CONCERNS 2012- Birmingham School of Architecture

concerns Birmingham School of Architecture Annual Review 2011-12

concerns Birmingham School of Architecture Annual Review 2011-12

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Table of contents

Introduction to the School

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Friends of the School

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Co:Lab

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Teaching Practices

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Technology

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BSoA Prizes 2011-12

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Courses

Nicholas Kyriakides

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BA (Hons) Architecture

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M.Arch Architecture

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PG Dip Architectural Practice

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

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GradDip/PgDip Landscape Architecture

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Academic Profiles

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Events

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Lectures

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Staff

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introduction

INTRO DUCTION Welcome to the second edition of “Concerns”, the Birmingham School of Architecture’s Annual Review.

It’s been another very exciting year as the School continues to attract high quality students from diverse backgrounds, implemented a number of strategic improvements, continued to develop its strong research base, and have it’s students recognized by external achievements and awards. Alongside all of this we are preparing for the exciting move to our new home in Eastside in September 2013 which will be set in the context of the new City Park, and will be joined in 2015 by Phase 2 which will house the University’s student facing facilities such as the library, catering, and student union. These are certainly exciting times to be studying at Birmingham City University. ??????? ????????

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introduction

Charlotte Peters

introduction

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There have been a number of notably successes this year including M.Arch student Saiman Miah who won a national Royal Mint competition to design the £5 Olympic coin which just shows that Architecture students can turn their hand to anything! BA student Haiqual Che Zulhikam beat stiff competition to secure a 6 week summer internship at Foster and Partners, and two of our Part 3 students Carly Barrow and Cerianne Thorneycroft were winner and runner-up respectively in the JCT Contracts Student Essay national competition.

Our staff continue to make the headlines too, Lubo Jankovic published a highly acclaimed book “Designing Zero Carbon Buildings Using Dynamic Simulation Methods”, whilst former RIBA President Ruth Reed has been conferred with the title “Professor of Architectural Practice”.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the students and staff of our Architecture and Landscape courses for their hard work throughout the year and I trust that you enjoy this Review.

Kevin W Singh RIBA SBID FFB FRSA Head of School Final Year models at the Graduate Show

Steven Dix

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introduction

introduction

A brief history: The Birmingham School of Architecture originated in classes held at the College of Art in Margaret Street arranged by Birmingham Architectural Association towards the end of the C19th. In 1908 the School became a Department of the College.

Recognition by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) of the (Intermediate) Part 1 Examination was granted in 1923, and of the (Final) Part 2 and (Professional Practice) Part 3 Examinations in 1930.

The principle Colleges of Higher Education in Birmingham were amalgamated in 1970 to form Birmingham Polytechnic with a Faculty Structure that grouped Architecture with Construction & Surveying, Planning, Landscape and Housing in the Faculty of the Built Environment. University Status was granted in 1992 when the Polytechnic became the University of Central England in Birmingham (UCE). In 2001 the School of Architecture & Landscape was formed within the Faculty.

Melisa Ramos

In June 2005 The Birmingham School of Architecture moved to the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design at the Gosta Green campus in the city centre. In 2007 the University changed its name to Birmingham City University. In 2008 the School celebrated its Centenary year and also announced plans to move to a new ÂŁ57 million building at Eastside which it will move into in September 2013.

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Maria Vrahimi

The School: The Birmingham School of Architecture is the only RIBA accredited School of Architecture in the West Midlands and is very proud to offer RIBA exempt courses at Parts 1, 2, and 3. This comprehensive offer is very much in line with the School’s history and current philosophy of producing well rounded individuals who can make a meaningful contribution to society.

The School is a mirror of the rich diversity of the region and as well as attracting students from the locale we are joined by students from all across the UK, Europe, and indeed the World. Unlike most other Schools of Architecture we also provide students already employed in practice with the opportunity to study part time.

We are relatively small in size, a factor which allows us to make it bespoke to our students, allowing them to

express themselves perhaps more freely than in a larger institution. This atmosphere may be one of the reasons that we have an incredibly diverse student body, perhaps one of the most diverse in the UK, a further reflection of the make up of our region.

We have a committed, dynamic and diverse staff team who frequently receive high praise from both students and external examiners about their contributions

to the students’ learning experience and personal development.

The School is a wonderfully welcoming place, combining the seriousness of academic study with the excitement and energy of students chasing their ambitions.

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introduction

introduction

Philosophy: Any system of belief, values, or tenets The School is defined by the relationship between Architecture and Landscape and ‘Urbanism” in between.

Over 50% of the World’s 6 Billion people are urban, by 2050 this will have passed 80%; the school’s programmes explore innovative approaches to design and intervention in the urbanised field which will shape life in the 21st Century.

The School a collaborative and pro-active conduit between research and practice, driving innovative and exciting teaching agendas, resulting in an Ideas Factory of Architecture, Landscape and Urbanism. We engage in design through the scales, from Urban Design to Landscape to Architecture and beyond.

We frame our core activity of teaching by explicitly linking with a considerable number research and practice agendas. The School enjoys close relationships with RIBA West Midlands, MADE (the Midlands Architecture

Andre Reid

Modus Operandi: Procedure, method of operating

Centre), and Birmingham City Council, relationships that allow us to have an influence on the contemporary cultural environment of the Region.

We expect students to make responses to the issues they are dealing with and to construct an attitude, a position from which to address the complex but necessary synergy of social and physical context, design, and technology that should influence any design proposal. This journey of discovery takes students through identification to investigation, to response and proposition. This process is fundamental to our way of thinking.

Ethos: The distinctive character, spirit, and attitudes of a people, culture, era etc.

The School is exercised by concerns. These concerns are normally contemporary - social, cultural, geographical, political, environmental, artistic, professional, technological, and always contextual - and often informed by historical precedent.

Our programmes typically strike a balance of 50% design, 25% conceptual and theoretical, and 25% professional. The nature of professional practice is rapidly changing and so we use live project scenarios and research activities to provide students with the opportunity to tackle real issues and understand the multi-faceted nature of modern practice and business. This approach results in the extraordinary retention of graduates in the City who are highly employable having been equipped with personal and professional skills for their careers ahead.

These concerns are incredibly diverse and whether they are centred on the everyday, critical theory, or current affairs, they are real issues, albeit in hypothetical scenarios, but nevertheless, real, inspiring students to face the challenges of the world we live in.

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Dale Hickman

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introduction

introduction

Plot 35. Curzon St. In 2013 the School of Architecture will move into the new BIAD building located next to Millennium Point. The new building is purpose designed for the BIAD faculty and represents a key piece of the newly established City Centre Campus for BCU.

Students in the School of Architecture will benefit from excellent new studios, workshops, ICT areas, library and lecture spaces. The design of the new building will encourage interaction between staff, students and researchers from different parts of the faculty.

An atrium will form the social heart of the building, providing space for the School of Architecture’s end of year show and a rolling program of exhibitions throughout the year.

Students on architecture and landscape courses have been engaged with the new building throughout the construction process.

Site visits have been the focus of student engagement with additional input from project consultants on areas such as BIM and planted roof design.

Sustainability has been a key driver for the new BIAD building and the interiors will maximize the use of natural ventilation and daylight.

A biomass boiler will provide a renewable energy source for space heating and contribute towards the new building achieving a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’.

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introduction

introduction

FRIENDS OF THE SCHOOL The Birmingham School of Architecture has far reaching relationships with the Architectural community. At the School we are are keen to continue to develop our relationship with our alumni and collaborating partners through our Friends of the Birmingham School of Architecture Linkedin group, providing a forum which allows a sharing of ideas, making connections to reflect, debate and review key issues, topics and events. The School launched Friends of the Birmingham School of Architecture campaign at the Birmingham Made Me Design Expo 2012.

Our links with a number of supporting practices, businesses, and organisations has allowed us to re-ignite some of the School’s historical values in a number of live project under our Co-Lab umbrella.

The scheme is also a portal for practitioners to register their interest in our Volunteer Critics scheme which invites them onto design juries, creating a two way street. Whilst students value the input from professionals, Architects visiting to attend design reviews are often inspired by the work of our students, or, just as importantly are talent spotting!

We are fortunate to have a number of loyal volunteer critics who give their time to the School pro-bono a few days a year.

This scheme is also supported by recent graduates who come back to contribute to the final thesis project. The current students find that comments from those who finished the project in the last year or so are particularly useful as they remember the pain!

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introduction

introduction

Exhibitors in the Birmingham School of Architecture Zone at Birmingham Made Me Design Expo 2012

3D Reid Arup Associated Architects Andrew Mulroy Architects Buro Happold Capita Symonds Chapman Designs D5 Architects Define DKS Consulting Engineers Eco-Design Consultants ETP Fira Halcrow Hawkins Brown Howl Associates

IBLA K4 Architects Make Mecanoo Moore Environment Peter Morris Plincke The Public, West Bromwich Ramboll The Space* Studio Thomasons Urban Synthesis Vivid Architects Wilmott Dixon

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co:lab

Co:lab

CO:LAB

Co.LAB is a multifaceted organisation embedded within the School of Architecture at Birmingham City University with a focus on exploration, employability and collaboration. It acts as a vehicle to directly engage the school, its staff and students to collaborate (Co.) with ‘partners’ across the city within the disciplines of architecture, landscape and urbanism as a laboratory (LAB).

Co.LAB was developed to continue the school’s collaborative spirit expanding on the prosperous creative and professional network in the region. We believe this approach can foster distinct benefits towards educational, entrepreneurial and socially-driven solutions for our clients – whilst responding to the contemporary issues of our unique urban setting.

Students from both the undergraduate and postgraduate course work together in groups on a number of small projects ranging from consultation, research and design feasibilities. Their output is presented to our partners with some projects then developed further as extracurricular activities between students, staff and the project partners.

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co:lab

Co:lab

CO:LAB

Art of Architecture

Project: Art of Architecture exhibition The Client: The Public, West Bromwich Students: M.Arch Architecture Tutor: Alessandro Colombano

As a part of the recent exhibition. The Art of Architecture, students from the Birmingham School of Architecture were invited to participate in a collaborative artwork with which Will Alsop, the principle architect of The Public, was curating the exhibition. The main gallery at The Public was transformed into a spectacular ‘exploded painting’. The inspiration for the work was a remark that Alsop made early in the development of The Public that it should be like ‘a box of delights’.

The Public then asked the postgraduate students to make proposals for a project for them to contribute to the exhibition directly.

The resulting work has developed over a period of time through a number of iterations to a really fascinating solution to the brief. The brief asked to create an exploration of interactive space, and to deliver something that has potential to become a real architectural component.

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co:lab

Co:lab

CO:LAB

edible eastside

Students developed creative and physical responses to this unconventional design challenge, building prototypes on site using reclaimed and recycled materials, considering mobility concerns and reappropriation of interventions to other sites, within a system of ‘farm to fork’ production. The work also formed part of the ‘Carrot City’ exhibition www.ryerson.ca/carrotcity

issues of urban resilience, sustainable development and the role of culture in climate change.

