A_Space_Strathclyde_Architecture

A SPACE U n i ve rs i t y o f S t r a t h c l yd e A rc h i te c t u re D e p a r t m e n t _ 2 013 / 14

A Editorial Team

Kim Noble / Mark Kitson / Michael Cockburn / Emma Long / Jonathan Dawson - Bowman / Edita Mencinskaite / Michal Supron / Jamie Yeo

Having reached the end of yet another inspiring year within The University of Strathclyde Architecture Department, the time has come to reflect upon the exciting work, determination and talent which the department and its students has accomplished.

Following the relocation of the department from the iconic Architecture Building to the James Weir Building, it seems only fitting to take this moment in time to introduce an entirely new publication from the architecture students. As many of you will remember, the annual Paperspace book was a delight to receive as a record of the academic achievements of each year and it was with great sadness for students and staff to see the publication discontinued.

Seeing an opportunity to create a new form of publication which is exciting and

refreshing, a group of year 4 students have used this year to re-evaluate the identity of the Architecture Department and its relationship with independent architecture practices around Glasgow. It comes with great pleasure that we are able to introduce hopefully the first edition of A_SPACE; a new newspaper dedicated to celebrating the annual accomplishments of students (both current and past) and staff. Essentially, a space dedicated to the architectural achievements of the Department of Architecture at The University of Strathclyde.

The task of returning an annual publication to the Architecture Department would not have been possible without the support and guidance of Derek Hill for whom we are grateful. We would also like to thank those who have contributed their work and assisted this process.

“Architecture is... what Architects do”

“A “radical proposal” would be for all of construction’s professional institutes to come together with a seamless multidisciplinary approach to education. Without that we will never discard the straightjacket that is the current silo mentality.

There is no need for more consultation.”

Professor Gordon Murray

Walter Underwood, President GIA in 1968, writes in their celebratory “1868-1968 the first one hundred years of Glasgow Institute of Architects” of...” the probable establishment of second School of Architecture”...as a corollary he sets out the origins of the first school. The Glasgow School of Architecture started in the Royal College of Science and Technology in 1888 as The Department of Architecture and Building. In 1903 this merged with classes in “Architecture” which had started at the Glasgow School of Art in 1885, to become the first Glasgow School of Architecture. In the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, between RCST and GSA, the first Chair was held by Eugene Bourdon and then, James B Fulton, Harold Hughes and William Smith until 1959 when Professor Frank Fielden took over- a year after the famous review of Architectural Education in Oxford.

In marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the University of Strathclyde, the first new university in Scotland for 381 years, we must also mark in that half century the laying down of plans for the new building at 131 Rottenrow. Becoming the Department of Architecture and Building Science at the same time as Tom Markus was appointed to the Chair in Building Science, in 1966. Markus came from the Welsh School of Architecture and brought with him the Building Performance Research Unit he had established there. This had as full time Research Fellows: an architect, a psychologist, an economist, a physicist, a computer programmer, and an operational research scientist - Dr. Tom Maver, who later became Professor, Director of Abacus and Head of Department. The BPRU was to establish the Department as an international leader in developing multidisciplinary architectural design, practice and research.

As we complete our first academic year in our new building it is interesting to reflect on changes not only in our physical environment, in 1967 the most sophisticated piece of kit was the hi-fi record player in the office of the Head of Department; but also on the condition of architectural education. As the EU continues to work towards a greater alignment between Member States it has a corresponding impact on registration in an attempt to homogenise the profession across an expanded Union. The essence of that is increased mobility. Those graduates and young professionals produced here are still the most prized in Europe and whilst entrants to the UK Register from home schools is consistent at around 800-900 each year, entrants to the register from sister states has increased from 200 in 2011 to over 500 in 2013. Yet architecture accounts for less that 1% of all UK HE entrants and that number is falling. Thus looking at more flexible routes to entry and thus to the single gateway is essential.

The ACE and EU and the potential constitutional changes in Scotland will impact on our profession. A separate Scottish system of regulation and education could also resolve the current tentative relationship between the

ARB and the RIBA. We may at last get our own seat on the Architects Council of Europe. The function and role of ARB is currently being reviewed by the Government– but the questions of how the title of architect is protected, or should it be the function, as the majority of the Profession believe, and the fit with the UK system of registration, has led to on-going competition between the ARB and RIBA. The last major review in Architecture was that Oxford Conference in 1958. Yet now we are all under the spotlight as a profession.

The RIBA “has recognised that architectural education has to change and is drafting radical proposals for consultation”. A visionary review is long overdue. A “radical proposal” would be for all of construction’s professional institutes to come together with a seamless multidisciplinary approach to education. Without that we will never discard the straightjacket that is the current silo mentality. There is no need for more consultation.

Looking at the graduate attributes necessary for the EU Directive - there is still a great deal of emphasis on the ‘architect’ as envisaged by Alberti six hundred years ago, an individual working within the confines of a professional framework, less on the potential role of architects to shape and lead the wider policy agenda around the built environment. There is a need for counter-models to be considered. Ones that value collective planning and co-ordination, address the wider ecological potentials of architectural and spatial design education, and prioritise common social needs. Innovation can occur in niches we haven’t even thought of yet. This more than anything will further future opportunities for the profession and define its second renaissance skills set. If architecture really is a public art, an essential part of our everyday lives; and if architects mean to be taken seriously, and at a level that convinces all - public and politician alike - of their relevance then we are going to need to be a lot smarter and innovative than to continue to replicate long outdated architectural values. A lot more effort needs to go into ensuring that practices, often young, smaller, intellectually agile outfits, who are already working and innovating in such cross-over environments are given airtime. We are already seeing a increasing number of our students seeking advice on how this architectural education that they are now completing, and that they enjoy, can benefit them in a sector where even good students are choosing not to enter the normal profession.

Instead they are looking at history, conservation, property investment and management, construction, community engagement and activism. Critical Dialogues formed the Scottish contribution to the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale and showcased the work of four emerging practices in Scotland and provides a ‘time-line’ and contextual overview of the development of a distinct architectural culture over the past 30 years. We see here a much stronger role for architecture in Scotland’s burgeoning Creative Industries and the opportunities for greater trans-disciplinary professional synergies, cross-cutting activity and entrepreneurial exchange. It seems to me that’s what Tom Markus had in mind in 1966.

CONTENT

00

A_SPACE 2013_14

“Architecture is ... what architects do”

@stratharch

DOMUS Top 50

convenientbenches.tumblr.com

GIA President

01

02

Year One Overview

Technology Studies

Year One Work

Year Two Overview

Wiston Lodge Year One Live Build

Year Two Work

03

04

When is Housing Architecture?

The Architecture of Healing

Year Three Overview

Year Four Overview

Year Three Work

Year Four Work

International Exchange

Barcelona: a Pilgrimage

Lisbon, Skin, Knees and Toes

Year 4 Dissertations

ADU 2020

Bartlett Technopolis

Creative Adjacencies

05

06

Year Five Overview

Part 3 - The gold rush is on again!

Studio 01 / EARTH

A@131 Society

Studio 02 / Culture and Place

(un)certain future introduction

Studio 03 / Radical Architecture

Dress for the Weather

Studio 04 / SeemLess

Studio 2080

Studio 05 / The Big City Challenge UnCertainty Road Tour 2014

DOMUS Top 50 European Schools of Architecture 2014 - Strathclyde As published in ‘DOMUS Europe’s Top 100 Schools of Architecture and Design 2014’ The Department of Architecture in the University of Strathclyde is one of the most politically and socially active schools of architecture in Europe, a place where research and discourse on the performative aspects of building take centre - stage. The school is located in the heart of the city of Glasgow in one of the most technically innovative universities in the UK. It formally became part of the University Faculty of Engineering in 1964 and today has relocated into the iconic James Weir building, named after one of the founders of the global engineering giant, Weir Group PLC. The architecture school’s ethos was established by the first Chair of Architecture and Building Construction, Charles Gourlay whose writings were ‘’admirably lucid and to the point’’. In the 1970s the Abacus unit pioneered research using computer aided design to measure the quality of post-war modernist housing estates and optimise building performance through modeling. The school attracted the attention of other like-minded architects such as Cedric Price, who had a strong interest in Glasgow and lectured at Strathclyde in the 1990s. Today the school’s focus on active research generates socially and politically engaged work. Our enterprising students have been generating live build award winning projects as far afield as Bangladesh and Senegal but also locally in the urban environments surrounding Edinburgh and Glasgow. The post-industrial city of Glasgow serves as a rich resource and context for many projects and also for outside collaborations. The school teaches students how to generate projects through research, building academic and professional networks in the process.

The school is closely linked with practice as a large number of tutors are practicing architects, bringing in their personal contacts to create a community around the school and professionals in Glasgow. As a result a group of award winning artists, including a Turner prize - winner, acted as clients to a Year 1 project. The excellence of the design teaching was again

recognized in winning The RIAS Design Tutor Award, 2012-14. There is a young energy and a relaxed atmosphere of open collaboration at the school. The link to the profession fosters a culture extending beyond the academic bubble, and projects are often rooted in real urban concerns.

The best Strathclyde students produce exceptional work, and students have won many awards including the RIBA President’s Medal and they have participated in Archiprix and the Rotterdam and Venice Biennales.

Former students have founded their own successful practices, in part due to the entrepreneurial spirit and supportive local community fostered by the school culture.

There are also collaborations with civic and governmental entities, such as the Glasgow Housing Authority Association, one of Europe’s largest owners of social housing, and Glasgow City Council, one of the largest local authorities in the UK. Here, students get the opportunity to benefit from existing knowledge bases and in return the Department provides continuing professional development courses to the industry.

The school is currently developing a professional ‘project office’ connecting students directly with clients. New areas of academic research include the use of biopolymers in composite construction materials and the conservation and regeneration of historical buildings.

In its new location the Department of Architecture houses a library, design studios, and seminar spaces. Other facilities include a model making laser cutter, plotter printers and a workshop for wood and metal with technical assistance. Research in Collaboration with other University Departments provides access to further state-of-the-art scientific and engineering facilities.

Matt Shaw

GIA President Michael Dougall I am delighted to be contributing to the first edition of A_Space as President of the Glasgow Institute of Architects (GIA). As a graduate of the Strathclyde School of Architecture I am pleased to see the return of a yearbook, the importance of such a publication cannot be underestimated. It not only provides a means to promote the exceptional work produced by the school but it also captures a moment in time which will contribute to a very valuable architectural archive and resource.

The Department of Architecture at Strathclyde University continue to produce active, award winning and entrepreneurial graduates many of whom have benefitted from the support and opportunities offered through student bodies such as SASA (Scottish Architecture Student Assembly) and professional organisations such as the RIAS (Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland). Historically, it was the architectural apprentices of the city who went on to form the Glasgow Architectural Association, an earlier permutation of today’s GIA Council.

Today, the GIA is the largest of the six Chapters of RIAS and the business of the Institute is run by a Council who sit on various Committees covering Architecture People and Places, Communications, Education, Practice/CPD and Conservation-Sustainability.

The recent uptake in GIA membership and increase in council members has allowed our five council committee’s to deliver a full calendar of events.

Notable events of the last twelve months were the ‘Connecting the Seven Lochs’ design competition organised by our Architecture, People and Places committee, our exhibition for the RGI in the McLellan Galleries, and our annual Design Awards.

The Seven Lochs design competition attracted entries from across the UK and recent Landscape Architect graduate, Euan Maharg was a deserving winner. Euan’s winning proposal was selected to be developed into a feasibility

study by Central Scotland Green Network and Glasgow Clyde Valley Green Network Partnership. Following his competition success Euan was invited to Strathclyde University Architecture Department to contribute to the first year Room With a View studio project.

