OPEN 2018
O OPEN 2018 ISBN: 978-0-9955893-4-6 Cover image Ramzi Ramzi Designed & produced Clare Hamman First published June 2018 Printed London Š University of Westminster
Contents Introduction
2
Introduction and Process
BA Interior Architecture Introduction and Process Interior Architecture First Year Interior Architecture Second Year Interior Architecture Third Year
MArch Architecture [RIBA Part 2] MArch Design Studios
4 8 14 20
Beyond the Studio Introduction Cultural Context Dissertation
BSc Architectural Technology
Technical Studies
Introduction and Process
28
Digital Design
Architectural Technology Second Year
30 34
Fabrication Lab
Architectural Technology Third Year
BA Designing Cities Introduction and Process
40
Designing Cities First Year
44
Designing Cities Second Year
48
Introduction and Process Architecture & Environmental Design First Year
First Year Second Year Design Studios Third Year Design Studios
Westminster Architecture Society
52 56
Introduction Books & Articles Research Exploration
AmbikaP3
236 238 240 241 242 246
Department of Architecture Staff
60 64 82 106
212 214 218 222 224 226 230 232
Research
Masters
BA Architecture [RIBA Part 1] Introduction and Process
Professional Development
Funded Research
BSc Architecture & Environmental Design
148 152
Practice Links 2018 Sponsors
248 250 252
OPEN 2018 REVELS in the unique, unpredictable, challenging and entertaining work of the students of the Department of Architecture. Work that reflects the variety of the Department’s students and staff – and their approaches to architecture. We don’t see our students as supplicants, and we cherish experimentation in their formulation and execution of projects. High-wire acts grounded by shared values and rigorous standards – as well as wonderfully supportive student peer groups. The Department maintains the inclusive Polytechnic ethos of an ambitious, transformative higher education accessible to all, with exceptional professional engagement, heterogeneous design approaches, and attentiveness to observation, play, reflection and fabrication. We also sustain a critical mass of students at every level of architectural education, Part 1, 2 and 3, creating the largest student body of any UK school of architecture, and reflecting our duty of care to all facets of an architect’s education: from opening-up the possibilities of architecture, through nurturing a creative commitment that balances invention with rigour, to developing ethical and innovative forms of practice. The Department is characterised by its distinctive triangulation of teaching, research and practice, and
we are defined by our external links outside the university, in particular, drawing on an extraordinary number of part-time tutors and visiting lecturers who engage students with live practice issues. Our students continue to win major international and national awards, including the RIBA Presidents’ Medals for the fourth year in a row, and our professional links lead to excellent employment prospects for our students. We continue to innovate, most recently with our new – and timely – BSc. Architecture and Environmental Design that began in September 2017, and which is included in OPEN for the first time. Our 110-metre long, galleried, day-lit, architecture studios situated on the top floors of the Marylebone Campus host a vibrant and experimental studio culture. The now-completed £6-million Westminster Fabrication Laboratory enables our students to exploit advanced digital fabrication and prototyping technologies in combination with traditional techniques, and material- and environmental-testing. Through the generosity of the Quintin Hogg Trust, we fund field trips for all students, while we continue to build new exchanges with overseas schools. The affordances of these resonate throughout OPEN. Please enjoy the show. Harry Charrington Head of the Department of Architecture
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Welcome to OPEN 2018
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE IS a distinct contextbased practice concerned with rereading, reusing and altering an architectural shell. Whether at the scale of the city, a building, or a room, the ‘interiorist’ always starts with something and within something. By altering host structures, Interior Architecture allows a building to have many different lives. Project sites this year included the Student Union at 306 Regent Street, a seafront car park adjacent to Hastings Pier, installations in the Battersea Arts Centre, live-work dwellings on Columbia Road and the University Women’s Club. Extra curricular activities are encouraged and this year we have been busier than ever. With generous support from the Quintin Hogg Trust, in November 45 BAIA students visited Florence and worked with American exchange students from International Studies Institute on a site on the city wall, known as Baluardo della Ginevra. Following Westminster OPEN the same group of students will be exhibiting their final project work at the Interior Educators Free Range Art and Design Show in the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, where last year graduating student Nabil Benelabed won the prize for the best model in show. Back in London, year 3 students worked with the Freud Museum London on designs for the future of Anna Freud’s ‘Toddler Hut’, and with Pentland Brands Limited and YourStudio on the RDW Student Awards. We were delighted when Frida Good was awarded first prize. Workshops included year 2 students and 4
school children from the London Borough of Brent working with Aberrant architecture and Art Depot in the Fabrication Lab making papercrete bricks and students from all three years taking part in a steam bending work shop with Samuli Naamanka from Samuli Naamanka Design, Helsinki. The course has been set up to have strong links to practice and a wide range of international design companies including Professor Sadie Morgan (de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects), Linzi Cassels (Perkins + Will), and Amaya Eastman (VOLA) who all contribute to the course through: inviting students to in-office design crits, presenting their approach to careers at our Employers Events, and judging student awards. In addition to this, a weekly series of guest speakers has included: Je Ahn (Studio Weave), George Bradley and Ewald Van Der Straeten (Bradley Van Der Straeten), Dinah Casson (Casson Mann), Jonathan Clarke (Wood Bagot UK), Richard Griffiths (Richard Griffiths Architects), Catherine Harrington (Architype), Mark Hindley (ATC), Benson Lau (University of Westminster), Martin Lydon (Haworth Tompkins), Alison McLellan (Form_art Architects), Stepan Martinovsky (Thomas Heatherwick Studio), Chris Peach (fd creative), Rosa Schiano-Phan (University of Westminster) and Jacob Willson (LB Camden Planning). Ro Spankie Course Leader
BA INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
BA Interior Architecture | Process
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Images of some of the extra curricula activities from top left: Third year students exploring Giotto’s bell tower in Florence, second year students mapping the site on Hastings beach, building a steambox for the steam bending workshop, sketching by the Arno, making
a study of a bomb map from the Wandsworth Collection at Battersea Arts Centre, and first year students debating design strategy on a site visit.
BA Interior Architecture | First Year
Lara Rettondini (Year 1 Coordinator), Mike Guy (Module Leader), Yota Adilenidou, Matt Haycocks, Harpreet Lota, Sue Phillips, David Scott (Fabrication Lab) Yota Adilenidou is an architect, graduate from GSAPP, Columbia University, and a Ph.D. Researcher at the Bartlett, UCL. She is the Director of Arch-hives Ltd., a practice focusing on computational methodologies and digital fabrication for the activation of matter and form. Mike Guy is a Senior Lecturer and a practicing architect specialising in primary healthcare projects. Balanced practice and teaching for over 30 years, Mike’s related interests include urban agriculture and aquaponics. Harpreet Lota is a graduate from the inaugural year of the Interior Architecture course. She has worked in architectural practice and is currently a land-use strategist on the Heathrow expansion project. Sue Phillips is an architect and a Visiting Lecturer at two Universities in London. Teaching for over 20 years, she aims to empower students to understand their own learning processes. Sue has worked in social and economic development in Africa and makes videos and sculpture. Lara Rettondini is a Senior Lecturer, architect, and co-director Studio X Design Group, a London based architecture and interior design practice. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the recipient of the Westminster Teaching Excellence Award 2017.
YEAR 1: Design Fundamentals & Strategies Students: Maria Abon, Rama Aboubaker, Bahyah Alhareri, Mona Alqumairi, Rema Ayyaf, Ainul Azizi, Franchesca Balones, Arthur Bama, Duarte Barosa Santos, Bilge Bilici, Amina Bouazza, Shannon Calnan, Jurgita Cestauskaite, Pui Chang, Kevin Chellakudam, Limin Chen, Daisy Day, Marie De Haan, Noelia Del Rio Sanchez, Naiat Elkilabi, Alendita Fanaj, Anna Gregory, Barakah Haried, Aisha Hassan, Jasmine Hill, Gemma Hopkins, Xinyu Jiang, Ailar Kalami, Ivelina Kapandzhieva, Mitra Karimaghaei, Thugitha Kugathasan,
Anamarija Kuhar, Mia Leontic, Ludovica Lillo, Jaime Llavona, Manisha Madhewoo, Aisha Malik, David Mante, Sharitha Mcneil, Syeda Monsur, Hazel Omukoko, Anoushka Pacquette, Bibi Pathan, Agne Petrauskaite, Kalina Petrova, Roseanne Quinto, Rana Refahi, Jack Ruedisueli, Li Saw, Gabriele Simkute, Rajvinder Singh, Fynla Stallybrass, Gurrajsukh Talwar, Dilani Thevathas, Mika Thomson, Carina Tirnavean, Milena Tosic, Mehak Trehan, Burdzhu Yaman, Reiss Young, Samiya Zafar
IN FIRST YEAR students on the BA Interior Architecture course are introduced to underlying concepts and principles associated with the discipline and learn fundamental processes, skills and techniques relevant to conceive, develop, resolve, and communicate spatial design proposals. They are also introduced to the use of graphic design, CAD and 3D modelling software as well as the Faculty’s Fabrication Lab.
Their individual designs for transformable microarchitecture, to address the needs and aspirations of students new to university, expressed their own fresh experiences in built form - Uni-tecture!
In the first semester students are set a range of assignments and short projects: designing and making modular structures; light box studies to investigate qualities of light and scale through photography; and group research on existing built projects to understand intent and representation. Building on these skills, students are then asked to design their first piece of interior architecture. This year, working in teams, students surveyed and modelled the most complex and characterful major spaces of Westminster’s historic and inspirational Regent Street Building.
In the second semester, students were required to redesign the interior of a small existing building for the insertion of a new hypothetical programme specialised in craftsmanship. The location was Columbia Road, a street in East London, well-known for its flower market. The development of individual projects was based on students’ site and context investigations and by a developed understanding of their particular crafts person’s practice. While envisioning a maker’s utopia, students were also encouraged to iteratively experiment and investigate materials and techniques with a maker’s eye.
Guest Critics: Bernadette Devilat, Jeong Hye Kim, Abdulbari Kutbi (pH+ Architects), Samantha Li, Shneel Malik, Annabelle Nguyen, Enes Osmani, Martina Staneva, Charles Weston Smith 8
Peer-Assisted Learning Assistants: Manuela Cocco, Eleni Dourampei, Dmitrijs Gusevs, Paresh Parmar, Mirabell Schmidt, Lela Sujani
(top & centre) Models by: (top left-right) Hazel Omukoko, Anna Gregory; (centre left-right) Samiya Zafar, Fynla Stallybrass, Bahyah Alhareri; (bottom) Swing signs by: Bahyah Alhareri, Jack Ruedisueli, Nafeesa Banaras, Samiya Zafar, Marie De Haan
BA Interior Architecture | First Year
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(top left) Mika Thomson: 1:20 Model; (top right) Arthur Bama: 1:50 Plans; (centre right) Arthur Bama: Concept Image; (bottom) Rana Refahi: 3D Rendering
(top left) Daisy Day: Concept Model; (top right) Khuzaymah Pathan: 1:20 Model; (centre right) Mika Thomson: 3D Rendering ; (bottom left) Limin Chen: 1:20 Model; (bottom right) Xinyu Jiang: 1:20 Model
BA Interior Architecture | First Year
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(top left) Carina Tirnavean: 1:20 Model; (top centre & right) Ailar Kalami: 1:20 Model; (centre left) Carina Tirnavean: 3D Diagram; (centre right) Ailar Kalami: 1:50 Section; (bottom) Aisha Hassan: 1:20 Model
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(top left-right) Concept models: Jack Ruedisueli, Nafeesa Banaras, Mitra Karimaghaei (centre left) Anna Gregory: 1:50 Plans; (bottom left) Anouska Pacquette: 1:20 Model; (bottom right) Li Saw: 1:20 Model.
BA Interior Architecture | Second Year
Julia Dwyer, Matt Haycocks, Tania Lopez-Winkler Julia Dwyer has written on collaborative practice, feminist architectural histories, place and identity, and architectural education. She is a member of the taking place group of artists, architects and academics, which addresses feminist spatial practices. She teaches undergraduate and post graduate interior architecture and design, collaborates on public art/design projects, and is a practicing architect. Matt Haycocks is Senior Lecturer, designer and maker. His research concerns domestic and family photography, the historicisation of public space and the politics of place-making and branding. Dr. Tania Lopez-Winkler is an award-winning artist and architect based in London. Her work explores the alter-ego as a means to enquire about different aspects of modernity. She encourages students to be curious, to follow intuitions, and to challenge habits of thought: nothing is too big or too small provided the right attitude and work ethic is brought to the table.
YEAR 2: Culture and Alteration, Material and Detail Students: Piyula Balachandran, Fatine Bengelloun, Sara Bint Faisal, Kate Booth, Laura Breggia, Nora Brudevold, Andreea Caplea, Sinead CookeLindo, Yong Cui, Ekaterina Dellos, Caroline Dew, Aleksandra Dreczkowska, Zehra Duven, Ffion Ellis, Kamila Erkaboyeva, Emilija Fedorovic, Kristine Florian, Gabija Gliaudelyte, Jessica Gower, Vanda Hajizadeh, Dominic Hogg, Jade Hopkinson, Anyun Jiang, Ashpreet Khurll, Kamil Koszela, Karolina
Lapinska, Suthida Liuwatanachotinan, Sandy Mitchell, Jade Papadimitriou Edrinell Parada, Anna Perfileva, Katarzyna Petersons, Anca Petrescu, Soma Rahem, Jovana Rasic, Abigail Reynolds, Maria Sabrekova, Fatimatou Said Anatt, Luanne Santana, Hira Shafique, Karen Tipan Romero, Teodora Todorova, Koto Uchida, Lu Yan, Maria Zlatareva
THIS YEAR, SECOND YEAR students worked with three very different institutions – Hastings Pier, the University Women’s Club, and Battersea Arts Centre – and their buildings.
to survey and research the existing listed town house, observe its current operation, and develop schemes to adapt the existing building to provide environments suited to the needs of the Club’s current and future members.
We started the year at Hastings Pier. Students used archival research methods – interviews and experimental research techniques including portable recording devices – to register and interpret the existing site and its context. The project questioned the politics of heritage, and the role of memory and nostalgia in place-promotion and regeneration. Students were encouraged to speculate on the future of seaside towns, designing and making an alternative souvenir for Hastings, then proposing new uses for a seafront car park adjacent to Hastings Pier designed by the ‘King of Concrete’, Sidney Little.
The starting point for the last project of the year was The Wandsworth Collection – an archive of over two thousand historic artefacts – which is now in the care of Battersea Arts Centre (BAC). BAC invited Interior Architecture students to propose new ways of displaying and interpreting the Collection. Students each selected an object to examine in detail, researching its history, materiality and its manufacture. They designed a bespoke container to move the object out of the archive and into the world, which displayed the artefact and engaged with local residents. BAC’s ‘scratch’ methodology was used to test raw ideas in public at BAC, informing students’ proposals for new spaces and activities. The project culminated in an exhibition of the students’ designs at BAC.
The University Women’s Club in Mayfair, founded in 1883, hosted this year’s second project, which was framed as a design competition. Students formed design teams Guest Critics: Helen Brewer, Owain Caruana-Davies, Nerma Cridge, Stephanie Edwards, Mike Guy, Seyma Nur Ermis, Kevin Haley, Luke Hughes, Susan Kent, Athina Leontiou, Professor Sadie Morgan, Meghan Peterson, Fadime Yasa 14
Special Thanks: Susan Kent, Jaz Norris (Hastings Pier Trust), Ann Hallam, Pauline Foster, Kate Nowlem (University Women’s Club), Lucy Parker, Meghan Peterson (Battersea Arts Centre), Martin Lydon (Haworth Tompkins Architects), Jimena Cieza De Leon Del Aguila, Kristine Thiele (VR lecture), Westminster Fabrication Lab, Matt Turtle (Museum of Homelessness) Vanda Hajizadeh: Battersea Arts Centre
BA Interior Architecture | Second Year
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(top) Jade Hopkinson: Register; (bottom) Jovana Rasic: Register Hastings Beach
(top) Maria Zlatareva: Register Hastings; (bottom) Suthida Liuwatanachotinan: Hastings Pier
BA Interior Architecture | Second Year
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(top) Kotomyra Uchida: Council Chambers, Battersea Arts Centre; (bottom) Gabjia Gliaudelyte: photography gallery, car park, Hastings Promenade
(top) Maria Zlatareva: Memory Box Project; (bottom) Maria Zlatareva: Hastings Promenade
BA Interior Architecture | Third Year
Alessandro Ayuso, Ro Spankie, Dionysia Kypraiou, Allan Sylvester, Matthew Haycocks Alessandro Ayuso is a Senior Lecturer whose studio-based practice and research focus on the intersection of representation, architecture, and the body. His work has been published and exhibited in the US, UK, and Italy, and was recently featured in Drawing Futures published by UCL Press. Diony Kypraiou is an architect and researcher. Her work deploys practices of drawing, writing, and installation design as investigatory tools to explore analogies between architecture, dramaturgy, psychoanalysis, and storytelling. Ro Spankie is fascinated by the role of the drawing in the design process, and has exhibited and published work related to the interior both in the UK and Abroad. She is Associate Editor of the journal, Interiors: Design/Architecture/Culture and is a founder member of Interior Educators. Allan Sylvester is Visiting Lecturer, a practicing architect, and founding partner of Ullmayer Sylvester Architects a design led, and multidisciplinary collaborative practice.
YEAR 3: Light Narratives Students: Sule Acar, Hatice Akbal, Sandra Appiah Koomson, Weronika Babij, Nisaanthi Balasingam, Tahmina Begum, Syeda Bokhari, Christine Bowora, Costanza Cerioni, Nina Chrostowska, Ana Cundo De Oliveira Morais, Seda Nur Eldek, Alyssa Elevare, Salar Ghamari, Florence Goater, Frida Good, Heather Gurarslan, Danielle Harrington, Louise Heard, Jack Hoe, Eleanor Hurley, Sukaina Hussain, Stella Idomenea, Silvia Ion, Nida
Karafakioglu, Caitlin Kelleher, Jennifer Kemp, Danial Khan, Mumine Kizilkaya, Mahsin Mahbub, Basma Mahgoub, Anne-Mari Maibach, Hristina Manova, Andra Nemet, Maria Esther Nieto Navas, Jade Ocampo,Yuliya Pisna, Oliver Pollard, Marija Raletic, Rita Ramanauskaite, Julija Razvadovskaja, Gabrielle Sarmiento, Celine Singh, Olga Tihhomirova, Ana-Maria Toanchina, Lilli Tretter, Beiza Tzampaz Tachir, Ghazal Vaisibiameh, King Wing Or,
AT THE START of the year, the group participated in the Light Narratives workshop with BAIA year 2 students, where they studied lighting with the guidance of practitioners and specialists in the field. The students then visited Florence and their Term 1 site, a fortification attached to a historic city wall atop a summit to the south of the city centre. Sharing a brief with American students studying at the International Studies Institute, the students then developed their Light Narratives project into a proposal for a permanent alteration of the fortification and an accompanying inaugural exhibition. These ‘Urban Stories Map Rooms’ were multi-programmed spaces: they all displayed an existing 1:1000 model of Florence, but they also enabled diverse programmes – from exhibition spaces, to markets, to shelters – and, importantly, aimed to reveal unnoticed stories of the city below through a series of dramatic experiential moments.
The Thesis Project is the main pursuit for year 3 students. This year, the starting point was the making of ‘Dream Manifestos’, images that showed design aspirations and values for individual projects. Each student identified a host building in London as a unique site and devised a programme based on their own analysis of the site and their own interests in design. The pursuit of these ideas through an array of techniques, including projections, film, timber steam-bending, casting, etc., yielded a broad array of project types. The diversity of schemes and the depth of speculation is indicated by a sampling of project titles and locations: a ‘Librazon’ (or, digital media library sponsored by Amazon) hovering over the train platform at King’s Cross; a new home for the disaster aid charity ‘ShelterBox’ on the river; an 11-storey urban bee hive; and an AI research and development centre in London’s theatre land.
Guest Critics: Tobi Agunbiade, Abdi Ali (Ruimte Design), Aseil Amgheib, Kyveli Anastasiadi, Sabina Andron, Dr Ana Araujo, Greg Astengo, Nabil Benelabed, Amy Bodiam (Cottrell & Vermeulen), Sara Daaboul, Julia Dwyer, Elantha Evans, Barti Garibaldo, Denisa Groza, Clare Hamman (Chasing Shadows), Clare Hawes (HTA Design), Kitty Heston (Perkins+Will), Abigail Hinchley (Perkins+Will), Alycia Ivory (Make Architects), Mehdi Jelokhani (Perkins+Will), Chee Kit Lai (Mobile Studio), Constance Lau, Jonas Lencer (dRMM), Giorgio Lo Porto (Orms Architects), Martyna Marciniak (Nissen Richards Studio), Gutierrez Mijail (Perkins+Will), Sadie Morgan (dRMM), Stefano Perretti, Chris Peach (fd creative), Tom Philipson (YourStudio), Colin Priest (Chelsea College of Arts), Lynda Relph-Knight, James Stroud (Lyon+Co Architects), Howard Sullivan (YourStudio), Huda Tayob, Clay Thompson (Perkins + Will), Simon Winters (Heatherwick Studio), Simon Withers, Manos Zaroukas 20
Special Thanks: Samantha Duncan, Fabrication Lab staff (especially Eva Magnisali, Krista Zvirgzda, Roisin de Cogan, and Matas Olendra), Emily Ardizzone (Freud Museum London), Benson Lau, Chris Peach (fd creative), Tom Philipson (YourStudio), Stepan Martinovsky (Heatherwick Studio), Samuli Naamanka (Samuli Naamanka Design, Helsinki), Franco Pisani (International Studies Institute, Florence), Lynda Relph-Knight, Howard Sullivan (YourStudio) )Costanza Cerioni: ‘Librazon Cloud’ section
BA Interior Architecture | Third Year
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Sule Acar: Children’s Healing Centre multi scale model
)
Gabrielle Sarmiento: ‘Black Box’ AI Research and Development Centre perspectives
BA Interior Architecture | Third Year
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Yuliya Pisna: Gym and Playground 1:50 model
(left) Jack Hoe: ‘Peach Project’ film stills; (bottom) Jack Hoe: ‘Peach Project’ diaphanous curtain perspectives
BA Interior Architecture | Third Year
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)Lilli Tretter: Kingsway Bar & Psychological Research Centre 1:20 models
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Jade Ocampo: ‘Nurturing the Soil’ Garden 1:100 model
ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY OFFERS specialism in the technological, environmental, material and detailing decisions necessary to solve design problems. It requires sound understanding of design processes, design and architectural composition, construction technology and management tools for the effective communication of design information.
that might follow from the site, building use, client etc. And in semester two, construction materials, structures etc. are studied. Architectural and technical precedents are also gathered – an analysis of existing buildings and technologies relevant to the design project is a vital part of the design process for our students.
In the Architectural Technology Studio this year, both our 2nd and 3rd year students were asked to design buildings utilising green walls and cross laminated timber construction. They are asked to undertake a design process which spans the development of a design concept, to the production of construction drawings and details. Our intention is that the student project progresses in stages that are as relevant and similar to architectural practice as possible.
With a clear understanding of the design task following the research phase, students then go on to develop an individual design. Sketches, models, 3D visualisations etc. are produced in order to progress their own ideas and as an aid to weekly discussion with other students, lecturers, visiting Architectural Technologists/Architects etc.
Both 2nd and 3rd year projects are divided into two parts: part one/semester one mirrors the process through which Planning Approval is gained; part two/semester two concerns the technical, i.e. structure, construction technology, building performance, building regulation and the production of construction drawings and details. Research Initial research is key, in both semester one and two, in order to understand any and all constraints
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Development
Realisation Architectural design and construction is a collaborative endeavour, more so as new technologies are introduced and as building performance requirements and the need for energy efficiency result in greater complexity. Communication, particularly visual communication, then is of the utmost importance and students must graduate with the ability to sketch ideas and concepts, construct physical and digital models, and produce technical drawings and specifications. Virginia Rammou Course Leader
BSc ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY
BSc Architectural Technology | Second Year
Virginia Rammou, Adam Thwaites, Tabatha Harris Mills, Paul Kalkhoven Virginia Rammou: Chartered architect and Course Leader for BSc Hons Architectural Technology at the University of Westminster. She has extensive experience in practice and is interested in the relationship and cross fertilisation between architecture and technology. Her research focuses on the relationship between architecture, health and palliative care. Adam Thwaites: Primary areas of interest, design within constraints and the importance of the ‘detail’, in terms of both function and aesthetic. Tabatha Harris Mills: Senior Lecturer for 9 years at Westminster, previously at Leeds Met and Sheffield Hallam. With 16 years industry experience, she is a practicing Architectural Technologist who established her own studio in 2005. She has a keen interest in technological solutions and skills for self-building and residential community housing.
YEAR 2: Luxborough Street Living Wall Students: Jack Ariel, Tessa Barraclough, Amelia Bond, William Cammish, Alexander Elston, Gul Hayirli, Purvis Ho-Kan, Othmane Jamai Ghazlani, Joseph Neumann, Rumali Khan, Angela Khandehroy, Ewelina Maciula, Aboubacar Madi Nayama, Mirzana Muafey, Jamie Ogilvie, Diako Osman,
Yasemin Ozdemir, James Park, Orville Phillips, Anusha Rameendran, Sanciya Sivakulam, Jasmine Smith, Mariia Sukhanova, Fintan Sumners, Matthew Swift, Syed Mohammad Tanvir, Irem Torun, Elis Troake, Zia Ur Rahman, Jhaic Villanueva, Cristina Viziri, Scott Wells, Simon Wheeler
THIS ACADEMIC YEAR we asked that 2nd year students develop proposals for a two storey building comprising office/lab space, to be located on a vacant plot to the west of Luxborough Street. Fundamental to the brief was that the proposals should include the design of a ‘living wall’ system to encompass as much of the façade as possible and the utilisation of cross-laminated timber as the primary structural material.
research will be the mitigating effect of green spaces and planting on urban air pollution. Other research indicates a significant psychological benefit to urban dwellers from the provision and access to green space. Students were asked for proposals, in particular the living wall element, that would exemplify the health benefits of green space and planting within the urban environment.