The site aims to offer a centralised resource and strategic support for artists, architects, urban gardeners, community activists and regeneration agencies interested in urban food growing.

For more information

The aim was to increase the understanding of urban productive landscapes through a collaborative programme of research in practice involving artists, designers, gardeners and chefs to explore a new aesthetic for urban environments. The project explored

Project: Edible Eastside The Client: Jayne Bradley, Edible Eastside & Urban Grain. Digbeth, Birmingham Key Stakeholders: Digbeth Residents Association Students: BA (Hons) Architecture & M.Arch Architecture. BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture Tutors: Mike Dring & Russell Good Specialist Consultants: K4 Architects

Edible Eastside is a visionary initiative to transform a derelict brownfield site into a vibrant and contemporary urban garden for people to learn to grow plants and food.

The garden covers a quarter of an acre of canal-side land, a former distribution depot, which has been converted into a ‘pop-up’ edible park using temporary containers and raised beds.

The site at Warwick Bar in Digbeth was formed by the functional requirements of the two canals that define it to the North, and Fazeley Street to the South, as a result of the industrial revolution.

www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture/industry/co-lab

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co:lab

Co:lab

CO:LAB

modern gazeteer

Project: The Modern Gazetteer Mike Dring, Birmingham School of Architecture Stuart Whipps, Birmingham School of Art Students: 12 BA (Hons) Architecture students and 12 BA (Hons) Art and Design students

“The city of modern architecture (it may also be called the modern city) has not yet been built”.

From introduction to ‘Collage City’ by Rowe, C. and Koetter, F. A collaborative project was developed with the School of Architecture students and students from the School of Art. Birmingham’s city motto is ‘Forward’, appropriate for a city that constantly seeks to reinvent itself

as the latest idea of ‘urban’. Students were encouraged to work cross-discipline, broadening their design horizons and taking inspiration from research texts, including academic, poetic and fictional writing, photographs, videos, and archives to produce responses to the ideology of ‘the city’ in its broadest sense, to advance the critical debate around the past, present and future of the city and seeking to place value on what is often seen as ‘sacrificial’.

Outcomes were developed using a range of media including Architectural interventions, Film/Video Installations, Audio responses, Photography, Performance pieces and Literature.

The students were supported by practitioners from Glenn Howells Architects, Birmingham.

For more information www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture/industry/co-lab

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teaching practices

Teaching Practices “We strongly believe that the creativity embedded into architectural education should be allowed to filter into every day practice and visa versa, which is why being a part of Birmingham School of Architecture’s Teaching Practice programme is so important. Teaching keeps us fresh, it allows us to tap into current research and enables us to share our experiences with students.”

Gavin Orton, Architect.

For and on behalf of Bryant Priest Newman Ltd

teaching practices

The ‘Teaching Practice’ programme has been devised across five areas to support studio project activities on the M.Arch (RIBA Part II) at Birmingham School of Architecture, working collaboratively with some of our key industry partners.

the City as a laboratory, the studio is a research tool to develop and test possible iterations of sustainable urban futures, an exploratory bridge between theory and practice. In this way we are seeking to provide a bespoke learning experience at M.Arch level.

During the academic year 2011-12 the M.Arch units have worked with:

Through testing the definition of architectural production students develop professional skills that deepen and extend knowledge and understanding of areas of practice.

MAKE (Phil Twiss) - Urban Archaeology Glenn Howells Architects (Will Schofield) - Happiness Bryant Priest Newman (Gavin Orton) - Design Agents K4 Architects (John Shakeshaft) - Soap Box D5 Architects (Ian Shepherd) - Plastic The M.Arch programme is driven by the School’s research agenda; exploring the intersection between the disciplinary aspects of architecture and professionalism which underpin the programme. The M.Arch views

If you’d like to find out more about how you can get involved please contact: Kevin Singh, Head of Birmingham School of Architecture T: 0121 331 7887 E: kevin.singh@bcu.ac.uk

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technology

technology

Technology In our globalized and industrialized society designers can (and often do) choose from a huge range of techniques and materials to manufacture the built environment. The world’s very best engineers, consultants and suppliers can turn fantasy into buildable reality. Computers allow designers to experiment with form and also allow contractors to build the results. Architects and landscape architects have embraced these freedoms with fascinating results. Our current period of austerity gives us the opportunity to reflect on where we go next. How will we use Thomas Cotton

Peter Thomson

all our knowledge and hardware to shape a built environment that will meet our future needs and lift our spirits?

We believe that technology should inform design. Creative solutions are required to meet the need for a sustainable built environment.

At the heart of sustainability is a re-adjustment in our attitude to the use of resources. This is not a limitation but a rich vein of enquiry for a new generation of designers. Staff are active within the University’s Centre for Low Carbon Research and this expertise is available to all Ross Hetherington

Ben Bagshawe

students. In addition, visiting lecturers provide a broad range of professional expertise, giving students access to leading academics and practioners.

The teaching and learning of technology within architecture and landscape courses is closely integrated with other areas of study. Making is encouraged as a way of exploring technology and students have access to excellent workshop and ICT facilities within the school and elsewhere in the faculty.

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technology

technology

Krzysztof Faber

Denzil Baker

Nicholas Kyriakides

Krzysztof Faber Matt Buckle

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Birmingham School of Architecture Prizes 2011-12

Birmingham School of Architecture Prizes 2011-12

bsoa prizes 2011-12 BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons ) Landscape Architecture

Oscar Naddermeier Medal for student who has made the most progress during the course

Best Student Portfolio

For student who has made most progress during the course

Ineta Nautalyte

Best Student project

Jocelyn Bennett

Landscape Institute Midlands Branch John Knight Prize for Undergraduate Landscape Architecture

Christopher Watts

Swanshurst School Design Competition

Christopher Watts

Winner: Highly Commended:

Fatima Bandali Dewald Koch, Hardeep Bains

Birmingham & Five Counties Architectural Association Trust (Birmingham Midlands Institute) Green Book Award for Creativity and Visual Presentation Winner: Highly Commended:

George Jackson Travel Award Nomination

Alexander Billingham Christopher Yeates

RIBA Bronze Medal nomination

Thomas Higginson, Mathew Crawford

PGDip Landscape Architecture Ross Hetherington

M.Arch Architecture Hayes Award for Application of Theory Nominations:

Sarah Wilson

Urban Arch; Shani Gabbidon Soap Box; Denzil Baker & overall winner Plastic; Patrick Kwok Design; Liam Davis Happiness; Sophie Britten

Peter Broad Memorial Award

Nigel Lomas Award (BBLB) Winner: Commended:

Hayley Moreton

RIBA Drawing Prize

RIBA President’s Awards Silver Medal Nomination

Sophie Britten

Liam Davis

Maria Vrahimi Melisa Ramos Hinojosa

RIBA President’s Awards Dissertation Nomination

Emma Sinha 10518763

Lawrence Baldon Trust fund – dissertation prize

Alicia Ridout

Birmingham School of Architecture Prize for Best Postgraduate Project

Birmingham School of Architecture Prize for Best Postgraduate Portfolio

Ian Hainsworth

Pegasus Environmental Practice Prize for Best Overall Postgraduate Performance

Charlotte Rashleigh

Landscape Institute Midlands Branch John Knight Prize for Postgraduate Landscape Architecture

BIAD Competitions & Projects

Mara Redman

Louisa Anne Ryland Winner:

Show organisation and promotion

Maria Vrahimi

Alessandro Columbano, Tom Tebby

Ann Mount

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architecture

Ross Hetherington

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

BA(HONS) Architecture

Year 1 As a foundation for architecture studies, Year 1 adopted a media-centered design pedagogy which revolves around re-learning to “see” and on “education of all the senses”: to practice and internalize graphic techniques as, simultaneously, skill and thought. Building on the programme’s overarching concern with the urbanised field, Year 1 focuses on the theme of habitation, interpreted through open-ended graphic explorations as a moment of significant phenomenal experience and, simultaneously, as an event of socio-political practice. The city is graphically explored as an assemblage of surfaces against which unfold its events in a collage of intersecting and tentative publics.

process of drawing using various techniques and media to critically and poetically explore the significant urban observations and insights.

Project-2, Create-a-Material(ity) probed design ideas through techniques of manipulating materials, composing with tactile, aural, olfactory and kinesthetic faculties as much as visual ones. This project challenged students to transform a range of materials (recycled packaging, leaves, found-materials) into one or more ‘other materiality’, to create a prosthesis for the human body.

The final project drew on the skills from previous ones. In Project-3, Construct-aWindow, the challenge was to transform existing window sites around the Gosta Green courtyard in response to their site-specific qualities of light, materiality, body and framing the city. We explored this within the framework of Health and Safety Codes, observed carefully and creatively.

Term 1, Graphic Apparatus: Mining The City, consisted of three mini-projects. Project-1, Design-a-Drawing problematized “seeing” the city through different graphic techniques. With tutor or in small groups, students conducted walks along designated routes in central Birmingham. The design challenge was to craft a generative system of graphic inquiry: a Daniel Brandt, Jordanna Holton, Portia Sargent

From top: Daniel Brandt, Jordanna Holton, Danyal Ali

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

Term 2 explored inhabiting public space, or: how do we relate to “others”? The primary state of our existence is social; we populate space as we relate to ‘other’ beings, whether humans from other social classes and/or with different ethnic identities, or other species with dissimilar but equally legitimate needs and desires. As designers, we investigate how, through manipulating space, material and landform, we shape such tentative publics.

Our primary design challenge in this project was to propose a Node for Urban Flows in one of three urban areas (Bullring, Snowhill or Digbeth), and which creatively manages the conflicting aspirations and desires of different stakeholders. The project unfolded in three phases:

Danyal Ali

Phase I: Interpreting Public-ness (3 weeks): Occurring while reading texts on public space, this phase asked students to formulate an interpretation of public-ness in their selected urban areas through layered mappings and experiential narratives.

Phase II: Cinematic Sequence (4 weeks): In this phase, each student was challenged to propose their urban site as a set for a cinematic sequence from a given film selected based on their Phase-I discoveries.

Phase III: A Node for Urban Flows (4 weeks): The final phase began with drafting a “contract” between relevant stakeholders at each site. Each student then proposed an intervention to mediate between the different stakeholders and their flows.

Danyal Ali

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

developments including the new BIAD building that is taking shape next to Millennium Point, the co.lab network of opportunities for engagement with live projects, and participating in visits to architects in practice.

BA(HONS) Architecture

An exploratory project located in Digbeth at Warwick Bar conservation area for development of a regional seed-bank saw students working in groups to understand the of urban industrial / agricultural historical palimpsest at this meeting point of canal, rail and road networks that now echo with the silence of cattle walking across a now deserted bridge on their way to the Bull-Ring, icebreaker barges on the canal, the ambiance of the Banana Warehouse and Toll House and winding stop-locks.

Year 2

The year culminated in students working on the Pugin centenary celebrations and building brick structures at the new BIAD building site.