Traditionally the GIA’s engagement with both Strathclyde and the Mackintosh School of Architecture is through the Education Committee. Committee members visit both schools annually to recognise and award the best student projects across each of the years. Presentation of the awards is then held at a ceremony in October, in recent years this has been held in the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park.

Our guest speaker at last years student award presentation was Strathclyde graduate and co-founder of Glasgow practice Dress for The Weather, Andy Campbell. Andy was invited to talk following Dress for The Weather’s success in the Alexander Greek Thomson Travelling Scholarship, a biennial competition organised by the GIA eligible only to students and architects under the age of 30. Dress for the Weather used the Scholarship bursary to travel to Copenhagen and study the work of Danish Architect Jorn Utzon.

The GIA plays a key role in the continued support and promotion of students and recent architecture graduates. Our design competitions and annual awards have proven to be a successful means to publicise and demonstrate the talent of our next generation of architects. During my time as President I will continue to facilitate further opportunities for students and young architects by engaging with our new GIA Strathclyde student representatives Massimo Sannino, Iveta Smidtaite and Alastair Kent.

For more info visit; www.gia.org.uk www.rias.org.uk @gia_tweet

1 Year One Director Derek Hill

Tutor Team

Michael Angus / Andy Campbell / Helen Campbell / Michael Dougall / Mike Grant Richard Graves / Micheal Holliday / Graeme Nicholls / David MacRitchie Our initial Project within Year 1 of the Architectural Studies Course continues to challenge the students to consider the notion of “Shelter”. As in previous years, the brief does not prescribe what we may be sheltering from, preferring to evoke individual reactions from the students.

Our continuing discussions with the ‘client’ team at Wiston Lodge have developed a better understanding site and materiality meaning this year Jonny Sutherland of Wiston Lodge identified locations within his 52 acre estate which would benefit most from our installations. Jonny also embraced the idea of using materials within their estate and as such willow, logs and rope were added to sheet timber, meaning less pre-fabrication and more ‘LiveBuild’ this time round.

100 designs were proposed with a short list of 20 moving through to our debate and selection stage which saw the first verbal presentations of the year. With the client part of the process we selected the final 12 structures to be realised and allocated construction teams who were charged with design development and delivery of their inherited design.

With a modest budget for each of the 12 shelters, the students investigated construction techniques, programme, scheduling and in some cases alternative materials as they worked through 1:5 and 1:2 prototyping over a two week period.

Any pre-ordered component parts were transported to site prior to our arrival in early November when the students spent one full day of live building ensuring all 12 shelters were completed on time and duly ‘handed over’ to our client.

Our relationship with Wiston Lodge continues to grow and the Department of Architecture Project Office is now developing proposals for SiteLabs and teaching pods within the grounds which will see Year 4 and Year 5 students delivering design development, fabrication and construction over the course of 2014.

Contributors: David Fletcher / Cassandra Dove / Angus Ritchie / Dan Tyler / Patricia Fleming / Mike Thomson / Martin Boyce / Nathan Colley / Peter McCaughey / Toby Paterson / Alex frost / Jacqueline Donachie / Roddy Buchanan / Euan Maharg / Peter Sharpe

1B A Room with a View

Magdalena Wyrebska

Boris Milanov 1D A Gallery in the City

Magdalena Wyrebska

1D A Gallery in the City

Sarah Murdoch

Maria Dragan

Jakub Skote

Veronika Desovo

1D A Gallery in the City

Sudito Dragos

Renae Sung

Boris Milanov

Marco Zaccaria

Wiston Lodge Year 1 Live Build Derek Hill

Our initial Project within Year 1 of the Architectural Studies Course continues to challenge the students to consider the notion of “Shelter”. As in previous years, the brief does not prescribe what we may be sheltering from, preferring to evoke individual reactions from the students.

Our continuing discussions with the ‘client’ team at Wiston Lodge have developed a better understanding site and materiality meaning this year Jonny Sutherland of Wiston Lodge identified locations within his 52 acre estate which would benefit most from our installations. Jonny also embraced the idea of using materials within their estate and as such willow, logs and rope were added to sheet timber, meaning less pre-fabrication and more ‘LiveBuild’ this time round.

100 designs were proposed with a short list of 20 moving through to our debate and selection stage which saw the first verbal presentations of the year. With the client part of the process we selected the final 12 structures to be realised and allocated construction teams who were charged with design development and delivery of their inherited design.

With a modest budget for each of the 12 shelters, the students investigated construction techniques, programme, scheduling and in some cases alternative – and perhaps better – materials as they worked through 1:5 and 1:2 prototyping over a two week period.

Any pre-ordered component parts were transported to site prior to our arrival in early November when the students spent one full day of live building ensuring all 12 shelters were completed on time and duly ‘handed over’ to our client.

Our relationship with Wiston Lodge continues to grow and the Department of Architecture Project Office is now developing proposals for SiteLabs and teaching pods within the grounds which will see Year 4 and Year 5 students delivering design development, fabrication and construction over the course of 2014.

“provide students with the ability to understand various types of building systems, construction theories and connection details”

Technology Studies Fiona Bradley The Technology Studies course deals with the structural, constructional, environmental and building physics aspects of building design. The Technology Studies curriculum comprises three compulsory lecture courses taught to first, second and third year students and it is also delivered to 4th Year students as an integrated component of both 4th Year studio design classes – this year involving the design of a Hospice and Bath House within two of Glasgow’s beautiful parks.

The technology syllabus covers the majority of the technical aspects of designing a building structure and aims to provide students with the ability to understand various types of building systems, construction theories and connection details. It also introduces wide ranging aspects of environmental design such as heating, lighting and ventilation and innovative aspects of low carbon building design.

A key agenda of the course is to encourage students to develop holistic design skills as well as an awareness of the responsibilities and skill sets of the other professionals involved in the building design process. The course therefore directly integrates with the architecture design studio, to bring added value to the students’ learning experience and to help students apply their lecture knowledge back into architectural studio projects.

In addition to the full time staff delivery of the course from the Architecture and Mechanical Engineering Departments, the Technology course is supplemented by a team of Technology tutors who deliver Technology workshops on Tuesday and sometime Friday afternoons in order to provide tutorial advice to support studio in 2nd, 3rd and 4th year. In addition to the Technology teaching team, the Year Directors and part-time studio tutors also do a great job in supporting our integrated curriculum and I think that this supportive team approach to studio is one of the reasons why the quality of Strathclyde student portfolios is so high. (Not that I am biased!)

Feedback from the Technology workshops has been extremely positive since their introduction three years ago, as students have enjoyed the opportunity to be able to chat through their design concepts and building schemes with the engineers and look at the more technical aspects of their designs in more depth.

This year our great team of Technology tutors were the Structural Engineers Frank Ward, Mark Sinclair and Richard Campbell, the Environmental Engineers Kenny Allan, Callum Rae and David Dunn and Mechanical Engineer Andrew Pearson. Colin McNeish was once again our fantastic Architectural Technology tutor. Frank, Mark, Richard, Callum and David are all Building Design Engineering (BDE) graduates from the Architecture Department and Colin is an Architecture graduate. In addition, Kenny and Andrew are both Mechanical Engineering Graduates from Strathclyde. All of them are therefore extremely supportive alumni and very enthusiastic and committed supporters of the Department. I am extremely grateful for the fantastic contribution they make to the course and would like to thank all of them for all their hard work over the last few years. I am very much looking forward to working with them all in the next academic session.

2 Year Two Director David MacRitchie

Tutor Team

Nicky Thomson / Carlo Guidi / Alasdair Tooze / Mike Grant

Year 2 investigates a series of projects set in small towns: Semester 1 projects 2A and 2B are set on the west coast of Scotland and the Semester 2 project 2C is located on the east coast. Differences between the two settings are intended to provoke reflection.

2C - entitled ‘To Learn: A Study Library’ - examines a choice of sites, this time in the University town of St. Andrews.

Students are invited to design a building that considers what makes a place that is conducive to reading and study while also considering the historic context.

2A and 2B call for the use of timber construction – the first short project is called ‘To Think: A Philosophers’ Retreat’ and is based in Kilmartin. The following longer project ‘To Gather: A Place of Worship’ is based on one of a series of proposed sites in the 18th century planned town of Inverary in Argyll. In this project students are asked to consider ‘A Sense of Space’ as well as ‘A Sense of Place’.

Their projects are required to embody ecological design principles and they are asked to propose structure and materials in arriving at a holistic piece of work.

Through discussion with staff and with visiting consultant environmental and structural engineers, is taken into considerable detail including consideration of Scottish Building Standards, resulting in a tangible building design.

2A Philosopher’s Retreat

Paschalis Kyrtsopoulos 2B A Place of Worship

Viktotija Maleckaja

Marina Konstantopoulu

2C A Study Library

Saba Krisztina Schramko

Massimo Sannino

2C A Study Library

Karolina Petruskeviciute

Viktorija Maleckaja

2C A Study Library

Marina Konstantopoulu

Joanna Tomaszewska

When is Housing Architecture?

Chris Stewart Isi Metzstein once said that only Dutch housing was architecture, a statement not so much about Dutch excellence but the architectural merit of housing.

Housing makes up over half of all architects workload and at Strathclyde University we devote the larger half of our third year to it’s study. This paradox has recently been sharpened with the role of housing in our economic decline, it’s potential rise and how housing has become a simultaneous symbol of failed architectural experimentation and the promise of architectural responsibility.

To start, it is important to understand the depth and range of housing from the affordable to the desirable, from the mainstream to the specialist and from the rural to the urban. Third year students are at the end of a journey from a first year grounding in the rural, a second year wander through the small town to a rude awakening in the urban. Housing peeks round the corner throughout this passage but it is in the city, where housing steps out from the shadows to become our first dilemma. Is good housing a standout art in itself or just a backdrop for more important urban pursuits?

It does not take long for students to realise that housing is not as easy as it looks, nor to realise that society forgets that housing is but one ingredient, very often the important staple, as part of a balanced meal. These ingredients are cleverly worked into the third year curriculum as ‘to live, to work, to play’ however are quickly forgot as we struggle with stacking, circulation and what is a front compared to a back. In my own unit we place a further emphasis on an ecological design which shares social intent with the search for simplicity.

All this leads to another dilemma, does housing sculpt crescents and generate vistas or does it generate lifestyles and sculpt relationships.

These struggles continue into architectural adulthood and form a decent slice of the workload at Collective Architecture where we search for social interaction and personalisation as part of urbanity. Examples of these include our recently completed mainstream modern tenement in Argyle Street, Glasgow for Sanctuary Housing Association and our specialist Alcohol Related Brain Damage centre in Tollcross, Glasgow for Loretto Housing

Association. We revel in our work with students and Collective Architecture’s studio mimics the culture of an architecture school. It is no surprise therefore that our project architect for Argyle Street is Nick Walker, third year tutor at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and our project architects for Tollcross are our very own fifth year tutor Ewan Imrie and fourth year tutor Fiona Welch. Happy to say that both projects have been shortlisted for this years Saltire Housing and Scottish Design Awards.

Housing design is once again a young architectural opportunity, only recently the Peabody Trust, London’s oldest Housing Association announced a shortlist of designs by 20 young architects which they hope will become blueprints for the next generation of affordable homes. At what point these blueprints become architecture is still unanswered, I have always thought that when a building design rises above the essential of shelter that is the point of transcendence. This will vary from brutalist architect to ordinary citizen but this is where vistas, lifestyles, crescents and relationships merge. www.collectivearchitecture.com Photograph Credits:

Andrew Lee / Tom Manley

“Is good housing a standout art in itself or just a backdrop for more important urban pursuits?”

