33 minute read
Research & Pedagogy
Research as Practice
Alan Chandler
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Research - NOUN 1. the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
Practice - NOUN 1. the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it. 2. the customary, habitual, or expected procedure or way of doing of something. 3. repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it.
One can argue that research and practice are, within academia two ends of a line – the former a source of knowledge and the latter its practical implementation, its habitual repetition conferring an often unstated status as a second rate academic activity. At best practice can be elevated to become ‘Research informed practice’, even ‘applied research’ but as all the REF advice says, better an IEEE paper than a building or an artwork.
Within this situation a number of conditions occur - some hardwired in to the system, others a product of myth. When we are looking at a sector that is radically reinventing itself under ‘public benefit; scrutiny, perhaps the tired, linear dichotomy of research and practice needs an overhaul.
Research is a form of practice. It has rules, protocols, precedents and procedures that validate it as ‘proven’. Sage supervisors know habitually how to prepare for a viva, frame ethics challenges, shape a research question and design an experiment. The more conference presentations the ECR gives, the better the papers get, the better the journals who will accept their papers etc.
So the ‘habitual’ and the ‘regular’ aspects of practice are intrinsic to good research - what about the ‘actual application’ part? Here practice is not a poor relation to pristine research. Here practice is the entire reason for the research in the first place. Without application, what is the point of the research? In the harsh grind of research and its publication, it can be argued that the potential for change, the impact on society, the transformation of the unacceptable and the value of investigation is often overlooked. At least that is the evidence coming form the recent and still raw REF submission. Our research should connect directly to the professions and disciplines that, outside academia, our research feeds. Clarifying the intrinsic relationship between research and practice needs to happen so that our students can feel that their work to understand the practice of their disciplines relies on the research we, and I would argue they can do in University.
Our students need to experience the activity of research to understand better their discipline, be it psychology or graphic design, and in doing so raise their own expectations that their work can in turn help shape that discipline.
‘Research as practice’ is a phrase that does not sit one on top of the other (one being ‘based’ on the other as though they were distinct), rather is merges them together – one as the other. This is important for three reasons –
1. The arts are fundamental to society as an ethical and cultural compass, the persistent undermining of their value by this and other governments in preference to technical education requires a more sophisticated discussion of academic and research (and economic) value; 2. Our students use the arts as a springborard to self-development and self-confidence – valuing
‘practice and doing’ as strongly as ‘research and publication’ reiterates their value as students and the subjects they are engaged with; 3. Demand more than a paper in an IEEE journal from researchers – where does that research lead, what is the point of doing it, how many people read it and are influenced by it? If more people attend a theatrical performance about their own heritage than read a peer reviewed journal we have to wonder which is more important?
Granted, this is a provocation, but the point is clear - research needs to deliver more than a list of outputs on an ORCID account. Why? Because modern Universities need to engage and transform communities or they will cease to be funded. Stark but actually rather invigorating, particularly of engagement and transformation is in the institutional DNA as it is at UEL. I say it is in our DNA, but when
academics say to me they never engage their students in their own research because it is ‘not precise enough’, I know there is work to do.
Initiatives to integrate teaching across ‘arts’ and ‘sciences’ are commonplace, interdisciplinary research less so. As Research groups and Centres become validated and registered, UEL has to move the ‘research as practice’ agenda forward at pace, which will be challenging for some disciplines that have never valued application and engagement as part of their practice. Supporting this shift is critical.
The relation between research and practice is no longer linear. Perhaps we need to deploy the full implications of practice in a circular way - seeing our research as practice from ‘cradle to cradle’ (to paraphrase Braungart and McDonough), with staff and students generating new perspectives on new problems, delivering graduates who understand and value research as active social engagement intrinsic to their professional lives, and in turn setting them up to become knowledge generators of the future.