As a result of our studio’s interest/focus on sustainable and efficient methods of construction, we imagined our client was The London Air Quality Network. The student’s were asked to create an office and research/lab facility for The London Air Quality Network to enable study of the effects of the built environment on air pollution. Regarding ‘living wall’ systems, recent research indicates that built environmental factors can significantly compound or mitigate air pollution, particularly harmful particulates cased by road and construction pollution. A key area of
Guest Critics: Mary Davies (HTA), John Gray (HTA), Alice Odeke (ROK Architects) 30
Cross-laminated timber construction is a renewable and prefabricated construction material and as such is regarded as a sustainable construction method. This year-long project comprised two stages. In semester one, following a research and development process and feedback from tutors, students produce a conceptual/ spatial design which was further developed to approximate a ‘planing proposal’. In semester two, again informed by a research and development process, students develop working drawings and details for their individual designs.
Special Thanks: Colin Gleeson, Anthony Papadimitriou, Grimshaw Architects ) Jamie Ogilvie
BSc Architectural Technology | Second Year
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(top) Jamie Ogilvie ; (bottom) Tessa Barraclough :
:
Physical model
(top) Tessa Barraclough ; (bottom) Jamie Ogilvie ::
BSc Architectural Technology | Third Year
Virginia Rammou, Adam Thwaites, Tabatha Harris Mills, Paul Smith Virginia Rammou: Chartered architect and Course Leader for BSc Hons Architectural Technology at the University of Westminster. She has extensive experience in practice and is interested in the relationship and cross fertilisation between architecture and technology. Her research focuses on the relationship between architecture, health and palliative care. Adam Thwaites: Primary areas of interest, design within constraints and the importance of the ‘detail’, in terms of both function and aesthetic. Tabatha Harris Mills: Senior Lecturer for 9 years at Westminster, previously at Leeds Met and Sheffield Hallam. With 16 years industry experience, she is a practicing Architectural Technologist who established her own studio in 2005. She has a keen interest in technological solutions and skills for self-building and residential community housing.
YEAR 3: Luxborough Street Living Wall Students: Sara Berakach, Isar Chaudry, Hicham Choutri, Nicola Gambetta, Julyan Gomez, Paul Goodman, William Hull, Roland Kassak, Mihriban Kinik,
Stefan Kloos, Zoltan Kun, Szymon Lewandowski, Ye Oo, Helin Saricinar, Francesco Scotto, Bless Sison, Luke Thomas, Vincent Yoell
3RD YEAR STUDENTS developed proposals for a mixeduse building this year, comprising office/lab space at ground and first floor level with residential accommodation from second to fourth floors, to be located on a vacant plot to the west of Luxborough Street.
caused by road and construction pollution. A key area of research will be the mitigating effect of green spaces and planting on urban air pollution. Other research indicates a significant psychological benefit to urban dwellers from the provision of and access to green space. Students were asked for proposals, in particular the living wall element, that would exemplify the heath benefits of green space and planting within the urban environment.
Fundamental to the brief was that the proposals should include the design of a ‘living wall’ system to encompass as much of the façade as possible. Additionally, crosslaminated timber was utilised as the primary structural material. As a result of a studio interest and focus on sustainable and efficient methods of construction, we imagined that these requirements were due to the intention to create housing, offices and a research/lab space for a facility for The London Air Quality Network to study the effects of the built environment on air pollution. Regarding ‘living wall’ systems, recent research indicates that built environmental factors can significantly compound or mitigate air pollution, particularly harmful particulates
Cross-laminated timber construction is a renewable and prefabricated construction material and is regarded as a sustainable construction method. This year-long project comprised two stages. In semester one, following a research and development process and feedback from tutors, students produced a conceptual/ spatial design which was further developed to approximate a ‘planning proposal’. In semester two, again informed by a research and development process, students developed working drawings and details for their individual designs.
Guest Critics: Mary Davies (HTA), John Gray (HTA), Alice Odeke (ROK Architects), Hiro Aso (Gensler), Ross Lambie (RALA), Stephanie Rhodes (Gatti Routh Rhodes) 34
Guest Critics: Colin Gleeson, Aurelie de Boissieu (Grimshaw Architects) ) Vincent Yoell
BSc Architectural Technology | Third Year
Fig
Figure 168: Street view of east and north elevation, looking down
faça
Luxborough street in a south west direction. By Luke Thomas 4th January
Tho
2018.
Figure
Figure 168: Street view of east and north elevation, looking down
façade
Luxborough street in a south west direction. By Luke Thomas 4th January
Thoma
2018.
Figure 171: Birds eye view looking at north elevation, building looks
Fig
aesthetically pleasing in surrounding landscape. By Luke Thomas 4th January
de
Figure 171: Birds eye view looking at north elevation, building looks
Figur
aesthetically pleasing in surrounding landscape. By Luke Thomas 4th January
develo
6BUIL002W Design Project 3 – Semester 1 -
6BUIL002W Design Project 3 – Semester 1 -
ure 168: Street view of east and north elevation, looking down
borough street in a south west direction. By Luke Thomas 4th January
8.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas
Student No: 157
Student No: 15735
Figure 169: Car angle view driving down Luxborough street, with green façade In view. Makes the street scene look aesthetically pleasing. By Luke Thomas 4th January 2018. Figure 170: Height scale of green wall canopy entrance and person height in scale 1:100. By Luke Thomas 4th January 2018.
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(left) Francesco Scotto ; (right) Luke Thomas :
Fall prevention Versilrail fixed to face of CLT parapet in accordance with Manufacturer's details. Ensure penetrations through waterproofing are sealed. Vertical rail to be lent back towards roof to reduce visual impact from ground floor level.
Detail 11. 26mm thick Radmat insulation board with integral CP board, fixed to CLT parapet.
CGL Wallplank System, fixed to Aluminium Helping Hand system fixed through rigid insulation boards to CLT wall boards, in accordance with manufacturers guidance. Panels to be 'pre painted aged copper' colour. Joints between panels to provide 20mm shadow gap, to disclose fixings.
2No. layers of 140mm insulation board, top layer to be tapered towards roof outlets. Refer to GA plans for locations. Topped with Min-K thermal sheet, Radmat G10 water retention and drainage mat G11 filter membrane, Radmat 100% recycled green roof growing medium and finished with sedum blanket green roof.
Indicates Tenmat intumescent cavity barrier at every floor level, mechanically fixed to CLT. Ensure cavity sock does not fill the cavity and ventilation is achievable.
Indicates Tenmat intumescent cavity barrier to close opening, mechanically fixed to CLT. Ensure cavity sock does not fill the cavity and ventilation is achievable.
57mm CLT wall panel (Thermal conductivity 0.130W/mK) fixed to top of CLT slab in accordance with manufacturer's details. 2no. layers 12.5mm Gyproc Fireline Board (nominal 9.8kg/m² each layer) with staggered joints. Finish to achieve Min. 60 Mins. fire resistance. 50mm thick fibre RC screed on 500 gauge DPM separating layer on, 30mm TSDP layer on, 60mm thick insulation board on 6mm resilient layer with minimum 5mm flanking strips on nominal 6mm thick latex levelling compound.
Communal Area
Provide flexible weatherproof mastic sealant to the perimeter of all windows. Colour to match window/ door profiles.
2500 (Fourth Floor FFL To FCL)
180mm CLT wall panel (Thermal conductivity 0.130W/mK) fixed to top of CLT slab in accordance with manufacturer's details. All vertical joints in CLT wall boards to be toothed together in accordance with Detail 18.
2400 (Fourth Floor FFL To FCL)
1no. layer of 15mm thick Gypsum based board, or similar approved, applied to metal frame ceiling.
2no. layers 12.5mm Gyproc Fireline Board (nominal 9.8kg/m² each layer) with staggered joints. Finish to achieve Min. 60 Mins. fire resistance.
Minimum 260mm thick CLT slab to SE's design and details.
CGL closing piece to base of panels. Closing piece to be perforated to allow for continuously ventilated cavity & have insect mesh.
100mm thick Kingspan Kooltherm K10 FM Soffit Board mechanically fixed to the underside of the CLT. Detail 08.
Shadow gaps in cladding panels to return into window reveal.
Dwelling
Ensure openable part of window is Min. 800mm above finished floor level in accordance with AD Part K. Double glazed powder coated, argon filled aluminium windows. To be fixed in accordance with manufacturer's details and guidance. PPC pressed sill profile with closed ends, colour RAL 7006, by window manufacturer. Corium brick slip system by Taylor Maxwell, fixed back to CLT walls and floor using suitable fixings. Brick slips are held in place by 'clicking' into the aluminium profiled backing system, meaning no adhering is required, then screwed back to 'helping hand' system, which is fastened back to CLT. Brick slips to be laid in English bond.
1:20 Strip Section
1no. layer of 12.5mm thick Gyptone QUATTRO 41 ACTIVair, class C absorbent material in the communal areas.
3225 (Third Floor FFL To Fourth Floor FFL)
Cladding panel fixing system to be securely fixed into CLT wall boards in accordance with Manufacturers specification and 'pull test' results.
1 No. layer of British Gypsum SoundBloc plasterboard to middle of party wall. 88mm CLT wall panel (Thermal conductivity 0.130W/mK) fixed to top of CLT slab in accordance with manufacturer's details. Two layers of 60mm minimum Isover Acoustic Insulation Slab placed in the cavity in accordance with British Gypsum technical literature.
Detail 07.
Communal Area
Oversized continuous sleeved mineral wool cavity fire sock, by Rockwool, or similar approved, compressed between CLT floor panels.
Detail 06.
Scale 1:20
(left) Vincent Yoell ; (right) William Hull :
No.
Date
Amendment
Initials No.
Date
Amendment
BSc Architectural Technology | Third Year
East
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(top) Nicola Gambetta ; (bottom Luke Thomas 1 left) 1 : 100 :
:
(bottom) Francesco Scotto ; (top right) Nicola Gambetta :
DESIGNING CITIES IS an interdisciplinary and integrated course between planning and architecture. It is increasingly gaining a high reputation in the UK and abroad as one of the first innovative UG courses focused entirely on urban design. The course addresses the challenge of building sustainable cities, with the aim to train a new generation of city experts capable of facing the complexity of cities, to understand the forces that shape them, and to provide innovative and creative solutions for their urgent problems. We are running our second year and we will have our first cohort of graduates next year in 2019. Our students come from the UK (50%), Europe (25%) and the rest of the world (25%). In class, students learn how to understand, read and shape cities, using London as their main laboratory of experimentation. Issues regarding urban regeneration, city and regional development, and the built environment are discussed in class and applied in our urban design studios. The threads of climate change and the increasing social and cultural diversity of cities inform our approach to design. The course is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) as meeting the requirements for the spatial planning element of initial planning education. Designing Cities has developed a strong curriculum benefitting from the contribution of staff from various
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academic disciplines and from practice. In the last year, an International field trip to China was organised. Students visited Shanghai and Suzhou, working on a case of town development in the urbanised region of the Yangtze Delta in collaboration with Tongji University and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (April 2018). Field visits have been organised to central London, Canary Wharf and Manchester, supported by consulting firms, developers and local authorities such as Grosvenor, Regeneris and Manchester City Council. Guest lectures from BuroHappold Engineering, Metro-Dynamics, Oxford Policy Management, and Farrels have enriched our teaching. We are currently organising summer work placements for our Year 2 students, given our large network of contacts in the Greater London Region. The involvement with practice and the outside world is a priority for us, as witnessed in our Blog where most of our activities, including field trips, guest lectures, workshops are regularly posted. blog.westminster.ac.uk/designingcities
Giulio Verdini Course Leader
BA DESIGNING CITIES
BA Designing Cities | Process
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DESIGNING CITIES AIMS to promote an understanding of cities from an international perspective. In April 2018 year 2 students travelled to China to visit Shanghai and to work on a collaborative project on ‘The role of medium
towns in large mega-city regions’. Students worked with peers from Tongji University and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University to develop urban scenarios for the town of Zhenze in the South Jiangsu Province.
BA Designing Cities | First Year
Yara Sharif & Roudaina Al Khani Yara Sharif is an architect and an academic with an interest in design as a means to interrogate socio-political issues. She is a partner in Golzari – NG Architects, an award-winning architectural practice based in London Roudaina Alkhani is an architect, urban and regional planner Ph.D. with an interest in multidisciplinary approaches to city development, with major experiences from Europe and the Middle East. She is Founder and Director of the practice Platforms for sustainable cities and regions and Lecturer at the University of Westminster.
YEAR 1: Planning for Integrated Neighbourhoods Students: Jamie Alley, Will Bennet, Hyacynth Cabiles, Michal Godlewski, Janina Graça, Canyon James, Halime Kamber, Rehnona Kholil, Perry Knight,
Dana Maxwell, Elina Mieme, Giovanni Mule, Gihan Rekers, Xanluka Sulejmani, Ceren Ulger,Yue Wu, Ming Yevng Lim (Anthony), Luka Zumbach
THIS STUDIO-BASED module explores the inner-city area in London, providing students with a platform for analysing and critically reflecting on urban policies while offering responsive recommendations and urban design solutions that address the subject of sustainability in its social and economic sense.
Regent’s Park’s Estates, between Regent’s Park and Euston Station, accommodates a series of modernist housing compounds built in the ’50s and the ’60s, with the potential of being partially densified and, if carefully redesigned, of improving the system of accessibility and the quality of the public realm.
The site selected this year is the area around Euston Station in the London Borough of Camden, which is going to be affected by mayor redevelopments due to the construction of the new High Speed train between London and Birmingham. This is one of the most central and therefore strategic ‘opportunity areas’ in London with the potential to accommodate increased densities. According to the area plan adopted in 2015, new mixed used developments will be mainly concentrated around the current Euston station area. It will have surely an important impact both at the city and the local level. As part of the overall strategy of the city to increase its compactness, a quota of the supply of housing should come from a systematic strategy of urban infill.
Based on the group site appraisal, students were asked to design a proposal for a meaningful urban infill and public realm improvement for this neighbourhood, while also reflecting on the bigger urban context with its challenges and opportunities. Students interrogated through designled research the notions of participation and public-private space, offering original and sometimes ludic suggestions for its future functioning. The themes varied from Urban Kitchens to ‘plug in’ Parasites for the homeless, to Vertical Farms.
Special Thanks: Nasser Golzari for his lecture 44
) Halime Kamber: Architecture of resilience as urban strategy
BA Designing Cities | First Year
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(left) Luka Zumbach: Tiny communities: shelters for homeless people; (right) Janina Graça: Urban Infill in Regent’s Park Estate
(top) Halime Kamber: A canopy shed in London; (bottom) Halime Kamber: A canopy shed in London
BA Designing Cities | Second Year
Michael Neuman & Krystallia Kamvasinou Michael Neuman is Professor of Sustainable Urbanism. His research focuses on urban and regional design and planning, infrastructure, sustainability, governance, planning history and theory. Krystallia Kamvasinou is senior lecturer and an architect with a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and a PhD in Architecture. Her latest research on ‘Interim Spaces and Creative Use’ was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
YEAR 2: Regeneration and Development Students: Martin Miranda Antelo, Elena Ceppo, Shantelle Elliott-Edwards, Taishanah Ferris, Lan Pham, Tanaphat Vanichsombat, Patrycja Wajszczuk, Kareem Wellington
THIS STUDIO-BASED module involves a design project that develops critical thinking related to a specific context in the UK. It engages students in the process of working with live clients to produce briefs with a sensitive design approach to sustainable strategic planning.
In the analysis phase, the students worked in pairs to appraise the site and its context at three different scales: local, meaning municipal; sub-regional, meaning the Oxford-Cambridge corridor; and regional, meaning the greater London city region.
The site selected this year is the area around Milton Keynes. The area is going to be affected by major infrastructure and urban developments due to the construction of new transport routes for the ‘Oxford-Cambridge Corridor’: a train line between Oxford and Cambridge, a highway between Oxford and Cambridge, and a High Speed train between London and Birmingham.
In the design phase, the students worked individually on a site of their choosing in and around Milton Keynes, of one or more square kilometres. Based on the group site appraisal, students were asked to design a proposal for a meaningful urban and infrastructural development for this area, taking into account its context and a wide range of sustainability criteria. These criteria spanned a variety of economic, social, equity, and ecological concerns.
The analysis and design work that the students conducted over the term was organised into two phases. The first phase, focused on analysis, whilst the second phase, allowed the students to create their designs.
Guest Critics: Mark Clapson, Jim Coleman, Rebecca Neil, Giulio Verdini 48
The students presented the results of their work twice during the semester, at the end of each phase, to their fellow students, and a selected professional and academic jury.
Special Thanks: Guest lectures from: Rebecca Neil, Mark Clapson Tanaphat Vanichsombat: The missing piece – regeneration and development in Bletchley
BA Designing Cities | Second Year
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) Martin Miranda Antelo: Milton Keynes – site analysis of Saxon Street and schematic plan of its connections
Tanaphat Vanichsombat: The missing piece – regeneration and development in Bletchey
HUMAN HABITATS ACROSS the world are facing critical global warming challenges. Whilst most governments pledge ‘zero carbon cities’ by 2040, a serious architectural and environmental design skills shortage means a new generation of Architects and Environmental Design Consultants is needed. The BSc(Hons) Architecture and Environmental Design was established in 2018 with an ambition to address this issue and aspire to train a new generation of environmental architects who are not only environmentally aware but able to quantify the environmental impact of their design. This new course encompasses the ‘artistic’ and ‘scientific’ in architecture and the strong first cohort was introduced to an integrated and Evidence Informed Design approach which can be used both in architectural practice and in environmental design consultancy for employment in a global marketplace. In the first year of the course, half of the time was spent on studio-based design activities and half on climatic, historical, cultural, socio-economic and professional studies. All modules have a strong interdisciplinary approach that highlights the added value environmental architects bring to the building industry and to society. In addition to the key design project modules, the environmental design teaching of this course in the first year focused on ‘Sensing the Environment’. This
was well supported by both internal and external academics, scholars and practitioners. Key highlights included: Professor Dean Hawkes (Emeritus Professor of Architectural Design, Cardiff University and Emeritus Fellow, Darwin College, Cambridge) who gave our students an informative lecture and guided tour of the Darwin College Library designed by Dixon Jones Architects. Architect and Author, Fred Scott, opened his private residence in the Grade II Listed Golden Lane Estate to our students and gave them a lecture on the theme of Post War British Housing Design. James Engwall, a structural engineer and an Associate of Price and Myers Consulting Engineers delivered a Structural Design and Materials lecture in the TES1 – Environmental design and Principles of Building Physics Module. Our students were also involved in one of the current research projects: ‘The Investigation of Spatial Design and Learning Efficiency in Higher Education through EEG Mind Wave Mapping’. The Course is in the process of achieving RIBA accreditation and the validation meeting with RIBA New Courses Group (NCG) has been scheduled for mid-September 2018. We are confident of gaining successful validation, at which point all students who have successfully completed the course will be awarded RIBA Part 1 qualification required for Professional Registration. Benson Lau Course Leader
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BSc ARCHITECTURE & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
BSc Environmental & Architectural Design | Process
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THE TEACHING FOCUSES for the BSc(Hons) Architecture and Environmental Design are: Year 1 – Sensing the Environment, Year 2 – Transformation and Application and Year 3 – Stepping Out and Making. In the first year, students acquired the basic architectural design, observation and drawing skills by engaging in design projects and conducting study trips. An Evidence
Informed Design Approach was introduced to students through lectures, hands-on workshops, group seminars and individual study sessions. Spatial poetics and environmental delight were explored and tested by using hand drawn sketches, photographs and relevant design tools like Sun Rose and Heliodon.
BSc Environmental & Architectural Design | First Year
Benson Lau & Rosa Schiano-Phan Benson Lau is an architectural and built environment practitioner (RIBA) and academic. He studied architecture in HKU, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and Cambridge, and has engaged in practice, research and teaching internationally since 1996. He is a Reader and Course Leader of the BSc(Hons) Architecture and Environmental Design which was established in 2017. Rosa Schiano-Phan is the Course Leader of the MSc Architecture and Environmental Design and co-director of Natural Cooling Limited. She has extensive experience in the field of environmental design devoting most of her career to consultancy and research. She is the co-author of The Architecture & Engineering of Downdraught Cooling published in 2010.
YEAR 1: Spatial Orchestration and Environmental Delight in Buildings Students: Bisma Alam, Yee Ang, Liva Balode, Canan Coban, Ashley Cotta, Sebastian Dawber, Jonilda Dilo, Christopher Garkov, Giada Gonzalez, Rayan Groudka, Ning Guo, Jennifer Housego, Maryam Islam, Samaa Ismaeel,
Chi Ian Lei, Chrysoula Lymperopoulou, Ella Reed, Matin Shirani, Umaru U-K, Emanuelle Volpe, Jiaping Wu, Tugce Yigit.
THE FIRST COHORT of the course shared the design project modules with BA Architecture students and joined the seven strong design studios led by a group of competent and experienced design tutors who are either architectural practitioners or academics with solid practice and research experience.
The TES1 Module was run as a complementary module to the two key design studio modules with an aim to integrate environmental design into the architectural design process. The environmental design principles were introduced to students through lectures, group seminars and workshops. Students learnt to use relevant mapping tools to quantify the environmental comfort in buildings, and they were encouraged to undertake subjective depictions of the spatial quality of their design proposals by using hand drawn sketches and photographs, and explore the orchestration of light and space in their schemes with precision by selectively using solar design tools. One of the key challenges students tackled was the development of basic seasonal and diurnal environmental design strategies in their design projects. The sample work shown in the next three pages demonstrates the design strength of the first cohort.
The teaching delivery made use of well-designed places and buildings in London as external classrooms. Study trips to Sir John Soane’s Museum, the British Library, the Sky Court of the Walkie Talkie Building and Golden Lane and Barbican Estates were conducted during the first and second semester. Students were encouraged to use sketches to capture the spatial atmosphere of the places and buildings they have visited. In addition to the design studio modules, all students were required to attend the Cultural and Context module which introduces students to the history and theory of architecture, and the TES1 Module – Environmental Design and Principles of Building Physics – which sets the foundation for the Evidence Informed Design approach.
Special Thanks: Professor Dean Hawkes (Darwin College, Cambridge), John Dix and Ann-Marie MacDougall (Darwin College, Cambridge), James Engwall (Price & Myers), Fred Scott, Mehrdad Borna, Yi Chen (NTUST), Neil Kieran & John Edwards, Richard Watson & Orsalia Dimitriou, Richa Mukhia & John O’Shea, Duarte Santo & Ruth Cuenca, Matthew Stewart & Natalie Newey, Corinna Dean & Benson Lau, and Juan Piñol & Alison McLellan, and David Scott and his team (Fabrication Lab) 56
) Spatial exploration and light studies: Sebastian Dawber, Giada Gonzalez, Maryam Islam, Chi Ian Lei, Tugce Yigit
BSc Environmental & Architectural Design | First Year
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Giada Gonzalez: Artist Residence at Dalston, London
Giada Gonzalez: Performing Dalston, London,Sun Study on Summer Solstice & Equinox
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL students graduating from the course this year – we wish you every success as you venture into practice. To continuing students; engage with their work… and be inspired! This year we have fully embraced the course changes planned three years ago, deepening the connections between Technical Studies and the Design Studio and strengthening engagement with the Fabrication Lab across the course. Many thanks to our dedicated team of MArch students supporting tutors as PALS (Peer Assisted Learners) in first year studio and on building walks, and to the Westminster Architecture Society for organising a rich programme of lectures and talks. First Year plunged students into the challenges of dreaming, drawing and making, immersing them in projects in Folkstone and Dalston… to start making architecture. In the second year, DS(2)1 worked horticulture and water into buildings for healing, whilst DS(2)4 considered the role of artefacts in proposals for libraries of memories. Studio (2)5 explored risk in the parallel worlds of architecture and science, and worked on a museum for experimental failure. DS(2)2 considered alternative visions for a postCrossrail West End, grounded in the delicate grain of the existing social ecologies. DS(3) were also concerned with the city as a realm of cultural exchange, developing projects to celebrate Interculturalism and heritage in Notting Hill. DS(2)6 explored the technical dimension of urban farming with projects for FAO in Stratford. 60
Diversity also characterised our final year, with research and experimentation in the field of the domestic: DS(3)2 developed strategies and designs for co-housing and have been busy constructing a full scale pavilion on our campus for OPEN and the London Festival of Architecture, whilst DS(3)7 worked together housing and public spaces for sites in Beijing and Bloomsbury. Studios also rethought urban realms by turning cultural life inside out: DS(3)4 brought pageant and the West End’s backstage into sober City streets, whilst DS(3)1 used filmic space to dynamise the new quarter that is Trinity Buoy Wharf. In Ebbsfleet’s edgelands, the students from DS(3)6 speculated on the future of past ideals: what does Garden City mean today? Meanwhile DS(3)5 focused on the urban fabric of Marylebone itself, the contested space of Moxon Street with projects for markets and education. DS(3)3 used the devices of the studio and bottega to develop dialogues between the intimate spaces of scholarly focus and a reconceived Somerset House, as an open stage for the city. Special thanks to Dian Small and the RIBA for continuing the mentoring programme collaboration in our final year, and our Work Placements Officer Leo Skoutas, for the highly organised work placement for our final year students, and for the internship programme for the 2nd year. Julian Williams Course Leader
BA ARCHITECTURE RIBA Part 1
BA Architecture | Process
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From local to global, BA Architecture learning is not restricted to the studio:
The importance of exploring buildings, sketching and model making at all scales underpins the work of the studio.
BA Architecture | First Year
FIRST YEAR ARCHITECTURE STUDIOS
FOR THE FIRST twelve weeks, the seven First Year studios shared the same briefs, beginning by exploring the human form and its relationship to objects and space. Students used this early analysis of the human body performing activities to design street furniture for the transient flâneurs of London on a site in Soho. A mid-semester visit to the seaside town of Folkestone marked the start of the main project of the term, a Food Shack, providing nourishment from around the world to visitors to the Triennial exhibition. In semester two, each studio developed their own briefs as described below.