3 Year Three Director Peter Welsh

Tutor Team

Michael Angus / Derek Hill / Gordon Fleming / Prof Gordon Murray Chris Stewart Year 3 is the point when Students are expected to synthesise their architectural understanding and demonstrate their full abilities though a series of studio design projects.

Traditionally Year 3 marks the end of their initial period of academic study and prepares them for their first year out in Practice. At a fundamental level, Student proposals are expected to integrate structure, materials, construction and environmental design and communicate an understanding of current legislation and cultural imperatives. These issues may have been initially introduced by separate lectures and coursework, but they now require to be fully integrated into studio design projects.

Semester One - To Live + To Work The Year begins by examining urban housing with linked workspaces. The site of the former Meat Market in the East End of Glasgow has been chosen to allow the Students an opportunity to explore site

master-planning options for a brown-field site. Once a strategy is identified, Students prepare detailed building designs within this framework.

To ensure the integration of Technology in their proposals, Student prepare Environmental and Construction submissions detailing their design responses to sustainability, structure, materiality, heating, ventilation, lighting and acoustics.

Semester Two – To Play Approached as a Unit based under-graduate thesis, Semester Two sees Students join specific Tutors to explore the theme of ‘To Play’ from varied architectural standpoints.

Following a period of Unit-specific research and analysis, Students develop a built response to the issues raised.

Students further develop their designs through an investigation of materiality and construction at a level of detail appropriate to the scale and complexity of their proposals.

3A To Live + To Work

Joanne Kinlock

Khalid Ali

3A To Live + To Work

Nicholas Robb

Niklavs Krievs

3B To Play

Evelina Vasileva

Douglas Ritchie

3B To Play

Marc Hillis

Rebecca Trainer

International Exchange Micheal Angus The Department of Architecture co-ordinates the largest and most expansive network of international exchanges of any school of architecture in the UK. Currently there are 22 ‘live’ exchange agreements, encompassing Europe, Canada, and the Far East.

Exchange is seen as the backbone to the Department’s international activity, foremost for student and staff mobility and as opportunity to develop further international collaboration. The Department typically administers 40+ outgoing exchange applications, approximately a tenth of the Department cohort, and in turn benefits from the cultural interaction with equivalent incoming exchange.

The majority of exchanges are European focused, centered on the Socrates/Erasmus programme. Additionally the Department also manages Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) exchanges out-with the EU, and promotes dedicated exchange to the USA and Australia in collaboration with the University’s Recruitment and International Office.

Incoming exchange students are also welcome to exchange with the Department through both established school relations and individual application.​ The following is the current list of exchanges:​ BARCELONA BRNO DENMARK DORTMUND DRESDEN EINDHOVEN GDANSK GHENT GOTHENBERG LILLE MILAN

MUNICH PARIS PRAGUE ROME ST ETIENNE SEVILLE VENICE WARSAW WEIMAR SINGAPORE CANADA​​​

Lewis Grant

Ross Cameron

Kirsty Cadger

“three musicians, two rice shaking samba dancers and one barman with a smile bigger than his face”

Lisbon, Skin, Knees and Toes Chris Stewart Eyes, ears, mouth and nose featured prominently as part of the annual ribbing of an eventful field trip to Lisboa. Fifty three of the best young ambassadors Glasgow could hope for, descended on the city of the seven hills, from the four corners of Europe, to join with six tutors lacking in the hair but long in the tooth.

Dr Barnabas’s baton, (now heading up architectural history at Liverpool University) has been picked up by Dr Jonathan and transformed into a series of fascinating cultural anecdotes. These fell thick and fast through the Bacalhau and Super Bock; I now understand Lisbon’s rich Muslim heritage running through the tumbling lanes of Alfama; the blood letting of the Reconquista Crusader hired guns who laid siege to the city: and a slave trade history which was the envy of their ‘man and brother’ merchants lording it in Glasgow, Liverpool and Bristol. The most spine chilling story was delivered on a windswept wet walk into the Praça do Município to examine it’s late eighteenth century stone spiral Pelourinho (pillory post). It was here that each of the 12 million slaves who past through Lisbon were gently prepared for their cruise to South America by being whipped into submission.

Body parts grew into anecdotes, a drive past Lisbon Bull Ring prompted a discussion of Georges Batailles “Story of the Eye”; his surreal metaphor hung straight through to historic Sintra where we were met with the bizarre spectacle of the twin metallic conical towers of the National Palace. Royal palaces abound in Sintra and our limited time led us to concentrate on the Palacio Nacional da Pena, a Romanticist pile constructed for the young Emperor of Brazil by Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, a mining engineer come amateur architect. The result was a PoMo feast which would happily grace the set of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a negative body politic for a mega rich despot.

Filled to the gunnels with history we craved something more contemporary and happily pulled on some Portuguese straight-legs. For a while now I have been fascinated with stylistic differences between the massive overhang (flairs) and the minimal merge of facade to roof (straight legs). Clearly we

are enjoying a dominance of the straight-leg, epitomised by the skinny jeans of the hipster, mirrored by minimal architectural style such as the stunning Thalia Theatre (2012) where Goncalo Byrne’s mustard cocoon envelops what has past. Senhor Byrne’s students Aires Mateus were next out the changing room, donning sparkling leggings in the form of the Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum in Carcais (2010). Blinded by such an apparition we unfortunately were not enamoured by the ill fitting Paulo Rega Museum by Eduardo De Moura(2009) where a pair of flesh coloured truncated pyramids strangely glorified the cafe and gift shop, perhaps a reference to the dominant metallic cones of Sintra who merely vent the Royal kitchens. Impressed by Portuguese form making I was reminded by Dr Jonathan that the co-joined red walls and red roof of NORD’s Bell Simpson House (2004) predates all we have just seen by 5 years, I never realised we were so hip.

The next morning we caught the Lisboa/Orient Express for the Parque das Nações embarking at Santiago Calatrava’s extravagant railway station, celebrity engineer come amateur architect. Expo ’98 was not the preferred setting for Dr Jonathan’s cultural studies assignment summed up by the lonely giant green plastic dinosaur dwarfed by the massive sagging concrete roof of Siza’s Portuguese Pavilion. Glasgow had it’s share of Expo’s over the years and there was much debate over these mega events and their relevance; the current riots in Brazil over the cost of the World Cup and having a portrait of Putin on your bedside table in Sochi must give most countries cold feet.

The human cognition process ranges from the simple to the complex and from the abstract to the concrete. The human body and its structure influence how things can be meaningful for us. It seems that one of the most important objects of knowledge is one’s body, you could say that we don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are. But before we managed to completely climb up our own nether regions we spent our last night in Lisbon’s smallest bar, where the fifty nine fitted into eighty three square feet, with three musicians, two rice shaking samba dancers and one barman with a smile bigger than his face.

ADU 2020 Michael Angus The Department of Architecture has for many years been engaged in the META-University, an EU funded international consortium of European HE institutions, nine in total , engaged in critical debate and interactive collaboration, both staff and student, in the domain of the built environment (specifically how we, the academic, professional, stakeholder and user, might respond to the changing landscape of urbanity, post industrialisation.)

An associated adjunct to the META-U has been the ALFA project. ALFA is again an EU funded initiative to promote interaction across international boundaries between Europe and South America. The Department has been contributing to this formalised programme for almost fifteen years, through two previous ALFA programmes, (ALFA I/II: Evaluation and promotion of sustainable urban development in the SA context), and is currently engaged in the latest call, ALFA III, a three year funded programme which has as its agenda: The restructuring of higher education for the 21st century in the expanded field of Architecture, Design and Urbanism.

Known as ADU_2020, the programme has European partners, including Gothenburg, Brussels, Athens and Seville working with fifteen partners from virtually every country in South America (Chile/Brazil/Venezuela/ Columbia/Bolivia/Argentina/Costa-Rica/Ecuador/Cuba/Guatemala/ Panama/Paraguay/Peru).

This is by far the most extensive and ambitious international collaboration that the Department has ever engaged in, and indicative perhaps of the programmes critical objective. All partners are deeply concerned with the changing nature of the worlds urban condition, the complex issues that are impacting, dramatically, upon it’s development, for example of changing demographics, new technologies, fluctuating political and social landscapes, demands on energy consumption and production. There is need therefore for the traditional roles of those who contribute, directly and indirectly, to the processes associated with urban development to be re-evaluated, and debated, as they might adapt to meet the immediacy of the challenges associated with these complex issues, and specifically with regard to the teaching practices in HE. The purpose of ADU_2020 is therefore to make recommendations to this end, recommendations that might be adopted to assist in making all contributors better prepared and skilled to meet foreseen and unforeseen circumstances in the on-going and long term development of urbanity, to ensure that future sustainable, and supportive urban conditions meet the needs of every urban dweller.

Over the three year programme more than 100 academic staff and literally hundreds of students, not to mention external invited collaborators are engaged in a number of activities: international conferences, student workshops, parallel pilot projects (PPP: thematically focussed teaching activities, testing unique practices across international boundaries) and institutional comparative evaluations. The Department is fully engaged in all activities: co-ordinated on the Departments behalf by U/G Part 1 Director, Michael Angus, and 2nd Co-ordinator Year 4 Director David Reat, staff in the last year contributed to international two week workshops: Derek Hill (U/G Year 1 Director: Costa Rica), David Hasson (acting P/G Year 5 Director: Bolivia), (Dr David Grierson, Deputy Head: Guatemala), Uli Enslein (P/G Year 5 Director: Ecuador), manage and contribute to PPP in theme of ‘Heritage and Local Identity’ by Director of Technology Fiona Bradley (with Cuba and Ecuador), attend institutional evaluation visit,

by David Reat (Bogota and Caracas) and in November 2013, Dr Jonathan Charley contributed paper to the latest international conference in Rio de Janeiro, along with invited speaker and visiting professor to the Department, Ian Gilzean, Chief Architect for Scotland, on the theme of Innovation and Diversity: ‘Challenges and Opportunities in the expanded field of ADU.’

ADU expects to conclude in 2015, at conference in the programme coordinators institution Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Estudios Urbanos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with issue of the programme findings and recommendations. At this time, the ADU four books are expected to be published: • • • •

‘Reflections’: a critical review of the total ADU activity ‘Outcomes’ : six thematic sub-books ‘Tools’ : applicable methods of teaching methodology ‘Voices’ : collection of observations from external contributors

For more information, go to: www.adu2020.org

“The concept is simple: small groups of students unite with practicing architects and myself to form ‘Design Practices’ enabling the resourcing and delivery of these projects.”

Creative Adjacencies

Collaborators Andy Campbell / Dress for the Weather David Fletcher / FACTORY Architecture Graham Hogg / Lateral North Peter McCaughey/ WAVE Angus Ritchie Dan Tyler Clients Jon Bishop / The Letter J Judith Williams / The Letter J Darran Crawford / Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Andrew Miller Jonny Sutherland / Wiston Lodge Students Michael Cockburn Jonathan Dawson-Bowman Neal Hemingway Andrea Hickey Mark Kitson Emma Long

Fiona MacGregor Edita Menciskaite Paulina Naruseviciute Kimberley Noble Clare Paton Laura Petruskeviciute

Michal Supron Fraser Sutherland Chloe van Grieken Jamie Yeo Beo

Derek Hill In my roles as Year One Studio Director and Design Unit Leader in Years Three and Four I have developed several collaborative design processes to expose our students to an architectural education which exposes them to a pedagogy which seeks to embrace the RIBA principle of embedded professional content. These processes have been evident – in some form or another - within the Department for a number of years through the structures set up by Professor Per Kartved in the 1990s, through Dr. Jonathan Charley’s Advanced Architectural Design course at the turn of the new millennium and continued by Michael Angus’ mapping of the entire Undergraduate syllabus over the last decade. For each, the integration of reality within the hypothetical was of significant focus, with obvious success borne out by the number of young, dynamic architectural practices now established in Glasgow – and beyond – who trace their beginnings back to the studios within the Department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde.