Leaving Home
Debra Benita Shaw
Motivated by reports of a dramatic increase in domestic violence during the lockdowns imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and a request from UEL colleagues in Psychosocial Studies to contribute a chapter to an edited collection called After Lockdown, Debra Shaw embarked on research to understand how home has become, for some, anything but a place of safety. A version of this research was presented at the UEL Summer Conference and as a keynote address at the Cultural Perceptions of Safety conference organized by Open Universiteit (The Netherlands) in January 2021 which took place online.
The published chapter, Leaving Home: Safer Spaces Beyond the Neoliberal Family argues that the rupture created by Covid-19 offers a space in which we can radically re-evaluate how we understand the relationship between gender, violence and concepts like ‘home’ and ‘family’. Taking a critical posthumanist approach, Debra proposes that we need to take into account the symbiotic relationship between bodies and architecture and how the objects that we interact with in everyday life enable a perpetuation of ontological ideals. In this way, she suggests, we can begin to formulate a radical critique of the social structures that make a place for gender based violence to exist. In making her argument, Debra was delighted to be able to include an analysis of an outstanding final year project by Karin Bultje, a UEL BA Photography graduate which makes use of posed scenarios to starkly reveal the everyday reality of intimate partner violence. The chapter will be published in Angie Voela and Darren Ellis (eds.) After Lockdown: Opening Up (Palgrave) in October 2021. Debra has also contributed a chapter, Posthumanism and Home to the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanisms which will be published in early 2022. This chapter is concerned with concept of home beyond the human and queries why, if planet Earth is home to the human species, are the most privileged among us so keen to leave it?
In May 2021, Debra was invited to present online as part of the Urban Imagination Seminar (http:// sk.tranzit.org/en/lecture/0/2021-05-24/posthumanurbanism) based in Slovenia where she developed ideas connected with her most recent book Posthuman Urbanism (2018). In 2020, she also published a paper in Anthropocenes, an open access journal, introducing a concept which she calls the Aesthetics of Retrieval, designed to query the pleasures associated with visual representations of big data (https://www.anthropocenes.net/article/ id/666/).
UEL MArch Unit 8 students and alumni CAST (Chutimon Suetragulwong, Austin Joseph, Sonam Dahya and Tyler Wareerinsiri) have established a collaborative team working from Thailand and London.
During their studies together at University of East London, the Docks provided them with an amazing environment to inspire their work. The team wanted to give back to the community that they have been a part of and were appointed to design and manufacture an installation to reactivate the Royal Docks waterfront, as part of the Royal Docks Team and London Festival of Architecture ‘Pews and Perches’ initiative. The installation, titled ‘The Royal Resonance’ is exhibited in front of the London Design and Engineering UTC and has been actively used during the past few months.
The Royal Resonance is a social distance bench which portrays our current pandemic period, despite the impact on our daily lives we can adapt utilising the potential of design and creating playful urban furniture. The project allows the public to enjoy outdoor space at a safe distance, designed to be suited for the new normal.
The bench was inspired by the natural elements in the surroundings. As the Docklands are affected predominantly by wind, the design implements aluminium poles which vibrate in the wind creating a riverside instrument as well as an art form. This interactive feature responds directly to its natural windy environment. The modular design uses curving partitions reflecting the measures of the pandemic, allowing people to spend time in public spaces at a comfortable distance. This provides an inclusive solution to designing with appropriate distancing. The installation becomes a device that can promote public relationships between people, nature and isolation, fostering local interactions in the Royal Docks community.
The Festival City
Research Residency, Vienna Design Week 2020
The Festival City is a curatorial research project by UEL Associate Lecturer and MArch Unit 8 Design Studio Tutor Rosa Rogina, delivered as part of her research residency at Vienna Design Week.