Marc Cheal

Azadbir Singh

On arriving back in Birmingham in September 2011 Year2 students started a process of engaging with the Gun Quarter as a design project the location. Walking / Observing/ Recording took them on filmic mapping journeys starting out from various points in the city and meeting at the canal-side. Their studies of the Historic City (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen), the Reconstructed City (Warsaw, Rotterdam, Berlin) and the Post-Industrial City (Lille, Liverpool, Glasgow) contextualised and informed their understanding of Birmingham.

All work in Year 2 involves an ethos of collaborative and professional co-operation through discussion, exploration, taking risks, and taking responsibility for finding an individual direction. This is supported through a programme of visits to prominent city project

Alex O’Connor

Emma Ibbotson

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BA (Hons) Architecture

Marc Cheal

BA (Hons) Architecture

Chris Paige

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

BA(HONS) Architecture

Year 3

INTRODUCTION The meta-theme for year 3 is ‘mobility’, which can be considered in physical, virtual and social terms.

Physical issues of accessibility and mass-transit coexist with virtual issues related to the digital r/evolution, generating a new social dynamic where we are no longer bound by geographical location and physical proximity.

Tim Rushton

SITE Students have been asked to consider, record, and respond to existing ‘trade infrastructures’ within the ‘linear city’ of Stoke-on-Trent, as it shifts from a traditional urban model based on historic ‘civic’ cores to a fluid ‘post-industrial’ landscape.’

PROCESS The project begins with the mapping of known and latent networks connecting Stoke, representing a critical position of the city. These maps graphically

Tutors: Alessandro Columbano, Mike Dring, Andy Hilton, Hazem Ziada, Jim Sloan, Kevin Singh.

Patrick Finnegan

Visiting tutors/critics/specialists: Danielle McParland, Leon Warner, Luke Nagle, Miles Marshall, Tom Tebby, Felix Mitchell, Jim Sloan, Allen Haines, James Thomson, John Christophers

illustrate a combination of conventional, abstract and experimental techniques, three-dimensional animations and infographics - drawing on authoritative data and the students own perceptions and readings.

Any other acknowledgements/project partners/funding: John Barney Hare-Duke @ British Cermaics Bienniale Darren Price @ Place Art

Students develop an urban intervention responding to the initial mapping phase, addressing social tensions from failed government policies and rapid industrial transformation.

The scales of the interventions range from a single cell or series of spaces either in a single location or as part of a wider network.

Ross Heatherington

Scott Davey

Anni Stockeld

In the second term the project is underpinned by two key terms; incubate and social enterprise. Each student develops their proposal from with the opportunity to integrate social, political and cultural themes devised from the previous explorations in Latent Landscapes.

This format provides an open-ended discussion to what and how architecture can bring positive change to urban environments within existing complex regeneration programmes.

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

Anni Stockeld

Lise-Ann Brennan

Ross Hetherington

Hannah Kelsall

Matthew Gerry

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

Alasdair Ferguson

Anni Stockeld

Patrick Finnegan

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

RIBA President’s Medal: bronze Award Nominations Mathew Crawford Neighbourhub NeighbourHub attempts to reconcile the physical and social void left by the previous Government’s Pathfinder scheme with a strategic development based on what makes a community work well.

It uses mobile devices as a digital means of communication to empower the local residents on what and how a derelict site in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, should be used for.

This socially driven approach is supported with a physical structure that enables gradual architectural developments with a contemporary vernacular whilst providing spaces which are adaptable and intimate enough to encourage a greater sense of community.

Tom Higginson Paranoia Exchange Initial cultural explorations on the city of Stoke-on-Trent uncovered a seemingly rich and diverse heritage, which exports its influence globally with an image based on excellence in craft and manufacturing. Compare this with the visible reality of the city’s conditions and one can sense a complex on focusing solely on the negative.

To alleviate this pressure, research led to Pynchion’s novel - Gravity’s Rainbow, with its transgressive narrative on paranoia and reason. The novel was used as a continual reference point for the subsequent architectural proposal extracting many components of the story as physical metaphors, creating a dynamic and vibrant form.

The structure introduces a stock exchange to the public, but one that deals in local trade and skills, with a combination of spaces that is symbolic but playful.

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BA (Hons) Architecture

BA (Hons) Architecture

Joseph Hudson

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M.Arch Architecture

M.Arch Architecture

Through testing the definition of architectural production students develop professional skills that deepen and extend knowledge and understanding of areas of practice. The multidisciplinary scope of the School facilitates omni-scalar exploration of the relationships between architecture, landscape, space, culture, developmental processes and sustainability. Work is internationally connected, interdisciplinary, research informed and project based to engage students, staff and specialists in exploring the possibilities of the designed environment, working within BIAD, one of the largest art and design institutes in the UK.

m.Arch

Architecture (RIBA PART II)

The work presented here is synoptic of some of the explorations of site and theory and investigations in architectural form and tectonics, inextricably linked to the unit-specific study locations of Ironbridge, Burtonon-Trent, Tottenham, Telford, Venice, and Berlin.

Melisa Ramos

The MArch views the City as a laboratory, the studio is a research tool to develop and test possible iterations of sustainable urban futures, an exploratory bridge between theory and practice.

The programme enables the development of an understanding of the theoretical, technical and professional issues informing contemporary architectural practice, focusing on the contemporary city, a laboratory for the exploration of possible forms of architectural production. The programme explores the limits of contemporary practice and engages in cross-disciplinary dialogue and practice. The programme is driven by the School’s research agenda. Students identify their trajectory through the course to develop individually focused projects within shared vehicles and fields of operation that engage with and are informed by the School’s leading edge research practice. The intersection between the disciplinary aspects of architecture and professionalism underpin the programme.

Nicholas Kyriakides

Krzysztof Faber

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M.Arch Architecture

M.Arch Architecture

CRITICAL URBANISM/ ARCHITECTURAL SYNERGIES The Critical Urbanism and Architectural Synergies projects are symbiotically linked and form the agenda for a yearlong exploration of sites, concepts, technologies and modes of representation linked to each unit’s UK location and ideology. The projects seek to instill a research driven and experimental process of development and proposition where accepted models are challenged and radical models emerge, and to progress these concepts towards a high level of architectural and technological resolution. Students develop professional and technical capabilities through the support of unit specific consultant teams who offer specialist tuition in construction, structures, cost and environmental design.

The projects illustrated here show the diversity and ambition of the year 5 design studios.

Matthew Warren

Danielle McCarthy

Ben Bagshawe

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M.Arch Architecture

M.Arch Architecture

UNIT

post-capitalist hybrid programmes of cattle market and performance space, and extreme utopian visions of Telford as a fundamentally cycling city reversing the established dominance of the automotive infrastructure.

PLASTIC

Staff: Mike Dring [MArch Programme Director Jing Lu [Black Country Atelier] Teaching Practice:

“The new town utopian ideologies

Ian Shepherd [D5 Architects]

were symbolised in the physical

Students:

grids and structures that arrived

Samantha Dale/ Siti Izzuddin/ Benjamin Pipkin/ Joe Proctor-

before the residents.”

Nicholls/ Jay Rajpra/ David Coles/ Adam Greatrex/ Mark Page/ Jonathan Brown/ David Harper/ Patrick Kwok/ Krzysztof Faber/ Saiman Miah/ Dian Pan/ Elliott Goodall/ Mitulbhai Patel

Introduction to exhibition publication for “Community Without Propinquity”, MK Gallery, 2011 Patrick Kwok

In the 19th century and with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, Britain changed from being predominantly rural to mainly urban. Concentrated industrialisation led to overcrowded, insanitary working and living conditions surrounded by scarred and polluted landscapes. The eventual government response was two major pieces of legislation: New public health, Town Planning and Housing Acts and The New Towns Act of 1946. The arrival of the legislation stimulated a wave of regeneration and reclamation in the areas, which had felt the worst effects of the rapid shift to mechanised production.

Against this background, and in June 1962, the Minister of Housing Dr Charles Hill announced that a new town would be built in the Dawley area to relieve congestion in Birmingham. The New Town was to be modelled on the classic principles of modernism: the slow organic growth of the Dawley area, shaped by decades of industry and mining, would be replaced by rapid ëzonedí and centrally planned development. People would have access to

healthy living and open spaces, while housing would be separated from polluting industries, defined through John Madinís masterplan.

50 years on Telford continues to search for a unique identity. Residents still refer to the original town names (Dawley, Oakengates, Madeley and Wellington), and many people struggle identify a heart and civic centre.

Plastic were interested in how Telford could reposition itself, to realise its ëlatentí potential, drawing on site explorations, the New Town road trip to Corby and Milton Keynes and thesis students visits to the Finn Stone workshop and V&A ëPower of Makingí exhibition in London.

Thesis students also visited and studied Almere new town in the Dutch polders where a renaissance of modernist urbanism has occurred through OMAís recently implemented plan for the extension of the centre.

Speculations have included Telford Polytechnic to complete Madinís unrealised civic structure, an urban micro brewery that seeks to instil a programme across the underused Town Park,

Krzysztof Faber

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Patrick Kwok

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M.Arch Architecture

M.Arch Architecture

UNIT

Soap Box “how do we interpret the collective speeches to declare a common intention? - it just needs to be clear in how the third person interprets the ‘thing’ “ Alessandro Columbano, Unit Leader

Designers impose their creativity on the world, make assumptions on requirements, make decisions on taste, takes educated guesses on issues of practicality - designing with you in mind. But no matter how hard you try, designers will impose their ego on their output. If this is so, how can the community trust us in this way.

into the gorge, showing it as the birthplace of a new industry that is flexible and diverse?

Staff: Alessandro Columbano [Lecturer], Jeremy Monk-Hawksworth [JAM Architects]

How can we use appropriate tools to adapt to the individual and then to the group - how do we interpret the collective speeches to declare a common intention - it just needs to be clear in how the third person interprets the thing.

Teaching Practice: John Shakeshaft [K4 Architects] Students: Benjamin Bagshawe/ Thomas Cotton/ Natthapol Pongplanchai/

Who has the power or who will concede it!

How do you empower a community that has a diversity of talent and expertise to shape their futures against a civil servant who simply follows policy and doesn’t create but won’t concede power (a non-elected official, with no accountability).

Politics and the transfer of decision making requires trust and confidence - could we supply this and come up with real projects that would provide this?

Our focus this year is the Ironbridge Gorge area in Shropshire. Widely known as the birthplace to the industrial revolution and now

Denzil Baker

a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its cultural importance has changed significantly as developments have evolved around it; sandwiched between Telford New Town and Ironbridge Power Station.

As one of the most polluting coal stations, the nearby Ironbridge Power Station B is due to be de-commisioned in 2015. Its ownership has changed several hands since privatization and the decommissioning process is further intensified with the local’s interest in their environment which has been softened by the natural ecology grown around the bridge. The people who live there have already shown their dynamism. They are fiercely proud of their home. Could we show the support to get investment

So how do we get there? Through public interaction, public consultation, removal of the ego, genuine open perceptions, impartiality, anthropological observations, demographic analysis.