I have encouraged our students to engage with real clients, on real projects, in collaboration with real industry expertise. These collaborations come, not in addition to the students’ curriculum of learning, but as a fully integrated facet of it, and as early in their education as Year One / Project One. I aim to expose the students, through this project process, to aspects of the profession normally saved for time in practice. Early exposure to client in the initial stages of a project will better prepare students of architecture for the importance of client/community engagement and consultation.

I have introduced and delivered a new Special Study Class within Year 4 for academic session 2013 – 2014 which presents students with the opportunity to gain further exposure to real projects, collaborations and processes. The class was initially established to deliver the Department Yearbook and End of Year Exhibition but it became clear to me that this class, which would provide the students 20 of the required 120 credits towards their Honours Degree, could deliver much more in terms of experience, learning and opportunity.

The class also exists as a personal reaction to – or against – the notion of the Live Build Project. While these projects provide a hands-on experience for the student, they are in themselves somewhat of an anomaly. For what build, by the very nature of the process, is not live? And the suggestion of a ‘live’ build, equally proposes that there must also be a ‘dead build’.

While the opportunity for students of architecture to get their hands dirty through a construction process is, for me, a positive one, perhaps more important is the opportunity for students to understand the process and processes which take a drawing into reality. My aim for the Special Study Class

is therefore to provide exposure to the processes from concept to delivery, working with industry professionals on projects that require funding streams, must react to actual deadlines and which may or may not come to fruition.

Students were presented with a range of real projects to work on for a period of time. These projects exist in one form or another within various Design Practices but require a degree of additional input or resourcing in order to be truly realised. Links between industry and academia have allowed symbiotic relationships to be forged: industry projects require resourcing, students of architecture are hungry for experience. The concept is simple: small groups of students (Design Team) unite with practicing architects and myself (Design Directors) to form ‘Design Practices’ enabling the resourcing and delivery of these projects.

Each project worked at a pace appropriate to its individual programme with student involvement encouraged – and supported – across academic recesses and out with timetabled hours. The academic credits were the motivation but not necessarily the drive, and as students began to feel a connection with their project, the desire to remain involved grew.

What I believe has been created through this Special Study Class is a delicate symbiosis between the industry and the student: the industry is requiring of an informal and temporary resource while the student is hungry for real project experience. The project would not develop without student input.

The student would not gain experience without the project.

This method of academic recognition is established through a harmony between the Design Studio and Special Study Classes with the later picking up where the former leaves off. The seamless integration is reinforced further through the continued involvement of the Department’s Design Studio Tutor team which is made up almost entirely by young, dynamic and creative practicing architects who’s existing creative liaisons and collaborations have much to offer the Department.

Through ‘live’ build, exposure to ‘real’ clients and an expanding portfolio of ‘real’ projects, the Department is promoting creative solutions through new educational strategies to react to an ever-changing profession.

Derek delivered his paper ‘The Real Deal: Case Studies in Alternative Teaching Strategies’ to the ADU 2020 Creative Adjacencies Conference at Sint Lucas School of Architecture in Ghent between 3 – 7th June 2014.

“architecture which feels comfortable like home, humble and signified, unobtrusive and private when required but also offer something unexpected, surprising and memorable”

The Architecture of Healing Brian McGinlay

‘’the waiting in itself is not so bad - it’s the circumstances in which you have to wait… Overhead (sometimes even neon lighting), interior spaces with no views out and miserable seating against the walls all contribute to extreme mental and physical enervation. Patients who arrive relatively hopeful soon start to wilt.’’

Maggie Jencks 1994 Architecture often forgets that one of its primary goals is to trigger an emotion. Intangibles such as comfort, protection or memories should occupy a particularly important place in architecture designed for people who are going through the experience of serious illness. However, this is not always the case in today’s mega-hospitals, where the purely functional concerns of hygiene, speed and technology have taken over.

The well-known architectural theorist Charles Jencks speculates that the future of health care may increasingly lie outside of the hospital as an ageing population and increasingly sophisticated science leads to more and more people living longer with a range of complex health problems, from Alzheimer’s to cancer. While the hospital is unlikely to be displaced as the focal point for the provision of primary health care, there is a need for other complementary types of buildings. Smaller buildings, more adaptable, less pressured, and arguably more humane buildings that can address the varied needs of patients over the whole duration of their illnesses while meeting the changing expectations of the community for more holistic care.

Hospice design is an undeveloped area of research in the UK and there is a lack of evidence-based design work which could inform future hospice design. The notion of evidence-based design borrows from works in evidence-based medicine to carefully observe, quantify and analyse the way people use buildings.

There are a lot of misconceptions about hospice design that are still prevalent despite its rapid growth in the past two decades. One of those is that a hospice is a place people go to die. While this isn’t exactly wrong, it’s not exactly right.

The building carries a weight of seriousness due to the circumstances of the people who arrive. However, a balance of dealing with these serious aspects and necessary care provision, alongside the social, spiritual and emotional

needs of the patients has resulted in a complex building typology that adds days to people’s lives and offers hope and bereavement support to families.

In 2010, NORD architecture won a competition to design the new purposebuilt Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park.

Soon after, we were invited by Charles Jencks to design a Maggie’s Centre’ for the Forth Valley in Larbert, Falkirk - one of a network of cancer caring centres across the United Kingdom. NORD had never designed either type of building before and our ideas for the two projects developed in parallel.

The hospice and the Maggie’s Centre serve distinct purposes yet are similar in that they are both relatively small-scale satellites of the hospital that provide extensions of its medical-based treatment. The Maggie’s Centres are informal drop-in centres that provide information, workshops and counseling, activities such as art and relaxation classes, or simply a place to be for cancer patients and their families while the hospice offers palliative care to terminally-ill patients, as well as support services.

These self-contained and relatively smaller-scale buildings presented us with the opportunity to go beyond the purely functional concerns that have traditionally dictated the design of hospitals and which have become increasingly large in cost and are often technology-driven.

NORD as a practice strives in creating pieces of architecture which feel comfortable like home, humble and signified, unobtrusive and private when required but also offer something unexpected, surprising and memorable at the very same time. Observing the usage of these spaces, the patient and their journey to and through these existing buildings provided us with clues to how we might consider an enriched architectural response to the brief and relation to human scale, but at the same time considers functionality as a place to work, to clean, to administrate, to secure, to visit, to stop, to pause, to wait, to maintain and to distract people from the seriousness of their situations.

As architects and architectural students we have great opportunity to investigate and challenge these issues, test bedding whether an inspirational architecture can itself respond to this and similar building typologies and whether it’s physical environment can influence well-being and promote healing. www.nordarchitecture.com

4 Year Four Director David Reat

Tutor Team

Colin McNeish / Fiona Welch / David Hasson / Cristina Gonzalez-Longo Brian McGinlay / Cristian Suau / Gordon McGregor / Derek Hill This Fourth Year represents the culmination of at least three years architectural education, and allows the student to demonstrate the true power of their abilities. Not only does it signify the conclusion of their formal academic training, it initiates the beginning of your transition from Bachelor to Master of Architecture.

The design studio comprises 4 projects ranging from Small, through Medium and Large, to Extra Large. We begin in semester 1 at a small scale by designing a doorhandle for your first semester building - A Hospice for Young People. This building is representative of the medium scale and is sited within one of 2 chosen parks within the city of Glasgow.

The year is programmed to help consolidate architectural design skills, whilst simultaneously introducing the idea of architecture as a responsive solution to fundamental social issues. Fourth Year chronicles a demonstration of a sophisticated and comprehensive capability in design, through all its stages and constituents, and establishes and defines an area of personal interest. The year also encourages the student to document their own personal research and critical evaluation of a chosen area of interest, through both a written dissertation and a selected special subject.

Glasgow owes its formation to, and is still served by, two rivers - The River Clyde and the River Kelvin. The park sites for the years design projects concentrate on both rivers, and in particular the peripheral areas of urban parkland which have ostensibly became neglected through a lack of care.

Semester 2 starts with a foray in to the extra large scale by designing your own urban park within the city selected for the study trip in that given year - undertaken midway through the semester - and is concluded by the design of a large building (in the same park selected in semester 1) which is a Bath house.

4A Hospice on the Edge of a Park

Chloe van Grieken

Adam McAvoy

4A Hospice on the Edge of a Park

Y.P BEDROOM STORAGE

BUILT IN CLOSETS AND SHELVING FOR PATIENTS PERSONAL BELONGINGS.

ENTRANCE

INCLUDING A FOLDING PANEL FOR EASY ACCESS FOR BEDS AND LARGE WHEELCHAIRS.

FOLDING BED

LOCATED DIRECTLY BESIDE THE PATIENT BED FOR PARTNER / FRIEND.

MEZZANINE

PRIVATE AREA FOR PATIENT AND / OR FAMILY + FRIENDS..

PHOTO BOARD

ALLOWING THE PATIENT TO PERSONALISE THE ROOM FOR THEIR STAY.

BALCONY

DIRECT AND SOLE USE BY PATIENTS WITH VIEW OVER/ UP AND DOWN RIVER CLYDE.

VENTILATION SLIDING ACCESS LOUVRE PATIENT AIR.

STORAGE

EMERGENCY MEDICINE

STORAGE CLOSET FOR HOIST AND OTHER EQUIPMENT REQUIRED BY INDIVIDUAL PATIENTS.

150MM DEEP STORAGE LOCATED BEHIND BEDHEAD FOR OXYGEN CYCLINDER AND INTRAVENOUS MEDICINES.

DOORS FOR EASE OF TO DECK. FOLDING DOORS ALLOW FOR CONTROL OF INCOMING

A MVHR SYSTEM WOULD ALSO BE USED TO SUPPLY REQUIRED CLEAN FRESH AIR AND REMOVE STALE AIR.

FLOORING + HEATING

POLISHED CONCRETE FOR EASE OF CLEANING + MOVEMENT OF WHEELCAHIRS. UNDERFLOOR HEATING WITH INDIVIDUAL PATIENT CONTROLS. PASSIVE GAIN FROM EAST / SOUTH / WEST GLAZING STORED AS THERMAL MASS.

James Stirling

Jonathan Dawson-Bowman

4A Hospice on the Edge of a Park

Steven Leask

Neal Whitaker

4A Hospice on the Edge of a Park

Kimberley Noble

Vernon Lee

4B A Bath House in the Park

Michael Cockburn

Christine Halliday

4B A Bath House in the Park

Andrea Hickey

Grant Mitchell

4B A Bath House in the Park

John Brown

Mark Kitson

4B A Bath House in the Park

Neal Hemingway

Fiona MacGregor

Barcelona: a Pilgrimage Ruairidh C. Moir Glasgow has much in common with Barcelona. Both are cultural capitals of their respective countries, both are thriving hotbeds of creative talent, both are recognized by the free works of truly original and inventive Architects: Mackintosh; Thomson; Gaudi and Miralles.

Over the years, the Strathclyde School of Architecture has also maintained strong links with the city, through its extensive Erasmus network and by reinforcing links with international architectural practice. Last year, Benedetta Tagliabue opened the 2013 Strathclyde exhibition at 131 Rottenrow. These are the solid foundations with which the year four 2014 trip to Barcelona was built from.

Following the dissertation deadline and prior to the Bath House in the Park submission, the timing of the year four trip allows students and staff alike to gather a reprieve from the more arduous aspects of the course structure.

With the city of Barcelona offering a diverse array of sites to visit which enhance ones appreciation of Architecture, as well as a providing an excellent folio of civic buildings in park settings, it was decided that it was a perfect location for this year’s endeavour.