In 2020, Rosa took up the first research residency in the history of Vienna Design Week. This residency for curators from the United Kingdom was the subject of a call that formed part of the Design Connections Programme of the British Council. It is curators who enable a design event to ask questions and address subjects that go far beyond the reproduction of commercial content. From a wealth of submissions, Rosa Rogina, Programme Director of the London Festival of Architecture, was selected to experience and research the Vienna design festival. The jury was made up of Parvinder Marwaha (Design Programme Manager, British Council), Jane Withers (Founder and Curator, Jane Withers Studio), Peter Umgeher (Designer and Curator, Vandasye), and Lilli Hollein (Director and Curator, Vienna Design Week). Due to the COVID-19 situation, the curator couldn’t be physically present in Vienna and carried out her work from London and, principally, via digital channels. However, despite this distance, this view from the outside brought impressive results! To explore ways in which festivals can act as agents for positive change in an ever-changing world, Rosa has invited 25 leading curators, designers, architects, writers, educators and spatial activists to contribute to the new glossary of terms showcasing a series of fresh visions for the role of festivals in the city with one concept or term. In a time of three unprecedented global emergencies, one of Covid-19, one of climate change and another one of protests against racial discrimination, the video series explores new relevant formats, alternative frameworks for collaboration and further engagement of festivals with the city and its residents.
The project involved participants from 14 countries, including: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Guatemala, India, Lithuania, Qatar, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Uganda and United Kingdom.
All the videos can be viewed at Vienna Design Week’s YouTube channel.
UEL Senior Lecturer and MArch Unit 8 Design Studio Tutor Armor Gutierrez Rivas was appointed to design and manufacture a set of benches made of reclaimed wooden sleepers for the London Festival of Architecture and Network Rail. Unveiled at London Bridge Station, the urban furniture is a result of a LFA initiative called Sitting Pretty, and it forms part of a larger collection of public benches exhibited in the main train stations of London.
The installation, titled ‘Reclaim, Re-invent, Repurpose’ aimed to highlight railway infrastructure as the heart of urban regeneration across London. Understood as thresholds between transit routes and urbanscape, the often depraved physical borders created by railway infrastructure are now being transformed into places of social interaction, linking neighbourhoods and promoting urban life, to the extent of becoming the heart beat of the communities. Looking to highlight this newly acquired role of railways and stations as urban fabric regenerators - creating destinations and not only transition points - the proposal takes inspiration from the complex yet powerful spatial encounters between railway and urban fabric which define the shape of stations and surrounding neighbourhoods and hence shape the city. The bench was fabricated using reclaimed wooden track sleepers combined with steam bending and digital forming techniques, allowing the wood to adapt into intriguing and unique geometries while keeping the beauty and identity of the material. The combination of wooden craftsmanship with digital fabrication methods is intended to inspire and challenge passengers to discover the potential of reclaimed infrastructure materials as design and construction solutions, creating a learning experience of the rich railway legacy of the United Kingdom while raising awareness of the importance of repurposing and re-inventing in the future of the railway stations.
The design results in a series of playful and inviting geometries which re-interpret the railway infrastructure footprint and can be combined creating multiple arrangements, allowing modularity and adaptability. In a wider scheme, configurations inspired by different railways meet each other, creating a dialogue across stations.
MA Interior Design, Dr Anastasia Karandinou
The UEL MA Interior Design ‘Urban Livingroom Studio’ collaborated this year with the Thames View Tenants Association and the Humourisk Artistic Director Susie Miller Oduniyi on the ‘Shed Life’ project; a community workshop and meeting space, to be built in Barking in summer 2021. The Urban Livingroom Studio designed the interior of the Shed Life, as a space for creation and collaboration between local people of different generations.
Design has been considered as a practice that both pragmatically and metaphorically addresses everyday social and political issues. The aim of this project was to raise awareness on the issue of social exclusion, isolation and loveliness, and actively empower the local community of Barking by designing this space, with them in the centre of the process. The main activities to be hosted include a wood workshop, space for seminars, knowledge and skills exchange for small groups, computing and photography workshops, gallery wall, storage of some of the relevant equipment and tea and coffee making facilities.