GROUP A: Neil Kiernan & John Edwards Neil Kiernan is a practicing architect and interior designer. He has worked for a number of award-winning practices in the UK with a speciality in residential architecture and placemaking. Neil also specialises in creating transformative interior spaces within Central London and the UK. John Edwards is a practicing architect, once named one of the UK’s Top 50 Design Graduates. He works on awardwinning projects across the UK. John is currently an Associate at Useful Studio, leading the design and delivery of education buildings. Students: Sarah Al Matrook, Pietro Asti, Rujina Chaudhry, Lucy Bambury, Mohammed Hachemi, Rachel Howsen, Noor Kassem, Chi Lei, Jason Prescod, Nabiha Qadir, Mohammed Rashid, Ella Reed, Maren Stenersen, Rajan Suri, Hafsa Syed, Anna Tabacu, Mohammed Talat, Jiaping Wu, Tada Zabulis Many thanks to our Peer Assisted Learners Mirabell Schmidt and Raymonde Bieler
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Trading Places: Creators Live/Work Studio, Dalston LOOKING AT TWO sites within Dalston – Ridley Road, a vibrant market road and Ashwin Street, a more subdued and backland site – the students were asked to explore what makes each of these sites different to each other yet unique within the umbrella of the Dalston community. Drawing from their investigative discoveries, the group were asked to rationalise their findings to select one of the sites for a live-work studio for an Etsy marketplace maker and their assistant. The focus of the group’s brief was to develop upon the skills introduced in the previous semester; exploring scale and the human form, positive and negative spaces, then transferring these discoveries to architectural proposals. The students’ ideas were continually developed and shaped through the testing of concept models and sketches to the final realisation using scaled drawings and maquettes. The students’ aim was to continually question the interpretation of ‘trade’, not only in terms of unique and creative goods, but through the manipulation of architectural light and space and its associated currencies. ): Lightwall Construction
GROUP B: Richard Watson & Orsalia Dimitriou Sculptor Studio and Flat Orsalia Dimitriou, Architect ARB, PhD, www.studiosyn.co.uk tutor at Westminster and Central St Martins. Richard Watson tutor, artist, product designer. Previously exhibited at the UoW and the AA.
Students: Mejan Ahmed, Marwan Al Meligy, Bisma Alam, Ching Yee, Halima Arafat, Lucie Barnes, Filippos Divaris, Georgia Dunmore, Yesim Eskiocak, Jazmine Huskinson, Jasmin Khalifa, Ewelina Kozlowska, Zach Kudinov, Sterlin Mohammed, Giovanni Musumeci, Billy Nguyen, Ceyda Ozsoy, Ria Ranga, Jagoda Sowinska, Zahraa Tayyar, Edoarda Trombini and Tugce Yigit Many thanks to our Peer Assisted Learners Xin Swift and Lily Zhao
GROUP C: Richa Mukhia & John O’Shea Richa Mukhia is a director of award-winning architectural practice M.OS Architects. She has extensive experience working in the private and public sector with a particular interest in housing design, public realm and community engagement. John O’Shea is a practicing architect with 30 years experience in the industry. He has worked for numerous design-led practices around the world on projects ranging from bespoke houses to award-winning art galleries. John has been a design tutor for 18 years. Students: Ruhel Ahmed, Gozde Aydemir, Maryam Babayeva, Liva Balode, Eloise Baxter, Sarah Daoudi, Aleksandar Donov, Samanta Grudzien, Kopal Halway, Jennifer Housego, Evelyn Iguasnia Castelo, Jude Jaribu, Niamh Lenderyou, Abishek Malki, Soraya Mohajeri, Alicia Montero, Sebastian Mortimer, Alexandru Oltean, Solihah Sohail, Youssef Turki, Abdul Umaru, Martyna Varslavenaite Many thanks to our Peer Assisted Learners Iza Sasaran and Richard Morrison
FOR OUR STUDENTS Semester 2 was an opportunity to start their first orthodox design project. The project was to design an Artist’s studio and flat in Dalston. We wanted the students to choose a client who was creative and whose life was well-documented in the hope that some of this would rub off on them. They could look at the artist’s working method, the materials they used, the ideas they were interested in or just their obsession for the subject. For example, Anish Kapoor’s use of maquettes or Eduardo Paolozzi’s quick early making process, or perhaps the value of the ordinary summed up by Stuart Davis: ‘One day I set up an eggbeater in my studio and got so interested in it that I nailed it on the table and kept it there to paint. I called the picture Eggbeater, number such and such…’
Dalston (art)Market THE BRIEF ASKED students to design a building for an artist to live, work and exhibit work. An intensive program of talks and visits immersed the students in the complexities of the site (Dalston). Research and visits allowed students to interrogate the personalities and working practices of their chosen artists. The projects investigated boundaries, thresholds and opportunities for architectural and urban permeability. Where does the private domain of the artist begin and end? What are the thresholds between living and working? Between working and exhibiting? Between private and public? When does the passerby become a viewer, a participant or a muse? Material investigations with a focus on fabrication and testing allowed the students to develop individual tectonic and tactile solutions.
BA Architecture | First Year
GROUP D: Duarte Santo & Ruth Cuenca Duarte Santo is an Architect, Landscape and Urban Designer. His teaching, research and practice explore interdisciplinary approaches to Architecture, Landscape and Tourism. He is co-Founder and editor of TRANSLOCAL, a project exploring dialogues between local and global urban cultures. Ruth Cuenca is an Architect and Urban Designer with extensive experience working between practice and academia. Her research interests focus on architecture with scarce resources, sustainable development and the role of communities in the design process. Students: Aftaab Allam, Juliana Antunes, Shahida Begum, Kaho Chan, Çanan Coban, Maryam Daoudi, Parminder Dosanjh, Giada Gonzalez, Julia Gromny, Ning Guo, Safa Husain, Georgiana Ilie, Mina Khodkameh, Thet Kyaw Win, Suzana Meziad, Maria Motchalnik, Naran Oyuntsetseg, Georgia Papadopoulou, Jay Patel, Ashley Rosas, Laksitha Sivanandarajah, Kristina Veleva Many thanks to our Peer Assisted Learners Sam Robinson and Sarah Bass
GROUP E: Matthew Stewart & Natalie Newey Matthew Stewart is a designer, researcher and writer. He has worked with architectural practices in China, South Korea and India on various projects. Natalie Newey is a Senior Lecturer and SFHEA. She has extensive experience working in practice and is particularly interested in urban ecologies and the organic nature of cities. Students: Mariame Amouche, Daniel Berende, Gazala Bhatti, Barbara Cellario, Ashley Cotta, Carlos D.V Fernandez, Bilal El Figuigui, Angeliki Giannakodimou, Paul Greaves, Wojciech Hoffmann, Maryam Islam, Grace Izinyon, Iana Kupeeva, Alcina Lo, Maria Mendes, Michelangelo Misiti, Aisha Nadim, Casian Podianu, Jacqueline Rosales Quezada, Rosita Shirazi, Ugne Valenciute Many thanks to our Peer Assisted Learners Rafaella Christodoulidi and Robert Fernandes-Dwyer
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Performing Dalston ‘PERFORMING DALSTON’ ASKS for the design of a small performing arts hub in Dalston, London that can accommodate a live/work/performance space for a small group of artists. The studio focuses on material and performative aspects of the activity. It explores the way art and architecture can engage audiences and promote interaction and engagement with the local community through performance-related activities. Exploring a specific performance art, students were invited to engage with its practices, objects and performers to further expand their research and work into architecture, its users and the site. Students analysed, interpreted and prompted responses to the brief and the site, questioning stereotypes and testing ideas through multiple media, analogue and digital, exploring their concepts and design as catalysts for social interaction in a vibrant and diverse context as Dalston.
Arcola Annex OUR MAIN PROJECT for the semester was the design of an annex for Arcola Theatre in Dalston, an unconventional institution that hosts a variety of community functions not traditionally associated with theatre. To get a feel for Dalston, we undertook research, made collages, interviewed people and analysed key buildings and public spaces around Ashwin Street. Delving into the world of theatrical production, we looked into designers before making mock-up costume and stage sets. A tour of Arcola gave real-world context to subsequent proposals which focused on a series of spaces required by the theatre with an additional live work area for a designer in residence.
GROUP F: Corinna Dean & Benson Lau Corinna Dean is a critical urbanist and researcher, driven by an interest in how the urban is communicated, experienced and lived out across cultures. She launched ARCA, the Archive for Rural Contemporary Architecture, to bring these sites into the public consciousness through cultural projects. Benson Lau is an architectural and built environment practitioner (RIBA) and academic. He studied architecture in HKU, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and Cambridge, and has engaged in practice, research and teaching internationally since 1996.
A House for an Artist Semester Two’s project ‘a house for an artist’ invited students to map and respond to Hackney, in particular how artists and urban development coexist. A series of studio visits to residential buildings were carried out, including Dominic Cullinan/Ivan Harbour’s house to Marcus Lee’s RIBA award winning, ‘Framehouse’. Additionally, the students took part in a drawing workshop with the artist Lucinda Rogers who presented the exhibition ‘Ridley Road Market’ at the House of Illustration.
Students: Zienab Ahmed, Hana Alsaai, Mariah Bondad, Joshua Bulman, Esther Calinawan, Sebastian Dawber, Jonilda Dilo, Simran Dovedi, Selim Elleithy, Thomas Hall-Thompson, Mariam Jamal Eddin, Anthony Kourpas, Shi Lee, Desire Lubwama, Wiktoria Matyja, Thomas McLucas, Isabelle Reid, Omar Rihan, Michalina Rusinek, Rowan St John, Sofia Yanez Perteagudo Many thanks to our Peer Assisted Learners Anett Beko and Parseh Palmer
GROUP G: Juan Piñol & Alison McLellan Juan Piñol is a Colombian architect teaching and practicing in London. He has worked in Colombia and Barcelona designing large urban and housing projects, public realm and landscape regeneration with Ricardo Bofill and Lola Domenech. Alison McLellan teaches and practices architecture. She founded Form_art Architects, a practice delivering museums, galleries, visitor and performing arts centres. Teaching is a natural continuation of Form_art’s work with artists and galleries, namely their current engagement with the Tate. Students: Zoha Ali, Gizem Bulbul, Chloe Butler, Saniat Chowdhury, Bryan Cotta, Sabri Erdinc, Christopher Garkov, Cindy Hasho, William Howes, Samaa Ismaeel, Anastazja Jankowska, Nada Maktari, Sara Martinez Zuleta, Zi Mo, Ecaterina Reabov, Chloe Romero, Saima Rouf, Roger Sauvage De Brantes, Shivani Bhawnani, Emanuele Volpe, Bradley Welch Many thanks to our Peer Assisted Learners Victor Man and Denisa Groza
Dalston Digital Cottage THE STUDENTS WERE asked to create a cottage industry in Dalston, where they selected a site and a resident maker. The manufacturing processes were used as a tool to research the expressive possibilities of the building materials, exploring space, texture and light. They explored the site, space and materiality through a wide array of industries, including an exposed glass-blowing workshop; a puppet factory and theatre; a jeweller’s shop clad in gabions; a tailors with richly textured concrete walls; a lamp factory that became a beacon for the neighbourhood; a bicycle maker’s and a skateboarding shop that enriched the market square.
BA Architecture | First Year GROUP A
(top left) Ella Reed: Sensory bathing house section; (top centre) Pietro Asti: Watch maker sketch; (top right) Ella Reed: Sensory bathing house perspective ; (bottom) Hafsa Sayed: Graffiti artist timeline :
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(top) Hafsa Sayed: Graffiti artist collage ; (bottom) Hafsa Sayed: Graffiti artist model in context :
BA Architecture | First Year GROUP B
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)Marwan Al Meligy
) Tugce Yigit
BA Architecture | First Year GROUP C
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(top) Sarah Daoudi; (bottom left) Sarah Daoudi; (bottom centre and right) Martyna Varslavenaite
(top) Maryam Babayeva; (bottom left-right) Jude Jaribu, Maryam Babayeva, Alexandru Oltean
BA Architecture | First Year GROUP D
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(top) Giada Gonzalez: Micro Performances; (bottom) Maria Motchalnik: Performing Shadows
(top) Georgiana Ilie: Acrobatics; (bottom left) Julia Gromny: Flowing sounds; (bottom right) Jay Patel: Resonance Box
BA Architecture | First Year GROUP E
B B
B B
4 1
4 1
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5 5
3 3
2
7 2
7
6 6
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1. 2. sion Room orkspace3. 4. nce hroom 5. 6. 7.
Devlin’s Living Space Courtyard Crèche Devlin’s Vision Room Devlin’s Workspace Front Entrance Public Bathroom
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1:50 Section B-B Design Proposal
Semester 2: Dalston Annex
1:50 Section B-B Design Proposal
Semester 2: Dalston Annex
(top) Aisha Nadim: Food shack; (bottom) Grace Izinyon: Atmospheric journeys
(top left) Angeliki Giannakodimou: Transparent spaces; (top right) Daniel Berende: Folding roof; (bottom left) Alcina Lo: Secret Garden; (bottom right) Caisan Podianu: Arcola Adaptable
BA Architecture | First Year GROUP F
1:20 Perspective Section:
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This image shows some key features of my building, highlighting the use of space and how the artist would be able to interact with t opened up. Furthermore it shows how the space can be used by the commuinity as a communal spaces for a variety of uses. This wou but also allow other locals to make use of the space, for instance using the mesh ʻʼcagesʼʼ as storage units or as sales stalls. which is to design a house that not only fitted the breif by allowing the artist to work and exhibit the work, but also generate a space that ga for the comunity that it is built in.
(top & bottom) Desire Lubwama: Gallery/House for Grayson Perry
the visitors to his house when it is uld alllow the artist room to exhibit his work s a key programme to my scheme as I wanted ave back to the community, that tried to provide
(top left) Isabelle Reid: Model photos; (top right) Esther Calinawan: Gallery Interior; (bottom) Josh Bulman: 1:20 section
BA Architecture | First Year GROUP G
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(left) Chloe Butler: Puppet shop; (top left) William Howes: Glass-blowing workshop; (bottom left) Emmanuel Volpe: Skateboard shop
(top right) Saniat Chowdhury: Lap workshop; (bottom right) Nada Maktaki: Tailors
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) One
Elantha Evans & Dusan Decermic Elantha Evans is an architect and educator, whose current research explores the enablement of ‘mental space’ in educational and practicebased architectural design processes. Her work with Serrano Evans Partnership included architectural, interior and object design, balanced with occasional site specific performances and installations. She has also worked with Richard Rogers, Tim Ronalds, and Evans & Shalev Architects. Dusan Decermic is Course Leader for MA Interiors, a key tutor in MArch studio DS11 which looks at ‘the intrinsic and extrinsic city’, and is an architect and designer with extensive experience in practice and academia.
DS(2)1: [at] tending [to] culture: [a] hard graft Students: Sadie Alabassi, Denisa Balaj, Navpreet Bolina, Mia Briscoe, Katie Brown, Ella Daley, Sabrah Islam, Polyan Ivanov, Manjot Jabbal, Sharna Johnson, Susann Kerner, Bibiana Malawakula, Polina Novikova, Nickolay
Penev,Yara Samaha, Zuzanna Sliwinska, Catalina Stroe, San Tu, Soraia Viriato, Nabla Mohammad Yahya, Tamas Zuberecz
THIS YEAR THE studio explores how ideas around ‘cultivation’ manifest in architecture and society; with horticulture and water as resource and symbol. We developed an understanding of built urban context beyond the visual, and of architecture beyond the object. Our territory follows the hidden River Westbourne; from Whitestone Pond to the canal-sides of Little Venice and Paddington Basin, and then on through Hyde Park, down Sloane Street and past the Chelsea Flower Show, before finally greeting the Thames at Ranelagh Gardens.
Interlude: the study visit to Granada, Cordoba and
Semester One: from outhouse to our house: a community
service station. This project assumes the provision of new canal-boat moorings on the Grand Union Canal at Westbourne Green Open Space. Wash-house: a reinvention of the launderette as a facility for people perhaps without space or permanence, to clean and to wash, a new heart for the community. Green-house: a new local ‘cultivation’ hub for the allotments, nestled within an area full of established but hidden community facilities.
Malaga paid attention to the ways institutional buildings sit within the urban fabric, how they affect public and private space and what presence – literal and symbolic – they have in the city.
Semester Two: to cultivate + propagate: a civic service station. This project creates a new HQ for the Royal Horticultural Society or for the Trussel Trust; a new public-facing building with an architectural and civic presence, providing a new local facility and increasing public awareness of key issues challenging our society today. Continuing with the year’s theme of ‘horticulture’, the briefs developed by each student respond to wider questions around self-sufficiency, provision of food and increasing health inequalities.
Guest Critics: Scott Batty, Fabio Cardoso De Lemos Carvalho, Clare Hamman, Kate Jordan, Jamileh Manoochehri, Alison McLellan, John Ng, Andrew Peckham, Claire Priest, Shahed Saleem, Tszwai So, Octavia Stan, Emma Thomas, Shuying Xu, Fiona Zisch 82
(left) Manjot Jabbal: The River Westbourne; (right) Polina Novikova: RHS Headquarters
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) One
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(top) Mia Briscoe: The Food Temple; (centre left) Polina Novikova: RHS headquarters; (bottom) Sabra Islam: Horticulture and recreation – a new centre for Kensington
(centre) Catalina Strohe: RHS research centre; (right) Sabra Islam: Horticulture and recreation – a new centre for Kensington
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Two
Natalie Newey & Anthony Powis Natalie Newey is a Senior Lecturer and SFHEA. She has extensive experience working in practice and is particularly interested in urban ecologies and interdependencies of cities. Anthony Powis is an architect and researcher with interests in public space, urban nature and hybrid landscapes. He has taught at the University of Westminster since 2015.
DS(2)2: Displacement/Dependency Students: Antonio Allegri, Larissa Angonese, Polina Bouli, Hoi Yau Cheng, Lauren Fashokun, Kevin Ferenzena, Beatriz Cecilia Jimenez Garrote, Zhangeldy Kaupynbayev, Hyun Kyu Kim, Helena Klenovsky, Ryan Myers,
Viktoriia Nozdracheva, Gabriele Pesciotti, Henry Simpson, Zsuzsanna Szohr, Anna Terekhova, David Volodin, Yuechuan Xi, Yohei Yaman
CITIES ARE BUILT of things in contact, not in isolation. In developing projects this year, the studio documented and designed with displacements (of people, things, facilities, histories), and dependencies (between groups, institutions, individuals, materials) – working in and between existing ecologies, and new mutualisms. The city is not a static entity but a living, breathing, dynamic organism which is continually in transition, reinventing itself, and adjusting to any number of external forces. We attempt to better understand, and design with, the inter-reliant nature of cities.
understood as a series of transformations: speculations on access, provision, ground, and atmosphere – part of a wider material and social ecology.
Major development and infrastructure projects in London have opened up the ground and gutted sites in their path, making way for new transport links, displacing grounds and leaving holes which now need to be covered and backfilled. With what? We documented ‘urban conditions’ through rigorous research and fieldwork, uncovering some complex behaviours of the city through its people and the interdependencies between infrastructure, streets, buildings, and human occupation. Design projects were
The year began with a detailed observation of the territory above the new Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road through walks, talks, visits, and direct observation – leading to individual mappings and modelling exercises. A smallscale project on an infill site provided an opportunity for early speculation in semester 1. In semester 2, projects developed in scale, and grew by accumulation of past work, comprising more ambitious, urban-scale interventions with a mixture of public and private, external and internal spaces at multiple scales. Our study trip took us to Ahmedabad, India, to explore an apparently contrasting city, but which provided further opportunities to explore the details of dependencies. We analysed canonic mid-century architecture, visited recent community-led projects, engaged with a local university, and explored the urban fabric of the old city.
Many thanks to our critics and collaborators: University of Westminster Latitudes Network project, Lucy Anne McWeeney CEPT University, especially Urvi Desai and her students Scott Batty, Elantha Evans, Elisa Engel, Sophia Karim, Kate Jordan, Ben Lovedale, Will McLean, Max Martin, Emma Perkin, Aranzazu Fernandez Rangel, Stefania Rinaldi, Conor Shehan, Victoria Watson, Gavin Yau and our PALs Simona Kuneva and Dan Wu 86
(top left) Kevin Ferenzena: Hiding Architecture; (bottom left) Lauren Fashokun: Excavate / Accumulate Future scheme; (right) Polina Bouli: Leisure Centre development
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Two
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(top left) Gabriele Pesciotti: Exchange Idea Exploded Axonometric; (top right) Seungmin Lee: Past / Present / Future Plan; (bottom) Zsuzsanna Szohr: Rainbow Knot Centre North Elevation
Inhabited Models: (clockwise from top left) Lauren Fashokun, Viktoriia Nozdracheva, Ryan Myers, Beatriz Jimenez, Gabriele Pesciotti, Yuechuan Xi, Kevin Ferenzena, Zhangeldy Kaupynbayev
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Three
Shahed Saleem & Michael Rose Shahed Saleem is a practising architect and researches and writes on architecture’s relationship with cultural identity, heritage and nationhood. He works regularly with Historic England and is a Senior Research Fellow with the Survey of London. Michael Rose has been teaching architecture for over forty years. He explores how architecture can enhance human experience and wellbeing, from the physical to the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. He aims to instil in students a clear understanding of the design and making process.
DS(2)3: Heritage, Identity and the Intercultural City Students: Hafsa Adan, Leen Ajlan, Logain Al-Atrakgi, Eylem Bekem, Sodueari Graham-Douglas, Neslihan Gulhan, Enes Karakus, Maheer Khan, Nicole Langcauon, Larisa Manga, Vanessa Mbadinuju, Faisal Muti, Natalia
Orzel, Kenza Salmi El Idrissi, Hiloni Sheth, Ryan Speer, Dan Strassburg, Mihriban Ustun, Midia Veryani
HOW DO LARGE and complex cities manage the relations between their distinct and interconnected cultural groups? How does the city, and its architecture, mediate these social, symbolic and spatial relations? How are the multiple social histories that exist concurrently in a locality to be accessed, collected and narrated? And what kind of architecture does this require?
As part of our wider research into heritage narratives, on our field trip to Lisbon we recorded how the past was given a deliberate presence in the fabric of the city, and back in London we then visited and were given special access to the Migration Museum and the National Maritime Museum, where we were shown archive, research and display spaces.
Our projects in the first semester explore intercultural encounters in Notting Hill with an installation that initiates contact between otherwise separated cultural groups. The installations are placed in various locations around Notting Hill, at urban junctions where social differences might intersect. This leads to observations about how public spaces operate as points of contact within diverse communities. This short project was followed with a building for a Human Library, a place where people are books and tell their life stories to ‘readers’, who are the visiting public. This exchange between reader and visitor is the point of intercultural contact, where unknown people can enter into meaningful encounters. By using small corner sites, the building has to respond to the historic urban fabric of the area.
In semester two we thought about Heritage as a process by which the histories of people and places are recognised, collected and narrated. Each student chose a specific cultural and historical aspect of the local area that interests them, and designed a building, a heritage centre, in which that story could be told. This narration is made possible through the collection, archiving of and research into those social histories. The projects explore the role of galleries and heritage centres in creating the spaces for the collection, researching and display of the multi-vocal histories of a place
Guest Critics: Constantina Avraamides, Dan Burr (Sheppard Robson), Lucia Caistor, Nairita Chakraborty, Megha Chand, Gemma Drake, Fiona Dunn (BDP), Khuzema Hussain (Collective Works), Joseph Hyman, Dan Leon (Square Feet Architects), Matthew Lloyd (Matthew Lloyd Architects), Natalie Raab (make:good), Tanim Sheikh (Clement Porter), Urna Sodnomjamts (Matthew Lloyd Architects) 90
Special thanks: Lucia Caistor, Navjot Mangat (National Maritime Museum), Emily Miller (The Migration Museum), Rúben Teodoro (Collectivo Warehouse, Lisbon), Frame Collectivo Lisbon Ryan Speer: Carnival Heritage Centre
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Three
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(top left) Maheer Khan: Grenfell Tower Heritage Centre; (top right) Leen Ajlan: Heritage Centre; (bottom left) Aya Mousa: Moroccan Heritage Centre; (bottom right) Faisal Muti: Migration Heritage Centre
(top right) Sodueari Graham-Doughlas: Human Library; (bottom left) Larisa Manga: Human Library
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Four
Tszwai So & Elisa Engel Tszwai So is a co-founder of Spheron Architects and a trustee of the Heritage Trust Network. Tszwai is interested in Emotional Architecture – an attempt to understand how we construct emotions around our built environment. Elisa Engel is a co-founder of ehk! architects and a trustee at Architecture for Humanity London. From 2012 to 2013, Elisa lived in Botswana, designing and project managing an award-winning new building for a youth centre on behalf of Architecture for Humanity.
DS(2)4: Emotional Architecture Students: Jannat Alam, Beth Allen, Handah Bayraktar, Amin Benmoussa, Hannah Clarke, Deane Dizon, Marta Dziuba, Hanane Ferraz, Alicja Graczyk, Sarah Hisham, Mariam Houta, Kate Hubert, Jae Hyun Cho, Areesha Khalid,
Marianna Kyriakides, Cassie Li, Matthew Lindsay, Zahra Mansoor, Kirill Menshikov, Aamirah Munshi, Zainab Saadat
THIS STUDIO IS interested in understanding how or if buildings can embody memories, as well as how experience of inhabitation can communicate feelings and evoke different emotions. We unknowingly ascribe meanings to artefacts and spaces, and attach private or shared memories to everyday objects, heirlooms and places; we feel emotionally connected to them regardless of their utility or aesthetic distinction. Is this because they are the physical embodiment of our memories or that they communicate hidden meanings to us? How does an understanding of architectural heritage relate to the revelation of collective memories or can heritage refer solely to the material, to the built environment? Can we create architecture that re-embodies memories alongside providing for today’s needs; for people, places and things?
The main project for the 1st semester developed a narrative on a researched community/group of people chosen by each student, before creating a building to serve a specific need(s) for the community within the limits of the site. The final project of the year was to design a ‘Library of Memories’, a physical structure to house and ‘pass on’ fastdisappearing collective memories (tangible or non-tangible) found in the areas through the process of gentrification. In its simplest form, the brief can be interpreted as a local library, collecting tangible or non-tangible artefacts accessible to the general public. However, students were strongly encouraged to go beyond that and investigate how a building might help to preserve, communicate, recreate and share memories in a more experiential manner.