With infinite options, the dilemma we faced while planning the trip was how to choreograph our time in the Catalan Capital. The resolution was to skirt the outskirts of the city on day one, to leave the beaten track and tour Catalonia’s hidden gems on day two, before enjoying a free-flowing Sunday absorbing the urban fabric of El Gottico ahead of our return to Scotland. However, many stayed behind to spend a few days enjoying the Mediterranean sunshine!

No matter how prepared one can be, fate can issue a raw deal. As we sat in

Glasgow airport, year four director David Reat is notified that our connecting flight to Barcelona is cancelled, forcing us to divert through Madrid Barajas airport (thankfully, a very pleasing building)! That aside, our knight-inshining-armour was none other than Barnabas Calder who met everyone at the hostel as an unannounced surprise.

To add some variety to the proceedings, it was arranged that we would not just visit relevant sites, but we would sample the process of living and producing architecture. Therefore, our first visit would be to the famous Miralles Tagliabue EMBT studio and the Fundació Enric Miralles where we would meet the Scottish Parliament Project Director, Joan Callis again, following on from his visit to Strathclyde two weeks prior.

We also met David Mackay, partner of MBM Arquitectes, who kindly showed us around their new Design Hub building which as yet is unopened to the public. David then took us to Port Olympic, the area that his firm masterplanned for the 1992 Olympics, which ultimately connected the city to the sea and is an enduring keystone in Barcelona’s regeneration to this day.

To observe everyone visibly enjoying the trip was hugely rewarding. We shared many highlights together, including a cultural pilgrimage up Montserrat and experienced how this related to the works of Gaudi in his Crypte and Miralles/Pinós at Igualada Cemetery, we walked to the limits of possibility, we climbed a quarry, relaxed at waterfalls, admired ‘shimmering’ towers, and went bonkers at the playpark! However above all, I hope the events we encountered in the astonishing city of Barcelona will resonate for years to come among all who made the pilgrimage, given the photographs at least that have returned – I have every confidence it will do just that.

Year 4 Dissertation

Jac Lister

“Writing empowers the individual to express their own views and the views of others” The Dissertation is the culmination of sustained, in-depth research, critical thinking and analysis, undertaken by the student in the Honours, Year 4 of the BSc Architectural Studies and Year 1 of the MArch Advanced Architectural Design.

Academic writing is a primary means to disseminate current research.

Students have to search for information, evaluate it and use it to support their ideas and thinking. The act of carrying out research makes students aware of different sources of information and different styles and trends within their field and beyond. Students become more aware of the context of their subject and the alternative routes that they might follow up with further study in subsequent years or in professional practice.

The process of writing teaches students to think. It also requires students to put forward points of view, proposals and arguments. These are skills that are sought after in industry. Professionals in industry have to write proposals, funding bids and reports as a matter of course: the ability to write these clearly and convincingly is an advantage. The ability to seek out relevant information and to use it appropriately is a lifelong skill. Writing can demonstrate an awareness of current thinking in a professional field. Writing empowers the individual to express their own views and the views of others. It can be used creatively and formally.

Here is what the student’s think: I learned…”to write a 10,000 word dissertation from just a small idea and to develop it to a good academic standard”…The dissertation… “Allows the student to research any field of interest that may lead to further research in a similar topic” It is up to the students to ‘lead’ the agenda. The more research the student does the more they can get out of supervision and the more they will have to write about. The students really have to get down to reading, formulating a question and note-taking right away. Peer review is encouraged at interim submissions but it is the student’s personal commitment and immersion in their chosen field that gives the best results.

Dissertation Prizes: Each year the Department awards the Frank Arneil Walker prize to the best BSc dissertation on an historical topic. Last year’s winner was Fraser Maitland’s “The Walled City of Kowloon: a Chinese Outpost in British Hong Kong” Stuart Rennie was awarded a ‘Special Commendation’ by the Judges on the panel of the Jonathan Sime Award 2013 for his work on “Shanghai: The Change in Urban Morphology’s Effect on Society” Catriona MacDonald’s “Aig An Airigh: people and place” won the The Patrick Geddes Award in 2012

Kjersti Bakkejord “The Future of the H-block in Oslo: Should Norway’s Government Building be Demolished, Conserved or Restored?”

The H-block, an emblematic government building in Oslo (Norway), completed in 1958 and incorporating murals by Pablo Picasso, was one of two targets in a terrorist attack on the 22nd of July 2011. The building and the surrounding Government Complex were at the time in the process of being listed. This process has now been put on hold, while the future of the building is being decided. After the misdeed the building is faced with the dilemma of being demolished, conserved or restored. This dissertation researches on the options and giving recommendations about the most appropriate approach to follow.

The building has been studied as an individual object and in its urban setting.

The past and current social, environmental and political contexts are also considered, including their impact on the understanding of the building’s values and meaning. The dissertation assesses the condition of the building fabric and architecture before and after the bombing, after discussing all the possible approaches concerning its future considering also other examples of interventions in similar cases and buildings.

The study shows that the H-block has significant values as a symbol of the newly independent Norway, as demonstration of the integration of art and architecture and the new developments in concrete. Erling Viksjø, the architect of the H-block, developed the use of the natural concrete (“naturbetong” in Norwegian) during the design and construction of the building. Picasso and other artists designed art that was integrated within its architecture. These values and significances, together with the assessment of the current condition of the building and the successes in interventions in similar buildings, suggest that listing and conservation of the building is the most appropriate course of action.

Michael Cockburn A Printed World : The possibilities of 3D printing in architecture

Francis McCabe The 4th solution: Can refugee camp design facilitate life post camp?

Worldwide, there are currently more than 38million people of concern to the UNHCR (UNHCR, 2013, Mid-Year Trends - 2013, Geneva: UNHCR).

As conflict and natural disaster force people from their homes, the UNHCR pursue three solutions for refugees; voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement in a third country, known as their durable solutions (UNHCR, 2007, Handbook for Emergencies. 3 ed. Geneva: UNHCR p. 11). There is however a fourth, supposedly temporary, solution – the camp. With new global crises emerging and chronic ones persisting life in a refugee camp is becoming the norm for a large section of displaced people. While the refugee camp is often the last sanctuary of protection for the displaced, there is debate over whether the camp is beneficial in the long term for individual refugees. This dissertation focuses on the affect the design and management of the camp has on the ability of its population to achieve self-sufficiency and improve life in protracted situations.

The UNHCR’s guidelines for camp design propose a modular grid layout based upon the single family tent (UNHCR, 2007, Handbook for Emergencies. 3 ed. Geneva: UNHCR, p. 216). Camps are often comparable to a city in scale, population and density but lack the urban qualities of similar sized settlements.

The standard camp facilitates the saving of lives and the distribution of emergency aid but there appears to be little consideration of how the design of the camp will work in the long term, after the emergency phase. With little or no influence on their own environment and an imposed reliance on emergency aid, refugees in camps can quickly lose their independence and self-sufficiency. This study draws on analysis of current camp design and design guidelines to assess whether camps could provide more than survival but become self- sufficient cities that contribute to the host nation and provide opportunities for refugees to improve their lives.

The way we make things is changing. The traditional methods of manufacturing many of today’s consumer items from mobile phones, guns and aircraft components are currently being disrupted by the flourishing uses of 3D printing. This is heralding a new era of industry that has the potential to move from the mass-produced assembly line to a localised, individual and customisable process. 3D printing is revolutionising the way we make objects with some believing it has a similar potential to revolutionise the architecture and construction industry.

This thesis aims to explore the uses and possibilities of 3D printing in the future for architecture. By reviewing both built and conceptual works the study highlights the currently capabilities of the technology of and the future potentials and limitations development could bring from a design perspective. The thesis whilst also investigating the impact it could have in a social, environmental and economic role. As the research into 3D printed technology to create inhabitable structures is in its relative infancy, the study included the review of parallel industries that have been developing the technology for a longer period of time.

3D printing is allowing designers and architects the opportunity to create objects with complex geometries unachievable using traditional manufacturing processes, making for new-found design freedom and exciting opportunities. This transformational technology has the potential to allow us to question what it means to build, by offering a completely new approach of construction.

For the 3D printing revolution to truly disrupt the world of architecture and construction, the issues associated with scaling the technology to a construction scale will need to be addressed. In moving away from traditional materials into new printable materials, extensive research will be needed if the industry is to realise the ground breaking concepts currently being proposed.

Bartlett Technopolis

“Throughout the last century, following the introduction of the media of film, architecture and science fiction (SF) film have developed a reciprocal relationship.”

David Reat Last year I was invited to construct, co-ordinate and lead a series of seminars for the Bartlett School of Architecture’s third year History & Theory course.

The course would take as its metatheme an aspect of my current research, which is the architecture of science fiction film. Throughout the last century, following the introduction of the media of film, architecture and science fiction (SF) film have developed a reciprocal relationship. In contemporary architectural debate, SF architecture is frequently cited to refer to a new and modern style of architecture that is greatly inspired by SF and new technologies. For many architects, SF is a platform with which to express innovative forms of imaginative design, reliant on serious study of the genre’s literal descriptions and visual representations of its architecture.

Acknowledging this, each week students investigated a particular aspect of the genre of science fiction - in particular its relationship with architecture.

These sessions involved research of canonical texts, exposure to seminal films and demonstrations of different media within which SF architecture has been characterised. The course introduced key thoughts of science fiction, and in addition to the required texts, discussed graphic novels, comics, films, video games, TV shows, books, paintings and visualisations through which the architecture of science fiction has been represented.

Following an introductory lecture to the entire year group, seminar groups of around 20 students were organised. The six near-weekly seminars in total set out to address constituent elements of science fiction and its interrelationship with architecture in an attempt to make sense of the built environment around

us. Seminar 1 looked at gizmos and devices fictionalised in SF and realised within the reality of contemporary cities. This was followed in seminar 2 which addressed plausible and implausible cities from a history of cognitive displacement demonstrated through the technology of SF film production.

In seminar 3 we discussed technological determinism through progressive Utopias versus aggressive Dystopias. Surveillance of the SF built environment was questioned in seminar 4, which analysed control and identity of the individual within the city. The penultimate seminar debated architects versus writers, and their respective ideas on the modern city, through the ideological debates that have ensued between them throughout history. We concluded the seminars in week 6 by looking at representational techniques – especially paintings, animations, drawings, comics and visualisations exposing how SF architecture has been successfully demonstrated, and illustrated, throughout history by a variety of media.

Each seminar started with an abridged version of a seminal SF film which demonstrated a unique take on the built environment within which it was set. The group would then sit and discuss, and at times debate, the architectural issues raised within the film. Each week would also involve the reading of an influential SF text from which the students would extract their interpretations of the architecture discussed within the text and discuss with the class, and conclude with a group presentation on the given theme of that particular week. The purpose of the seminars was ultimately to facilitate the composition of a dissertation, which formed part of the student’s submission for their honours degree.

5 Year Five Director Ulrike Enslein

Tutor Team

David Page / David Reat / David Hasson / Ewan Imrie / Fiona Bradley Cristian Suau / Michael Angus / Ombretta Romice / Sergio Porta Year 5 is the last year of architectural education and the stepping stone into architectural practice. Students are encouraged to use the final year to design by research, experiment and to test ideas through making. The process is equally important as the outcome. Students are expected to have the ambition to produce ‘architecture’ that is technologically innovative, socially progressive and which makes a positive and significant impact on the built and social environment.

This requires students who are driven by their enthusiasm and self motivation in order to complete a year-long challenging architectural project set by their own interest and passion.

For the last three years Year 5 (PGDip/ MArch) has critically engaged with the theme ‘(un)Certain Futures’ and students have embarked once again on a wide spectrum of thesis explorations, driven by the objective of architecture derived from ‘issue’.

