Concerns. Birmingham School of Architecture and Design Annual Review 2018-19

CONCERNS Birmingham School of Architecture and Design Annual Review 2018-19 1

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BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN ANNUAL REVIEW 2018-19

CONCERNS Cover:

Adam Nuttall

BA (Hons) Architecture

Back:

Alice Evans

BA (Hons) 3D Designer Maker

Concerns Birmingham School of Architecture and Design Annual Review 2018-19 Edited by Ed Pearson and Tom Tebby Designed by Tom Tebby Text © Birmingham City University and the authors, 2019 Images © Birmingham City University and the authors, 2019 All rights reserved

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Louis Stephenson, BA (Hons) Architecture

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Our modus operandi - best defined by the word ‘concerns’ - is centred on inspiring students to tackle specific contemporary design challenges of the world we live in. As a result, through their project brief scenarios and in their written work, our students are encouraged to investigate concerns that are as diverse as their backgrounds, focusing on the everyday; on theory; or current affairs; or other issues with social, cultural and political impact in the world around them.

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Contents Introduction Annual School Awards Research association of architectural educators (aae) Co.LAB

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Design Through The Scales Foundation in Architecture and Design BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture MA Landscape Architecture BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA Pt. I) MArch Architecture (RIBA Pt. II) Pg Dip Architectural Practice (RIBA Pt. III) MA Conservation of The Historic Environment BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design MA Interior Architecture and Design BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design MA Product Design MA Design and Visualisation MA Design Management

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Introduction

Welcome to Concerns, our end of year Annual Review which is now in its 9th year. Concerns captures the Schools’ design through the scales ethos, featuring work from all of our undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as staff activities and generally giving a sense of what this wonderful School is all about.

This year we’ve been able to further develop the sense of community in the School by being able to relocate most of our courses to the top floor of the Parkside Building so that the students can drive, inspire, and learn from each other. The joint architecture and design history lectures and seminars have gone from strength to strength and staff and students are genuinely learning about each other’s disciplines to make them more rounded thinkers and designers. Alongside this, first year Architecture tutor Oliver Chapman has taken our SuperStudio concept to another level with an incredible array of workshops, seminars, lectures, and events as disparate as origami, topographic modelling, and yoga!

It’s been a pleasure to see the buzz in SuperStudio and how much students are enjoying themselves by exploring beyond their discipline boundaries. As a new addition to the SuperStudio suite we’ve introduced a new initiative, “HotHouse” where students who have performed well that month are invited to participate in a “supercrit” with our Visiting Professor of Architecture Glenn Howells. We have started to develop this concept for our other courses and will continue to do so next year.

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Our new Foundation course led by Myles Cummings has been nothing short of sensational, check out their Instagram page BCU_FAD to see lots of experimental, cross-discipline and exciting work, and we’re very excited to be welcoming of these students onto our BA courses next year. September will also see the launch of our new BA (Hons) Design Management pathway as an option for our 3rd year students as well as students from elsewhere and this course will further emphasise our commitment to collaboration, multi-disciplinary working, and professionalism.

Speaking of new courses, we recently validated BA (Hons) Design for Future Living which will be run in collaboration with TV Architect George Clarke and his education charity MOBIE. The course is designed as a unique opportunity for students to lead the way in designing how and where we will live in the future.

Through innovative ideas, new design methods, advanced technologies and entrepreneurial skills, students will critique, challenge and disrupt traditional thinking around the idea of ‘home’ and develop radical alternatives. The course with a Foundation year starts in September 2019 with the 3 year degree starting next September (subject to application numbers).

This year also saw our quinquennial validation visit by the RIBA in which we secured RIBA Validation for Parts 1,2 and 3 with 3 commendations. Congratulations to all of the staff involved in this mammoth task!

Congratulations are also in order to Professor Kathryn Moore who was recognised by the Landscape Journal as one of the 9 inspiring women in 9 decades of the

Landscape Institute having been one of only 4 female Presidents of the Landscape Institute. This year our fantastic staff team have been joined by a number of new colleagues. Dr Matthew Jones (Director of Technical Studies), Jason Taylor (Digital Design co-ordinator), Myles Cummings (Foundation course director), Korina Zaromytidiou (BA Interior Architecture and Design course director), Katriona Byrne (MA Conservation of the Historic Environment course director), Hannah Davies (Student Success Adviser), Dawn Parke (BA Landscape Architecture lecturer), Dr Sandra Costa (MA Landscape Architecture lecturer), Alex King (BA Interior Architecture and Design lecturer), Andrew Trujillo (BA Product & Furniture / BA Interior Architecture and Design lecturer), and a number of BA Architecture lecturers – Oliver Chapman, Dr Ana Rute Costa, Dr Susanne Bauer, and Bea Gomes-Martin. We also appointed Les Postawa as our Visiting Professor of Structural Design.

of Architecture, leading research in the School and running an M.Arch studio.

I’d like to express my thanks to a number of colleagues who have left this year for their contributions to the School, Faculty, and University; former Interior Architecture and Design Course Director Glenda Strong, BA Architecture 2nd year tutors Dr Ana Rute Costa and Dr Susanne Bauer, M.Arch year 5 leader Andy Hilton, and Caroline Norman after years of service leading our MA Design Management course. Our inaugural Oscar Naddermier Professor of Architecture, Professor Christian Frost also left us after 6 years to take up the post as Head of the CASS School of Architecture at London Metropolitan University. We have recruited new staff to fill these positions, most notably, Dr Rachel Sara who will be our new Oscar Naddermier Professor

I hope you enjoy reading our Annual Review and we look forward to seeing you in the School sometime soon.

I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to the School this year including the core staff team, visiting tutors, specialist tutors, volunteer critics, workshop staff, colleagues in ADM and across the University, and especially the work placement practices who have hosted over 100 of our Architecture, Landscape, and Interior Architecture and Design students. We are privileged to have such support and the experience is very often transformational for the students.

Finally, thank you to the generous sponsors of prizes and events. There are far too many to mention here but special thanks as ever to Ibstock who continue to sponsor the MArch trip to New York, and to Niyaa People and Altro for their respective sponsorship support of the Summer Ball.

Professor Kevin W Singh Head of Birmingham School of Architecture and Design

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GRA OL DUA OF ARC TE SHO HIT W A ECT U WA RD 201 9

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Associated Architects Prize Mohammed Shaed Birmingham & Five Counties Architectural Association Hanna John Makhoul Trust Green Book Award Winner Birmingham & Five Counties Architectural Association David Guillen Barrero Trust Green Book Award Highly Commended Birmingham & Five Counties Architectural Association Marina Georgieva Trust Green Book Award Commended Birmingham & Five Counties Architectural Association Will Weston Trust Green Book Award Commended Hays Award For Special Study Fathmath Ihudha Amir Oscar Naddermier Medal Louis Stephenson HOK Award for Innovation in Architecture Will Weston AJ Student Prize (School Nomination) Hanna John Makhoul AJ Student Prize (School Nomination) Ayesha Kaur RIBA Drawing Prize David Guillen Barrero RIBA Bronze Medal Nomination Issuru Uswatta Liyanage Louis Stephenson BAA Award for Material Craftsmanship Emily Walsh Niyaa People Award (Level 5 BA Architecture) Ahmed Hamid Niyaa People Award (Level 4 BA Architecture) Laura Hastings

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Adam Rumble Oliver Haring Rob Colbourne Adam Rumble James Vine Rob Colbourne

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Tyler Grange Landscape Masterplan Award: Winner Landscape Institute Midlands Branch John Knight Prize BA Landscape Institute Midlands Branch John Knight Prize MA BA Landscape Team Studentship Award MA Landscape Team Student Engagement Award MA Landscape Architecture Best Student Portfolio

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RIBA Drawing Prize Anastasia Stupnikova RIBA Silver Medal Nomination William Haynes Maham Tahir RIBA President’s Award Disseration Nomination Bronwen Chatwin

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Annual School Awards 2019

3D Reid Award Daniel Tomko New York Photo Comp Charlotte Barnes HOK Award for Innovation in Architecture Natalie Marsh George Jackson Travel Award Alexander Ward BAA Award for Conceptual Framework Lydia Walton BAA Award for Legacy in Design Mihai-Alexandru Marangoci

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BSoAD Studentship Award Alice Evans Making Nick Stormont Most Improved Student Kyriakos Sergi Digital Making Joe Deakin Presentation Skills Kalandra McFarquhar Sustainability and the Environment Jane Lambert

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Innovation and Spatial Manipulation Choo Chia Huey Comprehension and Delivery Sebastian Da’Costa Formation and Configuration Ralista Hristova Style and Trend Millie Simon Ripple Effect Kiren Chanderh Ripple Effect Hannah McCarthy Progression and Development Sullivan Chandler

Foundation in Architecture and Design

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Best Student Foundation Year: Interior Architecture Charlie Morris Best Student Foundation Year: Product and Furniture Evie McGinley Best Student Foundation Year: Landscape Architecture Matthew Moules Best Student Foundation Year: Interior Architecture Laura McVey Foundation Year Award: Best Model (CAD) Zeena Nesayef Foundation Year Award: Best Model (Handmade) Hok-Yun Chan Foundation Year Award: Original Presentation Kiran Panchal

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Research

This year research has continued to take an important role in the School; with staff pursuing individual and collaborative interests, which in turn inform our teaching practices.

Staff have developed a new research cluster which promotes and supports research projects and publications on the changing pattern of art, crafts, architecture, and the urban environment in the context of both regional and global culture.

We believe that design has a role to play in addressing these issues at a global and local scale. Over the coming year though international conferences and publications we aim to break new ground through an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research and design responding to climate change and sustainability alongside the focus on social and cultural values of space. Utilising innovative and emergent thinking, new design methods and advanced technology, engineering and fabrication, we continue to critique, challenge and disrupt traditional thinking and develop radical alternatives to current conditions.

The agenda of research for members in this cluster is to seek an understanding of relationships between city dwellers and the urban environment facing contemporary challenges from a cross-cultural and social perspective into the following areas: 1. How to create and manage environments that support individuals and contribute to their unique identities, underpinning the achievement of high levels of well-being from a sensorial and perceptual view.

2. It asks whether the knowledge of cultural identities can be traced within urban spaces over time, and considers how the findings might also contribute to the broader debate as to how heritage and regeneration successfully connect the past and the present.

3. How can community involvement in city making affect individual interpretation and spatial appropriation?

4. How does technology and social media change the living cultures and notion of place in cities?

How do new ways of understanding home, digital technologies and creative design shape the places we live?

5. What are the issues arising from increased migration and how do they transform the identities of cities? How have the ‘made’/’shaped’ identities impacted on culture and political paradigms in the face of globalisation?

Alongside the new cluster, other staff in the School actively disseminate innovative thinking in the area of Building Information Modelling (BIM); through the School’s now well-established International BIM in Birmingham Conference, and also play a very active role in the national association of architectural educators, organising both conferences and Journal publications.

We look forward to an exciting year ahead with the appointment of a new Director of Research who will support this work and shape the development of new areas of research and projects.

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association of architectural educators (aae) 2018-19

As Co-Chair of the association of architectural educators [aae] I am pleased to report on another fruitful and successful year. aae conference

aae journal

The 5th sesquiannual aae international peer-reviewed conference under the title Learning Through Practice held at the University of Westminster in April 2019 was another resounding success with over 150 delegates. Keynote speakers were Ray Land, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education and Emeritus Fellow of University College at Durham University talking on Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge.

Joining Professor Land were architect and educator Lisa Fior of muf architecture and art, and artist Claire Twomey of the University of Westminster department of fine art. J. Meejin Yoon, architect, designer, and educator, currently Dean of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, and cofounding principal of Höweler + Yoon Architecture, a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio gave the final address.

The proceedings and video interviews will be available at aaeconference2019.wordpress.com Selected papers will be published in the aae journal, Charrette.