And what can we do? Mapping the debate, mapping the viewpoints, locating their invested interests, critiquing the criticisms, design with context, casting, cultural manufacturing, heritage-based policy, clarify government directives, authentic new crafting, understanding the vernacular, reacting to the vernacular, inauthentic replication, responding with them in mind.

Kanya Ravichandran/ Stephen Díarcy/ Ashleigh Ghaleb/ Helen Washbourne/ Holly Doron/ Sonya Ricketts/ Matt Warren/ Matthew Buckle/ Kulsum Burhani/ Rosun Chankov/ Jenny Lo/ Alicia Ridout/ Evanna Valianti/ Denzil Baker

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Matt Buckle

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M.Arch Architecture

UNIT

Future archaeology “The best way to predict the future is to invent it” Alan C. Kay

“Perhaps when you cut into the present the future leaks out“ William Burroughs Shani Gabbidon

Proposition

Is the future bright?

For the last 20 years, the architectural profession has been complicit with the ideology of late capitalism, assuming that the economic forces of growth and expansion are the only means by which society can develop and prosper.

Are we perhaps on the verge of a new spirit in architecture and design, where the uncritical belief in consumerism and unbridled growth, has to be questioned?

At the very least should we accept the need for a very different kind of world that requires a different type of thinking and a different type of architecture?

The studio will be an examination of a number of possible near futures, possible high-tech, low-tech and even no-tech alternatives to current scenarios.

The current economic crisis makes us question whether a future of unlimited growth is not only possible, but taking into account environmental factors, actually advisable. We have reached a moment of crisis ó economic, environmental and technological ó where we have to make choices about the type of future that we want, but also the type of future we can actually achieve. It would appear that the Architectural Profession has nothing to say except ëbusiness as usualí, as it continues to produce bright, shiny renders of schemes that will sit empty for years. This studio will offer a series of alternate voices, developing some of the neglected areas of contemporary urban life and trying to find visions of the future.

Nicholas Kyriakides

Staff: Sophie Hamer [Associated Architects] Matthew Lucas [Associated Architects] Teaching Practice: Phil Twiss [MAKE] Students:

The unit explored a series of texts from Ballard, Davies, Jameson and Baudrillard to create a series of credible and legitimate future scenarios founded in fact and created through tested ideology and theory. Careful decisions and tactics were founded in the delicate excavation of our selected sites, radical, bold, romantic and poetic in future speculations.

Claire Goldthorp/ Xenia Ioannu/ Harjot Rai/ Amandeep Singh/ Josh Taylor/ David Holland/ Matt Walker Charlotte Andrews/ Michael Campbell/ Mansoor Khan Nalinda Ariyarathna/ Marilena Avraam/ James Brookes/ Steven Dix/ Shani Gabbidon/ Nicholas Kyriakides/ Maria Vrahimi/ Melisa Ramos/ Ian Burgess/ Russell Morris/ Steven Dix

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M.Arch Architecture

Maria Vrahimi

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UNIT

happiness “Panic on the streets of London, Panic on the streets of Birmingham” The Smiths

With mass protests sweeping across Europe, such as the 2011 riots in Tottenham, turmoil pervades our streets and boardrooms, boom has gone bust, leaving Europe on the brink of bankruptcy. The 2011 riots which began in Tottenham were the most visible expression of this in the UK. 84 per cent of riot incidents occurred in north London within five minutes walk of large postwar housing estates. Meanwhile, local centres without large post-war estates nearby were unaffected.

relationship between deprivation, the built environment and rioting, creating imaginative and holistic solutions to these complex problems.

As a counterpoint to Tottenham the unit also visited Copenhagen, a city regularly cited as one of the world’s happiest cities and with some of the most cutting edge architecture in the world. The city has also has coined the phrase Copenhagenisation to denote increased emphasis on cycling and pedestrian access to the city centre.

Staff: Peter Morris & Dominic McKenzie

Happiness asks the two questions: > Did architecture contribute to causing the riots in Tottenham? > Conversely can architecture make us happier?

Teaching Practice: Will Schofield [Glenn Howells Architects] Students: Rishi Bodhani/ Tom Critchell/ Oluwatumininu Jegeda/ Sadie Turner/

Building on wider research, such as the EU Beyond GDP the UN World Happiness Report and UK based Action for Happiness the students have utilised socio-economic and psychological data to understand the

Emily Bowen/ Sunny Singh Gill/ Kristian Lawrence/ Darren French/ Mark Kurton/ Brian Tefula Sophie Britten/ Jamie Ho/ Felix Mitchell/ Dorival Mota/ Kiron Nandra/ Maria Nikolousi/ Iliana Zafeiropoulou Paul Jones/ Jon Powrie Sophie Britten

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Jamie Ho

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M.Arch Architecture

UNIT

Staff: Kevin Singh [Head of School]

design agents

David Greenhill [Vivid Architects] Rebecca Chapman [Chapman Design] Teaching Practice: Gavin Orton [Bryant Priest Newman]

Students:

“Necessity, who is the mother of invention.�

Shaheen Akhtar/ Kabir Bansal/ Sukhjeet Dhillon/ Alexander Rudge/ Brandon Scott/ Dan Brown/ Stephen Fisher/ Philip Waghorn/ Andy

Plato, The Republic.

Goldthorpe/ Danni Mccarthy/ Stuart Thompson/ Emma Sinha/ Liam Davis/ Hayley Moreton/ Andy Rose/ Hira Silverthorne-Teirney/ Christopher Williams

Andy Rose

Agent: a phenomenon, substance, or organism that exerts some force or effect.

think defines something as Architecture rather than mere Building.

meaning: Difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions.

Because of our fascination we are interested in exploring processes, how do we design, how do we get to the point of understanding what a proposal should be, how do you justify it and equally as importantly how do you retain it?

Design Agents is concerned with things that influence design, in effect, design drivers.

Design Agents is concerned with things which influence design, whether it be a something intangible like a concept, memory, symbolism or an experience, or something which is physical and real such as our environment, technology, tectonics, transport, manufacturing or the way people inhabit buildings.

We explore design drivers, design rigor, and the DNA of a design proposal. Just like a stick of Blackpool Rock, wherever you cut through it you will always say Blackpool. It is this rigor which we applaud. It is this approach which we

The use and expression of these design drivers can address the age old dilemma of if an observer should understand the designers conceptual approach or intention.

Students are asked to zoom in and out of their design proposals to investigate critical detail parts before zooming back out to re-consider the whole and the relationship between these scales. Design is a process and not a thing.

Chris Williams

...it does what it says on the tin.....

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M.Arch Architecture

M.Arch Architecture

Hayley Morton

Liam Davis

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M.Arch Architecture

M.Arch Architecture

RIBA President’s Medal: Silver Award Nominations Maria Vrahimi

Melisa Ramos

“An existing space may outlive its original purpose and the raison d’etre which determines its forms, functions, and structures; it may thus in a sense become vacant, and susceptible of being diverted, reappropriated and put to a use quite different from its initial one.”

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space

By 2050, Berlin is becoming the scene of political division and extreme social political groups are emerging, such as capitalist and anarchist socialists. Such dystopian developments discourage relationships, inhibit social fluidity and restrict communities.

The thesis is dealing with the voids in the urban fabric of the city of Berlin, a city that has been going through a radical transformation for the past two decades. The fragmented landscape in its urban structure reflects the political and social history of a city of continuous reinvention. Weakness in the current political system leads a society that is struggling to fill in the gaps created by the system. As a consequence of this constant need we reach to an extreme polarisation of society by 2040.

The city’s social polarisation is spatially translated in the formation of the “occupied Berlin” quarter around its core, developing new spatial relations in the edges of the city. The building is located in the former buffer zone, and acts as a transition point between the two societies that emerge, forming the “Occupied Der Spiegel Headquarters”. The ephemeral ideologies of the society of the city’s core are allegorically represented in Der Spiegel magazine. The magazine is imported from the core of the city to the “occupied” quarter and once recycled the “Occupied” Der Spiegel magazine is published. The building reflects the way the economic, political and social implications of this polarisation affect the city’s urban fabric and the temporary/permanent occupation of the voids.

The project is located in one of the biggest areas of Squatters in Germany, West Berlin, Kreuzberg, where new sub-cultures will live in Eco - Anarchy Centres which are permanent squats. A place for the performing arts combined with work, play and living - made up of people who are trying to survive, groups that are reacting to the geopolitical and economical crisis. Fascinated by Tacheles- a permanent art squat- in Berlin, this project explores anarchy as a future architectural utopian phenomena.

Employing an Anarchy Community as a base, the activists’ lives become metaphors for future counterculture. Through a critical analysis of both contemporary and historical anarchy communities I aim to propose an alternative urban regeneration strategy.

The development relies on the cyclical nature of the anarchy communities through squatting in areas where living spaces are lacking.

Berlin is unique, with the existence of dual spaces; two Berlins each with its own architectural style; a consequence of the division imposed after the wall.

Similarly EAC is split into two separate buildings, the

desire to reveal the existing infrastructure demanded a creative reuse and recycling of much of the original structures which were reinvented to develop new and often unexpected programmatic connections for the Eco-Anarchy Centres. The new infrastructure allows squatters to build a new environment on the preexisting building leading to an unplanned, cheap and quick addition to the skyline. The relationship between temporary and permanent buildings is therefore explored.

The architecture is a spontaneous expression without permission. It seeks to become an active participant in the building of the community and organisation through communal action and shared responsibility. By adopting and manipulating the processes, language and materials associated with recycling and self build precedents, I was able to speculate on the qualities of the spaces produced and how they could be created.

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M.Arch Architecture

M.Arch Architecture

ibstock / usa trip

for such an honourable trip sponsored by Ibstock and organised by Birmingham City University.

The other great moment of our trip to New York City was definitely visiting the “Top of the Rock”, the top floors of the Rockefeller Centre. This offered an uninterrupted panoramic view of the New York skyline, with the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Tower to one side, and Central Park and the Hudson River to the other. After five tiring days of solid walking in New York City, we headed to Chicago for the remaining two nights of our stay Stateside.

USA Trip Strong industry relationships allow the School to offer some students the opportunity to undertake additional studies such as the annual USA trip. Each year Ibstock generously provide M.Arch Architecture students with bursaries to visit New York. The trip has been running for over 20 years and has become an ‘institution’ within the School and the wider Birmingham architectural community.

This year students visited New York and Chicago, one of the M.Arch students, Kabir Bansal, has reflected on the trip: Stateside It was the last official week at University before the Easter break, and with only three days to go, we could not wait for our trip stateside to begin, taking in the Big Apple followed by a visit to the Windy City. Finally, departure day arrived, and on a sunny but cold Saturday morning we arrived at Heathrow T5 filled with excitement for our 8am departure.

Seven hours later, we landed at Newark Airport. As we headed towards customs, we looked back to catch a glimpse of New York’s skyline in the distance, behind what was a very dull and cloudy afternoon.