The topic has formed the base of investigation for the entire year, and the five studios have further established their own topics, working techniques, methodologies and directions to investigate the topic further with their own interpretations and ethos to provide the ‘architectural conversation’ for the whole year.

Year Five Studios Master 14/ Studio 01/ EARTH David Page and David Reat

Master 14/ Studio 04/ SeemLess Fiona Bradley and Mike Angus

EARTH stands for Education, Architecture, Research, Theory and History.

The Unit sets out to explore the relationship between the immediate setting of the ‘vessels’ we shape and our greater responsibility to the earth we share.

The aim is to investigate solution for 21st century problems.

‘SeemLess’ engaged directly with specific critical technological factors central to the creation of the built environment: low carbon building design, environmentally sustainable development and responsibility, renewable energy systems, contemporary and future (low/high tech) material technologies and manufacturing processes with relationship to and understanding of local communities and heritage.

Master 14/ Studio 02/ Culture and Place David Hasson and Ewan Imrie Architecture is a cultural activity, and while the cliché of it being “The Mother of all Arts” probably no longer applies, it has a major and central role in all the aspects of our life that embrace the idea of a culture. Studio 02 encourages the exploration of the whole range of cultural activities in the context of an architectonic speculation. This year the Studio has been looking especially at memory and archive.

This year the Studio has identified a specific Glasgow based context as a suitable basis for this enquiry: Springburn and its/ hinterland. In addition the unit has been run in direct association with the international consortium: ADU_2020. Therefore students in Studio ‘SeemLess’ have had the opportunity to work with architecture students and teachers through visual and digital communication means from Ecuador and Cuba. These partner institutions had been working on similar parallel projects in tandem with the ‘SeemLess’ Studio within the broad related topic of “Heritage and Local Identity.”

Diploma Studio 05/ The Big City Challenge Ombretta Romice, John Barr and Sergio Porta

Master14/ Studio 03/ Radical Architecture Cristian Suau Radical Architecture is an exploratory ‘recipe’, which consists of key ‘ingredients’ (elements) and preparation (in-depth research). Students in Studio 03 had the opportunity to explore the phenomenon of Radical Architecture through the following conditions: Extreme (severe environments), Essential (elementary spaces), Fantastic (utopian or fictional game plans), Transgressive (borderlands and edges), Transformative (systems in motion) and Informal (subaltern architecture).

Students from the AAD course had the opportunity to join the Urban Design (MSc) design studio for the first part of their thesis project, to engage with the city and the urban fabric through developing analytical and spatial proposals of a specific set area in Glasgow. This year the unit has worked with Glasgow Council and stakeholders to draw up a cohesive vision for the development of the city’s key central area called ‘North Quarter’, formerly the Avenue of the Arts, spanning from the River Clyde to the Forth and Clyde Canal.

Master 14/ Studio 01/ EARTH

PROCESSCRAFT Angus Ritchie & Daniel Tyler We set out to challenge the existent taught ‘process’ of idea-plan-concrete object, whereby images of the imagination are flattened through the ‘lossy’ development of drawings prior to realisation. Having founded our thesis by establishing a curriculum of Technical Studies delivered to students we endeavour to realise a built form as a manifesto of the visceral knowledge experienced throughout our studies. The thesis investigates the experience of learning, initiating real conversations with materials and a client, thereby promoting a tacit understanding

Divided and Forgotten

DIVIDED AND FORGOTTEN Scott Simpson & David Wyllie We want to examine ‘Shared Space’ in divided cities at a variety of scales, incorporating our ‘International Language’ theme and built environment typologies. The projects will range in scale, and complexity but they will all create a space, an atmosphere and an environment where people of different nationalities, religion, culture and race can interact and come together through a common architecture. The architecture can begin to use the metaphor of walls as divisive elements to create edges and volumes that slow people down and allow for social interaction, encouraging people to communicate and collaborate together in a positive and engaging manner.

Model Utopias

MODEL UTOPIAS Andrew Frame & Fraser Maitland

“We want to examine ‘Shared Space’ in divided cities at a variety of scales, incorporating our ‘International Language’ theme and built environment typologies. The projects will range in scale, and complexity but they will all create a space, an atmosphere and an environment where people of different nationalities, religion, culture and race can interact and come together through a common architecture. The architecture can begin to use the metaphor of walls as divisive elements to create edges and volumes that slow people down and allow for social interaction, encouraging people to communicate and collaborate together in a positive and engaging manner.”

Design Studies 5B University of Strathclyde Department of Architecture studioEARTH Scott Simpson David Wyllie

Model Utopias” represents a body of research based on the study of six bold and imaginative, yet unrealised masterplans, from the Japanese Metabolists through to Lebbeus Woods, presented in a filmic format that “neutralises the disparity of scale between user and city”, and realises projects that have remained confined to the page since their conception. Inspired by these past visions of future cities, and concerned by the devastation Hurricane Sandy brought to New York in 2012, the thesis concludes with the design of a seventh master plan, a vast infrastructural proposal in the lower New York Bay: a multi-national “Barrier City

“Model Utopias” represents a body of research based on the study of six bold and imaginative, yet unrealised masterplans, from the Japanese Metabolists through to Lebbeus Woods, presented in a filmic format that “neutralises the disparity of scale between user and city”, and realises projects that have remained confined to the page since their conception. Inspired by these past visions of future cities, and concerned by the devastation Hurricane

Design Studies 5B University of Strathclyde Department of Architecture studioEARTH

Master 14/ Studio 02/ Culture and Place

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES IN REFUGEE CAMPS Jai Mexis Why: The amount of displaced populations worldwide is only increasing every year. Recent Syrian conflict has displaced more than 9 million internally and 2.56 million are refugees in surrounding regions. The lifespan of a refugee camp is 20 years and the average refugee within it is more than 12 years. Seeing that refugee camps end up being permanent places the need for transitional shelter beyond emergency shelter is more pressing than ever. Sustainability aiming community development and empowering the individuals away from aid-dependency is paramount in such planned camps. Seeing there is so much potential for architectural intervention I have placed focus on providing simple targeted solutions for improving the quality of life for the afflicted.

Where: The camp I visited and set up a connection with UNHCR is Al-Zaatrai, located in the border of Jordon to Syria and is the biggest Syrian refugee camp worldwide. I will be aiming to conduct live-build projects both in the camp as well as in Glasgow, testing different transitional shelter designs and simple construction elements for refugees.

How: Interventions in two levels Urban: Breaking the concentration type layout with public implants, thus creating densification around them and public spaces where the refugees can interact and build community binds.

Architectural: Empowering refugees to build structures to grow households, using their resources more efficiently.

MAKE - A celebration of everyday life Emily Stephen Every day we encounter numerous spaces, participate in a variety of activities and fulfil a series of routines within our homes and communities, across our towns and cities. It can be easy to overlook our everyday environment in the rush of school or work. Yet, these spaces hold the potential to engage and provoke our everyday imaginations. Architecture and design must encourage us to see, hear and play with our daily environment and to celebrate the beauty in the ordinary and the everyday.

Working with a local primary school, this thesis explores the processes and possibilities for re-imagining and making an everyday space; the school yard becomes a storytelling garden, personalised with the children’s words and ideas. Local, low cost materials have been explored and experimented with and a tool kit has been prepared to encourage other to re-imagine their everyday space.

Why:

The personalisation of everyday space holds the potential to bring a smile to our everyday lives.

Where: Ideas have been tested and developed with Garnetbank Primary School, Garnethill,

Glasgow. The wider philosophy is applicable across Scotland.

How: Experiment, Explore, Engage, Personalise and Make

SETTING THE SCENE Stanislava Delieva Architecture is an incitement of action, a stage for movement and interaction. The occupation of formal and informal performing spaces – encourages spontaneous public gatherings and street theatre events. The building becomes the setting and the performers act not only in front of the walls but often on them. It takes these instances, when we are able to take over the city, to tame its chaotic nature and extract its intrinsic value that we animate the cityscape, making it beautiful, making it a wonderful and memorable place to be.

Why: Architecture and the Performing Arts come together in a certain point- they contribute to making the empty space reminiscent and stimulating, defying gravity and providing human face to the material setting. They reach that end by the common ways of negotiating ‘existence’, ‘moment’ and ‘narrative’.

Where: The city is a vast, multi-layered set presenting us with endless sighting options. The neglected industrial ruin of the Govan Graving Docks is imagined as a vibrant performing arts venue. Visitors to the newly formed river ‘island’ are taken on a journey out of the ordinary and brought into the realm of fiction.

How: “An architect is better off if he works like a scene designer”. This thesis is rooted in the belief that theatrical narratives can work with architecture’s physicality to enhance the spaces where we all ‘perform’ in our urban reality.

Master14/ Studio 03/ Radical Architecture

CLYDE THE WILD: From post-industrial to [super] natural CLYDE THE WILD From post-industrial to [super] natural Halim Kurniawan & Soo joe Wey Clyde the wild is inspired by the changes in the way that the River Clyde is used, which are Clyde the wild is inspired by the changes in gradually leading to a local environment that will encourage wildlife backthe into area. way thatthe the River ClydeAfter is used, which are gradually leading to a local environment long absence, the Atlantic salmon, as a key stone species, is evident of healthy habitat, hasbackonce that will encourage wildlife into the area.

After long absence, the Atlantic salmon, as a key stone species, is evidentthe of healthy again flourishing in the city centre; and with the iconic nature salmon in Glasgow folklore, habitat, has once again flourishing in the centre; and with the iconic nature salmcity of Glasgow wishes to use the opportunity to maintain the essentialcitylink between people on in Glasgow folklore, the city of Glasgow use the opportunity to maintain and nature. With this, rivers and streams, which are veritable corridors ofwishes lifetopassing through the essential link between people and nature. challenge.

With this, rivers and streams, which the modern built-up areas thus constitute a major asset in facing up to this Halim Kurniawan / Soo joe Wey / Studio 14.3

are veritable corridors of life passing through the modern built-up areas thus constitute a major asset in facing up to this challenge.

Nowadays, particularly where River Clyde meets the lower River Kelvin tributaries is threatened Nowadays, particularly where River Clyde meets thefollowed lower River Kelvin with the proposal of 26 acres shopping centre development along its bank by tributaries the is threatened with the proposal of 26 acres shopping center development along issue of water quality. Noticing this location for its high potential of followed habitat value, whileits bank by the issue of water quality. Noticing Wild this location for its high potential of salmon is maintained as the main theme of the development, Clyde the has decided habitat value, while salmon is maintained as the main theme of the development, to react, once again raises the issue of water discharges to the river, the and essentially is an Clyde Wild has decided to react, once again issue of water discharges expansion of the existing urban wildlife habitat. Furthermore, in unveilingraises thistheurban wildlife to to the river, and essentially is an expansion of the existing urban wildlife habitat.

Furthermore, broader community, it calls for architecturally exploration in terms of series of infrastructural in unveiling this urban wildlife to broader community, calls for architecturally intervention to facilitate the needs for one to achieve this relationship with theit natural worldexploration in terms of series of infrastructural intervention to facilitate the needs for one – To learn, to play, and to observe. to achieve this relationship with the natural world – To learn, to play, and to observe.

UNION PLATFORM Francis Murphy

UNION PLATFORM Francis Murphy Unit 14.3

The Union Platform proposes a new infrastructure for engaging citizens with their city, stimulating participatory and inclusive development and the activation of neglected communities in the East and South of Glasgow.

The Union Platform proposes a new

infrastructure for engaging citizens with their city, stimulating participatory and inclusive development and the activation of neglected communities in the East and South of Glasgow.