The most recent issue of Charrette Global Practices, Transnational Pedagogies edited by Mónica Pacheco, is available free online at www.ingentaconnect.com/content/arched/char along with all published issues, including Architectural Education in Scotland.

The 6th aae conference will be hosted by University of the West of England at the Bristol School of Architecture in September 2020. The conference invites contributions from educators, researchers and practitioners on the theme of wellbeing in architectural education, practice and in the community. Details will be available at aaeconference2020.wordpress.com The following conference in April 2022 will be hosted by the University of Cardiff.

aae forum The next aae Forum will take place at the Loughborough University on 13 September 2019.

For the first time this will be organised by the new Technical Studies in Architecture Special Interest Group with a view to develop a broader debate across academics engaged in the research, learning and teaching of the technical aspects of architecture.

Details are available from Dr Rachel Cruise R.B.Cruise@lboro.ac.uk

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aae BIM in Birmingham Event Victoria Farrow, Events Manager of the aae, organised the 3rd international aae BIM in Birmingham Event at the School in January 2019. Attended by over 380 students and 120 academics and practitioners, the event hosted keynotes from BDP, Zaha Hadid Architects and Foster and Partners together with speakers from Cullinan Studio, Maber, Gensler and many others who contributed to the range of lively debates. In the spirit of aae, students from a wide range of schools of architecture from around the country, including Loughborough, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Oxford Brookes, attended together with international practitioners and guests from Chile, South Africa and India. The event provides students, academics and practitioners with access to topical discussions from practitioners and specialists at the forefront of Building Information Modelling. Student involvement is key to the event and its success. Student volunteers contributed to all aspects of the day from marketing, social media, setting up, supporting registration and the graphic design of the material circulated before and after the event. The collaborative working between academic staff and students ensures a supportive environment for students to learn about running a large-scale international event.

The 2020 event in January will be hosted once again at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, which to date has provided the HUB for this conference.

Hannah Vowles Co-Chair Victoria Farrow Event Coordinator association of architectural educators

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Co.LAB_Modern Gazetteer

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Collaborative Laboratory (Co.LAB)

The Birmingham School of Architecture and Design occupies a distinctive territory between the study and practices of the creative arts with the built environment professions. Links with the professional context and are reinforced through alumni, renowned tutors, events and live research projects. Equally, the School’s position within the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media (ADM) means that students and staff are well connected to the creative scene of the city.

Collaborative Laboratory is an inter-disciplinary design and research initiative within the school that seeks to directly engage students and staff with this dynamic context. We focus ‘liveness’, or a relevancy, to current issues surrounding design and architecture with external collaborators to deliver outcomes across a range of scales and formats.

This year, Co.LAB set up experimental projects with prominent arts organisations and practitioners in the city to develop new strategies in collaborative practice.

There has been a focus on transdisciplinary creative processes - exploring the relationship between art and architecture, mentoring and consultation with non design-based stakeholders, and developing new lifestyle products based on material exploration. Our Collaborative Laboratory (Co.LAB) // 21

projects have contributed the cultural offering of the city: our Collaborative Conc(re)te.RIP project was exhibited at Eastside Projects and our Expanded Dining project, working alongside artist Kaye Winwood, was presented at The Shell theatre space.

Both were open to the public and part of Digbeth First Friday.

Knowledge Exchange, an initiative where part-time students identify an issue to explore with their employing practice, has expanded significantly this year. More students at both undergraduate and postgraduate have participated - using expertise at the School and University, thereby developing an interest in business matters and practice management.

Courses included in Co.LAB are: BA (Hons) Architecture, BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture, BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design, BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design, MArch Architecture, MA Product and Furniture Design, MA Interior Design and Architecture.

Elective projects this year: Knowledge Exchange Modern Gazetteer Conc(re)te.RIP Expanded Dining Real Homes Real People C.U.C.E Design Mentoring Zolid Surface Future Workplace.

The Brick Project Adventures in Hyper Reality Wellbeing Community Garden

partner: Architectural practices of Part Time M.Arch students partner: Birmingham School of Art partner: BAAAD Press/ Gareth Barnett partner: Kaye Winwood Projects partner: Cherwell District Council partner: Apec Architects partner: St. Edmunds School partner: Zolid Manufacturing Ltd partner: Joseph Joseph partner: Ibstock Bricks partner: HS2 Ltd. partner: Heart of Birmingham Vocational College

find us online: w: birmingham-colab.org fb: facebook.com/birmingham.colab tw: @bham_colab bl: http://liveprojectsnetwork.org/ insta: BHAM_CoLAB

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Co.LAB_Mentoring @ St.Edmunds

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Co.LAB_Future Workplace (Joseph Joseph)

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CONSULTATION / PARTICIPATION WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

EVERYONE IS INDIVIDUAL

Co.LAB_Client & User | Consultation & Engagement

Co.LAB_Adventures in Hybrid Realities

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Co.LAB_The Brick Project

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Co.LAB_Real Homes, Real People Self Build

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Co.LAB_Zolid Surface

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Cooper ooper owen owen

PROGRESS MEETING PROGRESS MEETING OFFICE MEETING OFFICE MEETING CLIENT CRITS. CLIENT CRITS. PLANNING CONSULTATIONS PLANNING CONSULTATIONS WORKING SESSION WORKING SESSION ONE-TO-ONE ONE-TO-ONE CATCH UP CATCH UP

Co.LAB_Knowledge Excahnge

Co.LAB_Expanded Dining MA PFD

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01-Apr 01-Apr 02-Apr 02-Apr 03-Apr 03-Apr 04-Apr 04-Apr 05-Apr 05-Apr 08-Apr 08-Apr 09-Apr 09-Apr 10-Apr 10-Apr 11-Apr 11-Apr 12-Apr 12-Apr 15-Apr 15-Apr 16-Apr 16-Apr 17-Apr 17-Apr 18-Apr 18-Apr 19-Apr 19-Apr 22-Apr 22-Apr 23-Apr 23-Apr 24-Apr 24-Apr 25-Apr 25-Apr 26-Apr 26-Apr 29-Apr 29-Apr 30-Apr 30-Apr 01-May 01-May 02-May 02-May 03-May 03-May 06-May 06-May 07-May 07-May 08-May 08-May 09-May 09-May 10-May 10-May 13-May 13-May 14-May 14-May 15-May 15-May 16-May 16-May 17-May 17-May 20-May 20-May 21-May 21-May 22-May 22-May 23-May 23-May 24-May 24-May 27-May 27-May 28-May 28-May 29-May 29-May 30-May 30-May 31-May 31-May 03-Jun 03-Jun 04-Jun 04-Jun 05-Jun 05-Jun 06-Jun 06-Jun 07-Jun 07-Jun 10-Jun 10-Jun 11-Jun 11-Jun 12-Jun 12-Jun 13-Jun 13-Jun 14-Jun 14-Jun 17-Jun 17-Jun 18-Jun 18-Jun 19-Jun 19-Jun 20-Jun 20-Jun 21-Jun 21-Jun 24-Jun 24-Jun 25-Jun 25-Jun 26-Jun 26-Jun 27-Jun 27-Jun 28-Jun 28-Jun

Will Weston, BA (Hons) Architecture

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DESIGN THROUGH THE SCALES Foundation in Architecture and Design Landscape Architecture Architecture Interior Architecture and Design Product and Furniture Design Design and Visualisation Design Management

Collaborative Laboratory (Co.LAB) // 31

Students in costume for the Bauhaus ballet performance

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Foundation in Architecture and Design

Tutors: Myles Cummings Tom Tebby Jemma Browne Jason Taylor Dawn Parke Jason Nicholson Andrew Trujillo Victoria Farrow Ollie Chapman Hannah Vowles Korina Zaromytidou Katriona Byrne Ian Shepherd Matthew Jones David Baldock Darius Walton

Design is both noun and verb; so design can be a thing eg. a beautiful vase design, or it can be an act / process eg. I am going to design a vase/building/garden etc.

The Foundation in Architecture and Design course is also essentially two things; firstly a base from which to build through an introductory grounding in the key skills, processes and principles of design. Secondly, a transformative process, through which you will begin to unlock your full creative potential as a designer / problem solver / decision maker.

The course itself has been designed to provide students with the opportunity to experiment and develop creative expression across a range of complementary art and design skills and processes with maximum opportunities for creative exploration. It provides a supported learning environment to explore conceptual ideas through to detailed design, mapping and modelling and is assessed through mini designfocussed projects and a specialised final project in a chosen field. Through a range of project briefs and using various differing media you will draw / paint / plan / model / sculpt / photograph / film / animate / make / break / build / write / present / analyse / critique and discuss. You will also develop your software skills and explore computer-aided design (CAD), modelling and presentation techniques. Whatever the media, you will learn the process of turning thoughts into material form and in so doing build confidence as a designer.

Throughout, you will be supported through a structured dialogue with your tutors, practitioners, theorists and specialists. You will be encouraged to reflect on your process and progress throughout, and given mentoring guidance and in preparing a design portfolio and choosing a discipline for further study.

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Finally the course considers themes of context, culture, and contemporary living, with the aim of giving students the confidence and ability to meet the challenges of becoming a designer in the 21st century. You will have the opportuntity to undertake site and study trips to visit notable exhibitions/museums and galleries, and to meet and interact with professional practitioners from a range of disciplines. So that, no matter which area you eventually choose (architecture / landscape / interior / product) you will make your decision from a place of clarity and have a solid grounding (foundation) from which to explore and grow as a professional designer.

I am aware that for most of you this will be your first experience of higher education, and the many challenges and opportunities it presents. I hope that you will find the course engaging and exciting and that you will also feel a sense of ownership and make your time here the stepping-stone to future studies and employment in your chosen profession.

Myles Cummings Course Director Foundation in Architecture and Design

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Hok-Yun Chan

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Laura McVey

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a2_Dorel Minnis.jpg

Molly Dhillon

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Kiran Panchal

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Charlie Morris

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Chloe Tempest Jones

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Taillu Robinson

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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

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Alexandra Ford

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

Tutors: Lucas Hughes Eccles Ng Dawn Parke Adam Carthy Dr Sandra Costa Andy Hilton Claire Hunt Dr Matthew Jones John Newman Jason Taylor Paj Valley Dr Jieling Xiao

Student Awards Oliver Haring Winner of the Landscape Institute ‘John Knight Award’; Runner up of the Tyler Grange ‘Strategic Landscape Award’ Adam Rumble Winner of the Tyler Grange ‘Strategic Landscape Award’; Winner of the BA Landscape Architecture, Studentship Awards Alison Harrison-Dean Runner up of the Tyler Grange ‘Strategic Landscape Award’

This has been a critical year for landscape architecture as a climate change emergency has been declared by the Landscape Institute. With the increasing pressure on our societies to mitigate threats from climate change and safeguard the future of our planet, the importance of a sustainable environmental design approach and the role of the landscape architect has never been more prevalent. This need is reflected in the high employment rates amongst this year’s graduating and second year student groups.

As a team we believe that tackling these threats requires innovation across the many facets of the discipline from theory to practice. We continue to encourage our students to test these boundaries through their design-led research. In the spirit of innovation and looking to the future this year we aligned our graduate show with the Landscape Institute’s 90th anniversary ‘Futures’ celebrations. The event exhibited the latest work from final-year students showcasing innovations in design thinking and process.

A virtual reality experience allowed visitors to immerse themselves in the students’ designs and fully engage with the concerns of our discipline.

Collectively, the work celebrates the variety and dynamism of the discipline of Landscape Architecture as these speculative projects embrace the themes of community, health and wellbeing, future living and post industrial landscapes rising to the increasing global challenges ahead.

Lucas Hughes Course Director BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

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Final Year

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How can designed landscapes mitigate the effects of global threats from increasing population, food shortages, flooding and sea level rise?

How do we design inclusive spaces in increasingly globalised and multicultural contexts?

How do we design resilient environments to encourage the health and wellbeing of our urban society?

How do we continue to integrate technology, nature and people in the Smart City?