From the planned itinerary, the buildings I was looking forward to seeing were the Rockefeller Centre, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the New Museum by Sanaa. I was particularly drawn to the latter, with its six stacked vertical boxes made from aluminium mesh, each offering a different experience. The reason for this attraction was the fact that I was giving a presentation on it, and had also used it as a precedent study for my university projects. As such, it would be interesting interpreting the building in real terms rather than from published material.

After arriving at the hotel, we checked in, freshened up and headed straight to Times Square which was within walking distance from the hotel. From here, we took the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge. The plan was for us to walk the 486.3m of the longest steel suspension bridge in the world while the sun was setting. Unfortunately, and to our dismay, by the time we had arrived at the bridge New York was refusing to get dark, which was unusual for that time of day. After walking across the bridge, from lower Manhattan to Brooklyn, we decided to stop off in a nearby Brooklyn bar where we would wait for the dark. After approximately one hour in the bar, we headed back out towards the bridge, where everything was glowing. At that moment, and as we witnessed what is perhaps the most beautiful picturesque view of the Manhattan skyline, we as a group became very grateful

As we arrived in the Windy City, and as we headed out of the subway and started to walk to the hotel, I noticed that, in fact, this city was not so dissimilar to New York, although it appeared less cosmopolitan yet a cleaner city. One of the highlights of Chicago was a visit to the John Hancock tower on our first evening. The bar on the 96th floor of the skyscraper allowed views of the Chicago skyline which included Lake Michigan, the Willis Tower, and a lit-up grid of the City.

Rather quickly, the trip came to an end, and we all had to head back to our lives in the UK. Nevertheless, we brought back with us great memories and, most importantly, inspiration from the many building we had visited.

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Hayley Morton

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PG DIP. ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

PG DIP. ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

Postgraduate Diploma in Architectural Practice (RIBA Part III) What does this course cover?

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA

ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

The course covers the criteria set down by the Architects Registration Board and adopted by the Royal Institute of British Architects on 25 July 2011 for qualifications that give exemption from the RIBA Part III examination. On completion the successful candidate can register with the ARB and having done so is entitled to use the title architect. They are also eligible to apply for chartered membership of the RIBA. The course aims to:

(RIBA PART III)

To provide an education in architectural practice that provides skills, knowledge and understanding that are not only for the purpose of qualification but can also be taken forward by the student as a qualified architect to form the basis of their on-going professional development.

In order to achieve this it will provide students with:

Beyond Graduation The requirements for qualification as an architect include 24 months relevant practical experience. Up to 12 months of this can be taken before the Part II course and the year out provides an essential break between the Part I and the Part II courses and sets the knowledge and skills from the first degree into the context of the profession and the construction industry.

Not everyone carries on with an architectural education so the School of Architecture runs the Beyond Graduation course to provide guidance and support for graduates of BA Architecture in early career choices, both in and out of architecture, as well as the professional studies advisor role to those

recording professional experience.

Joining the course enables graduates to access support for the academic year from the School of Architecture professional studies advisor, careers support from the university and the opportunity to be a Student Academic Partner (SAP), as well extending access to BCU buildings, library and computers (Wifi) and the opportunity to meet up with classmates at Graduate Recall Days.

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Knowledge and support for professional experience to enable students to satisfactorily complete the final examination and join the register of architects in the United Kingdom.

Ability to act in a professional manner and in accordance with the codes and standards that regulate the profession.

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

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

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

The course covers two main areas, knowledge of professional practice and practice experience.

“I have really enjoyed the lectures and feel that the course is well organised and structured, being provided with clear knowledge of what is expected regarding deadlines and course dates in advance has been really useful in planning my time (especially with the office).

I will recommend the course to others.”

Jill Southworth

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PG DIP. ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

Case Studies: Part III Professional Practice Sarah Ellis I completed my Part II (PG Dip Architecture) in 2007, and completed my Part III, PG Dip Architectural Practice, (with Commendation) in 2011.

The Part II course was the next progressive step, after Part I, to becoming an architect. I undertook my Part I course in Newcastle and after completing my year out in Birmingham I decided I wanted to stay closer to home, so locality was a key driver. I undertook my Part II studies at the Birmingham School of Architecture, also completing Part III there.

The course enabled me to develop design and communication skills and with the support of my tutors as well they helped me to grow in confidence and to develop new skills. Part III specifically gave me a thorough understanding of contractual aspects of the profession.

These skills are essential.

I joined Seymour Harris Architecture in September 2009, starting out as an Architectural Assistant, working on small projects in the retail, commercial and transport sectors. The company has over 60 years involvement in the building and construction industry, across a wide variety of sectors; the Practice has been used by a significant number of major UK commercial and institutional developers. Since successfully completing my Part III, I joined the ARB and am now a fully qualified Architect.

I have been given additional responsibility within the office and am currently running a new build - a 900 place secondary school

Joe Harris project on site in Telford. This is my largest project to date.

The course helped my personal development, but key for me was being able to study parttime whilst also gaining invaluable office based experience. Although it was not the easiest decision and lots of hard work, I think doing the course part time benefited me greatly.

The courses are not easy and the profession is not a 9-5 job but in many ways the course (both Part I and Part II) helped me to prepare for this from the start.

I thoroughly enjoyed my post graduate studies and besides the obvious benefits of achieving RIBA Part II exemption, I had the opportunity to really investigate the aspects of architectural theory that interest me. My thesis project was set in war torn Sarajevo, to do with the architecture of necessity as opposed to gratuitousness shape making. I found the work fascinating and surprisingly emotional.

The course not only helped me to learn the essential professional and technical skills but provided a methodology of thinking and ways to translate ideas and concepts into drawings and potentially real objects and spaces.

I have been nominated for several awards including the RIBA Silver Medal for Best Design Project and Building Design Class of 2009.

I am now a qualified architect, completing my studies at the Birmingham School of Architecture in June 2011. Following completion of my Post Graduate Diploma, and after a brief stint of freelance work I began working at Seymour Harris Architecture, where my work has covered a range of projects mainly in the educational sector. Christ Church Primary School, which formed the basis for my case study for Part III is now complete and I am currently Project Architect for a 900 place new build Secondary School in Telford as well as inputting into the development of two further primary schools.

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Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture

landscape architecture Sam Roberts

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

BA (Hons)

landscape architecture ‘Our modern world presents complex challenges with respect to ecological, social and functional degradation of human settlements and regional landscapes. This makes it essential for education and research conducted in academic institutions to formulate new solutions for the present and the future’ (IFLA / UNESCO Charter )

Huda Abdi

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

The rationale for the BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture provides a distinct and strong identity, treating the city as its laboratory and studio, where infrastructure, physical geography, time, ecologies, and culture intersect. The course sees landscape and the environment as its context , with the potential to deliver sustainable futures and embeds the principles of the Unesco charter into all levels of the programme.

The Landscape Institute position statement on climate change provides clear guidance on the roles of the profession and its duty to respond to the challenge presented by changes in global environmental systems.

The course provides a forum to work in a multidisciplinary platform with other cognate disciplines, exploring opportunities for developing ideologies, philosophies and design approaches that extend and inform the climate change debate, green infrastructure and habitation.

We look at these scenarios closely. through an experimental aperture, seeking inquiry and innovation and using these as design tools in which the skin of the earth, interacts with water, sun and weather to create a dynamic drawing board, where landscape architects work as human geologist manipulating this skin, by using designed ecologies for the benefit of nature and man.

The programme is designed to expose and investigate issues surrounding the designed environment, exploring landscape as a potential resource in which to deliver biodiversity, preserve and create new Ineta Naujalyte

habitats, explore issues to do with the productive landscape and how nature and communities can work closer with each other.

Our educational aims and objectives, include the promotion of the scholarly activity of discovery, embracing research to underpin design projects in a multidisciplinary educational structure. The course stresses collaborative approaches to problem based learning. It recognizes professional distinctiveness, providing a space for discourse and sharing sophisticated ideas. Design is a predictive tool to investigate design problems that transcends all scales within urban and rural environments.

In each of the levels THE STUDIO is the interface between ideas exchange and design thinking and as you go through the course we delve more deeply into the complex relationships of the urban and rural environment, learning about how we can work with these natural and man made infrastructures to promote health and well being in all users of our landscape.

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

BA (HONS) landscape ARCHITECTURE

Year 1

In Year 1 the students explore Birmingham, surveying, reading through drawn investigations, finding out about its living landscape, home to 60000 students and a rich post industrial fabric, that has a stimulating series of woven spaces that are threaded by canal, road, rail and air, and how these transit lines have evolved into a dynamic 21st Century urban hub.

Ula Bujauskaite

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

Ula Bujauskaite

The first year studio and skills workshops assembles the tool kit of design principles.

Term 1, Graphic Apparatus: Mining The City, consisted of three mini-projects. Project-1, Design-a-Drawing problematized “seeing” the city through different graphic techniques. With tutor or in small groups, students conducted walks along designated routes in central Birmingham. The design challenge was to craft a generative system of graphic inquiry: a process of drawing using various techniques and media to critically and poetically explore the significant urban observations and insights.

Project-2, Create-a-Material(ity) probed design ideas through techniques of manipulating materials, composing with tactile, aural, olfactory and kinesthetic faculties as much as visual ones. This project challenged students to transform a range of materials (recycled packaging, leaves, found-materials) into one or more ‘other materiality’, to create a prosthesis for the human body.

The final project drew on the skills from previous ones.

In Project-3, Construct-a-Window, the challenge was to transform existing window sites around the Gosta Green courtyard in response to their site-specific qualities of light, materiality, body and framing the city. We explored this within the framework of Health and Safety Codes, observed carefully and creatively.

Term 2 explored inhabiting public space, or: how do we relate to “others”? The primary state of our existence is social; we populate space as we relate to ‘other’ beings, whether humans from other social classes and/ or with different ethnic identities, or other species with dissimilar but equally legitimate needs and desires. As designers, we investigate how, through manipulating space, material and landform, we shape such tentative publics. Our primary design challenge in this project was to propose a Node for Urban Flows in one of three urban areas (Bullring, Snowhill or Digbeth), and which creatively manages the conflicting aspirations and desires of different stakeholders. The project unfolded in three phases:

Phase I: Interpreting Public-ness (3 weeks): Occurring while reading texts on public space, this phase asked students to formulate an interpretation of public-ness in their selected urban areas through layered mappings and experiential narratives.

Phase II: Cinematic Sequence (4 weeks): In this phase, each student was challenged to propose their urban site as a set for a cinematic sequence from a given film selected based on their Phase-I discoveries.

Phase III: A Node for Urban Flows (4 weeks): The final phase began with drafting a “contract” between relevant stakeholders at each site. Each student then proposed an intervention to mediate between the different stakeholders and their flows. Each student proposed a final design intervention in his/her selected site: Bullring, Snowhill or Digbeth.

Field trips Students travelled abroad to study precedent studies.

These develop an understanding of the cultural richness of Europe and how this study portal complements and develops the vocabulary used in technology and the design studio.

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Year 2 Zoe Smith

Alex Agnew

Alex Agnew

Year 2 of the degree course is where we like to explore and experiment with ideas. Its theme is about pushing the boundaries and embracing new ways of seeing and designing.