Through a prefabricated system of components, Union Platform provides citizens with a tool for manifesting small scale, temporary and experimental facilities within the city, reactivating Through a prefabricated system of comthe Union Line railway as a catalyst for enhancing, involving and enfranchising communities. ponents, Union Platform provides citiNomadic, transportable facilities are designed, developed and distributed throughout zens with a tool for manifesting the small scale, temporary and experimental facity, activating both urban voids and rural communities. Railway vaults are developed into cilities within the city, reactivating the Line railway as a catalyst for endynamic and engaging installations that link areas of the fractured cityUnion through temporary and hancing, involving and enfranchising communities. Nomadic, transportable spontaneous activity. facilities are designed, developed and distributed throughout the city, activating both urban voids and rural communities. Railway vaults are developed into dynamic and engaging installations that link areas of the fractured city through temporary and spontaneous activity.

By providing an opportunity for citizens to engage in the development of the urban fabric, communities are enfranchised in both making and shifting of their city.

By providing an opportunity for citizens to engage in the development of the urban fabric, communities are enfranchised in both making and shifting of their city.

NICOSIA: MIND THE GAP Kyriaki Cheiridou Since 1974 a line runs from the East to the West coast of the island of Cyprus. It breaks it to a North and South sector. Physically this line takes the form of a buffer zone, created to offer protection. The Buffer Zone remains an unexploited piece of land, frozen in time, hiding opportunities for a beneficial redevelopment.

This research aims to create potentials on three different key points of the Buffer Zone in the divided city of Nicosia: The abandoned airport of Nicosia, the Ledra Palace check-point and the interrupted Ermou Street. The three selected sites will be a challenge to study how the proposed typologies can be applied in different scales, typography and context.

UNION PLATFORM make_shift urbanism

Master 14/ Studio 04/ SeemLess

EDIBLE LANDSCAPES: Uncertain Futures of Farming in Sierra Elena Staicu

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The objective of the second part of the thesis is to propose solutions to the conclusions drawn from the research collated in first semester. Ecuador’s economy has been heavily dependant on the extraction of petroleum since the 1970s. What will happen once the oil resources have been exhausted? Predictions state that the oil reserves will be deplete in the next decade. Tourism and agricultural sectors present a potential for further development and growth of Ecuador. Due to its socio-cultural and economic dynamics, tourism and agriculture are an excellent tool to promote economic development and strengthen relations between the different ethnic groups, and also encouraging projects that prioritise environmental protection and conservation of natural resources. The thesis proposal aims to combine the three main economic drivers into a centre for regional agriculture, crafts and education with the purpose to: Restore the agriculture and craft industry as important players in the economy. Integrate the ethnic groups and allow communities to work together. Educate innovative ways of farming, crafts and nature conservation. Promote the produce through the market, which also acts as a social condenser, as well as research into new ways of farming and food production for the ever-growing population.

esis ons irst een of pen ed? be and for or. ghest the mic tat is r,an if mic Since ons lain also est is lined tise ough n of and anies and the for with hat is tracected as ly at point enter low st. my is ource afts hnoland

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FRAYED PAST; WOVEN FUTURE: Regeneration of the Industrial River Leven Jenna Campbell

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STUDIO

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The River Leven, West Dumbartonshire, was once a centre for the Turkey Red Dye Industry in Scotland. There were over 10 factories and 27 chimney stacks along the river in the 19th and early 20th Century which created many thriving, working communities. With trade levels falling and cheaper product being produced abroad, the industry along th River Leven began to fall and the last factory closed in the 1960s.

The closure of the factories devastated the communities as it supplied employment for a large population of the area. The factories were demolished and today there is very little evidence of this once thriving industry and the communities have turned their backs on the river.

The aim for the thesis is to:

4

PROTECT the heritage of the Red Dye Printing Industry; ENHANCE the riverside and make it a safe, inspiring place for the community and visitors; RESTORE industry to the area through the introduction of a new textile industry for the future; RECONNECT the communities through new interventions and crossings along the river.

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relas and

The Ecuadorian Amazon contains the highest levels of plant and animal diversity in the world.

The future of this astounding habitat is at critical risk of being lost forever, if measures are not taken to protect it. Since 1960 many oil consortiums have laid stake to a part of this habitat, littering it with oil jacks, toxic waste and unlined waste pit that are polluting and killing.

As the oil becomes harder to extract, the oil companies have to use ever more intrusive and damaging extraction methods.

The town of Coca is an oil frontier town that is at the forefront of oil exploration and extraction. The closest civilization to the protected Yassuni National Park, which is currently at risk from oil companies, Coca is the point from where many tourists leave to explore the rainforest. Around 46% of the Ecuadorian economy is based on oil. I propose a shift from a resource based economy (oil exploration) to a technology based economy (bio-prospecting and pharmaceutical/bio-medicinal research).By creating a new architectural typology the following goals can be achieved.

1. Indigenous people and scientists combining botanical knowledge to achieve advancements of bio-medicinal research.

2. The economy can make a shift from oil dependency to bio-prospecting and tourism.

3. Coca develops into a destination rather than the transitory space it currently is.

4. Protect an area of rainforest that has some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world.

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ket, well the and ing the n be r the earch

THE MEDICINE CABINET: Healing Beyond Boundaries Lindsay McDonald

Diploma Studio 05/ The Big City Challenge

THE NORTH-SOUTH STITCH Low Wai Fong The project aims to rediscover the potential of Townhead and Sighthill Park in overcoming the M8 as a barrier and adhere connectivity between north and south of Glasgow. The masterplan on Townhead and Sighthill Park developed a central spine that links and leads series of key public spaces along the journey. The public spaces are function for community and public use, which will improve legibility, community integration and create sense of place at the same time.

The project visioned Townhead and Sighthill Park as medium to lead public to the north in a wider context. Potentially, New Townhead to be a vibrant neighbourhood composed of locals and students that closer to the city with improved accessibility. While, Sighthill Park could become a main focal leisure green land that could assemble people to it and spread people around north-east Glasgow.

UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF THE CANAL Tan Swan Sim & Nadira Johari The project addresses the issue of the under-utilised Forth and Clyde canal that has been largely neglected since the emergence of the motorway. The project investigates the potential of the canal and the land that adjoins the canal as a resource for fresh food and produce, and of the canal itself as a means of transporting produce to a central market.

The proposal aims to transform vacant urban spaces by increasing the intensity of land use and creating a multi-programme environment. The project then focuses on the possibilities to increase the diversity of uses and activities in the area through the development of a variety of compatible, symbiotic functions and occupation patterns. Through the integration of a central market hub alongside a canal-based agricultural research and organic food production centre, the project promotes a locally-based economy and, by creating a facility that will attract both private and commercial customers from a wide catchment area, bridges the gap between this area and the rest of the city.

GLASGOW RIVIERA Muhammad Shazwi bin ZulkiĂŹi Today Forth and Clyde and Union Canal are reinvented as a leisure and recreational destination for locals and tourists with restoration projects carried out to improve and link the canal back. The theme of my thesis project is to encourage and optimise the use of canal through interventions of developments and activities for the locals and tourists. The site of my project is Port Dundas, which is the start of the Glasgow branch of the Forth and Clyde canal.

The project look into enhancing current relationship between Port Dundas and city centre, by inviting people from city centre and the surroundings to come and enjoy leisure and recreational activities designated along the canal front. Connectivity between these areas will be improve through development of new public transportation hence creating Port Dundas a new district node in the area. Introduction of a terminus point for boating activities close to Glasgow city helps to encourage canal tourism. Using the canal for water based recreational activities invites more people to come to and utilise the canal. New density will increase current low population in Port Dundas and create an exiting waterfront community.

UnCertainty Road Tour 2014 Ulrike Enslein In March 2014, for seven days, 22 students, three members of staff in two minibuses undertook an UnCertainty Road Tour (UCRT). The destination was unknown to students until the start of the journey of each day. This was the fifth UCRT and the second to mainland Europe by Year 5 students and staff and followed the success of the first UCRT in 2010 to the Outer Hebrides.

This year’s UCRT took us for the first time to the Ruhr (Germany) and was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service/ Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).

As part of the tour students were asked to undertake several exercises, to record, sketch, photograph and write about their experiences of the different buildings, events and highlights in the areas we visited.

Graham Hogg from Lateral North was involved in the planning and also accompanied us on the tour. On the tour we tried to take up all aspects of the built environment and the culture of the places we visited. We arranged to meet with local artists, artisans, historians, user of the spaces etc. not just architects. We also attend local cultural, theatre and music events.

The ethos of the UCRT is best described under these headings: Togetherness, Uncertainty, Dynamism, ‘More than Just Architecture’ and Curiosity.

In the near future is a publication planned together with Lateral North with the material students have gathered from the various tours so far undertaken.

Part 3 – The gold rush is on again!

Colin McNeish

During the early years of under-graduate architectural studies with the rush to the head of ‘design’ foremost at every crit it is easy to lose sight of the end goal. At Part 1 and even in achieving a Masters degree at the conclusion of Part 2 there is little focus on professionalism as the necessary quality of becoming an architect.

Suddenly the prescribed conditions of Part3 come into sharp focus.

If we examine the recent history of Part 3 studies it easy to trace the parallel with the ‘boom and bust’ of the economy and its effect on the construction industry in general and the discipline and practice of architecture in particular. In the short history of the last decade and a half since my appointment in 2000 as the Course Director at Strathclyde we have moved from the ‘hay-day’ of 50+ candidates queuing to do their Part 3 to the low point of 2013 when only 24 sat the exam in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.

In the years of buoyant workloads in practice it was recognised that being qualified at Part 3 was not only the pinnacle of seven years (or more) of study but the quickest means to a secure job and a reasonable salary. This was often facilitated by financial support from the employer, if not in full then substantially in part. As the recession began to bite hard especially after 2008, candidates found it hard to match the rich experience of being in the position to run contracts on site; that is for those who were fortunate enough still to be in employment!

Now that the tide is quickly turning there is a significant upturn in the numbers applying to sit their Part 3. This is coming from those who now feel more secure in work but also from young practitioners that have been forced to start up on their own initiative in the meantime. Added to this are many that realise they have to catch up now that better times are just around the corner. The market is changing from being in the domain of strapped employers to that of employees looking to better their salary through the increased need for resources. Client demands for new commissions that have been on the ‘back burner’ for many months are now coming in fast and sure. Once more the practices that have survived are busy and being stretched to meet this new up-turn in work.

There is then a renewed enthusiasm to secure a successful Part 3 qualification as the final notch in a competent and compelling C.V. Ah the joy of more Log Sheets to comment on and sign off (not!) and the relish by the candidates to become true professionals at last! So the word on the street is ‘don’t delay any further’, at risk of missing out on the only gold standard of becoming an Architect – this coveted and protected title which for so long has been stiven!

A@131 Society David Wyllie The A@131 Society was first formed by the Architecture students in the academic session of 2012-2013 with a goal of publicising anything that has a link to the department or Glasgow in an architectural sense. The first academic session held a thrilling and memorable lecture series throughout the year. It was greatly received and now in the academic session of 20132014 we have moved forward with new ventures.

In the first semester of the academic session we held a delightful five part lecture series which commenced with Andy Campbell from Dress for the Weather. We then had guests from around the United Kingdom including Richard Murphy Architects and FaulknerBrowns Architects from Edinburgh and Newcastle respectively. We were then overjoyed to welcome Chris McVoy from Steven Holl Architects to the Architecture Department, who gave an inspiring talk to the school about the practice ethos and their new Seona Reid Building in Glasgow. The lecture series also included invited guests as part of the studio tutorials, Joan Callis from EMBT engaged in a dialogue with Ruairidh Moir, ex Co-President and founder of the A@131 Society.