These are some of the questions final year Landscape Architecture Students have been exploring through design theory and real-world practice, debate of current topics, collaborative projects and experimentation with the design process. This year’s students illustrate the dynamism and challenges of the discipline of landscape architecture as each project explores a unique subject and challenges facing our designed environment.

Before commencing year 3, students are tasked with defining a subject of personal, particular interest related to important issues in contemporary landscape architecture theory and practice. Students’ research project and theoretical exploration underpins their choice of site and inspires each design concept. These concepts have been rigorously tested and applied across the scales from regional to detail design.

Initially, students develop a broad idea for their own research opportunity and design project site options.

They consider links between theory and practice, ideas that connect their increasingly in-depth research (the questioning) to their increasingly dynamic practice (the doing). Students innovate their own process, through experimentation and expectation of interaction with a wider audience. They analyse the site at a large scale, understanding layers of physical and socio-cultural conditions to form a strategic framework for their design. They compare and contrast their own values and perspectives with those of the stakeholders.

To create a vision for their site this year’s students were asked to create a concept through a kind of storytelling about the place, something meaningful about the site that would engage and inspire a future generation of 50 \\ BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

visitors. They combined the abstract with the pragmatic, testing the boundaries and the scope of landscape architecture. They defined the practical elements of their sites and imbued them with layers of meaning, intertwining both tangible and intangible aspects of the place; How would this place be experienced as a sequence of spaces? What should the place reveal or hide of its social, cultural and historic roots? How would the design impact on sensory human experience?

Taking this forward, these ideas were refined and tested against a variety of needs relating to the site, with a desire to maximise the value based on a range of appropriate attributes. Sites were designed with dynamic experiences and functions, each underpinned by the conceptual framework defined earlier. Designs were realised in increasing detail, toward the human scale and the real-world experience of the end user. In the final stage of this process, students demonstrated how the material composition of their project would be realised. This included both the biotic and abiotic components of the soft green planting with the hardconstructed elements. Drawings and specifications were also included which could be taken by a contractor to move the project from its theoretical origins into a real-world physical outcome.

Students will take these ideas, values and skills with them into their future careers in the landscape architecture profession.

Second Year Building on skills learned in first year, this year’s students embarked on a sequence of modules where techniques became increasingly integrated and theoretical considerations began to frame their design projects across the scales.

In the first semester students were set the challenge of an urban design project in Digbeth. They undertook a rigorous site analysis and research project to understand the evolution of the place and its surroundings. This informed and inspired new concepts for the site. Projects were developed through an integrated approach of masterplan strategic design with human scale sustainable construction and planting design. The urban design module was supported

Oliver Haring

BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture // 51

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by the construction module both of which featured specialist lecturers from industry. The resultant future visions for the site were exhibited in the ‘Re-imagining Digbeth’ exhibition hosted in the Parkside Gallery.

their workplace, having been offered a place to return to practice as paid employees over the summer months and continuing into the third year of studies.

First Year

The Co.LAB and Praxis modules advanced appreciation of the real-world nature of the course, not only theory and personal experiment but clients, political systems and the general public to consider when putting a design together.

The culmination of the year, ‘Designed Ecologies’, examined multi-layered landscape systems, with a focus integrating social and ecological components within a re-design of Spaghetti Junction. Students tackled global issues exploring means to mitigate threats from climate change, population growth and depletion of natural resources whilst incorporating an environmentally sustainable and ecologically sensitive design approach. Students travelled to The Centre for Alternative Technologies (CAT) in Wales and gained an on-site opportunity to understand the importance of action on climate. The site features extensive habitats and ecosystems including woodlands, rivers, orchards, allotments and greenhouses which students explored with CAT’s specialist instructors and our academics.

Workshops in sustainable water management and sensory experience of the natural environment were extremely beneficial to understanding sustainable environmental design at the human scale.

Second Year - Work Placements Practice representatives from a range of practice sizes and sector focus’ were brought in to each run workshops, mock interviews and design competitions over consecutive weeks. This included the landscape team from ADP Architecture and WSP. The learning mode was that of simulation, a day-in-the-life of practice where students worked independently to meet deadlines developing their appreciation of life in a landscape architecture practice. The mock interviews with practicing landscape architects prepared students for their upcoming placements. Overall, this gave students an insight into the variety of work and types of focus available to them. The students then went into practice for two weeks, joining a local or national firm.

Several of our students were extremely successful in 54 \\ BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

Students explored ‘what is landscape architecture?’ in a fundamental way. Linking key skills to stimulating design productions delivered through workshops, presentation and discussion. Hand drawing skill stood out as the most important skill for students to deliver their own unique design communication approach, building from this in digital graphics, CAD, physical and digital modelling from this characterful foundation.

Exercises and assignments were a mixture of taskbased and problem-based approaches. Students enjoyed various workshops including origami, conceptual thinking, modular model-making, and technical skills workshops. On-site experiences and opportunities for primary research greatly added to the depth of site analysis and concept development.

Students had the opportunity to get first-hand experience of bricklaying with a professional and to visit a commercial tree nursery, providing an important lesson about the realities of turning architectural drawings into built construction.

Venice Study Trip (2018-19) In October 2018, BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture students spent several days on a group selected study trip to Venice, Italy. The trip engaged students with the unique landscape and waterscape that is Venice.

Students investigated the influence of cultural and physical context on the design of ‘the water city’. They observed and recorded local character; the sights, sounds and tastes for later design inspiration. Many of the sites visited related to key lectures on the course, such as that of Saint Mark’s Square, a paradigmatic model of the Piazza or the Square. Students from across all year groups including our international programme in Hong Kong shared their experiences and knowledge offering an excellent opportunity for peer learning and unique cultural insights.

Vaishnavi Parmar

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Vaishnavi Parmar

Voon Hui Chau

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture Year 1

Maia Trotman-Lucas

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Abigail Baines

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture Year 2

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Suleman Akhtar

Topographic Explorations

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Xiaoyang Li

Guoqing Zhang

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Sam Brittain

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Shiyun Huang

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Adam Rumble

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture Year 3

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Vestina Cizecskaja

66 \\ BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

Vestina Cizevskaja

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Oliver Haring

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Oliver Haring

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Alexandra Ford

70 \\ BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

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Jack Wells

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Rachel Goddard

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MA Landscape Architecture

Studio Tutors Russell Good Sandra Costa Kathryn Moore Ula Maria Lucas Hughes Andy Hilton Dawn Parke Jason Taylor Jieling Xiao Katryona Beirne Guest speakers Kyle Stott Karen Creavin Scott Dyde Simon Andrews Mike Shilton Dave Lowe Harriet Devlin Joe Hawkins

The MA Landscape Architecture at Birmingham School of Architecture and Design is one of the most innovative and forward thinking in the country. At the heart of this Master’s are the design studios with ambitious projects that respond to current global issues and real-life scenarios that relate to communities, landscapes and our environment. These have provided opportunities for rigorous design enquiry and in-depth exploration of visions and concepts.

MA Landscape Architecture (conversion year) For those students engaging in our two-year Master’s, their first year is a transformative process that encourages exchanging of skills and ideas. Students gain an understanding of the foundation principles of the profession, and have the opportunity to develop a significant range of skills that facilitate the design of complex landscapes with thoughtful solutions. During the first year, students are encouraged to undertake a journey into design exploration and creative thinking.

Our two main design studios, Designed Ecologies and Designed Geographies, delivered two projects set in rather different contexts. The sites of investigation were Pitchford Hall Estate in the picturesque Shropshire countryside and Icknield Port Loop in Post-industrial Birmingham.

MA Landscape Architecture As you will see in the extraordinary projects we showcase in this Concerns our ambitious designs foresee the future of landscapes through the lens of climate change, health and wellbeing, food production, air quality, and landscape infrastructure, considering visions to the West Midlands National Park.

They demonstrate that our MA students understand the impact which human activity has on the landscape/ urban systems, transformation, nature and loss of

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biodiversity, and their role in participating in these dialogues and in presenting creative, sustainable and resilient solutions for these.

Over the duration of one year, or two years if parttime, students are encouraged to develop their individual interests and take advantage of synergies and existing skills to develop their critical thinking associated with the complexities of the range of scales that the landscape architect is involved in as well as creative and unique graphic communication styles.

This year we have pushed forward innovative techniques for landscape visualisation. Virtual reality (VR) has taken a central focus and our students were excited to step into their designs both as users and designers. With the support of DEFINE and the Landscape Institute we invested in 2 new VR headsets which will have a great impact in the teaching and learning experience next year. Our VR room in the end-of-year exhibition was a success, with visitors immersing in the place experience, and staff and students gaining an understanding of the potential of this tool in public engagement.

Thanks to our students for their engagement in the studio and for their camaraderie which has proven to highly benefit the overall teaching and learning experience.

Kika Vernon

Finally, congratulations to our colleague Russell Good who has celebrated his 25th anniversary teaching landscape architecture here at BCU. Russell also stands down as MA Course Director this summer after five amazing years leading the MA and 15 leading the BA courses. Our sincere thanks to him for his dedication to education, to colleagues and students and wishes that new projects will bring him as much enjoyment.

Dr Sandra Costa Course Director MA Landscape Architecture

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Kika Vernon

Designed Ecologies - Pitchford Hall Project tutors: Russell Good, Dr Sandra Costa This project enabled students to explore the role of designed ecology as a process driven philosophy that can be used to enhance the asset value of the environment. The project is defined by the evolved woodland and wetland ecologies and these habitats, but also by contextual relationships that extend beyond the curtilage of Pitchford Hall, and is underpinned by ideas of sustainability and therapeutic recreation.

David Mahon

Designed geographies – Icknield Port Loop Project tutors: Dr Sandra Costa The project invited to rethink the concept of “garden cities” and re-imagine the garden city of the 21st century which meets the needs of the environment and a contemporary society. The experimental laboratory in a post-industrial landscape - the legacy of the original James Brindley ‘contour’ canal of 1769, which was made partly redundant by Telford’s creation of the Birmingham Main Line canal of the 1820s.

Lydia Glanville

Health, Wellbeing and Active Places Project tutors: Dr Sandra Costa, Russell Good, Ula Maria Interventions in the landscape can play an important role in delivering cost-effective improvements in health and wellbeing. In Design Theory and Practice the students were invited to interrogate and rethink the River Rea urban axis under the theme of Healthy Urban Landscapes and to investigate the possibilities and potential of the urban environment to provide a place for healthy and positive interactions. Co.Lab challenged the students to endeavour re-design urban spaces to be civic active places and to encourage play, physical activity and healthy behaviour change.

James Vine, Viet Trinh Tran, Yucong Li, Rachel Goddard, Matt Alebon

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Climate Change in Transit Project tutors: Russell Good Climate change will nudge the bar continuously upwards for extreme weather events. Storm water will bring alive river valleys and flood plains and coastal landscapes transition to the tempo of active froth and frenzy of wild seas. Fairbourne investigates the potential of landscape architecture to experiment with design led solutions for its climate change refugees, harnessing the power of designed geologies and ecologies imagineered in 2070.

Lucia Hogg

Urban Futures and Air Quality Project tutors: Lucas Hughes, Andrew Hilton With the ubiquity of the motor car, air quality in urban areas has become a challenge for much of the world.

This project asked students to critique the effectiveness of this as a solution, exploring evidence for design-led solutions. The studio has engaged with the themes of urban design, street and public space character, air quality, green-networks and transport. Research and design methodologies include urban modelling, air quality monitoring, community participation augmented reality.

Giuseppe Ciancimino

Visions: West Midlands National Park Project tutor: Kathryn Moore Inspired by the imminent arrival of HS2, the West Midlands National Park proposal seeks to establish a new kind of National Park for the West Midlands. This immense rolling landscape, the crucible of the industrial revolution, the nexus of the UK’s major agricultural regions, with its complex infrastructure of canals, highways and byways married to some of the most beautiful, forgotten areas in Britain awaits a re-imagining for millions of people.