The interior involves elements that are flexible, removable and can be flat-packed. The users of this small space can transform it themselves into a gallery with exhibition walls for artwork, into a workshop with shelves and worktop surfaces, or into a more relaxed meeting place for them to share a tea. This project is part of an ongoing research and community engagement project, aiming at battling loneliness and social isolation through designing and creating a place that welcomes collaboration, creation and interaction between locals. The project was developed in collaboration with the group of locals, with whom online and in person workshops and consultations were organised. The interior was designed between September 2020 and January 2021, and the building is scheduled to be built in the summer of 2021. The MA Interior Design students who took part in this project as members of the Urban Livingroom Studio are: Dalal Abdullah, Omnia Al Temnah, Siclania Barroso, Georgette Ivette Wilthew Estefan, Mohammad Farahani, Maria Gradinar, Sonia Nohemy Medina Munoz, Atefeh Sargazi, Cherine Shawa, Gozde Tuncbilek, Teinane Chibuike Jesse Warekuromo, Yesim Yumrutas, supported by their tutor and MA Interior Design Course leader Dr Anastasia Karandinou. All the students involved received the UEL Volunteering and Civic Engagement Award for their work on a real life project, meaningful and valuable for the local community.
The exterior shell of the building is designed by the UEL MArch students, led by Alan Chandler. The project is being developed in partnership with the Thamesview Tennants association, the Humourisk and its Director Susie Miller Oduniyi, and it is supported by the following funders: National Lottery, Healthy New Towns & Thames Talk (Barking Riverside London), London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, Trust For London, Creekmouth Preservation Society, Barking and Dagenham Giving.
For further information see also: > www.susiemiller.moonfruit.com/shedlife/4586441759 > www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/ grants/0010351850 > www.atomised.co.uk/shed-life > www.twitter.com/anastasia_kar/ status/1361712345215606791/photo/1 > www.instagram.com/urban_livingroom/
From top: 1. Visualisation of the interior by the MA Interior Design students, showing the flexible wall which can be used for exhibition displays or storage, and part of the flexible coworking / workshop area. 2. Photo from one of our meetings with the locals; drawings with chalk on the pavement were used to communicate and discuss design ideas. Photo taken by Siclania Barroso.
Nature & Artifact - The November Lectures
A series of public lectures by top contemporary architecture academics
For the last 6 years, Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini have been curating the November lecture series.
Since 2015, international speakers have been invited in London to explore the relationship between research and practice in architecture as a tool to tackle the environmental, social and economic urgencies of our contemporary times. Among them Alejandro Aravena - Elemental, Fuensanta Nieto - Nieto Sobejano, Zhang Ke, Francisco Mangado, 51N4E, Labics, Sheila Kennedy & Frano Violich.
This year the series has investigated the relationship between nature and artifact as a challenge/ opportunity for the architecture discipline to redefine its disciplinary boundaries. C&S Architects Limited has sponsored the event in substitution of the Sto Foundation.
Anna Liu, from Tonkin-Liu, Pietro Laureano and Marco Navarra have presented their inquisitive and sensitive work in balance between environmental design and architecture.
Carlo and Maria Alessandra believe that this is a fantastic benefit to the students - our future graduates! These lectures help to enhance our focus at this University on promoting skills and innovation among our students for Industry 4.0 readiness.
2021 AntePavillion
Competition Winner former UEL Student Nima Sardar
For the last 5 years, the AntePavillion competition has been held in East London. The competition outlines a brief for a small addition to a former industrial building in Hackney Wick. The brief asked for demountable and transportable interpretations of a Bartizan – an overhanging, wall-mounted addition, common in medieval buildings.
Nima Sardar won the competition with the project entry AnteChamber. The design uses a Potemkin structure with minimal intervention that speaks to the honesty and rawness of the AnteChamber.
Outside and on approach, the defensible structure creates an almost ominous feeling, a sense of confusion perhaps. On first entering, the darkness heightens the other senses; the smell of the wood, the sounds of the birds, touch of the fabric, one can take comfort in this. Whilst in this state, an elaborate roof void and the reflected light at the very center slowly reveal itself and a true sense of awe and wonder falls.