Though this process rich year, students are encouraged to develop their own positions and identities as designers.

And this is achieved through a range of stimulating design led inquiries into landscape architecture as a philosophy.

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

THE DESIGN PROCESS STUDIOS The design process studios at undergraduate and graduate level are designed to develop artistic practice and critical visual skill; the interpretative and transformative studies are given a clear purpose. As students gradually become more aesthetically aware in the studio, well-established myths separating language from emotions and art from intelligence begin to evaporate. Students gain confidence and fluency in the expression of ideas in form and interpreting form through ideas; are able to delve into the particularities of place; to inform their research into the social, cultural and physical context of our lives and move seamlessly

Jos Thorndyke

back and forth between with wider contextual concerns and the materiality of place working artistically at a strategic as well as at a detailed level.

Landscapes for Health and Well being This second process led studio provides a rich discourse for the second studio which explored design opportunities for the restoration of the River Rea landscape corridor. This also provided a forum for introducing the principles of ecopsychology and how Landscape Architects can design new spaces that facilitate a range of therapies within our urban landscape.

The River Rea a linear landscape redesigned to inspire health and well being for the cities population. This project takes a closer look at landscape architecture and ecopsychology. and explores the position, that nature and having a rich ecology in a cities fabric, provides a framework for a landscape to be designed for health and well being. Through this studio we look at how this River can come alive again. The design proposals involve new wetlands, river side walks, and wetland planting that encourages a wide range of wildlife.

Project Title: Hidden Rivers.

Birmingham has a river that very few people know about, its location south of the city and set below the ground by 5 metres and canyonised by culverts, building and engineered interventions. The river provides an opportunity for experimenting and exploring landscape architecture as a device in which to remodel the quality of the environment so that it becomes a welcoming place that is enriched with a network of wetland habitats.

The project requires students to look at knitting the spaces together to create a high quality linear park that is designed to provide a therapeutic experience for its users.

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

BA (HONS) landscape ARCHITECTURE

Sarah Wilson

Year 3

Sarah Wilson

The third year is where we bring all the learning together of years one and two and look at the international themes that promoted by the International Federation of Landscape Architects.

Field trip to Yorkshire Dales Reading the Landscape is one of the fine arts of the Landscape Architect and places us in a strong position to develop Landscape and Visual Assessment skills. At its heart is learning about natural England, its amazingly varied landscape and look into the qualities that make it such a powerful, distinct and beautiful landscape. This includes deciphering woodlands, hills and mountains, meadows, riparian wetlands. On this field trip we explored agricultural farmlands, and learning about landscape as our cultural heritage, and the links between geology, land use and Landscape Character and the complex and subtle language of the living landscape.

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Design Studio for Green Energy The decommissioning of Coalbrookdale Power Station presents a significant opportunity to provide a new quality of environment at Ironbridge and to explore Green Energy as a philosophical way of living. The project produced a range of design ideas that utilised the full scope of the site and project brief, especially responding to its industrial scale, as a way of demonstrating the diversity of Green Energy as an environmentally sensitive resource that meets the many needs of the community.

Design studio for Climate Change Ineta Naujalyte

Huda Abdi

The Landscape Institute conference in 2007 identified Climate Change as the lead topic, and like many organisations, embraced this as an agenda item for the profession to debate . What emerged from the conference , not surprisingly, Landscape Architects are uniquely placed to use their design skills as a tool to deal with these large scale systems that threaten our way of life across the globe. The conference concluded all members of The Landscape Institute are required to have a grasp of the basic principles involving climate change and the LI expects awareness to be gained through its on going CPD events.

BA (HONS) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE LEVEL 4 Russell

In this studio we explored contemporary design thinking and the portfolio of ideas responded positively to these issues within a spirit of OPPORTUNITY, INVENTION and INNOVATION . The design thinking employed a design methodology that explored the idea that a FLOOD is a theatrical sequence of events, one that is woven into the psyche of the community and spatial fabric of the river’s hinterland.

The Flood is a transient intervention with the landscape , its impact in the UK is typically a minor event in terms of loss and damage and communities have adapted to the landscape by siting their habitats in response to water levels.

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BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture

Ann Mount

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PostGraduate Diploma Landscape Architecture

PostGraduate Diploma Landscape Architecture

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA/MA IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE This Programme is open to a range of students, forming the final element in the route to professional Landscape Architecture for both students from the ‘Conversion’ route or those with a first undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture. It is also open to overseas students with equivalent qualifications.

Within a clearly defined modular structure covering issues such as sustainable landscape planning, professional practice, planting design, landscape materials and construction as well as a comprehensive, student-led, Thesis Design Project which requires students to demonstrate the full range of abilities needed in the professional discipline. It also enables students to begin to define and explore their own ‘position’ and interests in the discipline.

Within this framework, the design teaching has a number of notable features: THE DESIGN PROCESS STUDIOS Building a keen sense of social responsibility, the design process studios are set within the context of Birmingham’s Big City Plan and key global challenges such as climate change, health, food security and the supply of water. Keen observation of the impact ideas and form have on the people who live, work or visit the places we create informs the interpretation of the initial design inspiration to generate form with knowledge of the culture and traditions of the medium. The skill and confidence to manipulate this spatial, visual and conceptual discourse nourishes and invigorates every stage of the process, to build a critically rigorous, artistic body of work that deals with the challenges of creating elegant landscapes for everyday life.

Mara Redman

INTERNATIONAL STUDIO: IDEAS AND MATERIALITY AND CRITICAL DESIGN Creating theory to inform design practice, exploring the expression of ideas in detailed design and the potential of new technologies, new styles and aesthetic approaches, the detailed design modules, IDEAS AND MATERIALITY (construction) and CRITICAL DESIGN (planting), are supported by a highly acclaimed international lecture series when a range of expert local, national and international visiting tutors give public evening lectures. Since they frequently participate in the studio, students have the tremendous benefit of

working with some of the most eminent practitioners from across the world. Recent speakers include Robert Camlin, Camlin Lonsdale, Jeppe Aargard Anderson, JAA Copenhagen, Professor Ruth Morrow, Queens, Belfast, Andrew Grant, Grant Associates, Neil Porter, Gustafson Porter, Professor Richard Weston, University of Wales, Cardiff, Kim Wilkie, Chris Beardshaw, Carl Steinitz, GSD, Harvard, Martha Schwartz, GSD Harvard, Andrew Wilson, the London School of Garden Design, SueAnne Ware, RMIT, Melbourne.

THE THESIS DESIGN STUDIO DESIGN ORIENTATED RESEARCH High profile landscape infrastructure projects act as the vehicle and context for the final year design thesis, enabling students to contribute to the growing international debate about the need to develop new approaches to spatial design, driven by the recognition that the socio-economic benefits of adopting holistic, artistic, ecological and conceptual approaches to master planning and regeneration are becoming increasingly evident and are regarded as essential if we

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PostGraduate Diploma Landscape Architecture

PostGraduate Diploma Landscape Architecture

are to respond to the challenges of natural resource shortage (“peak oil�, water, etc.), climate change adaptation and mitigation, unprecedented urban growth and a changing economy.

The importance of radically changing the scope of design practice, explored in events such as the Seeing the Bigger Picture symposium held at BCU in April 2009 and the Ecological Urbanism conference at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard 2009 (Mostafavi and Doherty 2010), is reflected in a number of recent publications investigating and documenting pioneering approaches to regional design and recent EU calls for research exploring the potential of this approach to create resilient towns and cities.

The significance of the landscape dimension in all of this is reflected by the fact that more than 39 countries have signed or ratified the European Landscape Convention and UNESCO in partnership with United Nations Agencies, is considering devising an international landscape convention.

Regional research and exploration gives a broader perspective to design, a way of working that requires an awareness of issues such as ecology, hydrology and flooding, topography, the renewal of transport systems, short circuit economies (reliance on local goods and services), climateneutral infrastructure for sustainable waste, water, energy and transport management, governance, finance as well as understanding how to foster greater equity and social cohesion and mitigate negative environmental impacts.

Box Ying Wang

Sam Roberts

Design practiced at this macro-scale, as in any other scale, is about art and science, nature and culture, ideas and form. Multidisciplinary, fluid in scale and focus, it is often coordinated by landscape architects because of their geographic sensibility, knowledge of space and form and keen aesthetic and artistic awareness. It involves talking about beauty, having daring and vision.

What is remarkable about this shift in practice is that

Lesley Cotton

the landscape is seen not as the bits left in between the buildings, developments, highways and town centres but as the context upon and within which these dynamic processes take place. The year-long thesis design studio is the dramatic conclusion to an exciting programme of study that prepares our students to face these challenges and opportunities.

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PostGraduate Diploma Landscape Architecture

PostGraduate Diploma Landscape Architecture

Dan Gaston

WORK OPPORTUNITIES Across the world, especially in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific, there is an increasing demand for professionally qualified Landscape Architects.

Demand is continuing to grow in the UK in response to an increasing awareness of the significance of the landscape as the cultural, physical and social context of our lives, recognition that the aesthetics of place is a vital component of sustainable economic growth and that the landscape as the context within which the processes

of development take place - It is on the mainstream political agenda.

Despite current economic conditions, students graduating from the Postgraduate programme in 2012 are already working in a range of landscape practices in the UK and recent Built Environment sector surveys (CABESpace, Academy for Sustainable Communities) have indicated a significant shortage of qualified Landscape Architecture staff.

Students undertake the Programmes at BCU because they are highly focused and efficient, tailored for part time and full time students and renowned for teaching design expertise that is both cutting edge and intense.

The student cohort has a wide range of expertise, is highly motivated and absolutely committed. Our students want to learn how to design, to see the bigger picture and participate in defining a moment of profound change in the way we view the landscape by gaining a highly

sought after professional qualification which will lead to a stimulating career via: • • • • • •

Local, national and international landscape practices Local, national and international multi disciplinary practices Academia.

Local government, NGO’s.

Policy, administration within national government Their own practices.

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Jos Thorndyke

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ACADEMIC PROFILES

ACADEMIC PROFILES

ACADEMIC PROFILES Dr Maria Caserio Visiting Fellow Maria has worked for several design practices, local authorities and universities on issues relating to urban planning, urban design and policy. She has experience in fostering research for university research and teaching programmes, delivering new methods and approaches for the creation of master-plan designs and producing end-of-grant reports and publications for external bodies. She has extensive experience in preparing and writing European project submissions and funding programmes; successfully secured funding for transnational projects and subsequently coordinated and delivered projects.

She also has experience working as an Ecohomes Assessor producing assessment reports, delivery of seminars and various reports to the industry. She has managed and supervised overseas student placements into UK businesses namely Groundwork Black Country, Environ Ltd, Thomas Vale and Wates Construction.

Maria was a research fellow for the Urban Futures research project, funded by the EPSRC’s Sustainable Urban Environments (SUE) programme. It addressed the challenge of developing future scenarios for the year 2050 that provide insights into the potential impacts of today’s urban design decisions.