Meng Hao

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Rachel Goddard

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Rachel Goddard

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RobColbourne seams Morfa Mawddach AquaFarmParkFINAL PRES2-15.tif

Rob Colbourne

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Rob Colbourne

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Rob Colbourne

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Rob Colbourne

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Rob Colbourne

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Viet Trinh Tran

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Iris-Ip

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Viet Trinh Tran

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Meng Hao

Meng Hao

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Phillip Smith

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Chantelle Harris

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ARCHITECTURE

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Ahmed Hamid

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BA (Hons) Architecture RIBA Part I

Tutors: Year 1 Victoria Farrow Ollie Chapman Tom Tebby Miles Weber Catherine Watton Max Witroksy Juliet Sakyi Ansar Year 2 Ana Costa Susanne Bauer Andrew Fleming Joan Kerr Holly Doron Year 3 Alessandro Columbano Beatriz Gomes-Martin Rebecca Walker Neal Tanna Matt Jones Eleanor Dodman Paul Wakelam Rob Jones Selim Halulu Ian Shepherd

We began the new academic year with mobilising agendas and clear themes for Year 1, 2 and 3: Principles - Process – Exploration. These themes would shape our starting studios and focus our attention on a complexity appropriate to each level of the course towards the latter part of 2018. From the beginning of 2019, we looked to explore a wide range of projects, from small pop-up structures, to dwellings and other residential buildings, public buildings and mixed use. We saw a rich variety of investigations across the course, nurtured by collaborative practice and professional practice both inside and out of the classroom. The year concluded with modules in Design Resolution 1, 2 and 3.

Year 1 allows new students to gently embark on their journey into architectural education by learning and discovering its basic principles. The first year students completed many exciting projects and continued to explore new design and communication techniques through their designs, which grew in complexity as they advanced through the exercises. Building skills in hand-drawing, sketching, orthographics, modelmaking, Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) in two and three dimensions, material crafts and rendering. First year students enjoyed gathering a range of different presentation and representation techniques to gain confidence in communicating ideas. Documenting this journey together with their design development process online via blogs provides the group a good foundation for portfolios and helped students embed good practice for the future. The quality of the students work was commended by external examiners once again this

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year, who described the work as “phenomenal for first year level”. The students’ presentations were also complimented widely on Twitter and Instagram.

Projects in Year 1 are intertwined with classes and workshops in technology and cultural context modules, with studio projects absorbing this knowledge and application. This pattern repeats itself at Year 2 and Year 3 where students are encouraged to feel confident having already practised similar ways of working in the previous years. As each student moves steadily through each stage of their course, building upon previously established ideals that continue to be reinforced and stretched.

With new confidence, Year 2 students embraced the architectural design process. Students are exposed to real life practice scenarios, which are enriched by their time spent in work placements and modules such as Co.LAB, which provides a vehicle for collaboration and experimentation. As a lively and active part of the year the cohort gained better understanding of their place within the world of architecture. In addition to CoLAB, the second year students engaged in an exciting live project working with a local nursery within Birmingham city centre. The students collaborated in teams to design, present and build the new structures for the children’s play garden. This was a new project to Year 2, which required consideration of environmental design, structures, costing analysis, technical expertise as well as hands on efforts working on site, which created a further solid stepping stone towards Year 3. Year 2

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culminated their work placements with a Pecha Kucha and a celebration of Praxis work, where both Year 1 and Year 2 students engaged in discussions about professional practice and work placements.

In the Final Year, the course required more independence from students. The suite of modules included cultural context, technical investigations, and design studio, allowing students to discover their own values, set agendas and put forward more complex design proposals both conceptually and technically.

Four design studio units encouraged production and the exploration of architectural schemes, which have been detailed to an appropriate level for Year 3 students.

Preparing the cohort further for professional practice following their experiences in Year 2, Year 3 promotes creative thinking, furthering confidences and constructs an environment for decision-making. This year we landed in Bewdley for the Year 3 site where students laid down their proposals following agendas informed by 5 studios Move, Plasticity, Archiving, Response and Ctrl_culture.

From the beginning of the course, a high emphasis is placed on students making their own choices. Upon departure from the University, the cohort is ready to embark on whatever challenge should present itself when in the world of work.

Victoria Farrow Course Director BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture Year 1

Emily Haigh

Emily Haigh

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Georgia Sephton-Pryce

Widuri Clare

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Georgia Sephton-Pryce

Laura Hastings

Will Blackadder

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Thomas Rowntree and Jacob Doherty

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BA (Hons) Architecture Year 2

Ahmed Hamid and Christian Gonito

Sehama Nuur and Taibah Jabin

Andrew Saunders and Ritesh Mistry

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Ahmed Hamid

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Ahmed Hamid

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Diana Grigorie

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Diana Grigorie

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Saylah Hussain

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Saylah Hussain

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David Guillen Barrero

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BA (Hons) Architecture Year 3

Year 3 design responds to this year’s overarching theme of identity five distinct studio groups led by a tutor with support from technology tutors and visiting critics. All Studios explored different urban conditions of Bewdley, Worcestershire, as it prepares itself for the bicentenary of John Ruskin’s birth. The Georgian town has a long historical relationship with the respected polymath and art critic, and his legacy in craftsmanship remains strong to this day.

Students initially investigate studio-specific design processes before adapting a brief dedicated to an art centre and ‘Festival of Making’ hub celebrating Ruskin’s legacy in the region.

Studios for 2018-19: MOVE Tutors: Alessandro Columbano, Rebecca Walker Invited Critics: Libby Watts, Quinn Greer, Mike Dring RESPONSE Tutors: Neal Tanna, Matt Jones Invited Critics: Alex Kolar, Alisdair Russell , Ali Abbas

All sites of investigations take a speculative process of investigation, as they explore the transformation of urban conditions of the town and nearby Wyre Forest.

The student projects reside in an emerging context of a picturesque but static rural-urban fringe as it sits within distinctive geographic features. The challenge to students was to explore how architectural proposals can bring liveable and dynamic urban spaces and functions in response to a conspicuous historical context.

ARCHIVING Tutors: Eleanor Dodman, Paul Wakelam Invited Critics: Tobias Jewson, Stefan Laxness, Arabella Maza, Graham Baldwin PLASTICITY Tutors: Beatriz Gomes-Martin, Rob Jones Invited Critics: David Baldock, Anastasiya Luban, Rodney Ng CTRL_CULTURE Tutors: Selim Halulu, Ian Shepherd Invited Critics: Dr Christopher Pierce, George Massoud, Graham Baldwin, Dr Shibu Raman BA (Hons) Architecture // 113

Studio Move Tutors: Alessandro Columbano, Rebecca Walker Invited Critics: Libby Watts, Quinn Greer, Mike Dring The imagined and re-imagined stories of the built form with cinematic atmospheres and dynamic spatial sequences to design a contemporary gallery or art-house cinema, Ruskin archive and collection display alongside the Festival of Making.

Louis Stephenson

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Pelayo Martinez

Pelayo Martinez

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Marina Georgieva

Reuvie Barbon

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Kyle Conway

Fiona Shaw

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Louis Stephenson

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Will Weston

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Studio Response Tutors: Neal Tanna, Matt Jones Invited Critics: Alex Kolar, Alisdair Russell , Ali Abbas The exploration of the sites heritage in making, through material exploration and refining drawing technique to document peoples relationship to local craft.

Louisa Marley

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Louisa Marley

Manjinder Davgun

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Deenpreet Phull

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Emily Walsh

Waqaar Zamin

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Ore Adeyemi

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Studio Archiving Tutors: Eleanor Dodman, Paul Wakelam Invited Critics: Tobias Jewson, Stefan Laxness, Arabella Maza, Graham Baldwin A rigorous and detailed documentation of Bewdley’s built heritage to question and design a new means of preserving the built environment as students work proposals through the perspective of the Conservation Officer, the Archivists and the Architect.

Muhammad Javaid

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Connie Emery

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Muhammad Javaid

Karam Ginday

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Issuru Liyanage

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Connie Emery

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Nadia Jervier

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Studio Plasticity Tutors: Beatriz Gomes-Martin, Rob Jones Invited Critics: David Baldock, Anastasiya Luban, Rodney Ng The studio pursued an architecture that was pluralist and multifaceted; that intermingled discourses, practices and techniques. Plasticity is interested in a ‘shape-architecture’ defined by a desire to act, to (inter) act... to activate, to generate, to produce, to express, to move, to exchange and to relate within the wider fabric of our built environment.

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1. Daniel Gibbons 2. Adam Nuttall 3. Youssef Ali 4. Matthew Gregory 5. Stuart Lee 6. Maelle Gaultier 7. Joshua Bright 8. Amritpal Padda 9. Denisa Osacenco

Field Diagrams

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Maelle Gaultier

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Maelle Gaultier

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Amritpal Padda

Scott Addison

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Joshua Bright

Daniel Gibbons

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Adam Nuttall

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Studio Ctrl_culture Tutors: Selim Halulu, Ian Shepherd Invited Critics: Dr Christopher Pierce, George Massoud, Graham Baldwin, Dr Shibu Raman Searching for architectural consequences of today’s information and technology driven society. This studio is interested in architecture as a by-product of experiments to make connections between the mundane and the extraordinary in order to understand our relationship with nature.

Ben Muoka

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David Guillen Barrero

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Soha Khazaie

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Flavia Danila

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BA Hanna John Makhoul 142 \\

(Hons) Architecture

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Award Winners

RIBA Bronze Medal School nomination Issuru Liyanage Studio: Archiving Tutors: Eleanor Dodman, Paul Wakelam Project Title: Between Walls

144 \\ BA (Hons) Architecture

Oscar Naddermeier Award RIBA Bronze Medal School nomination Louis Stephenson Studio: MOVE Tutors: Alessandro Columbano, Rebecca Walker

Green Book Award

HOK Innovation in Architecture Award

Hanna John Makhoul Studio: Ctrl_culture Tutors: Selim Halulu, Ian Shepherd

William Weston Studio: MOVE Tutors: Alessandro Columbano, Rebecca Walker

Project Title: ESN-u 1.0 Project Title: Collapse

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Bronwen Chatwin

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MArch Architecture RIBA Part II

Welcome to the MArch at Birmingham School of Architecture and Design. The MArch is designed to offer increasing specialisation and choice over its duration, placing our students at the forefront of the discipline. We explore a long history of applied arts in Birmingham, of a synergy between art and industry, culture and production, ‘learning though making’ forming a central practice of our course, drawing on this heritage and the creative context of the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media.

We are interested in making connections, within and beyond the academy, of sharing our position as an independent space to think, learn, act and make. The ‘research by design’ pedagogy foregrounds the idea that the design work undertaken on the course has value and potential impact beyond the course, with relevance to contemporary issues, with opportunities for transdisciplinarity in the creation of traditional and non-traditional forms of knowledge.

We have a wide range of formal and informal partners including educators, manufacturers, creative practitioners, charitable groups, and are able to add value to projects, places and lives through collaboration. Some are short term, others go on to leave a clear legacy, such as STEAMHouse, a workspace for creativity, technology and business support for the region.

Presented here is a selection of student work from our four design units, the result of a yearlong exploration into topics, sites and ideas made through cross level collaborative working, participatory practices, material experimentation, design resolution and speculation on a range of future visions for the city.

Michael Dring Course Director MArch Architecture MArch Architecture // 147

MArch Architecture Unit 1 / Castles & Pavilions: Explorations in Community, Housing and the Commons

Unit 1 is concerned with housing and ideas surrounding ‘the commons’. This year Unit 1 has been exploring these topics through the dynamics of private developer led housing at Port Loop in Birmingham, guided by parallel critical explorations of historical and future models of housing and allied social and technical infrastructure in the UK and Portugal. In the face of a national housing shortage, we are interested in exploring alternative processes of design, construction, ownership and management that foreground the collective and respond to changing patterns of living.