We studied Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in our first semester, the site of the 18th century gardens of the same name. The gardens are a good example of communities coming together to defend public spaces that carry meaning for them in the face of gentrification.
Guest Critics: Zohra Chiheb (Levitt Bernstein), Christopher Daniel (Polysemic), Philip Graham (Cullinan Studio), Jamileh Manoochehri, Rafael Marks (Penoyre & Prasad), Alison McLellan (Form_Art Architects), Georgina Price (Price Parizi), Luifi Filippo Santilli (Spheron Architects), Eva Sopeoglou 94
Special Thanks: Scott Batty Stefania Boccaletti, Elantha Evans, Shahed Saleem, Fiona Zisch
Jae Hyun Cho
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Four
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(top) Mariam Houta: Site Analysis; (bottom left) Cassie Li: Vauxhall Youth Theatre
(bottom left) Beth Allen; (right) Matthew Lindsay
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Five
Camilla Wilkinson & Chris Bryant Camilla Wilkinson is an architect and lecturer. Her current research is on Dazzle Camouflage as Experimental Practice. Chris Bryant is a founding director of alma-nac. He is also currently guest-editing an issue of AD exploring new modes of practice.
DS(2)5: Experimental Process, Time, Risk Students: Ishma Ahmed, Smit Baradiya, Estera Badelita, Shou Hui Chen (Amy), Irgel Enkhsaikhan, Matthew Heyna-Francis, Aiste Jurgeviciute, Ramshey Khan, Daria Kushnir, Cho Lok Man (Perry), Cameron McKay,
Tanzina Miah, Esther Oluwo, Adrian-Calin Paul, Lavinia Pennino, Darina Maria Procopciuc, Dominika Rakoczy, Holy Serukenya, Yana Stoyanova, Nikoleta Tareva, Egle Zuikaite
THIS YEAR DS(2)5 explored concepts of narrative architecture through the design of a structure for the Imperial College Festival that exhibits current scientific research (Brief 1) and a museum that charts a specific failure (Brief 2).
Questions of time and experimentation became ever more pertinent as our Study Trip to France – from Pompidou Paris to FRAC Dunkirk – gave us the opportunity to visit a variety of spaces that explore the way we record and represent history. Lens Louvre and the monuments and museums of the Great War were of particular significance.
The rich context of both briefs generated a series of questions for our students in relation to experimentation and time: - If architecture is a live experiment, what method do we use to design for it? - If time can be read in all architecture, where is this manifest in proposals? - What do we learn from speculative experimentation? And what is the value of failure?
For Level 5 students, success is measured in relation to concept and design development tested against criteria such as context, communities, representation, practical parameters and constraints. For DS(2)5, success is celebrated in the use of informed risk. Our students were strangely innervated by the opportunity to explore failure – albeit not their own. We learnt that failure can be catastrophic with delusive reverberations or viewed on a spectrum of success.
Guest Critics: Stanislava Boskovic (Imperial College), Alessandro Columbano (Birmingham City University), Christopher Daniels (Polysemic), Elantha Evans, Holly Galbraith (Niall McLaughlin Architects), Kate Jordan, Marta Kruger (alma-nac), Benson Lau, Max Martin, Will McLean, Samir Pandya, Nick Plinston (Wilkinson Eyre), Kester Rattenbury, Conor Sheehan, David Thorp, Jan Van Schaik (Minifie van Schaik Architects), Tristan Wigfall (alma-nac) Ben Daughtry (DS3(1)), Muhtasim Mojnu (DS3(1)); Youjung Won (DS3(2)) 98
Special thanks: Stanislava Boskovic (Imperial College), Benson Lau, Connor Myant, (Imperial College), James Romero (Imperial College), Nancy Stevenson
Estera Badelita: The Failed Experiments of Thomas Edison Museum
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Five
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(left) Cameron McKay: Museum of Video Censorship; (right) Cameron McKay: Net Theatre
Egle Zuikaite: The ‘Shard’ in the Skies, The final flight of the Hindenburg
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Six
Stefania Boccaletti & Fiona Zisch Stefania Boccaletti studied, practised and taught Architecture in Italy, Canada and England. Throughout her carrier as a practitioner and academic she has developed an interest in the impact of digital tools on the design and fabrication process in the field of architecture. Fiona Zisch is completing a PhD in Architectural Design and Neuroscience at UCL and teaches at Westminster, Innsbruck, and the Bartlett. Her research focuses on experiential qualities and how the mind and brain construct internal worlds in relation to the external world.
DS(2)6: Bioinspired Smart Spaces Students: Zeina Alanzarouti, Poonam Ale, Sina Bahjat, Nicholas Blacker, Daria-Suzanne Donovetsky, Catalina Guzun, Wojciech Karnowka, Moin Khan, Inna Kurtlakova, Ivan Levin, Doli Likomanova, Kyungsoo Min, Sulman
Muhammad, Asile Mussa, Magdalena Ochal, Marta Rachwol, Andreas Panagiotatos, Anna Pawlik, Adrianna Waleszczak, Maciej Worosilak
URBAN AGRICULTURE IS a sustainable small scale system that can have a positive impact on the urban fabric, creating environmental, social, and economic benefits such as creating greener cities; improving the urban climate; productively reusing urban organic waste; and reducing the urban energy footprint. DS(2)6 engages with environmental questions by exploring Urban Agriculture through the research of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nation (FAO). FAO experts reside and work in different parts of the planet and often meet for workshops, debriefings and general knowledge exchange across the globe. Students were asked to design for FAO summit scenarios, centring their work on an introduction of digital and interactive embedded technologies to enhance the range of spatial and architectural possibilities.
studio interrogated existing technologies already used in food production (i.e. hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, etc.) and how these can be employed to grow a specific crop in the context of the built environment. The work developed in semester one served as a foundation for the second semester brief. Students continued their research and defined themes, testing and applying insights and ideas to a more complex architectural proposal; this resulted in a building housing a small conference centre for the FAO researchers. Students explored the relationship between building skin as growing bed for their crop and building guts as housing the programme. The skin was either treated distinctly from the internal programme – whereby the in-between space and its use and one’s experience of it were questioned – or as an enmeshed part of the building programme.
During the first semester, DS(2)6 designed small buildings that work both as meeting/working spaces for FAO researchers, as well as a living advertisement for urban agriculture and its impact on the urban environment. The
Guest Critics: Panagiota Adilenidou, Apostolos Apostolopoulos, Roberto Bottazzi, Caitlin Brock, Chloe Fenton, Anna Kampani, Natalie Newey, Vasileia Panagiotopoulou, James Purchon, Victoria Watson 102
(top) Maciej Worosilak: FAO Conference Centre; (bottom) Catalina Guzun
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Two) Six
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(top) Daria-Suzanne Donovetsky: FAO Conference Centre; (centre) Adrianna Waleszczak; (bottom) Ivan Levin
(top) Daria-Suzanne Donovetsky; (centre left-right) Marta Rachwol, Marta Rachwol, Catalina Guzun; (bottom left-right) Doli Likomanova, Sulman Muhammad
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) One
Jane Tankard & Tom Grove DS(3)1 approaches the design studio as a site of experimentation and innovation. A laboratory of transformative ideas underpinned by the creative process, underpinned by professional and technical understanding, we see architecture as a multi-disciplinary process intrinsically implicated by the political constructs that shape our world. Jane Tankard is a full-time Senior Lecturer and RIBA/ARB registered Architect, researching experimental architectural educational practice. Tom Grove currently works for a small practice in Soho which specialises in residential architecture within the borough of Westminster.
DS(3)1: Utopia and Film Students: Arwa Al-Nasrawi, Samiye Cifci, Jeffrey Chan, Ben Daughtry, Faustine Ghislain, Ugne Kiseliovaite, Adam Kramer, Unnati Mankad,
Federico Minieri, Muhtasim (Taz) Mojnu, Setter Nosrati, Teodora Neagoe, Elena Ryskute, Fatima Salim, Amy Wallace, Luka Ziobakaite
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN film and architecture remains a significant one; the site of an edited, controlled often polarised reality, film encompasses all that is important to architectural discourse: journey, narrative, memory, the senses. Like architecture, it is focused around explorations into the physical, social, political and cultural worlds we inhabit. And like architecture, film can transform the everyday into the beautiful, extraordinary, brave. Realists, idealists, fantasists: film-makers edit and adjust the world visually and, like architects, use simple tools to make this work – space, structure, lighting, material, location, characters, stories.
a series of detailed choreographic drawings that, with detailed research into the context to these films, formed the basis of a proposition for a temporary installation on Trinity Buoy Wharf, Canning Town.
This year, DS(3)1 has continued with explorations into notions of Utopia by looking at its relationship to some key 20th century films and the directors who made them. Through a detailed analysis of 5 minute fragments of films that address notions of utopia and dystopia including Bladerunner (Ridley Scott), Brazil (Terry Gilliam), Jubilee (Derek Jarman) and Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky), we made
Each student subsequently developed their own brief, programme, client, and funding strategy for a major project on the same site. From a house and tomb for Vivienne Westwood, to a utopian response to a dystopian world without antibiotics, we were inspired by readings on ‘Utopia’ and the architectural/filmic ideas explored in semester 1. We (re)discovered the relevance and value of the edited view of film-making and how important detailed social, political and cultural contextual studies are to architectural design.
Guest Critics: Farid Abdulla, Michelle Barratt, Steve Bowkett, Corinna Dean, Christina Geros, Maria Kramer, Alicia Pivaro, Martin Sagar (Sheppard Robson), Julian Williams 106
Special Thanks: Steve Bowkett, Martin Sagar ) Elena Ryskute: The Void
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) One
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(top and bottom) Amy Wallace: Archive for Derek Jarman
(top) Teodora Neagoe: The Institute – A Zone for Creation; (bottom) Ben Daughtry: Spica’s World
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) One
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(top) Ugne Kiseliovaite: A Stitch in Time; (bottom) Muhtasim Mojnu: East India Physic Garden
(top) Samiye Cifci: Flotsam and Jetsam; (bottom) Luka Ziobakaite: Temple to Tarkovsky
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) Two
Maria Kramer & Eric Guibert Maria Kramer runs her own practice, Room 102 ltd. Her interests are in Living Architecture, both in a social as well as in an ecological sense. Her focus is on how we can create an environment which works for both humans and the planet. Eric Guibert is a gardener architect. His practice designs grown and built architectures with the emergent natures of ecosystems. The purpose is to nurture the agency of living beings, their creativity and capacity for diversification.
DS(3)2: Cultural Capital Students: Nikola Babic, Patricia Bob, Gentrit Bunjaku, Gaia Buscemi, Ahmed Elmasri, Aloys Heitz, Dominyka Kybartaite, Andreas Makris, Simon
McLanaghan, Aesha Mehta, Sasha Onufriev, Christina Petridou, Esi Plaku, Matthew Rea. Vittoria Rega, Youjong Won
THIS STUDIO LOOKS into socially engaged and ecological design, which inspires and encourages exchange and activity.
then to layer a few of these categories to produce hybrid typologies for shared living.
Due to the challenging housing market, people are becoming increasingly open to different ways of living. By pooling resources, co-living schemes can offer additional shared amenities. Rather than each household having their own doubled up facilities, schemes investigate sharing spaces. These facilities can be wide ranging and include communal laundry rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, allotments, work spaces etc.
The studio has created a broad range of types, showing the many ways of balancing shared living and privacy, whilst avoiding an institutional atmosphere.
The aim was to find a balance between nurturing a sense of community, whilst providing for varying degrees of privacy. How small or big can the personal space be? What can be shared? How can we design a shared space that works? How could we live together today? The students used typological diagrams representing gradients of sharing and shelter, first to analyse the organisation of household precedents (courtyard, polycentric, block, tower and ephemeral),
In addition we had the opportunity to build a 1:1 pavilion testing initial concepts of a community structure at the rear of the university’s podium thanks to generous funding from the Quintin Hogg Trust, in collaboration with the Fabrication Laboratory, Weber Industries and StructureMode and part of London Festival of Architecture. The challenges of this year were to develop a detail design at 1:1, manufacturing the more than 300 component pieces, coordinating the work and the many design decisions that had to be made for the pavilion. This was extended to develop a more strategic proposal, which required an entirely different skill set. Overall an exciting year stretching the entire scale from 1:1000 to 1:1!
Guest Critics: Harry Charrington, Keb Garavito, Lisa Harmey, Matt Haycocks, William Jeffreys, William McLean, Anna Nenasheva, Roman Pardon, Peter Silver, Jane Tankart, Julian Williams, John Zhang, Grimshaw Architects, Pardon Chambers Architects, Pilbrow and Partners 112
Special Thanks: Fabrication Laboratory, David Scott, François Girardin, Quintin Hogg Trust, Alexander Onufriev, Youjong Won, Pardon Chambers Architects, Structure Mode, Weber Industries Oculus Pavilion Construction
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(top) Oculus Pavilion Interior View; (bottom) Alexander Onufriev: Oculus Pavilion Elevation; (right) Simon McLanaghan: Timber Grid Shell Axonometry
(top) Nikola Babic: Roof Top Allotments; (bottom) Ahmed Elmasri: ‘CourtArt’ Internal View; (right) Simon McLanaghan: ‘The Econology of Art’ Isonometry
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(top) Patricia Bob: ‘Introvert-Extrovert’ Interior View; (bottom) Andreas Makris: ‘Living Extra’ Perspective
(top) Youjong Won: ‘Community Garden’ Isonometry; (bottom) Lina Noueri: ‘The ExChanging Rooms’ Section
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) Three
Constance Lau & Stephen Harty Constance Lau practices and teaches architecture in London and Singapore. The studio’s research interests in multiple interpretations and narratives are explored through the techniques of montage as well as notions of allegory. Narrative as an ongoing dialogue in architectural design is further articulated through projects in the book Dialogical Designs (2016). Stephen Harty is an architect and director of Harty and Harty.
DS(3)3: Less is More: Perspective of Meaning Students: Francesca Benetti-Genolini, Oliwia Bisaga, Sabina Blasiotti, Sanya Chadha, Shahriar Doha, Xingye Fan, Zuzanna Grodzka, Humaira
Keshtmand, Amirreza Kiyaniyan, Philip Longman, Daniel McNally, Amir Noori, Diana Sacco, Remigijus Sliakonis, Alexander Tyrwhitt, Muyu Wu
THE STUDIO’S INTERESTS in multiple interpretations and architectural design as an ongoing dialogue are explored through narratives woven around individual research and views.
In semester one, the Renaissance notions of bottega and studiolo were (re)introduced into the site of Somerset House and the Courtauld’s existing structure. The resulting argument is an exploration of the spectrum of primary material associated with the works on display, and certainly not confined to the predominantly visual aspects of these pieces as dictated by the Gallery. These arguments and especially architectural narratives which respond to history and issues of site are explored.
This year, the design narrative started with exploring ‘Less is More’ through Robert Browning’s 1855 poem ‘The Faultless Painter’. Through researching the narratives associated with Browning’s dramatic monologue and the protagonist Andrea del Sarto’s artworks, the mediums of text and painting are taken as starting points for the design process. Historically, the term ‘perspective of mind’ referred to reading the composition and meaning of certain elements in works of art. In this instance, perspective of meaning is concerned with the shifts in how the artworks are read, understood and used at different moments in history. Given the multiple trajectories and different arguments apparent, how can the notion ‘less is more’ be used to inform and subsequently be expressed through the eventual design proposals?
Guest Critics: Alessandro Ayuso, Larisa Bulibasa (Projet d’A rchitecture), Loreta Lukoseviciene (Edward Williams Architects Ltd), Julian Williams 118
Given its location and long history, Somerset House is considered an architectural and cultural icon of London. Hence semester two’s ‘Cradle to Cradle’ argues for this building to be ‘returned’ to the public. What would the architecture be in order to serve as a catalyst for this ambition to be realised and how can more of the city be introduced into the building to show ‘perspective of meaning’ in architecture? The design proposals will attempt to alter the meaning of the architecture through use.
Special Thanks: Scott Batty, Will McLean, Pete Silver
)Francesca Benetti-Genolini: Issues of Performance: Fluxus and Happenings
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Diana Sacco: The New Architectural Association: A Landscape in Conversation
Oliwia Bisaga: The Paintbox of Joseph Gandy’s Watercolours
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(this page) Sabina Blasiotti: The Geological Society of London and William Blake’s ‘Golgonooza’ Quarry; (opposite) Philip-Longman: The Archive of Non-Contemporaneous Thinkers - Vaults
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) Four
Darren Deane, Warren McFadden & Laure Ledard Darren Deane is a full-time academic and author of The Choreographics of the City programme, developed whilst in his former roles as director of the MArch Architecture programme at Westminster and the BA Architecture course at the Manchester School of Architecture.. Laure Ledard trained at the Ecole d’architecture de Paris La Villette and has worked in the offices of Muf Architecture/Art, and Édouard François amongst others. She is currently an architect director at Atelier Ledard McStay and R.A.R.A. Cooperative Ltd. Warren McFadden is a practicing architect and a Part III examiner at Westminster and RIBA North West. He has taught tectonics on the University of Sheffield MArch programme since 2008 and was previously a unit master at the University of Nottingham from 2012 to 2017.
DS(3)4: The Choreographics of the City III Students: Bibissara Alpys, Jasdeep Atwal, Alexandra Badea, Krysta Castillo, Petter Elverum, Sofia Georgieva, Michaela Hadjihanna, Hayat Daniel, Illarionova Dasha, Manza Alex, Zlatina Nedeva, Pawel Obuchowski,
Zoe-Chelsea Okungbowa, Sung Pai, Alexander Roos, Guy Sinclair, Maciej Sobieraj, Cyrus Stephen-Smith
Like other fictions, the architecture of festivals and theatres seeks imaginative assent to the possible, not literal acceptance of the actual.1
ON THE SURFACE, festive space appears to be little more than crowd behaviour. But when you scratch beneath the surface these events, beyond the performative, reveal often overlooked material and spatial thresholds at varying scales between architecture’s interior and urban scenography. Contrasting visiting Venice during the Salute Festival and the studio’s primary context defined by the Lord Mayor’s Show in and around the City of London, we sought to uncover the interactions, connections, overlaps and tensions between the usually separate informal festivalscape, and formal townscape. Semester 1 challenged the students to develop a conceptual understanding of festive space whilst also mapping festive activity in a wider London context. Working in groups of three, they choreographed a new speculative processional route to transfer Gloriana, (Lord Mayor’s Barge), from the Thames between Victoria Embankment and Blackfriars Bridge to a place of exhibition on a vacant site on High Holborn. Within each group students divided the responsibility of designing a small to
medium scale intervention at the beginning and end of their new ceremonial route as well as a third architectural moment overlapping with the rituals and territory of the Lord Mayor’s Show. The work of the second semester moved up in scale with the students reflecting on their time in Venice and the dialogue between the architectural interiors, thresholds, façades and public realm they encountered and the processional route of the Salute Festival. Sites were selected on or adjacent to the route of the Lord Mayor’s Show at Mansion House, St Paul’s, Temple, and to the north of the Royal Courts of Justice on Carey Street for a theatrical production hub to serve the many different festivals and ceremonials that exist in London today. Their programme, borrowing from Plymouth’s TR2 and Luton’s Carnival Arts Centre, sought to centralise all the production activities, including the construction of sets, costumes and props with rehearsal, education outreach, and public cafe allowing the complete process of festive production to be integrated and made visible. 1
A Place for a Time: The Architecture of Festivals and Theatres William Alexander McClung
Guest Critics: Raphaé Memon, Georgia Roberts, Ben Tynegate, Julian Williams, John Zhang 124
Petter Elverum: Temple of Mobocracy viewed from the National Theatre
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(top left ) Petter Elverum: Temple of Mobocracy – Temple Place street view; (top right) Alexander Manza: Carey Street proposal (bottom) Petter Elverum: Temple of Mobocracy – Victoria Embankment elevation study
(top) Sofia Georgieva: Temple Place DisJunction; (bottom) Students observe the dismantling of the Salute Festival’s temporary bridge with Darren Deane
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Maciej Sobieraj: Carey Street proposal
(left) Guy Sinclair: Carey Street proposal; (right) Alexander Roos: Carey Street proposal
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) Five
Bruce Irwin & Catherine Phillips Bruce Irwin studied art and architecture at the Bartlett and Rhode Island School of Design and has lived and worked in New York and London. His practice combines design, teaching and curating. Catherine Phillips studied architecture at the Bartlett and Manchester University, and art at City and Guilds of London Art School. Her practice combines architecture, teaching and art.
DS(3)5: Ground Work Students: Hamza Abbas, Betool Amier, Ali Bash-Imam, Simon Dendere, Yasemin Evmez, Aaron Fernandes, Samar Green, Wangyang Liu (Louis),
Clarissa O’Driscoll, Gilberto Paolucci, Zoe Power, Arshaq Rahim, Raluca Rimboaca, Gade Smith, Patrycja Smola, Rukhsar Zahid
When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. It’s not about paper, it’s not about forms. It’s about space and material.
Peter Zumthor
THIS YEAR DS(3)5 developed proposals for a public square, a school annexe and a covered market in Moxon Street, Marylebone. We took the ground as our primary material and speculated on the potential for the making and forming of a public space in the heart of London. To the ground we added a roof, giving shelter and shade to the proposed market. The neighbourhood became a ground for our proposals and gave focus to our speculations. In the spring we expanded and broadened our design work, developing a proposal for a dense and detailed building. Our studio practice uses procedures of artistic investigation – drawing, printmaking, sculpting, shaping – to help bridge the gap between material research and practice, and between intuition and analysis. Themes of process and iterative/series work were emphasised and encouraged. Students developed and expanded skills of visual, spatial and material reasoning.
In Term 1 each student investigated the neighbourhood around the Moxon Street car park. They researched London market buildings, visited markets in Lisbon, explored site histories and archaeologies, and finally proposed a market and urban square/space for the car park site. In Term 2 students extended their investigation of the Moxon Street area and, from research and intuition, designed a school annexe building. The annexe brief evolved from research into facilities and pedagogies of the nearby schools and was also informed by their own experiences in education and culture. The briefs include arts spaces, theatre or performance spaces, sports facilities and libraries of various kinds. Many of the projects propose overlapping and shared uses and user groups. The proposals engage a substantial and challenging site and offer specific and detailed visions of its use and the life it could house.
Guest Critics: Luisa Alpalhão, Carlos Jimenez Cenamor, Umut Dogan, Onur Emek, Natalie Klak, Hwei Fan Liang, David Rosenberg, Katherine Sells, Nic Tuft, Philip Springall, Julian Williams 130
) Gilberto Paolucci: Isometric – Moxon Square market and school theatre annexe
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(top) Simon Dendere: Moxon market view and isometric; (centre) Wangyang Liu: Market with garden roof section; (bottom) Zoe Power: Market section
(top left) Gilberto Paolucci: Theatre isometric; (top right) Yasemin Evmez: Theatre plan; (centre left) Gade Smith: Roof form studies; (bottom left) Rukhsar Zahid: Swimming pool roof form development; (bottom right) Gilberto Paolucci: Market ground and section development
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(top) Gilberto Paolucci: Theatre annexe development models; (bottom left) Wangyang Liu: Moxon market view; (centre & bottom right) Samar Green: Study model & perspective view for school annexe re-using part of existing building
(top left) Wangyang Liu: Theatre annexe section; (top right) Clarissa O’Driscoll: Music school annexe isometric; (bottom left) Patrycja Smola: Theatre school annexe spatial massing isometric; (bottom right) Raluca Rimboaca: Science school annexe, structure and surface isometric
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) Six
Julian Williams & Alicia Pivaro Julian Williams worked as a project architect for 20 years before moving into full-time teaching. Ten of these were spent at muf architecture/ art, collaborating with artists on public realm works and projects for the arts and young people. His current research is in the field of architectural education and study of the territories of public housing. Alicia Pivaro is an urbanist, artist, community activist and gardener. After training at the Bartlett, with an MSc in History of Modern Architecture she held a number of key positions at leading organisations: Arts Council of England, RIBA, and Architecture Foundation. She now teaches and crits at Westminster, CSM, and LSA, is chair of the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum and other urban co-production projects.
DS(3)6: Out of the Shadows Yr3: Mustafa Akkaya, Stefan Dean, Konstantina Diamantogianni, Matt Faraci, Lyba Fatima, Ateeq Hayat, Pooja Kerai, Owen Lin, James Mould,
Jarek Owsianny, Ramzi Ramzi, Joshua Ricketts, Robert Siggins, Mark Tsenov, Monifa Yasmin
IN MARCH 2014, Tory chancellor George Osborne announced plans for a new ‘garden city’ of 15,000 homes in Ebbsfleet, Kent. The site for his lovely vision included abandoned chalk quarries, disused industrial workings, sewage works and a rubbish infill site next to the new high-speed station at Ebbsfleet opened in 2007, and adjacent to the very old town of Northfleet with its high levels of unemployment and deprivation.
Productive landscapes, post-industrial production, alternative energy generation, extreme sound, Edgelands, and the rich existing grain of community life formed the starting points for a Garden City rethink.
Early garden cities attracted various groups of people who wanted to live alternative lives – vegans, lesbians, simple-lifers, cranks, communists – they were attracted to a place where these different, radical, ideals could be lived.
Radical Gardening, George McKay
Could Ebbsfleet develop a distinct identity to reflect the radical social and political roots of the original Garden City concept, and how could it be somewhere that people would want to live in and visit rather than just be a ‘dormitory’ to London, only 18 minutes away? And how could this happen now rather than in 20 years’ time?
Tomorrow’s world… tomorrow On a site earmarked as ‘leisure’ space around a disused quarry lake and only minutes from the international station, students developed proposals for a temporary festival venue and landscape to act as a beacon for their rethought vision, and to mark out a new and distinct identity for Ebbsfleet and its neighbours.
A Hall for Ebbsfleet The students went on to envisage a future settlement shaped by their radical re-visioning of the garden-city idea and to design a Civic Hall: a space for the cultural life of the community and for festival events and public activities of interest to a wider regional and international audience.