In the second semester the society wanted to promote new learning techniques within the school and set up Revit workshops for 15 students to attend regularly throughout the semester. This was a great initiative and allowed students to learn valuable software techniques. We also had our very own Dr. Jonathan Charley presenting in conjunction with SEDA to round of the academic year with a talk titled “The Ecology of Disaster.”

For full details of the A@131 Society please visit http://convenientbenches.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/stratharch

(un)certain future introduction Lateral North Less than two years ago we (at Lateral North) sat in a lecture theatre being introduced to our final year thesis project – (un)certain futures. The topic was left completely open for us and our peers, as architecture students, to express our interest in something that excites us. It is strange then, that almost two years after that initial briefing, everything we continue to do is transcribed by these words.

The year is set up in such a way that it allows you to explore the realms of architecture and not to be confined to designing the same building as every else has for the past 4 years of your academic career. This exploration, for us, allowed us to define what architecture was in our eyes and in particular what we can bring to different clients and organisation. It is something that we found most readily in our first year in practice as we deal with a variety of different people and do a variety of different things. If you had told us back in that initial briefing that we were going to be producing a Food Atlas of Scotland or designing imagery, and providing research, for 21 future industries of Scotland we would not have believed you.

Most importantly though we would not have believed you that either of these were that closely related to the architectural and design profession.

So how did we get here and what key events happened along the way?

Before being called Lateral North we were two separate groups. The first was Possible Orkney / Nordic Scotland and the second was From The Water.

Our thesis years were both set up very differently. Nordic Scotland visited Orkney in the first semester while From The Water spent their first semester in Gothenburg. Their second semester was spent travelling throughout the Outer Hebrides getting a feel for what could take the archipelago forward.

Nordic Scotland visited Orkney again at the same time.

It was in May though that we got our first taste of what real life was going to be like. Normally presentations of your work are to your tutors and your peers.

On May 1st 2013 the audience was a whole different ball game. Parliament.

70 people. MSP’s attending. Lesley Riddoch chairing. And we were presenting.

Safe to say it was that little bit more intimidating.

It was from this juncture that we realised that there might be scope to start something up as a business. People had come to see architecture and were engaged in it – saying that the RIBA examiner found it difficult to find the architectural merit in it. But for us we had found a broader version of architecture that we were interested in. And it’s not like it’s uncommon. Look no further than Collective in Glasgow or OMA in Rotterdam.

The next stage was coming up with a name. Great fun that is!

We spent a month going through name changes before one morning we sat down in the fish bowl in the Architecture Building with the intention of not leaving until we had a name. After 4 long hours we finally had Lateral North.

It was a good morning that morning as we also found our first office space – the caves in the Architecture Building would be our home for the first 6 months before estates eventually found us.

The masters’ process allowed us to expand our work and try to involve more people in it and within two weeks of finishing masters we were hosting our own exhibition to over 100 people just off George Square. If there is one thing to be said about starting up your own firm you have to not only commit to it 100% but you have to be willing to network, or as we penned them, creative conversations.

Our exhibition then leads us on to being invited by A+DS to exhibit as part of the Reactivate! exhibition. And then an article in Urban Realm. And then a discussion with a publisher. And then before you know it we have a book published and are in the process of looking at +15 projects.

We are still (un)certain as to what the future will hold. But the uncertainty is exciting. It does our heart rate no good what so ever, but we definitely wouldn’t change it for the world.

Year 5 and (un)certain futures is easily the most liberating and fulfilling year of architecture you will do. Find something of interesting and absolutely go for it. Don’t hold back and express what architecture means to you. www.lateralnorth.com

Dress for the Weather Andy Campbell + Matt McKenna Dress for the Weather are delighted to see the return of the end of year publication and would like to thank the editors for the invitation to contribute to it. During our time within the department the opportunity to work on the Year Book and other similar projects played an important role in developing the cross disciplinary design skills that now form the basis of our practice.

Fifth Year at Strathclyde also played a pivotal role in establishing the practice.

The freedom afforded to students to pursue their own interests, and to question the widening role of the profession, are both important aspects of the course which helped develop our practice ethos. For us this resulted in research projects that explored, in depth, familiar places to us and created architectural proposals strong on narrative and concept. Through this time we developed an ethos that is responsive to circumstance, climate and culture, to ‘dress for the weather’.

The idea of a contextual response is something we are interested in as an office. The word ‘context’ is often appropriated for a variety of situations and part of our on-going internal dialogue is to try and qualify what we mean by this idea; exploring the potential of a contextual architecture. This responsive approach is informed by our work in other areas such as map making, building typology studies and artwork. Here we are able to pursue the interests and techniques developed in architecture school in order to gain a fuller understanding of the places in which we work to design buildings.

Many of our projects have started from an element of urban research. An interest in recording Glasgow’s buildings sparked our Typology Project newspaper - the first issue on tenements is an abstract architectural record of the form, order and pattern of these buildings. This architectural study also frames a more emotive study of the identity and character of a prominent building type within the city. This study led directly to our Saltire Award winning study on the built fabric of Govanhill for South Seeds. This area of research directly benefits our more conventional architectural work

with the above studies in tenemental order, proportion and environmental concerns strongly influencing our designs for a mixed use and student accommodation development in Townhead, Glasgow. Knowledge and more importantly recordings and diagrams were used to guide us and justify our design moves regarding aspects such as thresholds of public - private space within communal accommodation as well as more aesthetic and proportional aspects of facade design.

Our map making projects are intended to start a wider conversation about the city in an agenda-free situation; encouraging multiple viewpoints and allowing ourselves to be challenged on what a city can be. Our Subcrawl map develops connections to different parts of the city and through tours and talks we build a better understanding of how the city fits together, physically and historically.

Other mapping projects offer an opportunity to communicate our contextual ideas, charting territories and the intricacies within them, they have also led to a wide range of building and artwork commissions. Our artwork at 293 Gallowgate is a good example of how a process based around the mapping of cultural, social and urban landscape can engage a community and result in work that instills ownership and pride in those who it is for.

We sincerely appreciate the strong foundations of research driven practice and engagement with a wider context that architecture school at Strathclyde instilled. It is something that we are serious about upholding in our practice and see it as vital in continuing to enjoy architecture. We hope this is communicated in our work and look forward to a continuing and evolving relationship with the department.

Thanks, Andy + Matt

www.dressfortheweather.co.uk

Studio 2080 Jeremie Warner Studio 2080 is a humanitarian design agency born out of the Architecture School at Strathclyde. The company is a for profit social enterprise, investing 80% of its profits into development interventions in Africa, the remaining 20% is used to grow the agency. The company was registered in May 2013 as the founding team prepared to submit their PgDips having completed dissertations on sustainable development in Africa during their honours year. The PgDip was followed up by a collaborative Masters thesis which has developed into two funded PhD places within the school starting in October 2014.

During 4th year, the teams dissertation work focused on three topics, agriculture, healthcare and education. This research has formed the basis of the agencies development programs with the addition of energy forming the 4 core programs being pursued on the ground in Africa. The dissertations gave the 2080 team the theoretical knowledge needed to begin designing development interventions with rural villages in Africa, but it wasn’t until the masters year that the company made a site visit to its first partnered villages in rural Senegal.

The first site visit to the companies partner villages was undertaken in December of 2012 in advance of the first masters submissions in January.

During the trip, the team visited half a dozen precedents in both Senegal and The Gambia, covering over 2500km in 4 weeks. This provided the team with first hand knowledge of development processes and construction techniques within our design context, which informed the projects and interventions the team designed during the masters semester. During the site visit, over a dozen village meetings were held, meetings with local councilors and ministers were attended and a children's photography workshop with over 60 participants completed.

All of this research on the ground has given Studio 2080 an intimate insight into daily life in rural Senegal, with the agencies participatory design process, deployed with villagers resulting in 4 development interventions. The four interventions the team developed during their masters semester are; off grid energy solutions, a micro drip irrigation scheme, village woods and our livestock program. Each intervention being mutually complimentary with multiple benefits afforded to villagers, but importantly encouraging trade and not aid. The business model created to deliver these interventions on the ground has been developed with input from the Strathclyde Enterprise Network and Scottish Institute for Enterprise, with the team winning national prizes for enterprise in 2013.

The 2080 team are planning to pilot all interventions during a site visit in 2014, having recently purchased a plot of land in a local town in Senegal to build a base of operations. With planning permission granted by local government, Studio 2080 intends to develop the site over the next 12-24 months with input from students from the architecture school whilst monitoring the successes of the pilot schemes. This work will form the basis of the PhDs the team begin in October, focusing on participatory design and off grid energy.

To find out more about Studio 2080 and how you can support our work, please visit www.studio2080.org or give us a like on facebook!

“Research on the ground has given Studio 2080 an intimate insight into daily life in rural Senegal, with the agencies participatory design process, deployed with villagers resulting in 4 development interventions.�

Artstore; A Potted History Michael Kilmurry

Artstore can trace it’s history back to the 1850’s when as McGavigans it established a trade counter in Royal Exchange Square for their print works where customers could order their printing and stationery requirements.

Over the next 150 years the print works developed from a traditional printer and signwriter into a world class high tech manufacturer of components mainly for the automotive industry.

During this time the trade counter evolved into a retail shop going through various guises until the 60’s when it established itself as a leading supplier of graphic material and equipment mainly based around Letraset dry transfer and Pantone colour products. Interestingly Letraset was originally developed as a wet transfer product in the McGavigan’s factory before evolving into the highly successful dry transfer version used throughout the world.

In 1990 Artstore was established after buying the assets of McGavigan’s retail and moved from Royal Exchange Square to its present home in Queen Street.

Over the next 5 years it evolved from a narrow graphic and stationery retailer into the fully rounded arts business it is today. With over 40,000 lines it offers

the most comprehensive product range of any arts and crafts retailer in the UK. Around 2000 Artstore at the Artschool was established at The Glasgow School of Art offering a tailored range of product to meet the needs of the students and tutors.

2010 saw the launch of artstore.co.uk to meet the growing demand from our wide customer base throughout the UK. Artstore is unique among its competitors by committing 5% of its profits to the support of its customers through sponsorship of their projects and was awarded the category prize from Arts in Business UK last year.

Artstore Ltd. 94 Queen Street Glasgow G1 3AQ

Make and print your own newspaper with Newspaper Club.

www.artstore.co.uk

www.newspaperclub.com

A Note of Thanks

We would like to share one final thank you to all those who have helped to make A_SPACE possible. Without the support of our students, staff and countless other individuals who have contributed their work, articles, photographs and supported this endeavour, we would not have seen the return of our Department of Architecture publication.

We hope to see A_SPACE return next year as an annual occurrence, so watch this space!

@stratharch http://convenientbenches.tumblr.com Level Three James Weir Building University of Strathclyde 75 Montrose Street Glasgow, G11XJ

A_SPACE A_SPACE You are cordially invited to the A_SPACE Launch at the Barras Art and Design (BAad): A

A celebration of exemplar work from the Department of Architecture at Strathclyde University and the launch of the A_SPACE yearbook.

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Drinks reception Friday 13th June

commencing at 6.30 pm 54 Calton Entry, Moncur St, G40 2SB Further exhibits can be found at: 06.06.14 - 20.06.14: Selection of student works Architecture Department 3rd Floor, James Weir Building, Montrose Street, G1 1XJ Objects of curiosity: Artstore Glasgow, 94 Queen St, G1 3AQ

13.06.14 - 20.06.14: Selection of 4th year Bathhouse projects: Govanhill Baths, 99 Calder St, Glasgow G42 7RA

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The Department of Architecture University of Strathclyde

strath.ac.uk/architecture twitter.com/stratharch convienientbenches.tumblr.com