The idea of the city as ‘common ground’ is an ethical concept not usually discussed in private housing development, but it invokes the one thing a city ought to grant – a depth that accommodates with dignity the diversity of its people and their histories. (Carl, p.67).

Although the context of its origin is different to ours, the SAAL (Servico de Apoio Ambulatorio Local, or Service for Local Mobile Support) housing schemes of the 1970s pursued alternative forms of spatial agency in response to a severe lack of housing, through citizen participation 148 \\ MArch Architecture

and sweat equity in the form of co-operatives and associations as long term leaseholder of municipal land.

The low cost housing projects by Alvaro Siza and others engaged in a critical response to the charged political context and different interpretations of the SAAL programme resulted in a range of typologies including the multi-storey block in Lisbon and the row house in Porto, as well as development of the ‘Ilha’ or ‘islands’ of low-income housing within city blocks. The most successful examples show signs of appropriation and individual expression, the worst a lack of maintenance or care, often related not to the architectural form or material but to ambiguous tenure systems.

Many of these ideas are reflected in the term ‘Open Building’ whose origins lie in John Habraken’s notion of ‘support’, a movement which offers ways of thinking about different patterns of provision, user engagement, and an architecture that evolves with its’ context.

The work presented here explores the territories and negotiations between the public realm and the privacy of the home (Sergison, p.9). Precedent studies at scale

of 1:50 – 1:500 explored ideas of threshold and façade, and experimental survey and capture techniques at scale of 1:1 – 1:1250 allowed us to make collective three-dimensional collages for a series of exteriors and interiors that offer a constructive critique of the planned developments at Port Loop, foregrounding ‘the commons’ in relation to the resources, conventions and rituals involved in their creation and operation.

During the year, we visited the Drawing Matter archive in Somerset to look at Siza’s original drawings for SAAL projects, and made visits to the sites themselves in Portugal. These studies have built into a critical dialogue around alternative ideas for housing and a concern for the common ground of the city.

Unit 1 Instituto

Tutors: Michael Dring, Rob Annable, Kirk Rushby.

Students: Matthew Bell, Hannah Boland, Rebecca Lipscombe, Maariayh Mahmood, Lucy Gakunga, Jack Shaw, Marcus Smith, Charlotte Barnes, Holly Turton, Fei Jones, Michael Conner, Philip Pell, Oliver Pickering, Anila Safeer, Joshua Wickens, Jacob Barnes, Amy FrancisSmith, Ayesha Kaur, Natalie Marsh, Grace McevoyMulligan, Thomas Sheldon, Maham Tahir.

UNIT 1 Group 4 Castles and Pavilions Portfolio

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Maham Tahir

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Natalie Marsh

Philip Pell Amy Francis-Smith

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Grace Mulligan

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Ayesha Kaur

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Josh Wickens

Fei Jones

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Tom Sheldon

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MArch Architecture Unit 2 / Legacy

Mega-events are instrumental in the promotion of programmes of urban ‘boosterism’ enabling public authorities and private investors manage to redevelop huge portions of the urban realm. However, while the built environment ‘regenerates’, the existing social fabric and its identities are often placed under threat: urban populations are displaced towards more peripheral areas, either forcibly or because of a no longer affordable rental market.

New structures such as stadiums and conference halls are often just a small percentage of the redevelopment plans, frequently dominated by residential developments that are soon sold on the market once the event is over. What is the legacy of such a process?

And how does such a legacy overlap with other cultural legacies or subjectivities that are inevitably affected or even erased by the conflation of multiple stakes over an urban area in a short period of time.

A number of scholars have remarked how the new developments are conducive to exacerbate the process 156 \\ MArch Architecture

of commodification of urban land while the built fabric densifies, open spaces are increasingly fenced off, regulating their access and restricting it to users who have paid an entrance fee or to residents in a specific block. Through the mega-event, commodifying dynamics make an instantaneous jump of scale, turning huge portions of urban fabric and idle land into opportunities for profit. Other studies have focused on the depoliticising and exclusionary dynamics fostered by the mega-event. On one side, reflecting on the managerial approach to the urban transformation governance: potential disagreements between urban actors are quickly dismissed, for the sake of a fastpaced transformation based on consensus driven policies. On the other side, focusing on the dismissed and excluded voices, who often undergo physical displacement in order to make room for the new developments.

The unit questions how architecture and urban design can harness and counter such exclusionary, commodifying and depoliticising dynamics in the

context of extreme investment pressure brought by the mega-event. In so doing, we want to draw from the bodies of work of two philosophers such as Foucault and Agamben, who have been fundamental in inspiring the current interdisciplinary debate on the urban realm, especially through the introduction of the spatial and governmental paradigms of the carceral archipelago and the camp – the former referring to dynamics of securitisation and control, the latter to a condition of forced confinement, exclusion and depoliticisation.

Tutors: Andrew Hilton, Giorgio Talocci, Martin Mence.

Students: Mohammed Mozakir Ali, Agnieszka Michalska, Darius Walton, Emraan Mayow, Leigh Davies, Zubair Hussain, Kieran Latham, William Radburn-Todd, Mihaela Petre, James Fairweather, Emily Husband, Daniel Kelsall, Sabaa Mehboob, Sarah Abuzeid, Lewis Buckley, Tom Gardner, Gurpreet Lall, Stefan Munteanu, Daniel Tomko.

Central in our investigation has been questioning the role of architecture in countering the formation of securitised, gated, privatised, spectacularised, exclusionary and depoliticised urbanisms, drawing from the current literature debate on the social role of architecture and on its capacity to profane an urban realm founded on the gestures of secluding, confining and sacrificing to the tyranny of capitals and its spectacles. This year Unit 2 has developed alternative masterplans for the proposed athlete’s village at the former BCU City North Campus in Perry Barr which informed individual thesis projects that seek to use the mega-event as an opportunity to design an open, decommodified and re-politicised city.

UNIT 2 MASTERPLAN THESIS

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Daniel Tomko

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Tom Gardner

Daniel Tomko

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James Fairweather

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Stefan Munteanu

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MArch Architecture Unit 3 / Contemporary Rituals “Rituals are collective memories encoded into actions.” (Schechner, 2002:52).

This year Unit 3 has been exploring urban space through the lens of performativity and ritual, drawing from theory and processes across an expanded architectural field encompassing theatre, dance, and performance.

The origins of civilization can be found in rituals and cities are a reflection of human interactions. We view the body as the main generator of space, citing Soja’s idea of Third Space in thinking about and interpreting socially produced space, and Habraken’s theory that territory is defined by acts of occupation. The body is also the receptor of multiple experiences and sensations that can be designed. We have developed an understanding of the spatialization of the body in making cartographies and different ways of mapping action towards the creation of architectural spaces. This has been explored through experimental performance and artistic methodologies including light painting, Viewpoints (Anne Boggart) and Kinespheres (Rudolf Laban).

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These cartographies and mappings of urban narratives across our study site in Sparkhill were developed into a series of theoretical frameworks through drawings, conceptual models and graphic materials. This described the architectural and urban characteristics of the area, as well as representations of urban rituals the local activities, everyday life and sources of income and connections to the rural economy of the Midlands (agriculture, farmers’ markets, livestock amongst other events and activities).

The unit views the market as a civic space, where exchange, trade and human interaction reflects the economy of civilization that generated an architectural – although often ephemeral – typology. Performances, demonstrations or religious events are just a few examples of actions that have been linked to the markets.

The study of trade, markets and the theaters of ancient Greece, as well as an exploration of migrations and the formation of communities played an essential role

in the development of projects towards the definition of contemporary rituals. The propositions presented here range from the micro (how cooking can unlock memories) to the macro (how deconstruction can be used as a tool for changing the city).

Tutors: Maria Martinez-Sanchez, Matthew Hayes, Barbora Bott.

Students: Byron Chan, Hicham Ouahabi, Audrone Rutkauskaite, Hampus Stridfeldt, Richard Macdonald, Fatima Mohammed, Raluca-Ioana Savulescu, Ahmed Afzal, Jack Bowden, Joseph Bowman, Jennifer Hall, Yoana Korendova, Diane Shaw, Fathmath Ihudha Amir, Jeevan Kalsi, Mihai-Alexandru Marangoci, Nadia Ouahabi, Antony Sehmar, Mohammed Shaed.

Alex Marangoci

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Jeevan Kalsi

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Amir_fathmath

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Joe Bowman

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Alex Marangoci

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Mohammed Shaed

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Jenny Hall

Mohammed Shaed

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MArch Architecture Unit 4 / Villa Urbana et Villa Rusticana ‘The double face presented by both [Varro’s] villa and his town house reflects this duality. He must be able at once to impress the townsman by the ideological force of his rustic credentials, and the countryman by the sophistication of his urbanity. The villa thus asserts urban values in the middle of the countryside, but on the condition that the town house asserts rural values in the midst of the town.’

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, ‘The Villa as Cultural Symbol’, in The Roman Villa: Villa Urbana, ed. Alfred Frazer (1998)

Although the European architectural tradition of the rural villa re-emerges with the discovery and translation of Vitruvius’s de Architectura in Renaissance Italy, the legacy of the Roman Empire was already present in many different forms throughout Europe at the time. The architecture of this tradition, transformed through the medieval period in England, was evident in the appearance of large country houses—prodigy houses—in the place of castles that had previously accommodated most feudal country seats. However, once the culture of European villas and houses arrived in the form of English Palladianism and the Baroque—both of which contributed to the development of the English picturesque tradition—much of the earlier idiosyncrasy evident in England began to be concealed behind a veneer of European sensibility, only to later re-emerge in the Gothic Revival.

process offered a new relationship between town and country. Using ideas related to the categorisations of architectural ‘style’ emerging at the time, large private and public structures were built within the idyllic surroundings that had already been partly manufactured by the picturesque. Such structures became the last real heirs of a tradition that reflected upon the critical relationship between town and country in England.

But this transition was not the end of this development.

In the nineteenth century industrialisation began to encroach on land outside towns and cities and in the

The projects are situated around Wroxeter, next to the River Severn, and at the end of Watling Street, the old Roman Road that runs from the Kent coast through

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This year, through the medium of winemaking, Unit 4 has revisited these issues by questioning whether, in the twenty-first century, there are similar dichotomies between the town and country in terms of morality, representation, leisure and activity, and whether, rather than being exclusive, these differences can result in architecture that manifests—spatially and materially— aspects of the town in the county.

Canterbury and London into the agricultural heart of England.

Tutors: Prof Christian Frost, Luke Nagle, Pete Jennings.

The unit began by looking carefully at examples of the city parlour—from cellar to loft—to understand issues relating to villa urbana—followed by thorough investigations of four English country houses from the last eight hundred years evaluating their ‘town’ and ‘country’ qualities—both intensive and extensive.

These were Stokesay Castle (c.1280-1660), Haddon Hall (c.1390-c.1694),Hardwick Hall (1590-1597), and Chiswick House (1726-1729).

Students: Ankitha Dyavannagowda, Adam Salton-Mayers, Sandy Webb, Charlotte Arnold, Indraj Bhachu, Sam Gardiner, Sarah Ives, Frances Chappelow, Steven George, Bonnie Carswell, Shahid Khan, Malgorzata Chomka, Sebastian Smart, Damion Allport, Danielle Long, Ram Verma, Laura Bellaby, Bronwen Chatwin, Harvinder Dullat, William Haynes, Olivia Myttion.

These individual and group investigations then led to individual interventions into the existing landscape.

Unit 4 Group Chatwin

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Will Haynes

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Will Haynes

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Bronwen Chatwin

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Bronwen Chatwin

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Harvinder Dullat

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Harvinder Dullat

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PG DIP ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE (RIBA PT. III)

Tutors: Ian Shepherd Anthony Clerici Amanda Jones

This professional practice course can be commenced following 24 months’ relevant practice experience and includes personal reflection, a case study, practice and professional examination and an oral exam.