Guest Critics: Bernard Brennan (Tony Fretton Architects), Omar Ghazal (Studio Ben Allen), Lisa Harmey, William Jeffries, Verity-Jane Keefe, Roman Pardon (Pardon Chambers Architects), Orlaith Phelan 136
Special Thanks: Simon Harrison, Head of Design, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation ) James Mould: Motorbike Entrails
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(top) Joshua Ricketts: Edgelands Park and Rec, section through Ebbsfleet Hall; (bottom) Ramzi Ramzi: Sourced Cider, south elevation
(top) Joshua Ricketts: Edgelands Park and Rec, west elevation of Ebbsfleet Hall; (bottom) Robert Siggins: You Will Never Be One of Us, landscape of anachoic chambers
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(top) Miao (Owen) Lin: Production Palace, roof studies; (bottom) Matt Faraci: Hall on the Pier, view from Thames Way
(top) Matt Faraci: Hall on the Pier, south elevation; (bottom) Ramzi Ramzi: The Belly of Ebbsfleet, view of floating barn across Sawyer’s Lake
BA Architecture | Design Studio (Three) Seven
John Zhang & David Porter John Zhang is a practising architect and an associate at DSDHA. John studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art, and holds a PhD from the RCA on the topic of contemporary Chinese architecture. David Porter is a prominent architect, educator and writer. He was a partner in Neave Brown David Porter Architects, and currently holds a Professorship at the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing.
DS(3)7: Happy Together University of Westminster Students: Aristides Apatzidis Jones, Anderson Barbosa Sales, Rebecca Foxwell, Gabija Gumbeleviciute, Dilan Kalayci, Remi Kuforiji, Signe Pelne, Drew Yates
CAFA Exchange Students: Chen Zhaoming, Hu Jiaying, Qin Jiachen, Xie Yufan, Zeng Wentao, Zhang Yuqing
USING BEIJING AND LONDON as our testbeds, we explore new ideas of living together in the city.
strategic residential housing proposals aimed at ensuring the long-term sustainability of the local community.
This year we explored isolated enclaves of social housing communities at the heart of both Beijing and London, and how they can find a sustainable and meaningful future in the city against the tides of economic and demographic change.
In semester 2, the students consolidated the lessons learned from Beijing in the development of a comprehensive architectural proposal for a housing scheme in Camden’s Tybald Estate, London. Challenging the council’s existing master plan for the site’s ‘regeneration’, the students’ projects offered alternative visions for how a new housing programme – developed in response to the social, economic, and idiosyncratic needs of their identified users – can be integrated into the existing urban fabric and engage with the existing community.
Key to the studio’s approach is the focus on the thresholds between public and private, between the inside and the outside, and between the neighbourhood and the city. We advocate an architecture that engages the global context, and not a Eurocentric one. We are a global community of diverse individuals seeking answers to the same questions. We spent our first semester embedded in Beijing, living and studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), immersed in a radically different cultural and urban context. Through analysis of a post-reform era residential estate in Fu Guo Li, the students developed a series of
Through a tectonically-led process, informed by model making at a range of scales, we explored the spatial, material, and experiential qualities of our proposals, accompanied by a clear understanding of the appropriate construction approaches and structural principles.
Guest Critics: Prof. Harry Charrington, Anthony Engi-Meacock (Assemble), Fergus Feilden (Feilden Fowles), Quinn Greer ( Edward Williams Architects), Prof. He Keren (CAFA), Maria Kramer, Douglas Murphy (RCA/Central St. Martins), Natasha Reid (Natasha Reid Design), Edward Simpson (Karakusevic Carson), Julian Williams 142
Special Thanks: He Keren, Hou Xiaolei, Liu Siyong, Han Tao, Kong Lingyue, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, Feilden Fowles, DSDHA
) Signe Pelne: A Tapestry of Encounters: A new typology for Tybald Estate
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Drew Yates: New Tybald Terraces – reconceptualising the London Square
(top) Gabija Gumbeleviciute: Growing Together – Multi-generational co-housing on Tybald Estate
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Aristides Apatzidis Jones: Tybald Estate Co-Housing Cloisters
(top) Student Name: Image title; (bottom) Student Name: Image Title Remi Kuforiji: Open Enclave: A new living landscape for Tybald Estate
SENSITIVE. CRITICAL. EXPERIMENTAL. The Master of Architecture (MArch) promotes these qualities as values, balancing an awareness of the broader ‘project’ of Architecture, with the need for students to evolve their own particular positions as emergent practitioners. Our Design Studios continue to produce aweinspiring projects, collectively addressing a diversity of themes and methods. Their global reach is everextending (this year including field trips to Chicago, Dhaka, Hangzhou, New York, Oman, Mexico City, St Petersburg and Tromsø). Two new studios have further enriched the mix: DS23, responding to the now tangible prospect of the ‘technological singularity’, examined the architectural implications of fully-automated production, while DS24 explored the dynamic and generative relationship between site-specificity and globalisation. The depth of engagement and complexity of contexts confronted in our design studios is far too great to capture in the pages allowed here. We hope, however, that you will discern from them the value that architectural design can bring to a range of creative, socio-cultural and political contexts. The MArch dissertation offers an opportunity to explore a specialist field of enquiry and deepens understanding of the contexts within which architecture is produced, perceived and appreciated. For the intrinsic value of intellectual endeavour
and against the commodification of knowledge, the dissertation allows the student to suggest the value and meaning of architecture. This is no more evident than in Rhiain Bower’s remarkable 2017 RIBA President’s Dissertation Medal winning entry Baricsio: The Slate Quarrymen’s Barracks in North West Wales (tutored by Harry Charrington). Although distinct in content and nature, the professional studies, technology, and digital design elements of the course share a common goal: to develop critical rather than compliant approaches to practice. Technology and digital design teaching couples experimentation with application, and speculates on future trajectories. Professional studies teaching raises awareness of the multiplicity of practice and its relations with industry, asserting the importance of questioning professional, legislative and managerial frameworks. Here, the (shadowy but still active) myth of the architect as solo artistic hero is replaced with notions of multiple-authorship, meaningful collaboration, alterity, and the perpetual quest for agency. This year saw the launch of the MArch Education Symposium, with the inaugural theme being ‘Value’. On the MArch, we hope our students have acquired a heightened awareness of the value architecture brings, and that this will in turn provide them with a deep sense of purpose in their future practice. Samir Pandya Course Leader
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MArch ARCHITECTURE RIBA Part 2
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Exploring and discussing architecture of all scales and forms from within and without: DS23 & DS13 interrogating their designs at all scales; DS15 in Tromsø – and in P3; DS10 students preparing for project reviews, and in Jaipur, India; DS23 & DS13 engaged in studio cross-reviews.
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Ten
Toby Burgess & Arthur Mamou-Mani Toby Burgess www.tobyburgess.com - is the director of Toby Burgess Design Ltd and has previously been design tutor on the Architectural Association’s Design and Make Course and taught the Advanced Digital Design Masters at London Metropolitan University, with a focus on the funding and delivery of live student projects designed and fabricated using digital design tools. Arthur Mamou-Mani www.mamou-mani.com - is a French architect and director of architecture practice Mamou-Mani Ltd (RIBAj rising star award 2017). He is a lecturer at the University of Westminster and owns a digital fabrication laboratory called Fab.Pub..
DS10: WeWantToLearn.net Yr1: Andros Antoniades, Michael Armfield, Sofya Batsova, Rebecca Cooper, Mirella (Eleni) Dourampei, Edward Hancock, Aleksander Kochanowicz, Christopher Leung, Sara Malik, James Marr, Henry McNeil, Tasmia Moosa Bux, Manveer Sembi, Marzena Szwed, Lewis Toghill, Manon Vajou
Fractal geometry is not just a chapter of mathematics, but one that helps every man to see the same world differently.
Benoit Mandelbrot
DS10 BELIEVES THAT architecture should be fun and is obsessed with giving the students the opportunity to build their own projects in the real world. We dare to be naĂŻve, curious, and enthusiastic. For us, architects should think like makers and act like entrepreneurs. We like physical experiments tested with digital tools for analysis, formal generation and fabrication. We value combinations of conceptual bravery matched with architectural reality, and seek an architecture of playfulness and beauty which responds intelligently to its environment, and sits within the wider cultural and environmental context.
Yr2: Maialen Calleja, Stefano Casati, Matthew Chamberlain, Alexandra Goulds, Edward Mack, Benjamin Street, Aleksandra Wojciak
Tiny house movement | Entrepreneurial opportunities Using the design techniques developed in brief one, students found a small infill site in London, which genuinely has the potential for development. They surveyed and 3D scanned to create a highly detailed and materially accurate 3D site model into which they proposed a contextually considered tiny house considering environmental and social factors. Their study of fractals, fabrication and sustainability helped develop new architectural types, modular arrangements, assembly and disassembly logic. They worked on fully functional homes detailed and fabricated at different scales towards 1:1 versions, inspiring realistic marketable renders and animated build plans. Ownership status of sites were explored, councils were consulted, and precise breakdowns of costs were submitted.
Digital fabrication, material techniques and sustainability
Build it, Big business plans
Students were given tools to harness the intricacies of fractal geometries for intelligent design, including a range of software for structural and environmental analysis. They then researched a range of building materials, exploring all the potential physical forms of the material, and the appropriate fabrication processes, to speculate potential large scale physical assemblies which remained abstract but related to their research on sustainability. The outputs of this brief were submitted to design competitions to seek funding which included but were not limited to Burning Man Festival and architecture festivals or private clients.
Students speculated on how to apply the compact principles inherent in the tiny home movement, small footprint sustainability and an alternative to the modern debt based society across a larger and more complex worldwide proposal accompanied by a thorough business model and strategy to expand and/or franchise their idea. We asked ourselves if the tiny house movement can be expanded or combined beyond the house typology. How do their proposals addressed the problem of housing shortage, digital nomadic life and of the construction sites of tomorrow?
Guest Critics: Alessandra Cianchetta, Richard Difford, Kester Rattenbury, Yara Sharif
Special Thanks: Francis Archer, Angela Brady, Karim Dada, Adam Holloway
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) Aleksandra Wojciak: Fractal Spirals
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(top) Marzena Szwed: Clay tiles; (bottom) Sara Malik: Woven physical model
(top) Maialen Calleja: Fractal tilings; (bottom) Lewis Toghill: EPS Foam model
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(top) Nick Leung: Gridshell model; (bottom) Matthew Chamberlain: Tree houses
(top) Manveer Sembi: Ply folding research models; (bottom) Aleksandra Wojciak: Rope houses
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Twelve
Ben Stringer & Peter Barber Ben Stringer teaches design and cultural context studies at the University of Westminster. Recently he has been publishing articles about architecture and rurality. Peter Barber has a practice noted for its social housing and urban design projects, mostly around London. He also teaches design studio at the University of Westminster.
DS12: MK 2.0 / Alterdomesticity 4.0 / China field trip Yr1: Fabio Carvalho, Arjun Divakaran, Chloe Fenton, Garda Massey, Eline Putne, Juliana Ribas, Jessica Rust, Xutong (Lilly) Zhao
Yr2: James Butler, Samuel Clarry, Ramone Dixon, Phillip Forde, Jack Guerrier, Hussein Houta, Siyao Huang, Anna Malicka, Paresh Parmar, Mirabell Schmidt, Lela Sujani, Chris Thornton, John Wildsmith, Reihaneh Yaghoubi
MILTON KEYNES’ ECONOMY and population are expanding, but where to locate its new industries and homes? The dilemma for the planners is whether to expand or to densify. Also, after 50 years, it has to consider whether its pioneering green grid plan needs to be rethought in order to address current environmental and social concerns and desires, and not just those of the 1960s.
sustainable neighbourhoods. Who is going to pay for everything, and how? And what might architects’ roles be in an evolutionary urbanism that addresses economic inequalities and environmental problems better than the status quo?
For our brief this year, each student in DS12 was designated a 5-6 km ribbon of green space bordering one of Milton Keynes’ main grid roads and asked to make a proposal for its re-deployment. In most cases this meant turning picturesque, but often unused landscaping, into productive zones of housing, agriculture and industry. So as a group at the end of the year, we’ve ended up with a grid of 22 interwoven, interstitial linear projects. An added complexity to this scheme is Milton Keynes’ famous/notorious roundabouts. What happens when up to 4 different types of urbanity, or rurality, collide at these points? We also worked with ideas of ‘public ownership’ and ‘public funding’ and considered alternative socio-economic possibilities for the production of affordable homes and
In semester two we paid more attention to the detail in our projects, to their imagined domestic and cultural lives, and their relationships with their neighbours. In late January, DS12 travelled overland from Hong Kong to Shanghai via Hangzhou. En route we went to the villages of Chuxi and Xiapu in Fujian Province and Wen Cun in Anhui Province. We went to these places partly to compare Milton Keynes with Hong Kong’s contemporaneous but much denser new towns, and partly to learn something about what China’s urban development means for rural people. In February, we presented our work in progress ‘Pecha Kucha’ style to an open audience in Milton Keynes’ MK Gallery. We learnt a lot from this, as we did from taking part in this year’s ‘MegaCrit’, organised by the Architecture Foundation and WAS.
Guest Critics: Roudaina Alkhani, Pierre d’Avoine, Lindsay Bremner, Chris Cross, Reenie Elliott, Elspeth Hamilton, Maria Kramer, Jane McAllister, Michael Neuman, Alicia Pivaro, Kester Rattenbury, Peg Rawes, Yara Sharif, Alasdair Struthers, Peter Simpson, Igea Troiani, John Zhang 158
Special Thanks: Simon Wright and everyone at the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes. The Architecture Foundation and WAS for setting up the Megacrits. (top) Lela Sujani; (bottom) Chloe Fenton
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Twelve
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(left) Sam Clarry ; (right) Philip Forde :
(left) Anna Malicka ; (right) Paresh Parmar :
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Twelve
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(top) Lily Zhao ; (bottom) Mirabell Schmidt :
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MArch Architecture | Design Studio Thirteen
Andrew Yau & Andrei Martin Andrei Martin is a partner at PLP Architecture, a London-based multidisciplinary design practice. Andrew Yau is a design director at urban future organisation, an international practice and design research collaborative.
DS13: Allure and Illusion Yr1: Marwa Alarayedh, Adam Bouabida, Mahmoud Chehab, Iliya Kopriunkov, Simona Kuneva, Stephen Martin, Aleksandra Murzina, Harry Musson, Anna Pazurek, Daniel Phillips, Petruta Isabela Popescu, Callum Stubbings, Udeme Udoyen
Yr2: Marco Catena, Elliot Benjamin Hill, Lazaros Elias Kyratsous, Ming Yang Li, Abdul Muhaymin, Neil Quinn, Mohammed Shah, Ana Sidorova, Xin Swift, Larisa Tsydenova, Dagmar Zvonickova
DS13 OPERATES AS an applied think-tank, performing cultural analysis and design research. This year, through the context of New York’s urban transformation, we looked at the role, relevance and political agency of architectural objects in a cultural landscape defined by affect.
spatial effects produced by polygonal constructs, their chunks, joints, niches, patchiness, inlaying and interiority.
DS13 we are interested in disciplinary specificity, in the effects specific to architecture. We believe that architecture’s relevance, its engagement with the world and its sense of agency derive from its ability to generate effects and, through these effects, to produce affect, thus shaping human experience. We categorise affect as a set of forces other than rational thought that drive us to act. We explored how affect creates new forms of attention, desire and political will. More specifically investigated the possibility of creating new types of architectural and urban conditions through a deliberate architecture of affect.
Objects This year we began an exploration of architectural objects: their wonder, suspense and surprise. We searched for a new type of architectural imagination that is concerned with boundaries, edges, volumetric primitives and relations through separation and difference. We investigated the
counterObjects If objects are products of legible geometries, counterObjects defy precise delineation. They are not forms but formations: heaps, totems, piles, glitches, assemblages, flocks, unexpected composites. They are deliberately ambiguous, distancing themselves from clear perception, interpretation or direct understanding. We produced counterObjects through a series of techniques including entropy, arbitrary operations, and indeterminacy and explored qualities traditionally rejected in architecture such as failure, the ad hoc, the ugly, the ironic, the awkward, the absurd, the cute, the generic, the ready-made, the entropic, the cheap, the hand-made.
superObjects As Objects and counterObjects interact, they produce superObjects: affectively charged spaces and architectures of less predictable experiential conditions. Through superObjects we explored a new world of architectural typologies, their effects, qualities and potentials.
Special Thanks: Doguscan Aladag, Michael Ashley, Amanda de Beaufort (Studio Libeskind), Lawrence Blough, Clive Fenwick, Jason Lee, Nina Libeskind, Alasdair Mealey, Francesco Montaguti, Ted Ngai (Pratt Institute of Design), Jason Anthony Sam, Richard Sarrach, Lorenzo Setti, Marc Simmons (Front Inc.), Nick Strachan, Alexander Sun, Jessica Wang 164
(top) Larisa Tsydenova; (bottom) Dagmar Zvonickova, Udeme Udoyen, Harry Musson
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(top l-r) Alexandra Murzina, Calum Stubbings, Dagmar Zvonickova ; (bottom) Elliot Hill :
(clockwise from top left) Xin Swift, Stephen Martin, Elliot Hill, Dagmar Zvonickova, Marco Catena, Ana Sidorova, Ania Pazurek, Marwa Alarayedh
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(clockwise from left) Mahmoud Chehab, Larisa Tsydenova, Simona Kuneva, Mahmoud Chehab, Larisa Tsydenova
(clockwise from top) Marco Catena, Isabela Popescu, Simona Kuneva, Calum Stubbings, Lazaros Kyratsous, Isabela Popescu, Larisa Tsydenova, Simona Kuneva, Mahmoud Chehab
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Fifteen
Sean Griffiths & Kester Rattenbury Sean Griffiths practices as an architect, artist and academic. He was a founder member of the art architecture collective FAT and now practices as Modern Architect. Kester Rattenbury is an architectural writer and critic whose latest book is The Wessex Project: Thomas Hardy Architect. She leads the research group Experimental Practice.
DS15: Without Elevation Yr1: Adrian Bolog, Alexander Couth, Max Ian Fuller, Louise King, Annabelle Nguyen, Sam Robinson Stamatia Rousou, James Vernon
Yr2: Riccardo Fregoni, Felicity Holmes, Paulina Huukari, Agnieszka Kowalska, Alexandra McCluskey, Sean Morrison, Dominic Norman, Iza Sasaran, Angus Smith, Alexia Soteriou, Nora Szosznyak, Juei-Ching Wang, Amy Sik Hie Wong, Daniel Wu
DS15 IS AN experimental studio which investigates design methodologies offering radical alternatives to the creative processes and ideas that inform architectural design.
exploring other ways of experiencing, describing and making our work.
The work we do is part of an ongoing critical investigation of the relationship between architecture and its modes of representation. In the same way that traditional musical scores limit to a very small number of sounds what can be considered music, we contend that architectural drawings are also inadequate to the task of designing and representing architecture. They create distorted representations of buildings and environments presenting them not as close-up encounters that unfold in time, but as discrete formal objects at dislocated scales. In focusing exclusively on the visual, architectural drawings limit the potential for architecture to engage with and choreograph senses other than sight. In DS15 we challenge this,
This year we have focused on the performative aspects of architectural drawings, looking at the idea of the drawing as an instruction for action and performance. As in previous years we have drawn on relationships between music and space, looking at how musical scores can be created using ‘chance operations’ as in the work of composers such as John Cage and Morton Feldman, and how similar methods can be used to create architecture. Our site is the town of Tromsø in Northern Norway, 350 miles above the Arctic Circle. It is home to the nomadic Sami people and in the winter is lit by the Northern Lights. We visited Tromsø and made use of our new design techniques to make a building with a performance theme.
Guest Critics: Elise Alden, Robert Bevan, Shumi Bose, Rhiaian Bower, Toby Burgess, Clare Carter, Anastasia Christakou, Amy Gaspar-Slayford, Harriet Harris, Stephen Harty, Kate Heron, Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Owen Hopkins, Melanie Jordan, Tomas Klassnik, Benson Lau, Ciaran Linane, Max Martin, Juan Piñol, Alicia Pivaro, Jan van Schaik, Conor Sheehan, Yuki Sumner, Jane Tankard, Tom Teatum, David Thorp, Camilla Wilkinson 170
Angus Smith
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(top left) Amy Wong; (top right) Agnieszka Kowalska; (middle) Felicity Holmes; (bottom left) Sean Morrison; (bottom right) Nora Szosznyak
(top) Alexia Soteriou; (bottom) Juei-Ching Wang
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(top left) Daniel Wu; (top right) Iza Sasaran; (middle) Dominic Norman; (bottom left) Riccardo Fregoni; (bottom right) Alexandra McCluskey
(top left) Felicity Holmes; (top right) Iza Sasaran; (bottom) Paulina Haukauri
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Sixteen
Anthony Boulanger, Stuart Piercy & Callum Perry Anthony Boulanger has an MArch from the Bartlett UCL and is co-founding partner of AY Architects, recognised for innovative design and research, winner of the Stephen Lawrence Prize in 2013. Stuart Piercy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and founder of the acclaimed award-winning practice Piercy&Co. Callum Perry is a DS16 graduate from 2014 and has since been working at Grymsdyke Farm and at Piercy&Co. DS16 offers students a platform for experimentation of architectural concepts instigated by a culture of making.
DS16: IN-PROGRESS + Unfinished Yr1: Charlotte Anthony, Sope Bob-Solie, Theodoros Chailis, Manuela Cocco, James Crookston, Chenxi Jia, Justin Khoo, Arminas Panavas, Lucy Roberts, Ping Wong, Shuying Xu, Gizem Yildrim
Yr2: Nicola Charalambides, Jessica Clements, Dor Cohen, Yunxia Dai Sophia Gravina, Jennifer Nguyen, Samantha Wilson
BUILDINGS EXIST IN time and are never complete. From the occasion the architect hands over a project the process of change begins. Occupation, alteration, demolition, environment etc. contribute to a building’s own indeterminate narrative over time. Thinking of architectural design as an incessant process of evolution questions our conventional understanding of structure, material, site and history – past, present and future.
Investigations of the theme shifted to the vibrant territory of Mexico City, where the majority of students sited their main individual projects. Students invented their own briefs informed by collective and individual research. The challenge was to form critical and experimental spatial and material responses to the social, cultural, political and economic context of the city with an explicit initiative that engages a CIVIC purpose.
This theme was introduced in the first term by revisiting the outdoor BBQ Room within the walled fruit and vegetable gardens of Grymsdyke Farm. The aim was to continue the process of regeneration of the festive location first interrogated by DS16 students in 2012. A family of six pieces was created by groups of 3 or 4 students, each engaging a different role and material craft with an intense period of testing. The process was, as always, equally important as the product. The pieces support the performance of the BBQ, culminating in a celebration, while establishing new layers of intervention on the site for future use.
A variety of sites were encouraged and projects evolved as responses to an alluring and often contradictory urban accumulation, amplified by the burden of environmental (subsidence) and geological (seismic) intimidation. Different processes, techniques and media of representation were encouraged for developing designs along with a continuity of making and testing, whether manually or digitally, that was initiated at the beginning of the year.
Guest Critics: Alessandro Ayuso, Harry Bucknall (Piercy&Co), Sandra Coppin (Coppin Dockray Architects), Murray Fraser, Alex Haggart (Piercy&Co), Yannis Halkiopolous (Piercy&Co), Guan Lee (UCL/RCA), Yeoryia Manolopoulou (AY Architects), Jack Newton (RSHP), Al Scott (If-Do), Michiko Sumi (KPF), Victoria Watson 176
Special Thanks: Guan Lee for his continued generosity with the use of Grymsdyke Farm and its facilities. Wilson, Nguyen, Crookston, Xu: Project I: Burn – charring the gate
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(top left) Cohen, Brasys, Panavas: Project I: The Smoker; (top right) Clements, Khoo, Cocco: Project I: From Ground to Plate – moulded nettle bbq plates; (bottom) Dor Cohen: Terremotto Earthquake Centre – external view
(top) Jessica Clements: Inhabiting Layers, Curating the 4th Culture of Nonoalco-Tlatelolco – view from Aztec ruin walkway; (bottom left) Ping Wong: Alebrijes Centre – sectional model; (bottom right) Sophia Gravina: Centre of the Universe Zocalo Square – layered facade model
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(top) Ping Wong: Alebrijes Centre – long section; (bottom left) James Crookston: The Cloud Disaster Relief Structure –cloud structure model; (bottom right) Samantha Wilson: Consortium of Craft + Architecture (London) – internal view of review vessels
Samantha Wilson: Consortium of Craft + Architecture (London): (top left ) view from Limehouse Cut; (top right) Commercial Street view; (bottom) isometric view
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Eighteen
Lindsay Bremner & Roberto Bottazzi Lindsay Bremner is a research-based architect and writer and the leader of the Monsoon Assemblages research project. Roberto Bottazzi is an architect, researcher, and educator. He is the author of Digital Architecture Beyond Computers (Bloomsbury 2018).
DS18: Monsoon Assemblages Chennai Yr1: Raymonde Bieler, Thomas Blain, Aimee Cornelius, William Galloway, Lidia Gherghe, Fiona Grieve, Tahin Khan, Elisabetta Lafratta, Wendy Leung, Omar Manshi, James Purchon, Patricia Trivino, Rachel Wakelin, Qishuo Zhang
Yr2: Constantina Avraamides, Anett Bako, Sarah Bass, Charlotte Birch, Robert Fernandes-Dwyer, Alexandra Horsman, Rosanna Rolfe, Georgia Trower, Costas Xenophontos
FOR THREE YEARS, DS18 is aligned with Monsoon Assemblages, a research project funded by the European Research Council working on the monsoon in three South Asian cities – Chennai, Dhaka and Yangon. In 2016/17 the studio was set in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, where design was framed by the materiality of a wetland. In 2017/18 the studio worked in Bangladesh, framed by the materiality of the delta, and in 2018/19 the studio will be set in Yangon, Myanmar, framed by the materiality of the river.
They visited various sites in Dhaka, the ancient city of Sonargoan, a char island in the Meghna River and Jolo-Jongol, an eco-tourist facility. They then took the overnight ferry to Khulna, where they were hosted by the Architecture Department at Khulna University, followed by two nights on a prawn farm in Mongla, from where they visited the port city of Mongla and the Sundarbans.