Antechamber was a product of collaboration that began with former UEL student Pierre Bonnerjee and soon after with Syed Shah covering research, theory and technical studies. The competion organisers stated: “The winning entry is the elegant and collapsible ‘Antechamber’ by Studio Nima Sardar… It realises the recurrent camera-obscura theme from many previous years’ entries, none of which have ever been selected. It is to be hoped that this Victorian fairground theme will resonate with the Hackney planners’ concept of harmony with heritage architecture, as they apply it to the 1900s to 1960s wharf buildings now adorned with references to a rich range of historic eras. If not, it collapses nicely for transportation and safe custody.” > www.antepavilion.org/2021-winner
Dezeen commented: “Studio Nima Sardar is the overall winner with its design for a collapsible camera obscura named AnteChamber… It will feature a folding fabric roof and a demountable structure made of wood salvaged from Maich Swift Architects’ Potemkin Theatre – the structure that won the 2019 commission.” > www.dezeen.com/2021/04/12/antepavilion-2021competition-two-reversible-structures/
1 A Private Retreat with a Hidden Entrance Resurrecting from past to present, partly visible from the roof, you step down through the hidden entrance and into the AnteChamber. Inspired by the vintage camera forms, it is hoped that this Victorian era fairground theme will resonate with Hackney Planner’s concept of harmony with heritage architecture.
2 Using Potemkin structure with minimal intervention speaks to the honesty and rawness of the AnteChamber. Outside, on approach, the defensible structure creates an almost ominous feeling, a sense of confusion perhaps. Guided by the main design theme of a free standing structure hanging below parapet level with hidden access, this view was key in developing the design idea. Achieving this image dictated a lot of the structural and technical details. The object needed to be free standing. 3 From the North, as the visitors cross the arched bridge and reach the highest level, the lower nest of the AnteChamber is revealed. Slowly the pattern of the fabric and the textures become apparent. From here, one can witness the deployment of the winch system with a theatrical demountibility to allow for rapid relocation.
4 An imaginative interpretation of the Bartizan. Much like a birdbox, it is a place of rest and reflection – an AnteChamber. The image here shows a key quality of the project that needed to be maintained. It is an overhanging object that seems quite hard to reach from any side. With the entrance hidden the pavilion appears defensive, and protective of its occupants. Adding to the pavilion’s defensive quality, it has been designed such that it can be easily transported wherever it is needed.
5 A non-confrontational yet non-conformist attitude Nothing more anarchitecture than a bird’s nest. but in a nonconfrontational way, the pavilion is simply ‘minding its own business’. Like a bird’s nest it appears only temporarily, when the need is there.
6 The Floating Bartizan – 3 Agile Mechanisms Using the three separate mechanisms for each component, the main design theme of an easily retractable free standing pavilion is achieved. The three systems used are winch to quickly mount or demount the nest, rack and pinion to lower or pull up the lower nest and folding hinges to extend or compress the bellow roof.
7 AnteChamber It is a room to enter and re-orientate one’s mind through reflection, and transports one to a world away from the present. The top of the structure acts as the pin-hole of a camera obscura, projecting the sky on a viewing table below. In isolation and seclusion, occupiers can focus on the changing image of the sky, to help them calm down from daily stresses.
8 & 9 A Chapel like quality with an elaborate ceiling Following the theme of a chapel, inside the space is dark and calm, with light falling from the top. Due to low light, details become apparent slowly and people can feel a heightened sense of presence within the chamber. With the lightweight timber structures of the bellow, it slowly becomes like looking up at an elaborate roof void.
Expression of Structure - External & Internal The structure is expressed both internally and externally. Externally the structure highlights the bottom of the pavilion while internally the structure fills the space floating above. In this way, it conveys the pavilion as a hand constructed object.
10 The AnteChamber is not site specific and can be transported, much like a camera, to wherever it is needed next. Representing the practicalities of the camera, the pavilion can be demounted and packed. The two components of the base structure fit into one another, while the folding fabric top structure folds down into the base – turning into a boxed item easy to transport.