Invited Speakers: Michael Dunn Richard Powell John Jacobs Walter Menteth Robin Nicholson Bob Pritchard Sarah Parker Jane Duncan Rachel Hobbis Tom Taylor Hans Haenlein Anthony Lavers Kevin Singh Anna Parker Andy Wolfe Justin Nichols Mark Williams

The course duration is two years, however, can be completed within 10 months. Enrolment takes place in the autumn and spring of each year.

The course that prepares students for the exams is delivered through a number of two-day modules at the School, and is delivered by a range of specialist speakers who are expert in their field. The modules are spread over several months and lead to the oral exam in either which can be taken in December or June This fully accredited course covers the criteria set down by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and adopted by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), giving exemption from the RIBA Part III examination. On completion, successful candidates can register with the ARB entitling them to use the title ‘Architect’. They can also apply for chartered membership of RIBA.

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The course aims to provide education in architectural practice that provide skills, knowledge and understanding that are not only for the purposes of professional qualification but that can be taken forward in to practice to form the basis of life-long learning and professional development.

To achieve this, the course provides students with:

• • • • •

Knowledge and support for professional experience to enable students to satisfactorily complete the final examination and join the ARB. Ability to act in a professional manner and in accordance with the codes and standards of the profession.

Critical understanding of the requirements of the legal framework for practice, practice management and construction procurement.

Ability to identify good practice and excellence and adopt it in their professional life.

Ability to identify their future learning needs and the opportunities of specialisation and diversification in their careers.

The Course Director will provide guidance and support throughout the course.

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Professional Examiners

Beyond Graduation

Madeleine Dring - D5 Architects LLP Helen Rea - Glazzard Architects Ltd John Norfolk - Associated Architects Daniel Mulligan - Glen Howells Architects Amanda Harmer - Harmer Fitz Architects Robert Hopkins – AHR Manchester Amanda Jones - Troyka Associates Ltd Bob Ghosh - K4 Architects Paul Hewes – Space Architecture Simon Jesson – Glancy Nicholls Architects Martha McSweeney – McSweeney Architecture Sandy Greenhill - Vivid Architects Ltd Satwinder Samra - University of Sheffield Natalia Maximova – Sheppard Robson Daniel Mulligan – Glenn Howells Architects Lucy Dinnen – Project V Architecture Dhiran Vagdia – Vagdia and Holmes Anthony Clerici – Clerici Design Naomi Fisher – APEC Architects Ltd

Our ‘Beyond Graduation’ programme provides support for those either working in practice or looking for work including those seeking to develop a career outside of architecture. The programme runs at both Post-Part I and Post-Part II levels as a non-credit based course to help support students through their early career choices.

External Examiner Orla Hegarty – University College Dublin

As part of the Beyond Graduation programme, the School provides a Professional Studies Advisor (PSA) to guide students through the process as well as careers support in addition to validating practical experience through the PEDR’s. Students will also continue to be able to access to library facilities and IT resources. The School has a wide network of contacts to help support students into work.

Ian Shepherd Course Director Contact: Ian Shepherd - (Parts II & III) - ian.shepherd@bcu.ac.uk Amanda Jones (Part I) - AJ.PSA@troyka-associates.com PG Dip Architectural Practice // 183

Students visiting Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton to study historic interiors

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MA Conservation of the Historic Environment

Tutors: Katriona Byrne Tim Lewis

The postgraduate courses in Conservation of the Historic Environment recruited well again this academic year. There was a great split between new students, joining already established students currently on their second year.

The course is aimed at mid-career professionals or contractors with a delivery format of Friday and Saturday teaching, so most of the students are in full-time employment. It also attracts people who are changing careers and for the first time a newlygraduated student. This leads to a fascinating cross section of skills, interests and professional knowledge.

The course fits in well with the expanded Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, with courses in historic landscapes and historic interiors, as well as a strong emphasis on conservation philosophy and understanding the significance of exisiting buildings and their sustainable futures. The course continues to offer Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for architects, surveyors, engineers, contractors or home owners.

One of the important aspects of the courses is the number of specialist lecturers used to deliver the workshops, all experts in their fields and some at the forefront of new research. Site visits and tours were led by conservation architects and conservation officers and demonstrated conservation in practice on the ground.

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Students building traditional brick walls in Ironbridge.

Students recording at Pitchford Hall, Shropshire.

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Historic plasterwork at Westwood House, Droitwich Spa.

A student doing tuck pointing.

Understanding and improving the financial and environmental sustainability of historic buildings is another important part of the course, and students have been working with Building Preservation Trusts to consider options appraisals for both redundant places of worship and secular buildings.

the palette of repair techniques. The Timber course included a visit to a joiner’s workshop in Ludlow and timber-framed structures in Worcester. Another real privilege was the enormous generosity of the owners of Pitchford Hall in Shropshire, one of the most remakable buildings in Britain, that has just been bought back by the former family after 25 years of neglect. The owners allowed the students to access the mansion and the grounds for their Recording course, and to visit the 17th-century tree house; this was held jointly with Year 2 students to enable wider networking. Other topics included the conservation of 20th-century buildings, with a look at recent cases in Birmingham city centre.

Another is the practical nature of the course, with students getting hands-on experience and understanding of traditional building materials. The knowledge of lime as a mortar, plaster, render or limewash is the cornerstone of working with pre-1919 buildings and structures, and all students have a go at mixing mortars, as well as plastering onto lath, and repointing stonework at Llanymynech Limeworks in North Shropshire.

There were several highlights to the Year 1 practical workshops this year, including hands-on brick-wall building at Ironbridge World Heritage Site for the Ceramics ourse and a visit to the Jackfield Tile Museum in the Ironbridge Gorge. The decay and remediation of building stones is also studied with demonstrations from masons to understand both material defects and

For Year 2 students the partnership with the Canal and River Trust led to two fascinating days at the Dudley Canal and Tunnel Trust - with students legging the narrow boat through the tunnel during their course on the heritage of canals. For the first time the students visited the Grade I listed privately-owned Westwood House in Droitwich Spa to study historic plasterwork and learn about its repair; they also studied the different conservation approaches to historic interiors whilst based at the National Trust property of Wightwick MA Conservation of the Historic Environment // 187

Some of the tools students use and learn about on the lime course.

Students pointing stone walls with lime.

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Students plastering with lime on timber lath panels.

Manor. A fascinating visit to Longer Hall helped expand their awareness of the role of agriculture and tax matters in the historic environment, and a wonderful visit to Hagley Hall to get behind the scenes of the restoration of the park there completed the module.

Awards to stduents included the Milestone Society Award given to Gill Elliott; Amanda Marshall gained a prestigious Gus Astley Award from the IHBC; Alexa Woodward was granted the inaugural Donald Insall Award for best Conservation Management Plan.

Katriona Byrne Course Director MA Conservation of the Historic Environment

Students learning about the conservation of 20th-century buildings in Birmingham city centre.

Examples of traditional timber joints at Treasures’ workshop in Ludlow.

The inaugual Donal Insall Award being granted for best CMP

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INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

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Millicent Simon

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BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design

Tutors: Korina Zaromytidou Glenda Strong Dr Maria Martinez Kathryn Jones Tony Salmon Alexandra King Victoria Paterson Andrew Trujillo Kayla Rees Kristy Parsons Dr Matthew Jones Jason Taylor Andy Hilton Ashley Wilson Tony Kerby Dr Jieling Xiao Delia Skinner Dr Anna Costa

BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design was intended to enthuse and incite provocation with regards to thinking, experimenting and further on reshaping and designing the interior of existing building envelopes.

The scope of the course, through the 3 years of study, aimed to challenge and formulate the students’ personal style around the discipline of interior design, and enhance the ability to critically reflect on a variety of stimuli: social, political, environmental etc. The critical response to such fundamental concerns was translated into innovative design solutions that formed, shaped, inhabited existing and new structures.

Rethinking, Reimagining, Reforming.

A strong technical skillset and a variety of methods on making and communicating a design proposal allowed students to confidently start their career in the industry.

Working with the volume of the space, (re-)creating space, playing with forms and shapes, and finally completing the design circle with appropriate lighting, material, and furniture application. Students had the chance to explore the spectrum of Interior Design as a discipline, from new formations within the space, to respecting, understanding and developing existing structures.

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Our first year students gained valuable skills in drawing, model-making and conceptual thinking. It is with great honour to mention that our students won for a second time in a row, 1st prize in the Director’s Award in the Architects Health competition. Through a variety of briefs, students had the opportunity to examine and explore ideas in response to the core fundamentals of the interior design discipline and discover ways of inhabiting a space.

Second year students began to define both themselves as designers and their career trajectories. They investigated contemporary design, dissected their design processes, and critiqued the contexts in which they operate. They experimented with varied interdisciplinary design processes, and reflected on the relative merits of each. Ultimately, they took ownership of their development, identifying and then testing the skills needed to achieve their goals.

an area of personal interest to them. During the first semester, a selection between fundamental theoretical concepts of design were offered as a choice for project development. Under the canopy of the theory of transition, students explored a programme relevant to the theoretical interpretation of parasitism in design, ephemerality and post-catastrophe architecture.

The second semester was devoted to developing their Major project by creating programmes of their choice.

The projects developed were based on sophisticated theoretical considerations, manifesting into innovative design solutions.

Three of our final year students had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong over an eight-day trip receiving funding from the University. This provided students a fantastic chance to collaborate with the students of our affiliated school SHAPE and explore the city.

And Finally: The Exhibition

In producing designs for exhibition displays for Digbeth based artists the students experienced working for real world clients, and responding to their needs and expectations. In Co.LAB students chose between a range of live projects, research activities, and skills development. While critical awareness of both the profession and practice of the discipline was supported through the school’s strong links to industry, including the work placement scheme.

The year culminated in a very successful degree show, where we took a moment to celebrate the journey that our final year students have undertaken with some inventive, unique, and commercially savvy projects on show. The response has impressed all of our visitors, and we hope that their time with us will now take them to the very heights of their career ambitions.

Third year students had the opportunity to showcase the skills obtained throughout the course by embarking on in-depth research-led design proposals relevant to

Korina Zaromytidou Course Director BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design

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Sullivan Chandler

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Luke Reynolds

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BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design Year 1

Daisy King

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Luke Reynolds

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Hanya Ehab Essmat Ali Fahmy Elsayed

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BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design Year 2

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Abrar Saad

Alexandra Ioana Tolu

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Huda Ali

Hannah Border

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Chiahuey Choo

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BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design Year 3

Chiahuey Choo

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Sophie Iacovides

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Sophie Iacovides

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Chan Hiu Yung Karine

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Ralitsa Hristova

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Sullivan Chandler

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Sullivan Chandler

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Sebastian Da’Costa

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Sebastian Da’Costa

Sebastian Da’Costa

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Millicent Simon

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Millicent Simon

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Chiahuey Choo

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Chiahuey Choo

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MA Interior Architecture and Design

Tutors: Delia Skinner Dr Jieling Xiao Jason Taylor Rui Yang Kelly Brookes Dr Tamadher Al Fahal Ana Luban

“The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.”

John Dewey As a philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer, John Dewey’s work has inspired us to take a fresh look at all of the positive impact that creative actions can have on designers. We explore how these experiences can inform the unique directions and design approach of each individual and the evolution of their practice. With a focus on Praxis (meaning their design philosophy, process and principles) this course acts as a vehicle for the development and articulation of ever evolving personal and professional career plans.

MA Interior Architecture and Design embraces the truth that designing is a creative adventure. This twelve-month course enables students to form an understanding and appreciation of theoretical, practical and professional issues that are informing the evolution of contemporary interior architecture and design professional practice. The course occupies our students in the exploration of the distinctive qualities associated with the interiors of inhabited architecture and the cultural, practical and atmospheric aspects of the interiors that designers conceive in their creative or academic practice. Our students are taught how to critically decode interiors that have been created by others. This helps them to design creative interfaces that will determine how users will perceive and behave in the spaces that they are conceiving.