The project produced an assessment process which can provide alternative solutions and strategies for implementation, and resilience

in urban design practice. Specific interests include an analysis of the ways in which environmental systems are identified, perceived and valued in cities and towns, how professionals value and market developments and how business construct their corporate or product image.

Richard Coles Professor of Urban Landscape and Environmental Interaction Initially studying Forestry Professor Coles retains an enthusiasm and academic interest regarding the ways that individuals interact with the environment through research spanning the fields of urban and community forestry, urban greening and landscape perception.

Hailing from a science discipline, but working within a design faculty he is in a unique position to consider the interface between environment and people, in particular taking a user centred approach to research.

Current work is focussed on well-being looking at the various factors that contribute towards its achievement, the associated levels of sensory engagement, developing associated techniques and methodologies. His work is supported by major grants from the UK Research Councils and the EU, where he has developed tools and approaches for examining the social criteria relating to urban green spaces, the parameters relating to the achievement of high levels of well-being, modelling well-being/environment interaction. He recently hosted Well-being 2011- Exploring the Multi-dimensions of Well-being- and is currently looking at the flows and connections that occur between community and the environment under the AHRC Connected Communities call.

Alessandro Columbano BA(Hons) Architecture, Lecturer/ Co.Lab Coordinator

boundaries through the shared learning vehicle of the city and the critical theories that underpin it.

Previous experience includes using GIS evidence-based research and Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) to develop interventions across various scales; from homogenous tectonics (micro) to optimised urbanism (macro). Today, Alessandro explores the future opportunities of digital technologies in transforming creative and professional practices through particular lines of enquiry in cultural memory and identity, the idea of the ‘infinite’ archive, and ethics of digital space.

More recently he coauthored and presented the ‘Landscapes of Variance’ paper at the international Designing Nature as Infrastructure symposium, TU Munich, building on his submission for the Land Art Generator Initiative competition, Freshkills Park, NY.

These ideas are explored with the value to design education of hands-on experience - reviving and reenergising a tradition for which the school was renowned in the mid to late 20th century in a contemporary manner through the design studio and Co.LAB

Russell’s research focuses on the exploration of the ecological opportunities presented by the urban River Rea in Digbeth, Birmingham as a laboratory, he is examining how ecological process can be used as a device in place making, to enhance biodiversity and draw upon the richness of new layers of animal and plant life to provide a living dynamic that informs our sensory perception of place. Driven from a design perspective, the research expands conventional boundaries of ecology as a discipline.

Mike Dring M. Arch Programme Director Mike’s research critically explores the context of Birmingham, a city that constantly seeks to reinvent itself as the latest idea of ‘urban’. His research engages in historic and contemporary ‘artefacts’ and ‘texts’ including archival material, the representation of the city through media, through discussions with those involved in its formation and through the fabric of the city itself as a ‘contested’ ground. He has collaborated with Stuart Whipps, photographer and lecturer in Art and Design within the School of Art in exploring ideas around the city; cultural identity and memory, the value of built form and the concept of the modern ruin. They ran a crossdisciplinary undergraduate student project ‘The Modern Gazetteer’ which sought to break down disciplinary

Russell Good BA(Hons) Landscape Architecture Programme Director

Dr Ljubomir Jankovic Reader in Sustainable Design Dr Lubo Jankovic is a leading expert on making buildings more energy-efficient and a member of the University’s Centre for Low Carbon Research, which co-ordinates research across a range of disciplines, faculties and external partners. He has been leading a team of researchers on monitoring and evaluating the ground-breaking Birmingham Zero Carbon House - a carbon-neutral building based on a 170-year-old redbrick Victorian house, which won Royal Institute

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ACADEMIC PROFILES

of British Architects (RIBA) Architecture Award in 2010 and attracted media attention worldwide. A PhD student, Halla Huws, has been recruited to work on the project, while the University’s growing expertise in this area has led to the creation of a new module on zerocarbon design for Master’s students. Dr Jankovic’s new book, Designing Zero Carbon Buildings Using Dynamic Simulation Methods, was published in February 2012. This is the first time that a structured method for zero carbon design has been published, providing a key reference for students and practitioners.

Professor Kathryn Moore Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director, PVAP Past President of the Landscape Institute and 2008 Thomas Jefferson Visiting Chair at the University of Virginia, Kathryn Moore has published extensively on design quality, theory, education and practice. Her highly acclaimed book ‘Overlooking the Visual, Demystifying the Art of Design’ (2010) partly funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, questions traditional theories of perception as it builds up a sensible, pragmatic approach to design education and practice, demystifying the art of design and demonstrating the real value of design expertise.

Crossing boundaries between philosophy, theory and practice, the implications of this interdisciplinary analysis for the landscape, consciousness and the creative process are being explored through the Pragmatic Vision Artistic Practice hub in the School of Architecture.

The convergence of a pragmatic, philosophical approach to perception and the emerging theoretical, pedagogical

ACADEMIC PROFILES

and political priorities with regard to the aesthetics of place is helping to redefine and develop sustainable practice such as the proposed UNESCO International Landscape Convention and the strategic wide area iconic landscape project for HS2.

Professor Ruth Reed Programme Director PgDip Architectural Practice/ Director of Professional studies Immediate Past President of RIBA, Ruth Reed’s research explores the empirical evidence that students who complete a course in architecture and then take career paths other than into the profession contribute to the success of good design in the built environment and in other areas of the creative industries. This contribution to the economy of the added value of architectural education goes unacknowledged. Developing knowledge of potential destinations for our graduates is important to inform teaching in particular to allow staff to recognize the plurality of outcomes from the degree.

Ruth was conferred with the title, Professor of Architectural Practice by Birmingham City University in 2012.

Kevin Singh Head of School Kevin’s research is split between opportunities which arise from his work in professional practice at the space* studio, and the direction of his academic teaching.

His M.Arch unit is focused on issues of design drivers and how and why designs are like they are. This work is culminating in an approved book proposal entitled “Design Agents”.

Elsewhere academically Kevin is leading a team of student researchers developing an electronic drawing archive entitled “Architecturally Useful Scholarly Resource” with support from other colleagues and Birmingham City University’s Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT). The team are approaching a number of renowned architects to capture original drawings and models to document the design process for architecture students to learn from.

In terms of professional practice he is exploring the needs of the Gypsy and Traveler community having developed an innovative approach to improving existing, legal sites to meet the needs of this forgotten community.

Hannah Vowles Deputy Head of School and Professor Jim Low, Senior Academic Hannah and Jims’ research sets out to explore attitudes amongst students, Heads of Schools and other senior academics about the place of studios in teaching and learning within architectural education and to demystify the understanding of studio culture, it is funded by the Higher Education Academy Centre for Education in the Built Environment, the BIAD Research Fund and the Birmingham City University Student Academic Partners Scheme.

Dr. Hazem Ziada BA (Hons) Architecture Programme Director, Radical ‘Togetherness’ - Ziada’s research explores the design morphology of ‘togetherness’- or how radically- gregarious social formations construct space

and shape its aesthetics. Examining a case study from avant-garde Soviet architecture, Ziada’s dissertation research proposed a theoretical construct for spatial inquiry into collective formations and behaviours, and into logic of space-making, evocative of collective states of consciousness.

Current and future research projects probe public space in contemporary contexts, particularly the evolving forms of co-presence in the architectural and urban global spaces of flow such as world expositions, airports and sports stadia, and in context of the virtual spaces which copiously attend them. These concerns extend into probing environmental challenges. Arguing for more ‘gregarious’ and resilient social formations, this design-research explores the programmatic and spatial transformations accompanying our attempts to confront the challenges of ecological scarcity.

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Events

Events

EVENTS 2011-12 The school curates a number of events as part of an ongoing commitment to the wider learning in Architecture and Landscape within the region. This year saw two lecture series and the launch of BSoA Summer Events – a two week festival of interactive and collaborative projects for all students to work with a variety of hosting organisations. Projects included a construction workshop, pop-up shop, and gothic fancy dress.

September:

January:

March:

book launch: Dr

Association of Architectural Educators, Orientations

Lecture:

Hall+Bednarczyk lecture: We Made That screening: ‘Manufactured Landscapes’ organized as part

of the Film-Club lecture: Peter Neal, Masterplanning big landscapes lecture: Fruzsina Zelenák, Landscape design in Hungary lecture: Paul Shepheard, Infrastructure lecture: Ruth Morrow

June:

Forum:

October Opening: Exhibition:

Hayes Bridge, Stone, Staffordshire BA (Hons) Architecture Year 3, Installations, British Ceramics Biennale, Stoke

Hawkins Brown, Ideas Exchange Exhibition: The Public, West Brom, Art of Architecture/Box

of Delights Screening: Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’ organized as part of the Film-Club February:

Zero Zero 00:/, A Social Production Stuart Piercy, Making It screening: ‘Red Road’ organized as part of the Film-Club screening: ‘The First Movie’ organized as part of the Film- Club lecture: Andrew Grant, From Safe European Homes to

Wild Asian Landscapes. lecture: Carl Steinitz, Public Participation in Landscape Planning: A Prognosis for the Future lecture: Noël van Dooren, On Landscape, Time and Drawing lecture: Andrew Wilson, ”And the planting...? The loss

of design rigour in our planting.” lecture: Neil Porter, World Cities - Liveable Landscapes lecture:

November: Exhibition:

lecture:

M.Arch unit, SOAP (Box) Shop, Ironbridge

December

CJ Lim, London in 2½ Dimensions Pecha Kucha: CJ Lim/RIBA, Places that matter to me Lecture:

lecture:

May: conference:

lecture:

lecture:

lecture:

Scala/Sceme Study Day, Retrofit, Refurb, Reuse and Reduce Jeppe Aagard Anderson, Cities are for people - urban form Richard Weston, Transformations: designs from nature Robert Camlin

Lubo Jankovic, Designing Zero Carbon Buildings workshop: Ibstock and Wilmott Dixons, Brick workshop workshop: Urban Vision, Cheadle, Pugin Festival

BSoA/BIAD Summer Graduate Show, Gosta Green exhibition: Birmingham Made Me, Mailbox, Birmingham exhibition: Love Architecture Festival, LA:B shop event: Friends of the School launch, Mailbox, Birmingham exhibition:

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Events

Events

February: Andrew Grant, From Safe European Homes to Wild Asian Landscapes Carl Steinitz, Public Participation in Landscape

Planning: a Prognosis for the Future Noël van Dooren, On Landscape, Time and Drawing Andrew Wilson, And the Planting……? the loss of

design rigour in our planting Neil Porter, World Cities - Liveable Landscapes March: Fruzsina Zelenák, Landscape Design in Hungary Peter Neal, Masterplanning big landscapes Paul Shepheard, Infrastructure Ruth Morrow, Community + Creativity: Tactics of

being ‘at hand’ in Critical Context May: Jeppe Aagard Anderson, Cities Are For People - urban form Richard Weston, Transformations: designs from nature For more information: www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture/ news/architecture-2012-lecture-series

Architecture is a collective art. The architect is no longer an “auteur” who delivers a design in isolation without the support of others. As the scale and complexity of projects grows, and the role of the architect becomes increasingly marginalised whilst the number of different consultants, authorities, design advisors, interest groups, specialists, project managers, sub-contractors and contractors multiplies.