BA (Hons) Interior Design Guest Lecture Poster Series 2020/21
Designed and organised by Dr Keith Winter
Employability Panel Events and Mentoring
Stephanie Schultze-Westrum
In a difficult year, we were able to organise virtual panel events to help the students gain a positive perspective towards their professional future. The outstanding guests demonstrated a wide range of possibilities following graduation, as well as diversity in personalities and backgrounds. The events were very enjoyable and hugely useful for the students thanks to the insightful presentations. The subsequent Q&A communicated extraordinary initiative, creativity and resilience. The events were organised and (co-)moderated by Stephanie Schultze-Westrum in conjunction with the Careers and Student Enterprise team, Patricia Stevenson, Kayleigh Gibson, Nicholas Corcoran-Jones.
We are tremendously grateful to the following guests:
Panel 1: Zahra Haider Rida - Enfield Council, Public Practice + Leithan Brimah - Bell Phillips + Robin Farmer - Haworth Tompkins + Nimi Attanayake - NimTim Architects.
Panel 2: Raheela Khan-Fitzgerald - Hawkins\Brown, H\B:ERT Coordinator + Satu Streatfield - Publica, Night-time/Lighting + Lanre Gbolade - Gbolade Design Studio, Paradigm Network, L&Q Production Innovation Lead + Nick Evans Vabel - Property Development.
Panel 3: Jan Dierckx, Foster&P, robotics expert, design to manufacturing + Julie Oti, Ash Sakula, Black Females in Architecture + Brigitte Clements, LOKI Ltd, co-living + Nimi Gabrie, Formation Architects. UEL Architecture EDI event: Ibrahim Buhari - Senior Urban Design, Kensington and Chelsea, Public Practice, RIBA Architects for Change + Mayuko Kanasugi, 6a Architects, Pauline DeSouza, UEL Architecture & Visual Arts, Diversity Art Forum.
Mental Wealth Panel: Bola Lasisi-Agiri, Foster&P, Tamed Designs, Migrants Bureau + Dominika Kubieniec, ahmm, RIBA ELAG + Claudia Palma, UEL Architecture/Interior Design/HT.
We are also incredibly grateful to the RIBA (Jennifer Killick, Dian Small) for organising and the following individuals for mentoring our BSc(Hons) Part1/Y3 students remotely: Brian Heron, Architect, Tidal Architects + Rishi Patel, IDL Architecture + Nimi Gabrie, Formation Architects + Sohanna Srinivasan, Karakusevic Carson Architects + Jan Dierckx, Foster&P + Brigitte Clements, LOKI Ltd + Julie Oti, Ash Sakula Architects + Elis Ascari, Purcell + Antonia Blege, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios + Kenny Sykes, Kenny Sykes Architects + Edward Patton, Purcell + Tony Vaccarino, Formation Architects + Hilary Ennos, Shepheard Epstein Hunter + Jo Gimenez, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios + Ines Gavelli, David Chipperfield Architects + Nanami Sakimura, David Chipperfield Architects + James Gunn, LTS Architects + Ishan Vora, LOM Architecture & Design.
BA (Hons) Interior Design, Dr Keith Winter
BA Interiors organized and installed two exhibitions during 2021, both under the name ‘PROTOTYPES’. It is a practice-based theme we have been developing over the last years where students are challenged to design and build their own prototypes, be it a lamp, dressing screen, sculpture or other object.
Starting with the most recent first, we had a successful week-long invited residency at FILET, an art hub in a former shop unit directed by photographer and RCA Reader Rut Blees Luxemburg. We worked hard to turn this shop back into something of it’s old nature and tagged and priced up our student lamps and opened to the public. A highlight was when lateJune lockdown restrictions lifted, much of our cohort joined us for a private view and CL Keith Winter asked students to speak about the ideas behind their designs to the large public audience present. This was also twinned with the success of many lamps being sold to prestigious buyers who were delighted to purchase the originals
Our other physical exhibition this year presented all our Prototypes from Year 01-03 as a complete Interior BA show in Way Out East Gallery in Docklands, curated by Daryl and Keith, where we had several crits amongst the works and a great soft opening to celebrate the Mid-Year despite restrictions. We were also joined by a few Product Design students who also presented their well-made creations.