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Generous Support from Our Industry Champions This year, Mike Roberts (Chief Creative Officer at Green Room) and Brian Gauge (Co-founder at Newman Gauge Design) have encouraged the postgraduate students and staff team to hone a new future focused curriculum that has responded to a booming Experiential Economy. As stakeholders, they have been keen to establish a shift in the course focus that situates the ‘User Experience’ as a key aspect in the dynamic Interior Design System.

Meanwhile, Dr Tamadher Al Fahal (a ‘TED-talk’ veteran and an alumni of the course) has worked with our postgraduate students to help them recognise their academic potential. Working as a coach and mentor, Tam has helped the students to develop holistic career plans whilst simultaneously refining their artful praxis. By asking ‘what does being an interior architect mean to me?’, ‘what contribution do I want make in the world?’ and ‘with whom do I want to work?’ our students have been able to better define their ambitions. Discourse and debate about ‘legacy’ and ‘ joy’ as essential features in the creative process has helped our students to explore the significance of design values and prompted these international designers to refine their cultural identities as interior architects.

Excellent Student Satisfaction Levels Students on the MA Interior Architecture and Design course have reported excellent student satisfaction results for the sixth year in a row and have achieved an impressive 96% employment rate. After a period of only six months, our alumni have let us know that they have secured industry roles as interior designers, business managers and educators. These postgraduates regularly tell us that they have benefited from the course, and specifically the experience of the support of design practitioners, architects and designers across a range of interior design fields.

Delia Skinner Course Director MA Interior Architecture and Design

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Cai Xiaoyi

Maximillian Rai-Quantrill

Meitan She

Darya Churkina

Qianru Bi

Zhiyao Xuan

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Final ‘Signature Projects’ - 2018-2019

Working Collaboratively with ‘Best of British’ Brands and People

In the final trimester of the course, the students engaged in the formation of persuasive and graphically ingenious self-directed signature projects. These projects captured and conveyed their innovative design processes, individual proposals and astute insights that academically, professionally and creatively test their particular design hypothesis. The production of a distinctive and creative practice portfolio has allowed them to showcase their unique design talents and the influence that this has had on others, shifting the perceived boundaries of the interior design profession towards new horizons.

The Interior Architecture and Design Master’s course sits within the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design. This vibrant community is made up of staff, students, designers, researchers and industry partners. Strong creative bridges between postgraduate courses enables our students to tailor their learning to suit their unique professional ambitions. We encourage and support our postgraduate students to work collaboratively with other people both inside and outside the University. By doing this they cement rich cultural, creative and professional design networks.

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Live Project 1 – Wellbeing spaces with Honest Skincare company – a brand-scape

Live Project 2 – ‘Expanded dining with Kaye Winwood’ – an artful installation

Engagement with the well-being industry and industrybased scenarios was a key aspect of this module.

Working collaboratively with the entrepreneur Katie Fisher, this industry orientated assignment focused the attention of our students on the ‘experience economy’.

This eleven-week branding design assignment required the students to conduct smells-cape and branding theory research. Students focused on how immersive ‘UX’ user experiences can be choreographed within ‘pop-up’ spatial interventions. By justifying their concepts for the Birmingham based company Honest Skincare, students had to reveal the connections that their research had on the development of new market opportunities and sensorial experiential design concepts that they professionally presented to the client.

This year the Co.LAB module focused on the blurred boundary between art and design. Our students were asked to create an imaginative design expanded dining schemes for the installation artist – Kaye Winwood. In this hospitality meets art project, our students were challenged to refine the brand-scape, to reflect the philosophy and culture associated with the creative praxis of Kaye Winwood. They also had to consider how these design schemes could be semiotically be encoded to be embody her expanded dining creative values and principles in the interior design concepts. By designing together, student teams were challenged to create and present short animated films that they pitched to the client and our industry champion - Brian Gauge.

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Andige Fernando

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Chen Tao

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Darya Churkina

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Darya Churkina

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Liwen Wang

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Maximillian Rai-Quantrill

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Meijun Lu

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Shinyu Ou

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PRODUCT AND FURNITURE DESIGN

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 241

Jane Lambert

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BA (Hons) Product Design BA (Hons) Furniture and Lifestyle Products BA (Hons) 3D Designer Maker

Tutors: Jason Nicholson Natalie Cole Wayne Pottinger Malcolm Hastings Nuno Lourinho Richard Underhill Andrew Trujillo Jason Taylor Brian Adams Dean Cain William Wofford Chris Emmett

This year, Product and Furniture Design has provided a wealth of opportunity to explore scales of manufacture through a range of exciting projects and collaborative opportunities. The course has continued to provide students with the core skills and design approaches in order to develop creative, contemporary and innovative products and furniture. With a user centred focus, briefs have explored social context, ethical and sustainable issues while developing a commercial understanding.

First years experienced an intensive ‘skills building’ first semester integrating design principles and processes, material experimentation and cultural and historical studies. Specialist briefs in the second semester explored scales of manufacture with students designing watches, speakers and headphones to slip cast vessels, plywood moulded furniture and 12 metre catamarans, projects have helped students explore a wide range of design opportunities, to define areas of specialism.

Second year focused on employability, with modules enhancing industry knowledge and experience.

Live projects, work placement opportunities and collaboration with students from across the faculty helped enhance industry knowledge and experience.

Students had the opportunity to develop professional practice though collaborative projects with the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design Co.LAB module. Industry links were also developed through a conceptual development brief with Philips Lighting producing some outstanding 2D and 3D outcomes.

During the year, there have also been numerous opportunities for students across year groups to engage with industry partners through study visits to some of our local manufactures.

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Dominik Bondicov

Third years continued to develop their individual design approaches through a combination of live/competition projects. Outcomes from the first module were exhibited and sold at a contemporary retail space in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter with students selling out of their products! Semester 2 saw students develop ‘signature’ design projects, ranging from a chair using material harvested from human hair (picked up by the BBC) to an articulating installation concept.

Following a fantastic graduate show, students exhibited at the New Designers exhibition in London with great success, winning a major award and several commendations. The Student Design Tour, organised

by The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers provided a fantastic opportunity for selected students to experience current manufacturing environments. All of these events have provided valuable opportunities to showcase their work at a local and national level.

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The course team are delighted to know that our students have thoroughly enjoyed their time at BCU. This has been a fantastic year with outstanding achievements from across all years of the course.

Achieving 100% NSS score for the second year running is testament to the continued hard work and commitment from all staff involved in enhancing the student experience.

At the end of the final year for Product, Furniture, Maker courses, it’s time to reflect on the amazing achievements and successes of our students. Thanks to everyone that has worked with us and made 18/19 a truly successful academic year.

Jason Nicholson Course Director BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers: This year, 3 students were given the opportunity to take part in the yearly Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers Tour. The 4-day tour takes students around North West furniture businesses to see how the industry operates.

“I am very grateful to my tutors and the Furniture Makers Company for providing such an educational and valuable experience. Every day was a chance to learn about different methods of production within the furniture industry, this opened my eyes to the range of job opportunities that are out there. I had many interesting conversations about the current furniture industry, what is predicted for the future, portfolio advice and general career tips. It was extremely heartening to see the shared concern about the sustainability of furniture manufacturing within the UK. We were all impressed by the companies we visited and the steps which have already been taken to reduce environmental impact, in addition to the acknowledgment that there is more to be done. The industry tour also allowed the meeting of likeminded people – everyone was enthusiastic about design and really friendly. It was great to share ideas and projects and we still keep in touch now.’”

Emma Jones – Year 2 student

Beth Martin

Beth Martin

Minima and Pop-Up shops During December, Product and Furniture Design students exhibited and sold their work at Minima; one of Birmingham’s key contemporary design showrooms. Selected students displayed their work at a preview event with the work continuing on display and for sale. Objects in the collection include portion control tableware, bathroom storage, furniture and homewares.

“Students from all year groups have had the opportunity to sell their work at pop-up shops throughout the year.

This is a great opportunity to see their work develop into desirable and saleable items and help develop a commercial understanding.”

Richard Underhill, Year 3 Coordinator and Lecturer Beth Martin

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Student visit to Hong Kong

Overseas study trip

Third year students recently visited Hong Kong as part of a student exchange visit. Students from Product and Furniture Design and Interior Architecture Design joined classes with students studying a top-up degree in partnership with BCU and SHAPE (School for Higher and Professional Education). Alongside their studies, they had the opportunity to visit the delights of Hong Kong including Victoria Peak and the famous Star Ferry and try the legendary cuisine from one of the world’s top culinary capitals. The exchange scheme is part funded by the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design.

This year students spent a week in Barcelona.

Students were encouraged take lots of photos, bring their sketchbooks, research the city for other suitable design destinations to visit in their free time, and most importantly use the trip to find potential influences for their future design work.

“It was an extraordinary experience, just having a look how the students there view design and the problems they’re trying to solve accordingly to their situation (especially the lack of space). It’s amazing how different cultures can affect design, even though there was a small language barrier that didn’t stop us from exchanging ideas and opinions about art and design and sustainability. The city itself it’s something that i believe I wouldn’t be able to view somewhere else, the food, the architecture, the art, the culture are just astonishing.

I’m so glad I took this chance for the trip, not only because of the city but because i think the interaction with the students there was a once in a lifetime experience.” Maria Christina Zonia

The week’s activities started with a free group meal at the Fresc Co. by the harbour, which offered a great first encounter with Mediterranean scenery and cuisine.

The following days the students were up on their feet to immerse themselves in everything the diverse city of boundless culture and fabled architecture had to offer.

The scheduled visits included some of Gaudi’s most famous structures such as Park Güell and Casa Milà, which could not be missed due to its unique exterior.

The apartment block offered students an excellent view of the city. A definite highlight of the trip was the Sagrada Familia, a large unfinished Roman Catholic Church, combining elements of Gothic and Art Nouveau design. Despite the construction’s interruption by a list of historical events such as the Spanish Civil War, Gaudi devoted his remaining life to the project. It’s anticipated that the building can finally be completed by 2026, marking the centenary of Gaudí’s death.

Students also had to opportunity to rent some city bikes to cycle through the Parc de la Ciutadella, which ended up being a really fun and surprisingly affordable way to take in the scenery.

Nina Naversnik

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Katarzyna Kozlowska

Freddy Lacaze

Philips Lighting industry collaboration

New Designers

Product and Furniture continued our industry collaboration with Philips Lighting during 2018 -19.

Once again students were tasked with exploring Philips Lighting’s cutting edge technology and applying it to the ‘user centred’ design framework.

Final year BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design student Joe Deakin is celebrating after winning the W’Innovate & Wilko Award at New Designers 2019 for his ‘Embed’ design.

The focus of the project centred on the work space, with significance placed on new working practices and environments such as, co-working spaces.

STEAMhouse was used as a live co-working environment.

Part of the objective was to understand both the cultural significance of co-working spaces / studio practice environments and home office environments and the various activities carried out within them, as well as exploring and utilising a range of Philips Lighting technologies, which could enhance either the co-working / studio practice or home office environment itself and / or enhance and add value to the users experience of the coworking / studio practice / home office environment.

Throughout the project key members of staff from Phillips Lighting provided students with feedback as well as technical guidance. The project also provided students with the experience of pitching and presenting their ideas to an established global company, which enriched the overall project from a student perspective.

The annual New Designers’ exhibition in London provides a unique platform for graduating students from across the UK to exhibit their work and connect with industry and members of the public. The celebration includes a number of high-profile industry awards, including Lego, John Lewis, and Wilko.

The winning product had to demonstrate a creative approach to design, and confident understanding of current consumers and user behaviour. Joe’s ‘Embed’ design is a range of kitchen accessories created to store different kitchen items in new playful ways while utilising unused spaces in the kitchen. The set includes a countertop knife locking device, a pop-up condiment set and flexible and retractable spice storage system.

Joe received £1,000 prize money and a two week work placement at W’Innovate with a contribution of up to £500 towards expenses.