It is the architect’s role to guide, motivate and control this group from start to finish.

LECTURE SERIES 01/02:

Andrew Grant, From Safe European Homes to Wild Asian Landscapes.

08/02:

Carl Steinitz, Public Participation in Landscape Planning: A Prognosis for the Future

15/02:

Noël van Dooren, On Landscape, Time and Drawing

22/02:

Andrew Wilson, Ideas, Aestetics in Planting Design

29/02: Neil Porter World Cities: Liveable Landscapes

Euan MacDonald, Associate with Hawkins\Brown will explore the diverse architectural approach of the practice across a variety of projects, which demonstrate their intrinsic commitment to collaboration with clients, artists, designers, engineers or contractors.

www.hawkinsbrown.co.uk

Places are limited, and there is no charge.

Please contact MADE to book a seat at www.made.org.uk/events

07/03:

Peter Neal, Masterplanning big landscapes

All lectures start at 5.45pm

14/03:

Paul Shepheard, Infrastructure

21/03:

Ruth Morrow, Title tbc.

25/04:

SueAnne Ware, Title tbc

The Emma Jessie Phipps Lecture Theatre Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (BIAD) Gosta Green, Birmingham B4 7DX

02/05:

Jeppe Aagard Anderson, Cities are for people - urban form

09/05:

Richard Weston, Transformations: designs from nature

Lectures are followed by wine and nibbles

IDEAS & MATERIALITY LECTURE SERIES 01/02:

Andrew Grant, From Safe European Homes to Wild Asian Landscapes.

08/02:

Carl Steinitz, Public Participation in Landscape Planning: A Prognosis for the Future

15/02: Noël van Dooren On Landscape, Time and Drawing 22/02:

Andrew Wilson, ”And the planting……? The loss of design rigour in our planting.”

29/02:

Neil Porter, World Cities Liveable Landscapes

07/03:

Peter Neal, Masterplanning big landscapes

14/03:

Paul Shepheard, Infrastructure

21/03:

Ruth Morrow, Title tbc.

25/04:

SueAnne Ware, Title tbc

02/05:

Jeppe Aagard Anderson, Cities are for people - urban form

09/05:

Richard Weston, Transformations: designs from nature

Places are limited, and there is no charge.

Please contact MADE to book a seat at www.made.org.uk/events

London in two-and-a-half-dimensions Thursday, 1st December, 6pm EJP Lecture Theatre Gosta Green

CJ Lim_’Dream Isle’

The Birmingham School of Architecture ‘Student Architecture Society’ is an active group of students engaged in broadening the learning journey of our students and the parameters of the built environment disciplines through events and happenings throughout the academic year. The lecture series takes place on a monthly basis and is coordinated in conjunction with RIBA WM, BAA and other regional organisations and events. If you would like to get involved with SAS either as a student, or as a member of the creative/ professional community, please contact a member of SAS or staff at the School of Architecture. http://www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture

SAS

This lecture, based on CJ Lim’s new book of the same title, combines place and fiction, taking well-known institutions, epochs and lifestyles from ten sites across the city of London and renders them fantastic in a string of architectural short stories. The medium is an intersection of paper assemblages and text, occupying a liminal territory where familiar characters find themselves in unexpected environments and places transform into active protagonists. The stories have been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museum but are collected for the first time in a single volume, laid out as one phantasmagoric city vision. Painstakingly constructed, the stories encompass a retelling of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ at Smithfield, a dating agency at Battersea, and a ringed transport system manifesting as a celestial river over the great metropolis. Enthralling and inspirational, this cabinet of curiosity and wonder depicts a vision of the city that is immoral, anarchic, unscientific and at the same time glorious, ravishing and a pleasure to behold.

Copies of ‘Short Stories’ will be available to purchase on the evening for a reduced price of £15 (cash payments only). www.cjlim-studio8.com/

Stuart Piercy, Principal _Piercy&Company

MAKING IT

Tuesday, 28th February 2012, 5:30pm EJP Lecture Theatre, Gosta Green

SAS LECTURE SERIES 2011/12

2012 Programme

Hawkins\Brown_Coventry University Student Hub

IDEAS & MATERIALITY

CJ Lim SHORT STORIES:

SAS LECTURE SERIES 2011/12

Landscape International Lecture Series This series of lectures forms part of the Critical Design and International Studio Modules, supported by BIAD Research, Birmingham School of Architecture, the Trust Fund and MADE. The lectures are open to all staff and students of Birmingham City University and professionals in the region.

The Collaborative Studio of Hawkins\Brown Euan MacDonald, Associate Tuesday, 10th January 2012, 6pm EJP Lecture Theatre, Gosta Green

SAS LECTURE SERIES 2011/12

Lectures 2011-12

Ideas Exchange

MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT MAKING IT on ‘Making It’

SAS

The Birmingham School of Architecture ‘Student Architecture Society’ is an active group of students engaged in broadening the learning journey of our students and the parameters of the built environment disciplines through events and happenings throughout the academic year. The lecture series takes place on a monthly basis and is coordinated in conjunction with RIBA WM, BAA and other regional organisations and events. If you would like to get involved with SAS either as a student, or as a member of the creative/ professional community, please contact a member of SAS or staff at the School of Architecture.

Piercy&Company set up shop in 2000 and since then the practice has grown, shrunk, got bigger again, gone international, refocused locally, moved 6 times and changed name and structure more than once.

In between making the practice work we have been making projects work – from scheduled monument conversions to pioneering steel housing in India.

How do you build a practice while staying in control of your creative work?

http://www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture

www.piercyconner.co.uk/

The Birmingham School of Architecture ‘Student Architecture Society’ is an active group of students engaged in broadening the learning journey of our students and the parameters of the built environment disciplines through events and happenings throughout the academic year. The lecture series takes place on a monthly basis and is coordinated in conjunction with RIBA WM, BAA and other regional organisations and events. If you would like to get involved with SAS either as a student, or as a member of the creative/ professional community, please contact a member of SAS or staff at the School of Architecture.

Architecture International Lecture Series

2011 - 12 Programme December: CJ Lim London in 2½ Dimensions Pecha Kucha: CJ Lim / RIBA,

Places that matter to me January: Hawkins Brown

Ideas Exchange

February: Zero Zero 00:/ Stuart Piercy

A Social Production Making It

March: Hall+Bednarczyk / We Made That

All lectures start at 5.45pm The Emma Jessie Phipps Lecture Theatre Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (BIAD) Gosta Green, Birmingham B4 7DX Lectures are followed by wine and nibbles

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For more information: www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture/news/architecture2012-lecture-series

http://www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture

SAS

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staff

Staff

staff Birmingham School of Architecture Staff Prof. Mohsen Aboutorabi, Senior Lecturer Dr. Maria Caserio, Researcher Prof. Richard Coles, Director of Research Alessandro Columbano, Lecturer/Co.LAB Coordinator Mark Cowell, Postgraduate Landscape Programme Director/Director of Cultural Context Michael Dring, M.Arch Architecture Programme Director Russell Good, BA (Hons) Landscape Programme Director Jeanne Hills, Course Administrator Dr. Ljubomir Jankovic, Reader in Sustainable Design Prof. Jim Low, Senior Academic Davinder Mehat, Senior Course Administrator Prof. Kathryn Moore, Professor of Landscape Architecture Prof. Ruth Reed, Programme Director PgDip Architectural Practice/Director of Professional Studies Wendy Ross, PA to Head of School Kevin Singh, Head of School of Architecture Jim Sloan, Director of Technology Tom Tebby, Technical Demonstrator / BIAD Faculty Designer Hannah Vowles, Deputy Head of School Dr. Hazem Ziada, BA (Hons) Architecture Programme Director

Visiting Tutors

Visiting Specialists/ Consultants/ Critics

Chris Bryant Malwina Gruszecka Peter Jenkins Sean Wood Clare Nisbet Andy Hilton Danielle Jeynes Dan Martyr Jenny Robey Sandra Costa Alex Albans James O’Sullivan Robert Camlin Chris Beardshaw Jeremy Monk-Hawksworth Matt Lucas Sophie Hamer Jing Lu Dominic McKenzie Peter Morris David Greenhill Rebecca Chapman Simon Watkins Elizabeth-Anne Williams

Derek Cassidy Jeppe Agaard Andersen Andrew Wilson Ruth Morrow Andrew Grant Neil Porter Prof. Richard Weston Kim Wilkie Carl Steinitz Robert Camlin Sue Illman Barry Moore David Jarvis Andy Williams Bob Brown Nick Coates Adrian Dobson Michael Dunn Dan Gibson Hans Haenlein Rachael Hobbis John Jacobs Anthony Lavers Robin Nicholson

For more information on our courses visit www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture/courses Course Specific Enquiries BA (Hons) Architecture Dr. Hazem Ziada Hazem.Ziada@bcu.ac.uk

MA/PGDip Landscape Architecture Mark Cowell Mark.Cowell@bcu.ac.uk

M.Arch Architecture Michael Dring Michael.Dring@bcu.ac.uk

PgDip Architectural Practice Professor Ruth Reed Ruth.Reed@bcu.ac.uk

BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture Russell Good Russell.Good@bcu.ac.uk

General Enquiries Tel: +44 (0)121 331 5595 choices@bcu.ac.uk www.bcu.ac.uk/biad

Teaching Practices

Glenn Howells Architects; Will Schofield D5 Architects; Ian Shepherd Make; Phil Twiss Bryant Priest Newman; Gavin Orton K4 Architects; John Shakeshaft,

Bob Pritchard Tom Taylor Jessica Toale Henry Morris Ian Shepherd Danielle McParland Leon Warner Luke Nagle Lee Farnan Miles Marshall Allan Haines James Thomson John Christophers David Sharpe David Stairmand Rob Kennedy Colin Way Alan Budden William Poole Tim Stidwill Jason Shaw Matt Dorril Bob Turley Tim Richardson Stuart Brumpton David Crump Mark Cowley Andy Hilton Rob Hopkins Colin Way Mike Duff Phill Shepherd Paul Wakelam Tom Hewitt Jason Penhall Victoria Crozier Martin Rogers Gavin Traylor Shauna Bradley Peter Brown Ryan Stuckey Andy Wolfe

Phil Howl George Collins Andrew Hassell Pete Grove Paul Snell Martin Smithurst Prof. Alister Scott Reno Whitehead John Beggan Zoe Bashforth Andrew Wilkes Mike Harrison Colin Brain Antony Clerici Daniel Helm Chris Marquis Michael Harrison Darren Price Dr. Noha Nasser Joe Holyoak Damien Friel Halla Huws Rob Kennedy Jim Richardson John Carrabin Stuart Whipps

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For more information about the Birmingham School of Architecture visit: www.bcu.ac.uk/biad/architecture

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