We had an article published in Dezeen in July 2021 for the second time, showcasing our next generation of lamps and student profiles to a large audience, providing us with the confidence that we have a visibility for this good work - https://www.dezeen. com/2021/07/27/university-of-east-londonstudents-lighting-designs-school-shows/
instagram.com/id_ba_uel
AVA Open Studio
This mid-year event allowed invited guests, fellow staff and students to see work in progress and share the diversity of architecture and design at UEL
We held the Open Studio Event with student presentations and a guest talk online, over two days in February 2021. The event welcomed invited guests, all students, members of staff and people who were interested in our architectural and design studies.
The Open Studio Event was again a unique opportunity to see work in progress and to share the diversity of studies. The event was organised in such a way that selected students from each Unit or Course presented their ongoing work online. As such, it was both, a ‘mid-term review’ with work in progress and a vital platform for discussion about academic work in architecture.
Thursday 18th February 2021 Following courses presented: First Year Architecture BSc, Landscape Architecture, MArch Unit 2 (Collective Habitat, New York), MArch Unit 5 (Countryside, Sicily Italy), MArch Unit 6 (Carbon Counselling, Hackney London), MArch Unit 8 (Civic Waterfront, Royal Docks London), MRes Architecture (Understanding the Neoliberal City) and Product Design Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity in Architecture At lunchtime, we had a talk called Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity in Architecture with the invited guests Mayako Kanasagi and Ibrahim Buhari. Pauline Desouza organised and conducted the talk together with Stephanie Schultze-Westrum.
The session was about the diversity of the architectural world by the people involved in making those changes. Mayako Kanasagi spoke from the position of a Japanese woman who is working for 6a Architects in London. Ibrahim Buhari spoke from the position as a professional in architecture and urban design, who graduated from UEL in 2011.
Friday 19th February 2021 Following courses presented: MA Interior Design, BA Interior Design, Degree Unit A (Young Clapton, London), Degree Unit B (The Life of Artists, an Urban Repository), Degree Unit C (Post Pandemic Civic Spaces), Degree Unit H (Inside Out, Woolwich London) and MA Architecture + Urbanism
Dr Anna Minton
Following on from Big Capital: Who is London for? (Penguin 2017), Dr Anna Minton has continued to write about the housing crisis for academic and mainstream publications, in particular the Guardian to which she is a regular contributor.
In July 2021, she was invited by the House of Lords Built Environment Select Committee Inquiry into Housing Demand to give evidence. The three-hour evidence session took place online, and is expected to be followed up with in person evidence in the autumn. Earlier in July she spoke at the Architectural Association international symposium, Uncommon Walks, held in partnership with Budapest University. The symposium, which was due to be held in Budapest, took place online.
In November 2020 she gave the keynote at the Annual International Conference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association, which would have taken place in Nottingham but transferred online.
Charrette Journal CFP Guest Editors Ann de Graft-Johnson & Renée Tobe
The murder of George Floyd and the significantly increased Black Lives Matter movement have brought race issues to the fore in a global context (Daradahi 2020, Hincks 2020). This issue aims to address areas of race and space in the context of design, architectural education and location, taking into account that space might be seen as physical, virtual, cultural and/or intellectual. Central western architectural institutions, such as the AIA in the USA (Equity in Architecture Commission, 2017) and the RIBA in the UK (Inclusion Transparency Report), have long proclaimed their pursuit of an equitable and inclusive architectural profession. However, the charge remains that much architectural education operates within the territory and lens of white western, frequently male, pedagogies, and perpetuates the framework of colonial legacies in many parts of the world. The failure to reflect a global, culturally appropriate view ignores the diverse context in which architectural practice takes place.
