. Alongside Senior Executive Partner Stefan Behling, he oversees almost 100 architects working on a wide range of international projects. He was awarded a bachelor degree in architecture in 1986 and joined the practice in the same year as an architectural assistant. In 1988, he continued his studies at the Royal College of Art, gaining his master’s degree in architecture in 1990. He subsequently returned to Foster + Partners, where he qualified as an architect in 1994.
He initially worked on a number of education buildings, starting with the Deuxième Lycée de Fréjus in the South of France, followed by the Law Faculty for the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, he focused on working with historic and listed buildings, initially as the project architect of the new International Rail Terminal for London at St Pancras Station, then as project director on the detail design and procurement for the Great Court at the British Museum. In 2000, he began work on the large-scale masterplan and expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During this time, he was leading the design of the UK Supreme Court in Westminster, the new Winspear Opera House in Dallas and a major a new Faculty Building for Imperial College London.
Most recently he has been responsible for the new European headquarters for Bloomberg in the City of London and the ongoing renovation and expansion of the Imperial War Museum in London, the first phase of which was completed to coincide with the centenary of the First World War in 2014.
https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/
For details contact: Will McLean – w.f.mclean@wmin.ac.uk
When: Thursday, 2nd of December, 6pm (GMT)
Where: M416, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS + Online (see tumblr page below for link)
“A derivative of the Northern Togolese language, Lamb-Kabyè, Oxara means, ‘Gathering and Community’, bringing the actors of the construction ecosystem together to collectively create an innovative and sustainable industry is a key ingredient to make our business scalable and to achieve our vision of providing safe and decent housing to all.”
Gnanli Landrou
Gnanli Landrou is a materials scientist and entrepreneur. He was born in Togo, and when he was a young boy he travelled with his uncle in West Africa watching him build earth houses. Later, whilst studying in France he researched the challenges facing the global construction industry – energy and CO2 intensive production of cement, dwindling supplies of construction grade sand and gravel, and the high cost of concrete, unaffordable in many countries. Gnanli had experienced the benefits of building with clay/earth but also understood how labour-intensive and time-consuming traditional clay brick construction was. As a doctoral student at ETH Zurich, Gnanli worked with mentor Professor Guillaume Habert and together, they developed a process to turn clay-based excavation material into an alternative cement free concrete. Importantly this material can be poured as concrete using the ready-mix infrastructure of the concrete industry.
His ETH spin-off company Oxara, is now developing a cement-free concrete made from clay-based excavation material with his main goal to solve the lack of affordable housing in Africa. In 2019 Forbes magazine listed Gnanli as one of Europe’s 30 most influential entrepreneurs under the age of 30.
This talk is co-hosted and kindly supported by the Engineering Club http://engineeringclub.org.uk/
https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/
For details contact: Will McLean – w.f.mclean@wmin.ac.uk
When: Friday, 25th of November at 10:45am
Where: M416 + MG28, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS
The Association for Tourism in Higher Education’s (ATHE) seminar Resilience, Recovery, and Rejuvenation will take place on Friday, 25th of November from 10.45am to 3pm. The morning session will be held in M416, and the afternoon session in MG28.
This timely event is being organised by Ilaria Pappalepodore.
You can book a place using this link: www.athe.org.uk/booking/
All welcome!
