History & Theory

Employability

The architectural profession and most teaching environments are generally still not inclusive and there is a lack of visible everyday role models from all backgrounds and circumstances.

Throughout the year we invited professionals - chosen not only for their outstanding achievements, but also to reflect the diversity represented by our students - to talk about their education, careers and the ups and downs of professional life. The brief presentations were followed by discussions with the students.

The diversity also extended into the occupations and showcased the multitude of paths possible post graduation. Many of the guests are involved in initiatives to advance the urgently needed diversity in the profession and are mentoring or otherwise supporting students/young professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. They use their example and their voice to advocate long overdue change. Thank you to all engaged and inspiring guests!

Jayden Ali - UEL Alumni, Director JA Projects, MArch Unit Leader Central St Martins, trustee Theatrum Mundi

Nimi Attanayake - Director, Nimtim Architects, Design South East Panel

Marija Ambrasaite - Architect, Buckley Gray Yeoman, when invited at AEDAS, UEL mentor

Neba Sere - Penoyre + Prasad, Youth Construction Leader, Build Up, Co-Founder of Black Females in Architecture

Nick Evans - Architect, Vabel, Property Development

Wilf Meynell, UEL Alumni, Director Studio Bark, MArch Unit Leader UEL

Nia Rodgers - Architectural Assistant, tp bennett, UEL mentor

Nilesh Shah - Director, Russian for Fish Liz Waters - Stakeholder management/Comms/ Community Engagement, Sir Robert McAlpine

Jeff Tidmarsh - Broadgate Framework Design Manager, Sir Robert McAlpine

Steve Deadman - BIM, Mechanical engineer, Pollard Thomas Edwards

Yemi Aladerun - Shoreditch Housing Association, OLMEC Board Trustee, RIBA National Council Member/Trustee

Ibrahim Buhari - UEL Alumni, Public Practice Assoc at RB of Kensington and Chelsea, RIBA Architects for Change

Katy Marks, Director - Citizen Design Bureau

Bola Lasisi-Agiri - Apprentice, Architectural Assistant at Foster+Partners, director Tamed, Migrant’s Bureau

Rhianon Hatch - Public Works and BSc Unit H, UEL

Alfonso Padro - UEL Alumni, principal HKS, Mentor/ Ambassador Stephen Lawrence Trust, UEL mentor

Carl Nevil and Del Hossain – Adrem Recruitment

We would also like to thank Jenni Killick, RIBA and Sarah Holt and Grant Dyble, ARB and RIBA ELAG Group.

A big thanks to our industry award sponsors:

Milliken Flooring - Radical Sustainability Award

Eco Friendly Tiles and Eco Friendly Facades - Skin Thinking Award.

The above events were organised by Stephanie Schultze-Westrum and Hwei Fan Liang

We would love to add further contributors/ collaborators/sponsors to this list. Please contact: s.a.schultze-westrum@uel.ac.uk

HISTORY AND THEORY

An Introduction

Renée Tobe, History and Theory Coordinator

History and Theory encourages undergraduate architecture students to ask difficult questions, and to develop their own framework to understand the cultural context of architecture, urbanism and design. We present information through a series of lectures, seminars, site visits, presentations, and walks through the city, and encourage students to express themselves, to explore ideas, concepts, or conventions.

Year 1 examines and questions architecture in different regions of human habitation acknowledging our architectural origins but focusing on contemporary architecture, through assembly, form, geometry, and symbol. Whilst beginning to develop a sound knowledge in their field, students are encouraged to see, read and articulate connections between global developments in architecture and contemporary practice. Design requires a spatial ability to move with equal ease between imagining a space, designing, it drawing it in plan and creating it in model form. Year 2 engages with the city, urban conflicts, boundaries, and public engagement. Year 3 allows students to choose a focus within a wide range of topics, from loneliness in the city, rewilding, or public policy for development. Year 3

Title: The Doorway is Not Just an Opening to a Space but as an Opening to our Senses Name: Tashan Auguste

In this essay I will discuss doors and the doorway as a portal of experience. By placing emphasis on the power of the threshold and at how doors and doorways can offer a point of either refuge or escape, as well as how simply passing through a doorway can give a different perspective on how we see the world and how our senses identify with it. I will also be exploring the famous idea of the ‘in-between’ and how the doorway, a simple opening, can alter our state of being as we experience/ contemplate going through a doorway.

I will also be investigating the role the doorway plays at organising spaces. With the use of images, photographs and diagrams as examples, I will explore and examine how doorways; ‘portals’ create points of contact between different ‘worlds’; spaces. I will also be examining how they have been used as forms of control and sometimes means for discrimination as doorways can create undying urges of temptation or curiosity of transgression. I will also discuss forbidden doorways, their uses and the relationship between doorways and the organisation of routes and the impact they can create and have for the users of the building.

Title: Conservation Architecture is Important for Antigua and Barbuda Name: Hannah Cornelius

In the area of Architectural Conservation, the preservation of heritage buildings is an important factor of any community, country or city. In the book, Conservation, both editors concluded that professionals in this area “do things to irreplaceable work of art and design, archaeological artifacts, buildings, monuments, ruins, and heritage sites on behalf of society,” (Richmond and Bracker, 2009). However, in many countries, these “irreplaceable” work such as Heritage buildings are torn down and traded in for modern aesthetics. In Antigua and