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248 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 249

BA (Hons) 3D Designer Maker

Daniel Kitchen

250 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 251

Jane Lambert

252 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

Alice Evans

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 253

Alex Ward

254 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 255

BA (Hons) Furniture and Lifestyle Products

Angelo Di Francesco

256 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

Kalandra McFarquhar

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 257

Kalandra McFarquhar

258 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 259

Nick Stormont

260 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 261

BA (Hons) Product Design

Dan Alarcon

262 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

Scott Wilks

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 263

Joe Deakin

264 \\ BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design // 265

Han Wu

266 \\ MA BA (Hons) Product Product Designand Furniture Design

MA Product and Furniture Design

Tutors: Nuno Lourinho Wayne Pottinger Kelly Brookes Dean Cain Evy Dutheil Camille Cosson

Looking back, the 2018 – 2019 academic year allowed us to continue to develop a studio culture. Our students are encouraged to develop autonomous practice and to liaise with both tutors and their colleagues in a professional environment. We have continued to engage with external partners and provide ‘real’ collaborations with our MA Product and Furniture Design students. In particular, it is worth highlighting the Co.LAB project developed with the artist and researcher Kaye Winwood, which focused on a sensorial approach to food and dining experiences.

The projects developed this year continue to explore how theory can inform real-world practice and also how studying people and products can lead to new knowledge.

By focusing on student professional development, the course has encouraged and enabled ‘us’ to take part in the debate and analysis to create new concept proposals. This year, our students have pursued design proposals that customise furniture, take on sustainable living practices, or are involved with innovative user interactions, among others.

As in previous years, our students have experimented with a diverse design culture that embraces different design perspectives and identities. We not only celebrate the diversity of our students but also encourage sharing personal design practices.

Students have embraced Birmingham City University values and enhanced our School’s unique geographical culture. In short, that means contributing to the design field in an international level while embracing both the heritage and cutting-age local expertise. There is no doubt that our students’ achievements have made us proud and we are looking forward to build upon this year experiences.

Nuno Lourinho Course Director MA Product and Furniture Design MA Product Design // 267

Co.LAB

Purvisha Hirani

Jiro Ametani

268 \\ MA Product Design

Jung Hsuan

Charlotte Sueur

Jung-Hsuan Chen

Purvisha Hirani

MA Product Design // 269

Charlotte Sueur

270 \\ MA Product Design

Yufeng He

MA Product Design // 271

Charlotte Sueur

272 \\ MA Product Design

Zunlu Qiao

MA Product Design // 273

Purvisha Hirani

274 \\ MA Product Design

Zekun Zhu

MA Product Design // 275

Jiro Ametani

276 \\ MA Product Design

Hongyuan Zhu

MA Product Design // 277

278 \\ MA Product Design

MA DESIGN AND VISUALISATION

MA Design and Visualisation // 279

280 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

MA Design and Visualisation

Design and Visualisation plays a key role in many of today’s businesses and organisations. From designing complex animations, brand identity, 3D products, virtual interiors, landscape, architectural visualisation and new conceptual designs, employers are increasingly seeking graduates with creativity, software and knowledge-based transferable skills.

Students on this course further develop their skills and competencies as 3D design visualisers with a deeper understanding of the design process. They are taught how to make important and critical decisions, how to devise visualisation strategies, design methods for research and how to use these transferable skills across a range of disciplines.

Every year students on the course are able to individualise their programme of study from a chosen variety of cross-disciplinary MA modules and learn how to apply design visualisation techniques and strategies to areas such as product design, interior design, graphic design and various other cognate disciplines.

Every year students have the chance to engage with projects with industry, which offers unique opportunities to experience working on real projects for real clients within the curriculum. Students learn how to place appropriate emphasis on the process of development, demonstrating visual aptitude in the final outcome.

Importance is also placed not only on the design quality, but also on engagement practice, creative participation and how the design is developed and supported by contemporary research practice.

The course provides the framework for reviewing, reflecting, analysing and critiquing existing designs

and techniques that equips our graduates with a solid understanding of design visualisation, as well as how to apply different visualisation techniques for specific situations.

Students study in our exciting city centre campus Parkside Building, a five-floor building with space studios and social space for students and staff to engage in creative debates and exchange of ideas.

On completion of the course, students are able to evaluate, choose and apply relevant theories, concepts and techniques to the solution of design problem and the knowledge that underpins it. This knowledge and transferable skills helps our graduates succeed in a competitive industry.

The course that our students study on has the following characteristics:-

• • • • •

Contemporary, relevant and cutting-edge curriculum exposing students to a variety of new technologies.

Engaging study sessions that ensure students learn a range of vital skills required for various design problem-solving situations.

Excellent links with industry and employers.

Our graduates move on to successful careers where they can apply their knowledge and ‘Toolbox’ of skills.

Our campus is based in the centre of a vibrant cosmopolitan city.

Dr Panch Suntharalingam Course Director MA Design and Visualisation MA Design and Visualisation // 281

Competition

Derya Ates

282 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Ya Yuan Wei

MA Design and Visualisation // 283

Kaizhen Gao

284 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Qiqian Chen

MA Design and Visualisation // 285

Design Visualisation

Aron Walters

Shiyuan Zhang

286 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Aron Walters

Ya Yuan Wei

Derya Ates

Dan Huang

Kaizhen Gao

Kaizhen Gao

MA Design and Visualisation // 287

Co.LAB

Kaizhen Gao

288 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Qiqian Chen

MA Design and Visualisation // 289

Ya Yuan Wei

290 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Yiting Shen

MA Design and Visualisation // 291

Design Realisation

Derya Ates

292 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Ya Yuan Wei

MA Design and Visualisation // 293

Major Projects

Aron Walters

294 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Nimita Tank

MA Design and Visualisation // 295

Major Projects

Kaizhen Gao

296 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Derya Ates

MA Design and Visualisation // 297

Major Projects

Ya Yuan Wei

298 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Shiyuan Zhang

MA Design and Visualisation // 299

Yiting Shen

300 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

Ya Yuan Wei

MA Design and Visualisation // 301

302 \\ MA Design and Visualisation

MA DESIGN MANAGEMENT

MA Design Management // 303

304 \\ MA Design Management

MA Design Management

Tutors: Caroline Norman Nick Irvin

The Master’s in Design Management has been established for over 20 years. The course responds to the design industry’s concern that many designers don’t have sufficient understanding of business and marketing. Our aim is to accelerate designer’s careers by providing the knowledge and skills to work and communicate effectively across design and business disciplines.

MA Design Management has a distinctive professional focus and embraces business management, marketing, design strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, design leadership and design practice including project management, intellectual property law and finance. Strong emphasis is placed on the development of evidence-based decision making, high level leadership and communication skills.

You can study full-time, part-time or via ‘work-based learning’ which allows you to study whilst continuing in full-time practice. UK and EU based students can commit to the full Master’s course or start with the Postgraduate Certificate and continue on to the Postgraduate Diploma and Master’s if they wish.

The course offers four pathways: Professional Practice, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Sustainable Design Policy and Service Design. The pathways reflect the changing nature of the global design context and create opportunities to specialise. Students can focus within their chosen area of specialisation and work-based learning students relate their study directly to the workplace.

MA Design Management // 305

306 \\ MA Design Management

MA Design Management // 307

MA Design Management in Hong Kong

Our Students

Some of the students from our first Hong Kong cohort visited BCU Parkside in July to celebrate, having achieved their Masters in Design Management.

The graduates attended the BCU Awards Ceremony at Symphony Hall Birmingham.

One of the course’s greatest strengths is the quality of the student cohort. We attract students from all design disciplines from all over the world, many of our students are already established in design practice.

The Master’s in Design Management at the Hong Kong Design Institute is in partnership with the School of Higher and Professional Education (SHAPE).

Full-time, part-time and work-based learning students study together which makes for a rich student cohort and provides current design experiences and challenges for students to share.

Caroline Norman Course Director MA Design Management

308 \\ MA Design Management

Recent Graduate: Valentini Hadjispyrou

“At the time of joining the course, I had three years of working experience as a graphic designer. My working experience taught me a lot. However, if I wanted to achieve my dreams and step into management, I had to gain both management skills and knowledge. For that reason, I decided to enrol into this course.

The live project that I enjoyed participating in was the communication audit which we performed for the Space Studio. The group project involved the detailed examination, evaluation and improvement of the Space Studio’s internal and external communication.

Throughout this project, we divided into teams and work collaboratively to approach and solve complex problems from different perspectives by combining our past and current knowledge, skills and experiences. For me, it was a great opportunity to explore and demonstrate my leadership skills in a real-life situation which allowed me to understand what type of manager I want to be in the future. Also, it taught me the importance of taking into consideration other peoples’ ideas and thoughts in order to create original and creative ideas which satisfied the client’s expectations and needs.

Generally, a fascinating project which helped me to gain interpersonal, team working and leadership skills.

The most important highlight from my time on the course was the workshops. Students from diverse cultural backgrounds come together to share their unique ideas, knowledge, experiences and thoughts

which for me, is the most fascinating thing. In every workshop, we learned how to approach complex problems into the most creative ways as well as how to effectively communicate and collaborative with each other. Thus, in my personal opinion, this course is not only about connecting design and business, but it is also about gaining emotional intelligence in order to understand not only yours but also other peoples’ feelings, needs and expectations which ultimately, help you to grow both personally and professionally.

When I decided to complete a Master’s course, MA in Design Management attracted my attention for one main reason; career advancement. This is because, my working experience helped me realise that if I want to step into management, I had to advance my knowledge, my skills and my qualities. Therefore, by enrolling into this course, I learned how companies use design as a strategic asset to achieve business objectives, satisfy customers’ expectations and gain competitive advantages. Also, I acknowledged the importance of thinking strategically as well as empathising and communicating with clients effectively. Now more than ever, I have the confidence to pursue a career into design management.

If you are passionate about design and keen to learn how it can be connected with business, if you desire to progress your career further or build your own business from scratch, this course is designed for you.”

MA Design Management // 309

BA (Hons) Design Management | Level 6 | Top-up Following the successful validation of the course in November 2018, work has been underway to promote the BA (Hons) Design Management Level 6 top-up course to students / applicants from a range of design disciplines, who wish to pursue their final year of undergraduate study in the subject.

All students / applicants wishing to transfer on to the course, will have previously achieved 240 credits at Level 5, achieved a pass or higher, or Higher National Diploma (HND) in a cognate design subject, or achieved a pass or higher, at the BA Level 5 equivalence, with the appropriate skills and experience.

The BA (Hons) Design Management Level 6 course is designed to develop your professional, creative, communication, research, critical thinking and analytical skills, whilst developing your confidence, for progression into employment, or postgraduate study.

You will be involved in complex problem solving, you will work individually and in team-based activities, whilst developing your leadership, negotiation and people management skills. The course balances design management theory and principles, research and practical activity, within an environment which reflects a design practice and promotes employability. As the course will attract students from a variety of design disciplines, students are encouraged to consider their career aspirations from the outset and develop the appropriate skills to align with industry.

310 \\ MA Design Management

Design management involves a wide range of sectors and design disciplines and this course gives you the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge required to work as design managers, client relationship managers, account executives, project managers, heads of creative, design directors, design consultants and design researchers.

While you will retain links with design practice, you will step into a challenging environment, that reflects as closely as possible the ways of working, the practices and the behaviours that operate in the design profession.

The course will provide an interesting and engaging approach to design problems and whilst the expectations of academic study will increase during level 6, students will practice and apply creative approaches through a range of research methods, critical analysis and synthesis of data. This course is for students wishing to develop a new career path, students who recognise the design management opportunity and have the personal qualities sought after by employers.

You will also be expected to work with external contributors, staff and students from a range of disciplines and cultures in a professional and accountable way. The course will be taught by staff in lecture, workshop and activity-based settings. This will include specialist guest lectures, project briefings and group critiques supported by industry.

MA Design Management // 311

312 \\ MA Design Management

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