The studio in Bangladesh began by requiring that students map and simulate the geological, hydrological and sociopolitical processes and practices shaping the Bangladesh delta and the climatic challenges it faces. Three digital workshops introduced them to software to aid in this process. This was followed by a field trip to Bangladesh in early November 2017, where students spent five days in Dhaka hosted by the Bengal Institute of Architecture, Landscape and Settlements.
On return to London, students were required to design an infrastructural prototype to intervene in one of the dynamic situations they had observed on the field trip to improve the socio-ecological outcomes of the territory. During the second semester, they developed the prototype into a micro-public place – a physical and social forum to engage with a site at multiple scales, bringing together territorial, architectural and socio-ecological concerns.
Guest Critics: Yota Adilenidou, Tom Benson, John Cook (Birds, Portsmouth Russum Architects), Tumpa Yasmin Fellows, Christina Geros, Jon Goodbun, Monica Cristu (Sheppard Robson Architects), Susannah Hagan, Alican Inal, Karin Jaschke, Oscar McDonald (Conibere Phillips Architects), Laura Nica (Foster + Partners), Godofredo Perreira, Ben Pollock ( Jestico Whiles Architects), Anthony Powis, Alfredo Ramirez, Damaso Randulfe, Calvin Sin ( Jump Studios / Populous), Alice Thompson (MATA Architects), Alex Watt (Eric Parry Architects), Charles Weston Smith, John Zhang 182
Special Thanks: The Quinton Hogg Trust; Kazi Ashraf and Saif Ul Haque of the Bengal Institute of Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements; Afroza Parvin and Shibu Bose of Khulna University
(top) Charlotte Birch: The Fluvial Collective; (bottom) Constantina Avraamides: Arsenic Urban Laboratory
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(left) Charlotte Birch: The Fluvial Collective; (top right) Anett Bako: The Salt Line; (bottom right) Alex Horsman: Neta Skula
(top) Georgia Trower: Epicarp Tower; (bottom left) Robert Fernandes Dwyer: The Naturopathic Institute; (bottom right) Rosanna Rolfe: Char Islander’s Refuge
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(top) Costas Xenophontos: Brick of Air; (bottom) Rosanna Rolfe: Char Islander’s Refuge
(top) Sarah Bass: The Hyacinth Cooperative; (bottom) Raymonde Bieler: Resilient Farming
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Twenty-One
Clare Carter, Gill Lambert & Nick Wood A research-driven studio; people, place, history, politics, industry, craft, story and myth are key to the narratives we explore through the process of making and drawing. We continue our interest in marginalised communities, edgeland conditions and places of change. Focusing on former industrial strongholds of the North continues to be our focus. Reinvigorating and reimagining redundancy by making new civic space, repurposing existing structures or suggesting a new industrial infrastructure, is the studio interest. We also operate in practice: Gill Lambert is Associate at AOC Architecture; Nick Wood is Founder of How About Studio; and Clare Carter ran her own practice for over ten years specialising in housing and healthcare.
DS21: Land of Green Ginger Yr1: Megan Carmichael, Yin Yung Chan, Leila Naboulsi, Jaxier Garcia Navarro, Charlotte Penny, Olivia Pfeil, Jade Pousse
Yr2: Duncan Catterall, Ruchita Dhokia, Lucy Dunn, Yasmin Elsadig, Alex Fell, Yannis Hajigeorgis, Fred Howarth, Ryan Hinson, Wenhao Li, Josh McDermott, Richard Morrison, Hollie Muir, Gordon O’Connor Read, Ruth Pearn, Peter Sienkowski, Martina Staneva
HULL, CITY OF CULTURE 2017, has been the focus of our investigations this year. Using the year long event as a lens to delve into the city’s past and possible future, we have made proposals offering a Legacy for the city of Hull, envisaging the post-event city. Visualising ourselves as activists, we made radical architectural proposals that create provocative ideas for a resurgent Hull, anticipate a project of urban transformation and speculate on a reinvigorated community.
Addressing the wider agenda of the culture, politics and economy of Hull, we looked to the future and proposed a Legacy for the city, a Legacy driven by the energy and direct action of the year’s events.
Starting to establish a design thesis/agenda through the fabrication of an object, students made pieces that reflected on past history, industry and myths of Hull. Rope crafted fruits reference the former Fruit Market of Humber Street where a ropery previously existed in medieval times and communicate the changing nature of Humber Street today, a place of emerging art galleries and creative industries. A telephone tool kit to make your voice heard not only emphasises the importance of KCOM, Hull’s very own telecom company, but also repurpose redundant telephone boxes and enable proactive engagement in the future planning of the city.
New Public Convenience provides a Baths and Lady
Garden for promoting personal hygiene and recycling compostable tampons, whilst also highlighting the issue of period poverty and educationally disadvantaged teenage girls.
Young at Heart is an intergenerational care home with
residences for the frail and elderly, and a children’s school. Repurposing a semi-redundant shopping centre which is centrally located, the proposition reinvents the idea of High Street and city centre with a new social dimension.
Timber City promotes an Urban Industry Revival, accentuating Hull as the largest handler of forest products in the UK.
Guest Critics: Robert Brown, Emma Bush (Emil Eve Architects), Dominic Cullinan (SCABAL), Corinna Dean, James Dunn (Weston Williamson), Ekaterina Dziadkovskaia, Tom Kendall (Wayward Architects), Tim Leach, James Lowe (Studio Octopi), Will McLean, Giles Smith (Assemble), Duarte Santo, Simon Vickers (Vickers Architects), Grant Straghan (deDraft), Ruby Wilson (ADP Architecture) 188
) Ruth RRRRuth Pearn: Water Clock Event – Flush with Pride
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(left) Richard Morrison: Atrium Interior; (top right) Hollie Muir: Make your own Telephone; (centre right) Olivia Pfeil: Rope Fruit and Vegetables; (bottom right) Leila Naboulsi: Paper Suitcase
Richard Morrison: Intergenerational Care Home – Young at Heart
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(top) Perry Li: The Welcome Home – Connecting Migrant Workers (bottom) Perry Li: Escalator Approach; (opposite) Ruth Pearn: The New Public Convenience
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Twenty-Two
Nasser Golzari & Yara Sharif Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif are award-winning architects and academics with an interest in design as a means to facilitate and create resilient communities. Combining research with design, their work runs parallel between their architectural practice NG Architects and their Design Studio DS22 at the University of Westminster. Golzari and Sharif have won a number of prestigious awards including the 2013 Agha Khan Award, 2014 Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction, 2013 & 2016 RIBA President’s Award for Research. The way they run the studio is very similar to how they run the practice, combining design, drawings, testing and making.
DS22: Predicting The Silent City Yr1: Zoe Arnold, Victoria Cosmas, Denisa Groza, Anna Hadjimitsi, Arif Imran Fadzil, Rim Kalsoum, Zoe Lam Mak, Raphael Viegas Ramos, Giulia Romano, Pejman Savejplagee, Rhys Waring, George Whitehead, Sun Yen Yee, Aimi Zahani
Yr2: Luke Clayden, Jenna El-Musawi, Nouha Hansen, Min Kang, Kainaz Karkaria, Christian Peel, Joshua Potter, Haneen Shames, Cai Sijia Christine
THIS YEAR DS22 continued their journeys across uncertain and invisible landscapes. We started our expedition from the Persian Gulf – one of the most fascinating and contradictory landscapes in the world. We went through a series of journeys between the north and the south to explore silent cities and islands located at the edge of the remote. We visited surreal landscapes, cities without names, and communities that seem to have been forgotten, on the way to somewhere else, somewhere more ‘familiar’… From Muscat and Khasab in Oman to Qeshm Island in Iran, passing by Dubai in UAE, the students employed architecture and drawings as means to critique and imagine future scenarios to transform these Silent Cities into Resilient Cities.
of the Gulf, lies what we call Sin Cities. These cities are abstracted to a space of sleep and consumption overtaken by the power of the market economy. In the city of Dubai and its neighbouring emirates, the ‘free for all’ architectural approach is creating a surreal cityscape where alien interventions collide with the cultural context. While on the northern Iranian edge, Silent Cities continue to defy their omission from the world political equation. These however remain as resilient cities, constantly bouncing back to survive.
The studio questioned the changing urban face of the Persian Gulf with its dramatic architectural language between the south and the north. On the southern side
The studio starts with designing series’ of interactive devices that map the Silent Cities and celebrate their magical wonders and unique geology and cultural practices. These later lead to their main design project where they reconstruct their architectural narratives on the gulf and its edge that debate the so-called culture of ‘Dubaisation’ and offer a responsive resilient alternative.
Guest Critics: Roudaina Alkhani, Anthony Boulanger, Lindsay Bremner, Veronica Cassin, Andreas Christodoulou, Richard Difford, Tom Dobson, Lubna Fakhri, Nassos Hadjipapas, Marcin Mogilnicki, Ciaran O’Brian, Samir Pandya, Mirna Pedalo, Chris Pierce, Juan Piñol, Dean Robson, Hossein Sadeghi, Mai Sayrafi 194
Special Thanks: Hilal Al Busaidi, Stephen Brookhouse, Municipality of Muscat and Higher Technical College in Muscat who hosted us this year. A special thanks to Andreas Christodoulou for his technical input and support. )Christine Sijia Cai: Journey of Object X
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(top left) Groupwork: Aimi Zahani, Pejman Savegblajee, Jenna El-Musawi, Min Yang, Sun Yen Yee; (bottom) Jenna Al-Musawi; (right) Christian Peel, Luke Clayden
Opera House
Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts Faculty of Architecture
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(top) Sun Yen Yee: Ministry of Third Information; (bottom) Nouha Hansen: Healing the Syrian Landscape
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(clockwise from top left) George Whitehead, Denisa Groza, Anna Hadjimitsi, Rhys Waring, Pejman Savejblagee
(top) Min Kang ; (centre left) Victoria Cosmas ; (middle right) Raphael Ramos; (bottom right) Kainza Karkaria :
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MArch Architecture | Design Studio Twenty-Three
Richard Difford & François Girardin Richard Difford is an academic with expertise both in creative technologies and architectural history. The primary focus for his work is the history of architectural representation and the use of electronics and coding in architectural design. François Girardin is an architect and educator teaching design and cultural context. He has specialist interests in material technologies and digital fabrication.
DS23: Factory of the Future Yr1: Alastair Cross, Ella Harris, Daniel Havlicek, Lok Yi Julian Law, Thomas Leach, Yue Hin Victor Man, Molly Middleditch, Vishal Mistry, Niall Murphy, Dominic Ramli-Davies, Enosh Subramaniam, Grant Warner, Ki Ming Terrence Yip
Yr2: Alistair Backhouse, Saffa Dehghani, Clarissa Evans,Tom Kendrew, Cristina Popescu, Nathaniel Reading, Philippa Skingsley, Alexandra Sonechkina, Adam Todhunter, Christopher Waters
[…] an era that will be defined by a fundamental shift in the relationship between workers and machines. That shift will ultimately challenge one of our most basic assumptions about technology: that machines are tools that increase the productivity of workers. Instead, machines themselves are turning into workers, and the line between the capacity of labor and capital is blurring like never before.
triggered an engagement with the internal landscape of the automated factory and a realisation that there were architectural opportunities to be found in the formulation of a new disseminated industrial aesthetic. The design of innovative programmes exploring the productive landscape of the future factory became central to the research of the studio.
Martin Ford, The Rise of the Robots (2016)
FACTORIES ATTRACT BAD PRESS. They are the driving force behind the industrial world and the lifeblood of the economy but they are often treated as a form of undesirable urban parasite – confined to designated zones or banished to the outer reaches of the city. A visit to the massive Ford Rouge complex in Detroit early in the year confirmed both the scale of industrial automation now employed in manufacture and its socioeconomic impact on the surrounding area. But it also Guest Critics: Alessandro Ayuso, Alan Berman (BGS Architects), Anthony Boulanger (AY Architects), Dusan Decermic, Claire Donnelly (Fletcher Priest Architects), Arthur Mamou-Mani (Mamou-Mani Architects), Will McLean, David Scott, Peter Sharratt (WSP), Filip Visnjic (CreativeApplications.net), Michael Wilford (Michael Wilford Architects) 200
To challenge the notion of the generic and ubiquitous industrial shed, the projects created in DS23 attempt to integrate the factory process with the urban or geographical landscape. With this concept in mind the studio explores the opportunity to break out of the conventional factory box and redeploy its components as part of a distributed industrial landscape. Considered both through technical detail and at the scale of the wider territory, the typical paraphernalia of the contemporary factory such as lifts, conveyor belts, and even the factory roof and floor, are used in this way to form a dynamic and inhabitable terrain.
Special Thanks: Eva Magnisali and the Fabrication Lab team for an introduction to the use of industrial robots and for allowing us to contribute to the Architectural Robotics Theatre project. We would also like to extend special thanks to Laing O’Rourke and to Fletcher Priest Architects for providing us with an insight into their use of DfMA and the opportunity to visit the Brunel site.
) Adam Todhunter: Detroit Piano Factory
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(top) Saffa Dehghani: Icelandic future; (bottom) Philippa Skingsley: Tea Factory in Shadwell Basin
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Dominic Ramli-Davies: Detroit Maker Factory
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(top) Christopher Waters: Spring Hill Boat House & Factory; (bottom) Daniel Havlicek: Wheal Martyn Kaoline Waste Recycling Centre
Tom Kendrew: Logistic Centre Detroit
MArch Architecture | Design Studio Twenty-Four
Alessandra Cianchetta & Juan Piñol Alessandra Cianchetta is an architect and founding partner of architecture practice AWP. Her recent projects include Poissy Galore, a museum and observatory which is part of a 113 hectare park on the Seine near Paris; and an arts district in Liverpool, UK. Cianchetta has taught architecture and urban design across the world and was recently appointed Professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Juan Piñol is a Colombian architect teaching and practicing in London. He has worked in Colombia and Barcelona designing large urban and housing projects, public realm and landscape regeneration with Ricardo Bofill and Lola Domenech. His work has been focused on housing typologies, and the change of use of buildings over time.
DS24: Project CAPITAL(S) Yr1: Rafaella Christodoulidi, Filip Eielwski, Kriss Elealvis Mirela Maria Fournaridi, Jamie Gallienne, Georgina Gilbert, Thomas Gorringe, Sarah Jones, Dana Oncica, Syliva-Sofia Plumridge
Yr2: Gulru Arvas, Wing Sum (Summer) Chan, Alix Gunn, Dimitriys Gusevs, Daria Konopko, Harry Matthews, Stefano Perretti, Georgia Roberts, Keith Sung
THE STUDIO EXPLORES the kaleidoscopic assemblage that shapes every great modern city, the interrelation between urban dimensions and the scale of architectural elements and the question of public architecture and what is left public in it. It draws on Walter Benjamin’s assemblage technique, a collage collection of scattered observations of urban life, aiming at recording and letting connections occur in an experimental fashion. Globalisation, displacement, and technologies have radically modified the relationships between individuals, social groups and the physical space they inhabit. Under the current fast-changing conditions, the question is how architecture and urban design may or may not imagine a new possible space and places for the public that is still to come beyond the logics of commodification.
The studio started by examining an extensive area located on the Paris’ Right Bank, the Ancien Regime Pleasure Palace, Palais Royal to the Primordial Landscapes of Consumption in the Paris Arcades. From this perspective, the studio explored and mapped New York’s Lower East Side examining their stealth aesthetics and gentrified culture as well as – possibly – London’s Soho and post punk culture. The comparative analysis provided the urban context and site(s) for the projects. Students questioned and developed standing theoretical knowledge – urban design concepts and methods – in discussion with different contexts and their cultural history.
On the one hand, the internet, technologies, and luxury items are identical all over the world. On the other hand, the specific qualities of each place and culture do not allow for the use of generic spatial strategies. How can architects and urban designers cope with local, demographic challenges in a world that is undergoing tremendous global change? The first part of the studio was devoted to research and the production of analytical and conceptual mapping. In the second part, students chose a site in or related to the above-mentioned areas and engage with the critical issues discovered there.
Are trade and commodification inherent of all urban fabrics? Can new typologies of public space and (public) architecture be invented? What is the role of architecture in the ‘experience economy’? Students were asked to comparatively test multi-disciplinary and multi-format design approaches through diverse media and a wide, unconventional variety of sources (mapping, film, drawing). During the research phase, students due inspiration from similar assemblage techniques to produce original short films and manifestos containing drawings, novel excerpts, memoirs, song lyrics, newspapers articles, laws, official documents,health and safety regulations and much more.
Guest Critics: Lucy Bullivant, Matteo Cainer, Paola Cattarin (Zaha Hadid Architects), Asli Ciçek (Asli Ciçek Architects), Martina Meluzzi (Mai Studio & Foster & Partners), Sadie Morgan (dRMM), Ute Schneider (KCAP Architects and Planners), Mary Vaughan Johnson 206
Special Thanks: Kenneth Goldsmith DS24 typological redraws of London, Paris, New York
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(top left) Summer Chang: Lower East Side (LES); (top right) Dmitrijs Gusevs: LES; (bottom left) Filip Zielinski: Soho; (bottom right) Jamie Gallienne: LES
(left) Tom Gorringe: Proposed masterplan, Lower East Side (LES); (centre & right) Rafaella Christodoulidi: Proposed masterplan scenarii, LES
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(top left) Georgia Roberts: Soho; (top centre) Kriss Zilgalvis: Lower East Side (LES); (top right) Georgina Gilbert: LES; (bottom) Stefano Perretti: LES
Sarah Jones: Seasonal axonometric, Lower East Side
It was a most insistent place but nobody seemed to be overwhelmed by all the insistence. .Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness
ARCHITECTURE IS THE remaking of places, from small interiors to expansive territories. Whether we like it or not, we design relationships not objects, and each architectural project is always a fragment; connected to, and part of, something else: individuals, society, history, landscape, physical and social ecologies, climate, materials, and technology.
Correspondingly, the Department offers students opportunities to develop their design capability within a context of continually extending theoretical and critical knowledge – broadly ethical and professional studies, history and theory, environmental and technical studies. Harry Charrington Head of the Department of Architecture
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BEYOND THE STUDIO
Beyond the Studio | Cultural Context
Cultural Context Sarah Milne (module leader CC1) studied and practised architecture before completing a PhD in architectural history. Alongside her role as Lecturer at the University of Westminster, she is a Research Associate at the Survey of London (Bartlett, UCL). Victoria Watson (module leader CC2) is a practising architect with a specialist masters degree in architectural history. Ben Stringer (module leader CC3) has taught and written about design and cultural context for many years. His recent publications focus on representations of the rural within architectural culture.
IN PRACTICE, ARCHITECTS need to be excellent designers, but they also need to be able to research, understand and communicate ideas about the way design relates to the broader interests of the cultural context in which they practice. The Cultural Context course is where Westminster students are equipped with the skills to do this. In particular, they learn how to articulate ideas about architecture through the production of
written texts. The Undergraduate Cultural Context course is taken by all students studying on the degrees in architecture and cognate disciplines. It is structured as a set of three modules, CC1, CC2 & CC3 that students study respectively in the first, second and third years of their degree. The modules are designed to make sense as a set, where CC1 is foundational for CC2 and, similarly, CC2 builds the foundations for CC3. .
CC1 - A History of Architecture Organised into small groups, students begin the module by exploring and recording key buildings in London. Later they choose to research and observe one London building in particular. The lecture series runs throughout the year and introduces elementary spatial themes and ideas which can be traced from 700 BC to the present
day. Also running throughout the year, interactive workshops are centred around short pieces of writing about architecture and provide students with the opportunity to develop critical reading and writing skills fundamental to this and subsequent Cultural Context modules.
CC2 – Architectural History & Urbanism The course begins as a series of lectures for the entire cohort covering a rich and diverse range of topics. It ends as a series of seminars, where students are taught in small groups. The same tutors who gave the lectures
also run the seminar groups. The groups carry on over a period of summer research and return in the third year as the basis of teaching in CC3.
CC3 – Dissertation In their final year, BA Architecture and BA Interior Architecture students research and write about any architecture or interiors related subject that they choose and that they argue is of significance. Students are supported through this process by a diverse group of
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academics through seminars, presentations and weekly tutorials. It is an important opportunity for students to begin shaping the particular direction of their future academic and professional careers.
Cultural Context – CC1 | Beyond the Studio
(Clockwise from top left) Ashley Cotta: Finsbury Health Centre; students at Regent's Park Mosque; Maryam Babayeva: journeying between Heraion of Argos and the Tate extension; Sarah Daoudi: column rhythms at the National Gallery and the Sainsbury wing ; Ailar Kalami: Waterlow Court in Hampstead Garden Suburb; Marwan AlMeligy: Corinthian Capitals at Trafalgar Square; James Marfell: Baillie Scott's attention to detail at Waterlow Court; Pietro Asti: All Saints, Margaret Street
Beyond the Studio | Cultural Context – CC2
Architectural History & Urbanism Alessandro Ayuso, Eva Branscombe, Darren Deane, Elantha Evans, François Girardin, Jon Goodbun, Platon Issaias, Kate Jordan, Maja Jovic, Will McLean, Gwyn Lloyd Jones, Doug Spencer, Rachel Stevenson, Ben Stringer, Victoria Watson, John Zhang
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The role of Architecture in a post-conflict environment; Brutalism, Gender and Architecture; Subjects in Architecture: From the Ideal Man to the (Post)Human; Collective Equipment: Architecture and Formalisation; Frankenstein in the Park; ‘Starchitecture’ in China and the encounter between East and West; Capitalism and the ‘Work’ of Architecture; Frank Lloyd Wright – The First Global Architect; Re-Presenting Architecture; Hans Hollein: Communication, Media and Architecture; Cells, Towers and Fields
Cultural Context – CC3 | Beyond the Studio
Cultural Context Extended Essay Darren Deane, François Girardin, Jon Goodbun, Platon Issaias, Gwyn Jones, Kate Jordan, Constance Lau, Will McLean, Sarah Milne, Mike Rose, Doug Spencer, Shahed Saleem, Rachel Stevenson, Ben Stringer & John Zhang 2017/18 WAS ANOTHER good year for third year dissertations, with an extremely varied array of subjects studied and written about and high numbers of students achieving distinction level grades. Students typically put a lot of energy and critical thinking into their research and writing on this course. Although there was a very wide range of subjects under investigation this year, one can discern some ongoing trends: social housing and gentrification continues to attract quite a lot of (much needed) attention, as do case studies of particular issues of urban politics and sociology in cities around the world, which reflects the international nature of our student body. This year a significant number of students also took on more architectural historical subjects, particularly from
the mid-twentieth century and sometimes as a means to learn about architecture’s relationships with philosophies and ideas from other disciplines. Among the many notable subjects chosen this year are: Phillip Longman’s study of the ‘cruel optimism’ of Britain’s housing market, Wangyang Liu’s work on the current interest in the vernacular among leading contemporary architects in South East China, Luka Ziobakaite’s reconsideration of George Maciunas’ prefab building systems, Teodora Neagoe’s analysis of the Serpentine Pavilion progamme and Alexandra Badea’s study of communist monumentalism in Bucharest.
(left) Philip Longman: Naked House [image © OMMX]; Naked House, drawing; (top right) Wangyang Liu: Typical Chinese Pan rooftiles [© Jim Bowen] (bottom right) Teodora Negoe: Selgascano; Serpentine Pavilion 2015 [© Serpentine Gallery]
Beyond the Studio | MArch Dissertation
Dissertation Harry Charrington, Davide Deriu, Richard Difford, Kate Jordan, Andrew Peckham, Douglas Spencer, Rachel Stevenson, Ben Stringer
GROUNDED BY THEIR earlier participation in an History & Theory Seminar Group, students choose their own subject to explore in the Dissertation. They are guided by tutors with a diverse range of interests and methods, but a common commitment to advancing the individual specialisms and scholarship of each student.
The Department encourages a breadth of topics and a plurality of approaches, with the ambition that the work produced will be distinguished by its high quality, not its adherence to any particular methodology, dogma, or style. This intention seems to be being fulfilled year-onyear, with student work being selected for publication and garlanded with awards, including the 2017 RIBA President’s Dissertation Medal winner, Rhiain Bower.
Felicity Holmes Negotiating the Pleasure of the Pier is a critical history of the evolution of the British seaside pier. For interpretive purposes the pier is categorised into four sub-typologies which chart the changing trajectory of the contemporary promenade. Each augmentation of the pier presents a different negotiation of space, experience and image. It is by appreciating the pier as an inhabited object, and source and subject of (primarily visual) pleasure that its role in mediating individuals and collectives; the natural and the urban; the real and the virtual – both physically and ideologically – is unveiled.
subjectivity of ageing and shows how shifting ideas of age have impacted on familial relationships and the domestic organisation of the home. Finally, it looks to the future, questioning how the terrace may adapt to today’s changing demographics and expectations of ageing.
Christian Peel
Age Through The Terrace: The Evolving Impact of Age on Social and Spatial Relations in the Home responds to the resurgence in multigenerational living and, through three historical case studies, analyses the intricacies of negotiating numerous generations under one roof. By examining families living in three terraces in South Hackney in the 1790s, 1860s and 1970s it demonstrates the fluidity and
Dodoma, Ujamaa and the Architecture of Authenticity explores political narratives in Tanzania, where colonialism has left lingering questions regarding what it means to be authentically African. As current political discourse looks to reinvigorate the Dodoma plan, which proposed a new rural capital city based on the socialist principles of Ujamaa, it does so while apparently exploiting the insecurities it was supposed to confront. The research is structured over three distinct epochs – tribal Africa, colonial Tanganyika and independent Tanzania – and asks some fundamental questions regarding historical identities, the meaning of nationhood and the role of post-colonial theory in shaping a national narrative.