Charrette 8(1) invites research and commentary that engage with processes and perspectives of changing the architectural narrative in education and practice; disruptive models of transformation; models for changing the paradigm; erased or suppressed narratives and inclusion. Authors are encouraged to provide insightful critical reflection on the state of play relating to the context and content of architectural education, as well as present personal narratives relating to race and space. Possible Topics include the spatial journey of students of colour and issues of race and space related to: • diversity or the absence of diversity in the curriculum • global contexts • assessment models • awarding gaps • cultural behaviours, hierarchies, assumptions and patterns in higher education • ‘architectural heroes’/architectural icons • intersectionality, diverse identities • decolonising the architecture school • decolonising the mind-set • dismantling colonial legacies • the possibilities for divergence from receives traditional pedagogies and practice • raced locations • race exclusions
Submission Formats Contributions are invited from all members of the educational community: teachers, researchers and students, and can be made to one of the three categories of Charrette: Essay, Project or Freespace, as defined in the journal’s guidelines to authors. All three categories can draw on both scholarly work and descriptive/reflective content related to personal narratives and experiences of architecture and its education. Authors are welcome to submit contributions that may prioritise visual over written material (e.g., visual essays, graphic novels, drawings). Full-length submissions should be submitted to charrette@architecturaleducators. org by Wednesday 29 September 2021 for publication in May 2022.
IORMA Sustainable Building Webinar
In the UK, construction, demolition and excavation account for 60% of material use and waste generation. Organisations can formulate strategies which are consistent with the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, ultimately leading to climate-resilient developments. They need to fully adopt the principles of circular economy to improve operational efficiency, achieve significant economic savings, and eventually reach the net zero carbon target.
UEL recently launched the Net Zero Carbon Campus project where the university is planning to achieve net zero carbon by 2030. The university is creating an energy master plan with Siemens and other partners aiming to lower operational costs, increase renewable energy production, and attract investors who are increasingly considering carbon risk. UEL has been invited by International Omni Retail Markets Association (IORMA) to organise and hold a webinar to discuss Sustainable Building on 17th June 2021. Carl Callaghan, Head of Department of Architecture and Visual Arts moderated the webinar, while speakers invited were: Dr. Heba Elsharkawy, Reader in Architecture, Dr. Craig Robertson, Head of Sustainability at AHMM, Dr. Asif Khan, Sustainability Director at Perkins and Will, and Sam Turner, Director of Resilient Works CIC.
The webinar recording is available here: > iorma.com/iorma-webinar-sustainable-buildings
2021 Broadgate Prize
The Broadgate competition, now in it’s fifth year, gives students at the University of East London the opportunity to work in teams across disciplines and year groups competing in an architectural competition to win a cash prize. This year, teams made up of second and third year students from both BSc Architecture and Architectural Design Technology were asked to design a meeting and presentation space on the British Land and GIC owned Broadgate estate in the City of London.
The brief focused on the conceptual design of a meeting and presentation space to be located on the rooftop of the building housing the co-located offices for both Broadgate Framework teams and also the welfare provision for British Land’s 1 Broadgate development. The brief challenged students to create a flexible space that could be reconfigured to accommodate lectures/presentations and a sit around meeting space whilst remaining operational in all seasons. The teams were encouraged to utilise the entire rooftop to create different types of spaces for external meeting or quiet reflection. Sustainability was a key factor, and the teams were asked to carefully consider their choice of materials and methods of construction. This year, over 170 students took part in the competition with 49 teams submitting design submissions and 6 shortlisted teams. The six finalists were invited to the Broadgate campus to present their projects to the jury, comprised of established industry experts.
After a very close competition, the winning team – ‘Conventus’ (Thomas Joy & Gabriel RebecPermo) claimed the first prize of £1000 and there was a special commendation for the ‘Zen Meeting Space’ for their fantastic presentation. The Jury were so impressed with the finalist submissions that they decided that each shortlisted team should be awarded a prize of £400 in recognition of their outstanding work.
The competition is the result of the long-standing relationship between University of East London, British Land Plc, and Sir Robert McAlpine with the aim of providing students with experience of collaboratively on competitions and developing connections to industry. The opportunity is offered in partnership with ScottWhitbyStudio, British Land and Sir Robert McAlpine.
This years competition was a great success and we look forward to another next year.