(top) Felicity Holmes: Brighton piers, 2017 (bottom left) Christian Peel: Dodoma, Rural Capital
(centre left & right) Ruth Pearn: Christchurch Terrace: Photograph & Plans
Ruth Pearn
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Beyond the Studio | MArch Dissertation
Richard Morrison
Aleksandra Wojciak
The Evolving Relationship between the Motorway Service Area and the Road is a study into the evolving perception of the motorway service area. Since their introduction in the 1950s the perception of the Motorway Service Area has changed. They were once an exciting new typology that reached out to the road. Later they became buildings that offered weary motorists a retreat from the trauma of motorway driving. More recently they have hidden themselves from the road completely, in an effort to fit in with the landscape. The dissertation compares three service areas that embody each of these styles, revealing how our ideas of ‘future’, ‘place’ and the image of the service station have shifted, and continue to shift, over time.
The Significance of Empirical Methods in the Work of Frei Otto seeks to locate Frei Otto’s form finding experiments in terms of his wider philosophy; an approach that recalls the empirical quality to be found in an early modern science but which prefigures computer simulations and the digital analysis of structural forms. This dissertation studies a methodology which substituted the complicated mathematical models of the late nineteenth and twentieth century architecture with experimentation. The work of Frei Otto, subsequently manifested in computing, is presented as a technique that bridged the gap between empirical measurement and the rational calculation.
Lela Sujani
Climatic Conditions & Religious Beliefs is a study of the influence of climatic conditions and religious beliefs on the architecture of traditional houses built during the ancient Zoroastrian and Islamic eras in the desert city of Yazd in Iran. The arid climate has necessitated the creation of buildings with elements that cooperate harmoniously in producing comfortable living conditions for occupants, whilst adhering to their religious beliefs and traditions. This dual requirement is fulfilled by the clever composition of building elements and the advancement of building technologies, from the time of early civilisation in ancient Persia to the Zoroastrian and Islamic periods, and until the modern day
The Majolikahaus: Ornamental Trajectories investigates the transformation of ornament in the work of nineteenth century Austrian architect, Otto Wagner. It focuses primarily on his Majolikahaus in Vienna, in relation to his Rumbach Synagogue in Budapest and urban apartment buildings at Neustiftgasse 40 and Doblergasse 4 in Vienna. Unravelling the ornamentation reveals inconsistencies between his intentions and the nature of ornament he uses. I examine the gradual dissipation of decorative ornament as a parallel emerges between the transformation of the physical sculptural ornament and the subsequent illusions it projects. In this way, this thesis attempts to invite a different way of thinking towards decorative ornament.
(top left) Richard Morrison: Gloucester services hides beneath a sweeping green roof (bottom left) Lela Sujani: Majolikahaus 220
Reihaneh Yaghoubi
(top right) Aleksandra Wojciak: Frei Otto’s German pavilion, Montreal Expo 1967 [photo © Iqbal Aalam] (bottom right) Reihaneh Yaghoubi: Traditional houses in Yazd, Iran
Beyond the Studio | Technical Studies
Technical Studies Scott Batty, Chris Leung, Will McLean, Pete Silver & Andrew Whiting
THE TECHNICAL STUDIES teaching in the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster has been designed as a linear progression from first year Undergraduate through to final year MArch. For each year of study, a lecture series underpins the structure of the teaching. In first year undergraduate, a fourteen-week lecture series is delivered by Pete Silver that sets out an approach to the structure, form, material and environmental principles that constitute the technology of the built environment. In second year undergraduate, Scott Batty runs the Site Diary project giving students their first experience of a construction site. During the first semester Will McLean organises the Thursday evening ‘open’ lecture series to highlight new developments in the fields of architecture, engineering and environmental design.
We have embedded different types of teaching input and feedback throughout the BA and MArch courses and we regularly invite architects, engineers and other specialists to act as informal ‘technical’ tutors to the students during their final design projects. We host regular Friday afternoon tutorial sessions where visiting specialists act as consultants to our final year BA Architecture and MArch students in a relaxed ‘studio’ atmosphere. This specialist input (as in practice) helps to focus the work of the student in regards to structural clarity, visual comprehension and environmental sustainability.
Guest Lecturers and Visiting Consultants: Roz Barr (Roz Barr Architects), Robert Barker (Stolon Studio), Paul Bavister (Audialsense), Giovanni Beggio (RPP), Henry Burling (Morph Structures), Christine Cambrook (Buro Happold), Theclalin Cheung (Curl la Tourelle Architects), John Chilton, Christina Christodoulidou (Zaha Hadid Architects), Jason Coe (Amin Taha Architects), Joseph Conteh ( JU:KO), Mike Driver (Brick Development Association), Rachel Eccles (Hût Architecture), Nick Emmony (Laing O’Rourke), Elantha Evans, Julie Fleck (Construction Industry Council), Katy Ghahremani (Make), John Griffiths (Ooma Design), Allan Haines (EDICCT), Cath Hassell (ech2o), Wayne Head (Curl la Tourelle Architects), Dave Heeley (Morph Structures), Lars Hesselgren (PLP Architecture), David Lewis (NBBJ), Rowland Keable (Rammed Earth Consulting), Yashin Kemal (RPP), David Kendall (Optima Projects), Christian Kerrigan (AStudio), Benson Lau, John McRae (ORMS), Sadie Morgan (dRMM), Geoff Morrow (Structuremode), Sangkil Park (Make), Danae Polypiou (StructureMode), Jim Potter (Waind Gohil Potter), David Rayment (Morph Structures), Rosa Schiano-Phan, John Spittle (Wiehag), Henry Squire (Squire and Partners), Amin Taha (Amin Taha Architects), Phil Waind, (Waind Gohil Potter), Jeremy Young (Featherstone Young) 222
http://technicalstudies.tumblr.com
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Mary-Anne Cooper from Laing O’Rourke who hosted 14 undergraduate students on their London building sites for the Site Diary as well as providing seminars and site visits for MArch students in relation to DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly). We would also like to thank Hussein Tawanaee, president of the Westminster Construction Society.
(top):Technical Studies lecture posters; (l-r) Saden Alabbasi and Dominika Rakoczy: Site diary surveys
Beyond the Studio | MArch Digital Design
Digital Design Richard Difford (module leader), Alessandro Ayuso, Roberto Botazzi, Miriam Dall’Igna, Jeg Dudley, Adam Holloway
UNDERTAKEN IN THE first semester of the first year on the MArch, Digital Design is a key component of the Architectural Reflections module and provides the opportunity to learn valuable computer skills, and to reflect critically on the use of digital media in architecture. The programme offers a choice of six different groups, each with a different focus and set of interests. The
tutors for these groups are drawn from both practice and academia, providing critical reflection on the role of digital technology in architecture along with practical experience and technical expertise. Each group combines technical instruction with related theory and precedents. In this way everyone gets a chance to learn something new and to build on their existing knowledge and experience.
The six groups this year were as follows:
GROUP A: Digital Craft Adam Holloway
GROUP D: Interactive Technologies Richard Difford
Utilising digital fabrication and generative modelling tools, this group uses simulation and prototyping as part of a recursive cycle of testing and refinement in the design process.
Focusing on the use of programmable graphics and physical computing, this group considers the way devices such as sensors, motors and lights can be used to construct responsive architectural features and environments.
GROUP B: Performative Parametrics
GROUP E: Mapping Complex Data
Jeg Dudley
Using evolutionary algorithms and project-specific analysis tools, this group sets out to construct and optimise parametric designs based on performative criteria.
GROUP C: Computational Design Miriam Dall’Igna
Drawing on contemporary scripting and parametric modelling techniques, this group explores the potential for geometrically-driven computational design.
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Roberto Bottazzi
Working through both 2D graphics and 3D computer modelling, this group looks at the ways in which digital media can be used to reconstruct a link between data and meaning.
GROUP F: Body Agents Alessandro Ayuso
This group explores the relationship between design and bodies using modelling, animation, rigging and motion capture to create body agents – architectural meta inhabitants.
(clockwise from top left) Group E: Mosopefoluwa Bob-Soile, Group D: Olivia Pfeil, Group A: James Marr, Group B: Simona Kuneva, Group F: Harry Matthews, Group C: Anna Pazurek
Beyond the Studio | Fabrication Lab
Fabrication Lab
IT’S BEEN AN exciting year in the Fabrication Lab. We’ve taken another great leap forward with the refurbishment of our old wood and metal workshops, and the creation of new Light and Materials Labs. The project brings the whole Lab up to the cutting-edge standard of our digital fabrication spaces, transforming our working environment and multiplying the opportunities available to students and staff. In addition to the new facilities for working with wood, metal and casting, we’ve introduced a Project Space offering a quieter, brighter and inspiring space to explore ideas and assemble work. The new Materials Lab has also been brought up to date with precision tools for testing structures and exploring the properties of innovative new materials. It’s been a huge job and we’d like to thank Overbury, our main contractor, their excellent sub-contractors and all the design team for all their hard work creating such great spaces for us to enjoy. Our teaching workshop programmes have continued to develop. Sponsorship from the Finnish Institute gave students the opportunity to use steam bending techniques to make timber furniture with acclaimed interior architect Samuli Naamanka, and with Sami Rintala on a 1-1 installation for this year’s Digital Construction Week. We introduced a new project for Interior Architecture students to collectively design 30 chairs in 30 hours, and an Architectural Technology project in collaboration with students from KEA in Denmark. FAB FEST ’17 produced another great festival building on the inaugural event, and student teams from Westminster and 226
schools of architecture all over the world will be creating another 40 pavilions this summer. Be sure to come to the next edition, with a public festival on 7th July, and full details on FABFEST.London! Finally, the Lab’s research programme continues to grow, with new workshops and prototypes coming out of the Architectural Robotics Theatre project, including a carbon fibre pavilion which was designed and built in collaboration with Affan Innovative Structures, and exhibited at the IUA World Architects Congress in Seoul, Korea. This year we will be launching three new areas of research: in Virtual and Augmented Reality, in a collaboration with Computer Science; a partnership with Estates & Facilities and our Environmental Design team to investigate energy use, displaying live information from our own building on our media wall in the Lab; and a project establishing a materials research centre, building a library of material samples for all students and staff to refer to, as well as a series of scale models of new building systems for teaching and research. We are looking forward to another exciting year ahead! We want particularly to thank again the Quintin Hogg Trust and DS Smith for their continuing, generous support for the Lab providing funding and materials for FAB FEST, A.R.T. and the three new projects starting next year, as well as our new Lab partners: AKT II, Elliott Wood, Arnold Laver, Weber Industries, and 3A Composites. Dr David Scott Director FAB FEST’17
Department of Architecture | Fabrication Lab
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(top):Aberant Architecture brick-making ; (bottom):Robotic arm carving
(top):Fabrication Lab project space; (centre & bottom right):FAB FEST’17; (bottom left):Samuli Naamanka wood-bending workshop
Beyond the Studio | Professional Development
Preparing for Practice: Professional Mentoring and Work Experience
THE UNDERGRADUATE 3RD YEAR work experience module, known as Preparing for Practice, continues to be an element of the course lauded by practices and the profession, and highly valued by our students. The work experience broadened my horizons and made me realise exactly the path I wanted to pursue in architecture. Taz Mojnu, 3rd year It was great that I ended up working for somewhere I felt would be utterly boring during my work experience, and instead learnt so much. It was so informative. I also discovered more about how I want to progress on my career path as an Architect, with a new found understanding and piqued interest in housing and residential. Lina Noueri, 3rd year Working in a small residential practice allowed me to gain a lot of insight into the field and the office were very keen on following my journey after my Part 1. Aesha Mehta, 3rd year My work experience was truly beneficial. I wouldn’t have chosen this practice myself, but it gave me a genuine insight of a small architecture firm in the UK. Seeing something different from my past experiences put my career choices back in perspective. Aloys Heitz, 3rd year Work experience greatly enriched my experience of what architecture in a professional capacity could be like when I graduate.
Structured around 2 weeks of placement in practice, the module is designed to equip students with the skills necessary to apply for and secure a Year Out Part 1 position. Placements are organised by the Module Leader, Jane Tankard, and the FABE placements team where we are able to match office skill requirements with individual students. The module works closely with the profession, many of whom contribute to the module, delivering practical and focused lectures on key aspects of the profession as well as honing the skills necessary to get a foothold in the industry. The University’s Career Development Centre also offers a Skills Academy to support the transition between academia and practice. Working with the Stephen Lawrence Trust, the scheme offers students profession-led workshops and practical help with job seeking. In partnership with the RIBA, we also offer third years mentoring with a RIBA Chartered practice. Meanwhile, 2nd year students are offered the opportunity to gain practice-based internships over the summer break between 2nd and 3rd year. Despite the course focusing on students gaining experience in architect-run practices, we have had students gaining experience in some unusual, but architecturally relevant contexts. In the past students have worked with the BBC, English Heritage, Developers and Contractors. .
Simon Dendere, 3rd year Jane Tankard Module Leader
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RIBA Part 3 Wilfred Achille, Alastair Blyth, Stephen Brookhouse, Samir Pandya
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER runs the largest Part 3 course in the UK with over 400 students this year working in a broad range of architectural practices – more than 230 practices based in London and the south-east. The students come from a wide variety of backgrounds including overseas schools of architecture. Often architects who are registered but trained outside the UK attend the course to gain an in-depth understanding of the complexities of UK practice. The course follows the requirements of the ARB/RIBA Professional Criteria and is structured as a series of building blocks with clear assessment points throughout the year. The lecture courses are repeated twice a week to allow students to balance attendance with work commitments. Lectures are delivered by industry experts – including former students – and are recorded for easy future access. Students’ professional development in the workplace is supported by a team of 32 professional tutors – all architects in practice – who provide one-to-one tutorial guidance on project-based coursework. Professional examiners consistently comment on the high, critical standard of the coursework which we attribute to the structured tutoring system where students are challenged to think about practice differently.
Patrick McEvoy: Hound memorial benches
The different student backgrounds, as well as the types and number of practices represented on the course, combined with the tutors and examiners gives an unprecedented reach into the architectural profession. This enables the course to both draw from the breadth of practice experience as well as contribute to it. One of our students, Patrick McEvoy, was one of five winning entrants to the London Festival of Architecture City Benches competition – a design competition for a series of one-off benches that will be installed in the City in June 2018 as London’s financial district becomes a focus area for this year’s London Festival of Architecture The course was validated by the RIBA for a further five years in November 2017 and the Visiting Board gave it a Commendation citing its scope and delivery, dedicated Chair of Professional practice, and dedicated administrative support. This year, as in previous years, the course reached its target number of students in early May, an indication of the value that architectural practice attribute to it.
Alastair Blyth
Beyond the Studio | Platforms
Westminster Architecture Society Team: Crista Popescu, Duncan Catterall, Zahra Mansoor, Elham Ansaripour, Inna Kurtlakova ,Nouha Hansen, Special thanks to the many other amazing volunteers that helped throughout the year, as well as the staff who have supported us time and time again
THE WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE SOCIETY had a busy year, with a new agenda aimed at building bridges between our school and other departments, universities, and the industry. It was a landmark year for us, most productive yet, with numerous events that complemented departmental teaching and cemented friendships. This year we launched the Alumni Lecture Series which saw some of our most eminent alumni return to the school to talk to students. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them again: Angela Brady, Ian Ritchie, Cany Ash, and Michael Wilford. Their inspiring talks were greatly appreciated by the students and we thank them for their continuous involvement with the department. The landmark event this year was the Megacrit. With the endorsement and help of the Architecture Foundation, we took the concept they launched and made it truly mega - with over 1300 tickets booked, the five school exchange was the largest inter-school critique organised so far in London (and probably the UK). Westminster
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The society is created for students with the valuable and generous support of our tutors and faculty. We always welcome new ideas, members, and collaboration opportunities. Please get in touch: architecture.soc@su.westminster.ac.uk
students welcomed guests from the Bartlett, CASS, RCA, and AA for a day of productive joint crits and exchange of ideas on the topic of Future Housing Systems (followed by an amazing Megaparty). Thank you to their tutors for helping bring everyone together and a special thank you to the over 20 architecture practices that were represented on the day and joined in the critiques. We look forward to next year’s edition! The society also added to the social calendar of the year, with parties at landmarks throughout the year and a joint party with the other ABE departments. PLAYWeek, workshops, symposia, outreach, and generally supporting the department and our students, we find it thrilling to be part of such a lively and interesting community. We hope that everyone enjoyed this year as much as we did and we look forward to seeing you back next year!
:MegaCrit
Beyond the Studio | PLAYweek
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:PLAYweek: AirGrid
THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE fosters a diverse approach to teaching, research and practice in which these core activities inform one another. It has an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research, for attracting awardwinning staff and students, and for a wide range of scholarly activities. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) our research was placed in the top 50% of the 45 submissions in Architecture, Built Environment and Planning: 20% of our publications and research outputs were deemed to be ‘world leading’ (4*) and 45% ‘internationally excellent’ (3*). The four case studies of our research impact also scored very highly. This significant endorsement of our research capability has provided the foundation for expanding and enhancing our UK and international role since. Research in the Department is organised under the Architecture and Cities umbrella. This comprises five distinct thematic areas, translated into five research groups: Architectural History and Theory Environment and Technology Expanded Territories Experimental Practice (EXP) Representation, Fabrication and Computing
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The groups are loose alignments of staff, doctoral students, designers and practising architects who undertake joint research initiatives and organise events of common interest. For further details, visit our website: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/architecture-and-cities
The Department hosts a variety of symposia, book launches, and other research initiatives open to the public. Our staff and students meet on a regular basis at the Architecture Research Forum, where invited speakers present work-in-progress for discussion. For latest news of our research activities, visit the online platform: http://www.openresearchwestminster.org
The following pages highlight publications by architecture staff in 2017/18 and grant-funded research projects currently hosted by the Department. Davide Deriu Director of Architectural Research
RESEARCH
Research | Publications
Staff Publications and Research Awards 2017/18 Single Authored Books:
Influence in Iran.’ In: S. Piesik (ed.), Habitat: Vernacular Bottazzi, R. (2018). Digital Architecture Beyond Architecture for a Changing Planet, p. 274. London: Computers: Fragments of a Cultural History of Thames and Hudson. Computational Design. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Golzari, N. and Sharif, Y. (2017). ‘Cultivating Spatial Rattenbury, K. (2018). The Wessex Project: Thomas Possibilities in Palestine: Searching for Sub/Urban Hardy, Architect. London: Lund Humphries. Bridges in Beit Iksa, Jerusalem.’ In: D. Petrescu and K. Saleem, S. (2018). The British Mosque: An Architectural Trogal (eds.), The Social (re) Production of Architecture: Politics, Values and Actions in Contemporary Practice, and Social history. Historic England. 311-318. London: Routledge. Sharif, Y. (2017). Architecture of Resistance: Cultivating Moments of Possibility within the Palestinian/Israeli Goodbun, J. (2018). ‘The Cell, The Field and The Tower: The Spaces of Ecological Cybernetics.’ In: A. Conflict. London: Routledge. Rumpfhuber (ed.), Into the Great Wide Open, 77-101. Barcelona: DPR Barcelona.
Co-Authored Books:
Goodbun, J., Rumpfhuber, A., Till, J., and Klein, M. (2018). Das Design der Knappheit: Studienhefte Problemorientiertes Design Heft 7. Hamburg: Adocs.
Chapters in Books: Bold, J. (2018). ‘Introduction – Reconstruction: The Built Heritage following war and natural disaster.’ (With P. Larkham and R. Pickard); ‘Conclusions, Guidelines and Looking Forward.’ In: J. Bold, P. Larkham and R. Pickard (eds.), Authentic Reconstruction: Authenticity, Architecture and the Built Heritage, 1-25; 307-19. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Bold, J. (2018). ‘Technical Co-operation and Consultancy Programme – Introduction to the Analysis.’ ‘Technical Co-operation and Consultancy Programme: Conclusions and Future Perspectives.’ In: J.A. Bold and R. Pickard (eds.), An Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage. The Council of Europe’s Technical Co-operation and Consultancy Programme, 13-21; 8792. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
Edited Books: Bold, J.A., Larkham, P. and Pickard, R. (eds.) (2018). Authentic Reconstruction. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Bold, J.A. and Pickard, R. (eds.) (2018). An Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage. The Council of Europe’s Technical Co-operation and Consultancy Programme. Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg. Bremner, L. and Trower, G. (eds.) (2017). Monsoon [+ Other] Airs. London: Monsoon Assemblages Publications, University of Westminster.
Jordan, K. and Lepine, A. (eds.) (2018). Modern Architecture and Religious Communities, 1850-1970: Griffiths, S. (2017). ‘The Politics of Post Modern Building the Kingdom. London: Routledge. Architecture.’ In: J. Gura (ed.), Post Modernism Peckham, A. and Decermic, D. (eds.) (2018). The Complete. London: Thames and Hudson. Intrinsic and Extrinsic City. (Studio as Book series). Hagan, S. (2018). ‘Metabolic Suburbs, or the Virtue of London: Department of Architecture, University of Low Densities.’ In: A. Berger and J. Kotkin, MIT Centre Westminster. for Advanced Urbanism (eds.), Infinite Suburbia, 468- Schmiedeknecht, T. and Peckham, A. (eds.) (2018). 478. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Modernism and the Professional Architecture Journal: Jordan, K. (2018). ‘The Building Sisters of Presteigne: Reporting, Editing and Reconstructing in Postwar Europe. Gender, Innovation and Tradition in Modern-era Abingdon / New York: Routledge. Roman Catholic Architecture.’ In: K. Jordan and Stringer, B. (ed.). (2018). Rurality Reimagined. San A. Lepine (eds.), Modern Architecture and Religious Francisco, CA, AR+D Publishing. Communities, 1850-1970: Building the Kingdom, 123138. London: Routledge. Peer Reviewed Journal Articles: Peckham, A. (2018). ‘The Afterlife of the Architecture Journal.’ In: T. Schmiedeknecht and A. Peckham (eds.), Modernism and the Professional Architecture Journal – Reporting, editing and reconstructing in postwar Europe, 197–211. Abingdon / New York: Routledge.
Aparicio-Ruiz, P., Schiano-Phan, R. and Salmeron-Lissen, J.M. (2018). ‘Climatic applicability of downdraught evaporative cooling in the United States of America.’ Building and Environment (136): 162-176.
Boys, J. and Dwyer, J. (2017). ‘Revealing Work. Spankie, R. (2018). ‘Lines of Enquiry: Drawing Out Interrogating Artifacts to (Re)View Histories of Sigmund Freud’s Study and Consulting Room.’ In: G. Feminist Architectural Practice.’ Architecture and Marinic (ed.), The Interior Architecture Theory Reader, Culture 5(3): 487-504. Bottazzi, R. (2017). ‘Gravesend-Broadness Weather 178-185. London: Routledge. Station.’ In: J. Joseph-Lester, S. King, A. Bler-Carruthers, Dean, C. (2018).‘Collapsing the City:The Kochi Muziris and R. Bottazzi, Walking Cities: London, 67-80. London: Wall, C. (2017). ‘Constructing Brutalism: in situ Biennale.’ TRANSLOCAL: Culturas Contemporaneas knowledge and skill in post-war Britain.’ In: E-C. Heine Locais e Urbanas 1(1). Camberwell Press. and C. Rauhut (eds.), Producing Non-Simultaneity: Charrington, H. (2018). ‘A Slap on the Ear.’ In: S. de Construction Sites as Places of Progressiveness and Deriu, D. (2018). ‘Skywalking in the City.’ Emotion, Vocht (ed.), From Donuts to Muffins – 30 + 30 years of Space and Society, published online: 27 Apr 2018. Continuity, 95-109. Farnham: Ashgate. Urban Planning. Helsinki: Finnish Literary Society. Watson, V. (2017). ‘The Earth is Flat and Square: Yves Difford, R. (2017). ‘Infinite Horizons: Le Corbusier, Charrington, H. (2018). ‘The Aalto atelier, Tiilimäki.’ In: Klein’s Paintings of Thunderclouds’. In: L. Bremner the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau Dioramas and the M. Hipeli (ed.), Studio Aalto and Experimental House. and G. Trower (eds) Monsoon [+ Other] Airs, 27- Science of Visual Distance.’ The Journal of Architecture Helsinki: Rakennustieto. 34. London: Monsoon Assemblages Publications, 22(5): 825-853. Golzari, N. (2017). ‘Variety, Locality and Western University of Westminster. 238
Publications | Research
Hossain, M., Lau, B., Robin, W., Ford, B. (2017). ‘Effect Editorships of Peer Reviewed Journals: of changing window type and ventilation strategy Deriu, D. and Kane, J. (eds.) (2018). Special Issue on on indoor thermal environment of existing garment Vertigo in the City. Emotion, Space and Society. factories in Bangladesh.’ Architectural Science Review Deriu, D., Piccoli, E., and Turan Özkaya, B. (eds.) (201660(4). 2018). Special Collection on Travel, Architectural Kacel, S. and Lau, B. (2017). ‘Louis I. Kahn and Richard Histories: The Open Access Journal of the EAHN. Kelly: collaborative design in creation of the luminous environment.’ Architectural Engineering and Design Lewi, H. and Peckham, A. (eds.) (2016-2018). The Management Journal, published online: 11 Nov 2017. final two of six Anthology Issues selected from the last ten years of The Journal of Architecture. Rettondini, L. and Brito, O. (2018). ‘Tectonic of Proximity: Notes on the Work of Stanton Williams.’ McLean, W., Schlimme, H., and Wall, C. (eds.) (2017). Construction History: International Journal of the EN BLANCO. Revista de Arquitectura, 10(24): 5-7. Construction History Society 32(2). Rettondini, L. and Brito, O. (2018). ‘Interview with Directors of Stanton Williams: Alan Stanton, Paul McLean, W., Schlimme, H. and Wall, C. (eds) (2018). Williams, Gavin Henderson and Patrick Richard.’ EN Construction History: International Journal of the Construction History Society 33(1). BLANCO. Revista de Arquitectura, 10(24): 8-13. Wall, C. (2017). ‘Sisterhood and squatting in the 1970s: feminism, housing and urban change in Hackney.’ History Workshop Journal 82(1): 79-87. Wall, C. (2017). ‘“We don’t have leaders! We’re doing it ourselves!”: squatting, feminism and built environment activism in 1970s London.’ Field: a free journal for architecture, 7(1): 129-141.
Wall, C., Perks, R., et.al. (ed.) (2018). Oral History Journal Spring 46(1).
Non Peer Reviewed Journal Articles: Deriu, D. (2018). ‘Architetture della vertigine.’ Il giornale dell’architettura, 24 April 2018. Goodbun, J. (2017). ‘The Labyrinth of the Immaterials.’ e-flux. Griffiths, S. (2017). ‘Now is not the time to be indulging in postmodern revivalism.’ Dezeen, 30 October 2017. Griffiths, S. (2017). ‘In the name of place-making, architects are often complicit in social cleansing.’ Dezeen, 25 January 2017.
Jordan, K. (2018). ‘Unfair Dismissal: the Legacy of Women Architects working for London Councils.’ Rettondini, L. and Brito, O. (eds.) (2018). ‘Stanton Architectural Review, 12 March 2018. Williams. Arquitectura 2010-2017.’ EN BLANCO. Peckham, A. (2018). ‘Review: Franklin, Geraint, Howell Revista de Arquitectura 10(24). Killick Partridge & Amis, Swindon: Historic England Stringer, B. (ed.) (2017). Villages and Globalization. (2017).’ Transactions: Ancient Monuments Society Architecture and Culture 5(1). 62:145-147. Wall, C., Perks, R., et.al. (ed.) (2017). Oral History Journal Autumn 45(2).
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO CULTURAL HERITAGE The Council of Europe’s Technical Co-operation and Consultancy Programme
The British Mosque
Architecture of Resistance
An architectural and social history Shahed Saleem
Cultivating Moments of Possibility within the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict
YARA SHARIF
Research | Forum
Architectural Research Forum
THE ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT holds a bi-weekly research forum. This is an opportunity for staff and visiting fellows to present their work-in-progress to stimulate discussion and critical debate about their research. Seminars are open to all staff and students. During 2017/18, the programme was:
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WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18 JON GOODBUN
Cells, Towers and Fields: Routes out of the archive of Gregory Bateson
LINDSAY BREMNER, BETH CULLEN AND CHRISTINA GEROS MONASS: Reporting from the Field
5 October 2017, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00 - 14.00
19 October 2017, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00
This seminar will start with excerpts from a new paper that narrates three architectural typologies the bounded cell, the networked field, and the observatory tower. These constitute a story about the nature of architecture and its relationship to other forms of technical and scientific knowledge, and to systems and ecological theory in general. The presentation closes with a quote from an unpublished paper found in the archive of anthropological ecologist Gregory Bateson, which will be unpacked further, together with some reflections upon research done in the ateson archive.
Monsoon Assemblages is a five-year-long European Research Council funded research project investigating relations between rapid urbanisation and changing monsoon climates in South Asian cities. The MONASS team spent six weeks in Chennai over the summer conducting field work for the project. In this seminar, we will briefly sketch out the monsoon assemblage thesis and the questions that framed this field work. We will take you to a number of the sites we studied and discuss how our engagement with them has both challenged and extended our thesis and shaped future work.
Dr Jon Goodbun teaches at the University of Westminster, the Bartlett UCL, and the RCA. He runs Derailed Lab, a nomadic workshop that uses long-distance journeys as vectors for experimental interdisciplinary research projects.
Jon Goodbun Cells Towers and Fields: Routes out of the archive of Gregory Bateson
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WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
The Architecture Research Forum is a monthly research seminar hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion.
Lindsay Bremner is a Professor and Beth Cullen and Christina Geros are Research Fellows at the University of Westminster The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
Lindsay Bremner, Beth Cullen & MONASS: Reporting from the Field Christina Geros Douglas Spencer Still Dreaming? Space after spectacle and the indifference of architecture Shahed Saleem In what style should we build? White Light and Black Shadow: The Benson Lau poetics of light in Le Corbusier’s sacred architecture Christine Wall
WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
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DOUGLAS SPENCER Still Dreaming? Space After Spectacle and the Indifference of Architecture 2 November 2017, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00
WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
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SHAHED SALEEM In What Style Should We Build?
Susan Buck-Morss, in her Dreamworld and Catastrophe, observed that the end of the Cold War was marked by the passing of the dream-forms of modernity — capitalist, socialist and fascist — as sustained through the experience of the built environment. If, following Walter Benjamin, we understand awakening from the dreamworld to be premised on the conscious realisation of its utopian fantasies, then what hope remained now, she asked, in the absence of any dreamworld? This paper takes up this question through an analysis of the seemingly indifferent and post-spectacular spaces of contemporary architecture, offering, in response, an analysis that explores both its historical and its phenomenological implications. Douglas Spencer teaches at the University of Westminster and the Architectural Association, and is the author of The Architecture of Neoliberalism (Bloomsbury, 2016). The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18 BENSON LAU White Light and lack Shadow Architecture
23 November 2017, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00 In what style should we build This question, which has resonated throughout European architectural history for some years, is revisited and reapplied in my talk to the predicament of mosque design in ritain today. Style became an existential battleground for the ictorians, representing contested notions of morality, identity, nostalgia and historicism in a period of self-doubt and reinvention. I argue that Muslim architecture in ritain, and in the West more broadly, where diverse Muslim communities are building as diasporic minority communities, is entwined in similar negotiations of identity and positioning. rawing from my research into the architectural and social history of the ritish mosque, I will provide an historical overview of mosque architecture in ritain, and will set out what I see as its current predicaments. Alongside this, drawing from my own design practice and experiences of working with Muslim communities, I will also suggest my own responses to the questions raised. Shahed Saleem teaches at the University of Westminster and is a Senior Research Fellow at the artlett, Survey of London, and a practicing architect. is forthcoming book The ritish Mosque is published by istoric England.
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The oetics of Light in Le Corbusier s Sacred
7 December 2017, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00 This presentation will disseminate the research outcome of a RIBA Research Trust funded project that explored the interplay of space and light in Le Corbusier s sacred buildings from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Measurable and unmeasurable aspects of these divine luminous environments were investigated through extensive field work, theoretical physical and digital modelling. The findings offer new insights into the unique lighting strategies adopted by Le Corbusier for the creation of sacred luminosity in his religious buildings. A similar research methodology has now been employed for the investigation of light in Louis ahn s museums, and preliminary results of this research will also be presented. Benson Lau is a Reader and Course Leader of the BSc (Hons) Architecture and Environmental Design at the University of Westminster. He has practised as architect and environmental design consultant since 1996, and joined academia in 2005. The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
Talking about Buildings: Oral history and modern architecture WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
Julian Williams On the Estate Alessandro Ayuso Accounting for Alogon Pragma: Recent work in the studio and on site
CHRISTINE WALL Talking about building/s: oral history and modern architecture 1 February 2018, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00
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The place of oral history within the historiography of modern architecture is not yet fully accepted, understood or theorised. Faced with a wealth of tangible evidence found in photographs, plans, documents and models, architectural history rarely includes the voices of those involved in the construction of a building, and remains wary of diverse, unauthorised and unofficial histories. In this talk I explore instances where the use of oral history is integral to widening the perspective of traditional architectural history. Here, oral testimony reveals a wide cast of co-producers involved in the making of modern architecture giving voice to marginalised groups with the potential to undermine overarching architectural narratives. Christine Wall is Reader in Architectural and Construction History, Co-editor of The Construction History Journal, and an editor of The Oral History Journal.
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WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
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ALESSANDRO AYUSO Accounting for Alognon Pragma: Recent work in the Studio and On-site
15 February 2018, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00
1 March 2018, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00
What makes an estate, and what does it mean to be part of one? What do estates embody and how do they act as vehicles for change, or resistance to change? These questions form the research context for an emerging networking project which examines the concept of the estate as a model for developing and managing housing. The plan is to set up a network of academics, professionals and users with the aim of developing a deeper understanding of the estate from history and from current developments, and to then disseminate this knowledge and help shape more informed future practices in the field.
My work explores the intersection of human bodies and architecture by envisioning non-ideal, deviant, playful, and personal images of embodied conditions. It is defined by artefacts generated in the pursuit of three interconnected strands. The first investigates the potential of representations of human figures, or ody Agents, to embed subject-positions in architectural design through their depiction in drawings, models, and ornament. The second, the Agent odies drawing series, envisions imagined body-like assemblages from the inside-out, revealing a fictional spatiality of the posthuman body. The third strand, Leaky Embodiment Alter-ego ersonas, are full-scale constructions of figures that I see as tragicomic actors with uncooperative bodies. They are provocations, presenting a monstrous, ridiculous subjectivity. These pieces are steeped in idiosyncrasies and intuition, and could be considered as alognon pragma, or things without account . Their discursive value is presented here through a framing and recounting of the underlying questions, processes, and precedents integral to their conception.
Julian Williams is an architect, Principal Lecturer and BA Architecture Course Leader at the University of Westminster.
The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
JULIAN WILLIAMS On the Estate
Alessandro Ayuso is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster, where he teaches design and theory on the Interior Architecture and Architecture courses. The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
Yara Sharif & Subver-City: The green urban lab Nasser Golzari typology Roberto Bottazzi & Ecological Standardisation Harry Charrington
WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
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YARA SHARIF & NASSER GOLZARI Subver-City: the Green Urban Lab typology 15 March 2018, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00 After the devastating war on the Gaza Strip in 2008-09, which left most of it in ruins, we took up the challenge of trying to think how Gazans could manage to reconstruct their city under such conditions. The presentation discusses the development of a new typology we have called the Green Urban Lab. The Lab explores creative ways to stitch together the fragmented urban landscape using speculative and live projects. In what we call the Absurd-City we take advantage of the blurred boundaries between the street, the block and the room to rethink the notion of home and domesticity. In our proposed intervention to create the Subver-city , we envisage the Green Urban Lab acting as a threshold between private and public space: a means to offer alternative ways for Gaza residents to engage in self-help , hinting at possible alternative forms of reconstruction.
Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari are practising architects at NG Architects and Senior Lecturers at the University of Westminster. Their current research by design has won the RI A s resident Award for research commendation .
WESTMINSTER ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH FORUM 2017/18
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ROBERTO BOTTAZZI & HARRY CHARRINGTON
Ecological Standardisation 5 April 2018, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13.00–14.00 In 1966, Aino and Alvar Aalto worked together with Leonardo Mosso on a prototypical project for a series of warehouses for the Ferrero Company. Though the project was shelved shortly before going onsite, their collaboration had produced an original outcome. A former intern in Aalto s office, Mosso had up to that moment been Aalto s local architect for his Italian commissions. Centred on a critical investigation of their Ferrero Warehouse and Office project , our research explores the evolution of an ecologically-motivated concept of reflexive standardisation premised on repetitive components and bespoke, or flexible, joints that bind the elements . The forum will examine the impulses that informed the Aaltos realisations of an elastic standardisation in the 1930s and 1940s, and how Mosso, one of the pioneers of computation in architecture, interpreted and extended this method at the city-scale through computation. Roberto Bottazzi is a Senior Tutor at the Department of Architecture. He is interested in the history and uses of computational tools in architecture and urbanism.
The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
Harry Charrington is Head of the Department of Architecture. He worked for Elissa Aalto, and co-authored the oral history of the Aalto atelier Alvar Aalto: The Mark of the Hand . The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion. ALL WELCOME
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Architectural Research Forum posters
Funded | Research
Monsoon Assemblages Principal Investigator: Professor Lindsay Bremner Research Fellows: Dr Beth Cullen (anthropologist), Christina Geros (architect, landscape architect and urban designer) PhD: Harshavardhan Bhat (political scientist) and Anthony Powis (architect) MArch Studio DS18: Aligned with the project 2016-2019
MONSOON ASSEMBLAGES IS a five-year research project funded by the European Research Council (20162021). It is undertaking interdisciplinary, design-driven inquiry into changing monsoon climates in three of South Asia’s rapidly growing cities around the Bay of Bengal – Chennai, Dhaka and Yangon, with a smaller focus on Delhi. The aim of the project is to undertake research into the monsoon as a global climatic system in which life in each city is lived, and to propose models for intervening in them through design to better align urban life with the monsoon and its ways. This is undertaken at a time when the pace of urban development and the neo-liberal development formulae being used in these cities have resulted in increasingly misaligned arrangements between urban life and the monsoon such that flooding, water pollution, water scarcity, heat island effects and so on result. The project aims to address these conditions through drawn compositions that bring together the atmospheric, oceanic, topographic, subterranean, climatic and lived dimensions of the cities and the monsoon in new ways.
(left to right):Dhaka, Chennai, Yangon
Monsoon Assemblages is funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement no. 679873).
The project is led by Professor Lindsay Bremner, assisted by anthropologist Beth Cullen and landscape architect and urban designer, Christina Geros. Two PhD students, Harshavardhan Bhat and Anthony Powis complete the team. In addition to this, the agenda of Design Studio DS18 is aligned with the project for three years. In 2016/17, the studio was set in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in 2017/18 in Dhaka, Bangladesh and in 2018/19, it will be set in Yangon in Myanmar. The work of the studio is to test representational techniques and to develop urban and architectural prototypes in response to monsoon related challenges in each city. The best of this work will be exhibited in the final Monsoon Assemblages exhibition in 2021, and published in its book.
For further information, visit the project’s website: www.monass.org
Research | Masters Introduction
Masters
STUDYING FOR A Masters degree is a valuable and unique opportunity. For some students, part way through their architectural education, it is a chance to specialise and develop their own design identity and future professional practice; for others, it is the first step towards a PhD and an academic career. But for all those engaged in Masters level study in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Westminster, the experience is one of a kind in the UK. It brings together a diverse body of academics, designers, practitioners and students from across the globe with an appetite for invention, creativity and critical thinking. Although each Masters programme is distinct in the way it is structured – as you will see in the following pages – all share the aim of deepening students’ skills in critical and creative thinking and design. The University programmes:
offers
three
postgraduate
MA Architecture MA Interior Design MSc Architecture and Environmental Design.
The MA and MSc programmes have their own subject-specific content, yet they offer the students the chance to choose from distinct fields of enquiry, building on their previous education and interests and to develop cultural and environmental awareness in their work. The programmes allow the students to explore theoretical positions and
a deep understanding of the subject matter while also offering them a platform to engage with some optional modules and activities. A highly passionate and experienced staff from different design and technical disciplines tailor these activities to compliment the students’ learning experience. Moreover, the course offers the students the opportunity to be part of extra curricula activities in a collective studio culture, such as London Festival of Architecture and FAB Fest amongst others, as well as an annual award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Up-to-date facilities are available, offering students an exposure to endless possibilities including CNC fabrication, 3D printing, and exploring the latest approaches to robotics. Students this year were actively involved in Live Projects, design and making. They also had the opportunity to work closely with MArch PART 2 students through lecture series and theory seminars. Students were also actively engaged with community projects and field studies in the context of London as well as internationally as demonstrated through the cross collaboration with São Paolo, Brazil, and Muscat, Oman and Iran. The following pages feature a small sample of the students’ work along with a short introduction by the module leaders about the three Masters programmes and modules -- all of which are inspired and supervised by dedicated scholars. Dr Nasser Golzari Post Graduate Co-ordinator
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MA Architecture | Research
Davide Deriu, Richard Difford ,Nasser Golzari, Jon Goodbun, Krystallia Kamvasinou, Dirk Lellau, Samir Pandya, Yara Sharif, Douglas Spencer, Filip Visnjic MA Architecture Students: Hiba Al-Safi, Shaghayegh Arabishirazi, Behnaz Berengi, Jake Boyes, Zara Khan, Grozdanka Nadjinska, Behshid Noferesti, Oluwadamilola Odiahi, Katerina Pavlatova, Caroline Pembroke, Sankalp Prakash Bilaskar, Aliye Pelin Sen, Nafeesa Shaukath, Sirinuanprae Vachanaratna.
THE ARCHITECTURE MA offers a unique opportunity to pursue advanced postgraduate research combining high-level theoretical investigation with innovative design approaches. Our flexible programme enables students to develop their individual learning trajectories through a wide range of study options, including the choice of either a written or a design-based thesis project. Module
contents range from programming and computational design to critical theory and urbanism. The course allows for specialism through the pathways: Cultural Identity and Globalisation; Digital Media; History and Theory. Alternatively, students may also create their own study route by selecting and combining modules that meet their requirements
Guest Lecturers & Critics: Majo Arenas, Beth Cullen, Lubna Fakhri, Maja Jovic, Clare Melhuish, Benjamin Perrot, Mai Sairafi, Angeliki Sakellariou Hiba Alsafi: City cultures
Research | MA Interior Design
Dusan Decermic, Matt Haycocks, Joe King, Debby Kypers, Tania Lopez-Winkler, Lara Rettondini, Filip Visnjic MA Interior Design Students: Ramy Al Muraiqeb, Badamkhand Bayar, Jimena Cieza De Leon Del Aguila, Emily Eby, Seyma-Nur Ermis, Nadin Fayyad, Victoria Ginoski, Magdalena Iwanska, Daria Kaversina, Rana Kkattab, Wing Lai, Chi Lam, Athina Metridou, Alyssa Moseley, Akshata Oswal, Ayca Ozturk,Veronica Perez Farias,
Venketaraman Rnpuram, Chansreineang Rong, Isabel Ruiz Blanco, Sophie Salmon, Lara Salous, Oliver Schaller, Prabhuram Sundravadivelu, Zumi Vora, Tong Wu, Atil Yadav, Emeli Yakimova .
EMBRACING THE MATERIAL and intellectual complexities and contradictions magnified by the psychological agency inherent in the subject of interiority, the students are encouraged to trace their own paths through this everchanging palimpsest-like topography, unearthing traces of history over and through which they weave active, contemporary practices. Site visits to abandoned buildings, devoid of any tangible use or potential future are seen with fresh eyes and full of new promise. Interiors are elusive by nature, conspiratorial and inviting, dark, brooding, but also strangely alluring. MA Interior Design programme is poised to deliver new and exciting avenues of creative engagement. As a reflective example bearing these complexities, Retail and Decoding The Interior modules are set up in this context and seen as both antagonists and attractors, offering professional, vocational action and active intellectual reaction. Our thesis projects are exemplars of these manifold concerns, embracing ambitious conceptual strategies, but also striving for delicate, intricate material renderings. As the static, indulgent ‘expert’ gaze is being augmented and supplanted by the contemporary democratic idiom of the omnipresent cinematic ‘measuring’ of time and space, the course is pedagogically engaged through film and animation components of the Case Study and Introduction to Design Computing modules.
Tomasz Fiszer ( MJP Architects Limited), Bruno Mingoia (RFK Architects), Eva Sopeoglou (Kingston University), Claire Richmond 244
Jimena Ciesa De Leon Del Aguila: Pavilion Collage
MSc Architecture & Environmental Design | Research
Rosa Schiano-Phan, Nasser Golzari, Jon Goodbun, Benson Lau, Juan Vallejo, Zhenzhou Weng MSc Architecture & Environmental Design Full-time: Sana Aleem, Salome Berechikidze, Simona Bukowska, Samy Firad, Giulia Koeler, Gabriela Machado Krebs Cipriani, Sana Munir, Felisa Padilla Lopez, Giuliana Pappalardo, Minh Van Part-time Yr 1: Noemi Futas, Hrabrina Nikolova
IN 2017/18 THE Architecture and Environmental Design MSc consolidated the two-year parallel studio on the ‘Environmental Performance of Modernist Architecture in Britain and Brazil: London/São Paulo’ in collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP) and was part of the Latitudes Global Studio project, supported by the Latitudes Network. This comparison enabled the appreciation of the strong climatic responsiveness of the national manifestations of the modernist movement, at a pivotal moment in the history of fossil fuel dependency in architecture. The environmental challenges brought by the tropical warm climate and the high density urban fabric of São Paolo
Guest Lecturers & Critics: Joana Goncalves, Leonardo Monterio, Roberta KronkaMulfarth, Eduardo Puizzarro, Marcello Mello, Fred Stuart Minh Van: Corner House, 4th floor plan with Daylight Analysis
city centre, as well as the iconic examples of tropical modernism Oscar Niemeyer’s Edificio Copan and David Libeskind’s Conjunto National, offered a creative ground for the students to test and apply the environmental principles and fieldtrip site analysis. This year, the final thesis project has expanded the portfolio of practices and consultancies taking part in the Collaborative Thesis Project initiative, to Article 25 and Chapman BDSP, joining Arup, WSP and Architype. The successful initiative, piloted last year, has allowed our students to develop their thesis on a topic of mutual interest for the course and the industry partner.
Research | Ambika P3
Ambika P3 Images taken during the first ten years of Ambika P3. We have published the full range in Volumes 1 – 4. Contact us at P3.Exhibitions@westminster.ac.uk Director: Professor Katharine Heron Curator: Dr Michael Mazière Venue Manager: Niall Carter
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Department of Architecture | Staff
Staff
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Wilfred Achille
Matt Cousins
Jon Goodbun
Yota Adilenidou
Paul Crosby
Alisdair Gray
Alessandro Ayuso
Ruth Cuenca Candel
Sean Griffiths
Pete Barber
Miriam Dall’Igna
Tom Grove
Scott Batty
Corinna Dean
Eric Guibert
Alastair Blyth
Darren Deane
Mike Guy
Stefania Boccaletti
Dusan Decermic
Stephen Harty
John Bold
Davide Deriu
Matt Haycocks
Roberto Bottazzi
Richard Difford
Catherine Hennessy
Anthony Boulanger
Orsalia Dimitriou
Andrzej Hewanicki
Eva Branscombe
Chris Dite
Adam Holloway
Lindsay Bremner
Jeg Dudley
Edward Ihejirika
Stephen Brookhouse
Julia Dwyer
Bruce Irwin
Alan Brown
John Edwards
Platon Issaias
Terence Brown
Elisa Engel
Alan Johnson
Chris Bryant
Elantha Evans
Kate Jordan
Toby Burgess
Stephanie Fischer
Maja Jovic
Clare Carter
Theeba Franklin
Gabriel Kakanos
Harry Charrington
Isabel Frost
Neil Kiernan
Hayley Chivers
Anna Gillies
Shuko Kijima
Alessandra Cianchetta
François Girardin
Joe King
Joseph Conteh
Nasser Golzari
Maria Kramer
Debbie Kuypers
Rachel Moulton
Shahed Saleem
Juan Vallejo
Diony Kypraiou
Richa Mukhia
Izis Salvador Pinto
Filip Visnjic
Gill Lambert
Natalie Newey
Duarte Santo
Richard Warwick
Benson Lau
John O’Shea
Rosa Schiano-Phan
Richard Watson
Constance Lau
Alice Odeke
David Scott
Victoria Watson
Laure Ledard
Samir Pandya
Rob Scott
Zhenzhou Weng
Dirk Lellau
Andrew Peckham
Yara Sharif
Andy Whiting
Chris Leung
Mirna Pedalo
Conor Shehan
Camilla Wilkinson
Gwyn Lloyd Jones
Callum Perry
Gordon Shrigley
Elizabeth Wilks
Tania López Winkler
Catherine Phillips
Pete Silver
Julian Williams
Harpreet Lota
Sue Phillips
Tszwai So
Jonathan Wong
Alison Low
Stuart Piercy
Ro Spankie
Nick Wood
Jane Madsen
Juan Piñol
Afolabi Spence
Andrew Yau
Arthur Mamou-Mani
Alicia Pivaro
Doug Spencer
John Zhang
Andrei Martin
David Porter
Manos Stellakis
Fiona Zisch
Max Martin
Alan Powers
Joanne Stevens
Alison McLellan
Anthony Powis
Rachel Stevenson
Warren McFadden
Virginia Rammou
Matthew Stewart
Will McLean
Kester Rattenbury
Bernard Stilwell
Michael McNamara
Lara Rettondini
Ben Stringer
Sarah Milne
Paul Richens
Allan Sylvester
Rebecca Mortimore
Mike Rose
Jane Tankard
Department of Architecture | Architectural Practice Links
Practice Links 2018
250
ADP Architecture
Cottrell & Vermeulen
Gensler & Associates
alma-nac
CreativeApplications.net
Grimshaw Architects
Amin Taha Architects
Cullinan Studio
Harty & Harty Architects
Architype
Curl la Tourelle Architects
Haworth Tompkins
Asli Ciçek Architects
deDraft
Heatherwick Studio
Assemble
de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects
HTA Design
AStudio
DSDHA Architects
Hût Architecture
ATC
ech2o
If Do
Audialsense
Edward Williams Architects
Jestico Whiles Architects
AY Architects
Eric Parry Architects
JU:KO
BDP
Emil Eve Architects
Jump Studios
BGS Architects
fd creative
Karakusevic Carson Architects
Birds, Portsmouth Russum Architects
Feilden Fowles
KCAP Architects and Planners
Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects
Featherstone Young
Laing O’Rourke
Buro Happold
Fletcher Priest Architects
Levitt Bernstein
Casson Mann
Form_art Architects
Lyon & Co Architects
Clement Porter
Foster + Partners
Mai Studio
Collective Works
Front Inc
Make Architects
Conibere Phillips Architects
Gatti Routh Rhodes
make:good
Mamou-Mani Architects
Pilbrow and Partners
Stolon Studio
Marks Barfield
PLP Architecture
StructureMode
MATA Architecture
Polysemic
Studio Libeskind
Matthew Lloyd Architects
Price Parizi
Studio Octopi
Michael Wilford Architects
Price & Myers
Studio Weave
Minifie van Schaik Architects
Projet d’Architecture
The Klassnik Corporation
Mobile Studio
RALA
Tony Fretton Architects
Modern Architect
Richard Griffiths Architects
Vickers Architects
Morph Structures
Ruimte Design
VOLA
Niall McLaughlin Architects
ROK Architects
Waind Gohil Potter
Nissen Richards Studio
Roz Barr Architects
Wayward Architects
Ooma Design
RPP
Weston Williamson
Optima Projects
RSHP
Wilkinson Eyre Architects
Orms Architects
Samuli Naamanka Design
Wood Bagot London
Pardon Chambers Architects
SCABAL
YourStudio
Penoyre & Prasad
Sheppard Robson
Zaha Hadid Architects
Perkins + Will
Spheron Architects
pH+ Architects
Square Feet Architects
Piercy&Co
Squire and Partners
We wish to thank the following organisations for their support:
T H E JAM ES P H I L L I P S F O U N DAT I O N
OPEN 2018
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
University of Westminster 35 Marylebone Road London NW1 5LS Tel 020 7911 5000 x3165
www.westminster.ac.uk