Tutors: Gabby Shawcross and Stephen Harty

Gabby Shawcross is an architect and artist and director of Studio Of Cinematic Architecture (SOCA).

Stephen Harty is an architect and director of Harty and Harty.

Still Frame / Short Cut / Long Shot

We use film to design and represent architecture.

We explore animated relationships between architecture and occupants, simulate moving experiences of space, describe dynamic events and speculate on future scenarios.

Our techniques include storyboards, motion-matching, time-based drawing and interactive mock-ups. Our films synthesise real-world situations with inventive propositions, responding to critical observations and anticipating cultural shifts or technological advances.

We adopt conceptual art practices to add complexity and meaning to each frame, to challenge and disrupt conventions of subject and object and find new ways of seeing.

This year we looked at motion in architecture and architecture in motion. We made journeys through space (quick direct routes and choreographed spatial sequences) in search of architecture that permits encounter and elicits delight.

STILL-IMAGE We started the year making large-scale still images to capture the spirit and complexity of our age.

SHORT-CUT We then expanded on the meaning in a single frame to create sixty-second spatial sequences, real-world, real-time points of view, composited with virtual and physical models.

LONG-SHOT These studies were developed into bold ideas for complex, time-based building proposals around Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham. Real-time experiences, daily transitions and seasonal changes are layered with long-term strategies and speculations for dynamic and evolving architecture, including a mobile office tower, a drive-thru parliament, a hydro-electric spa and a residential mega-structure.

TURIN In November we travelled to Turin for the 34th Torino Film Festival. By day we visited the rooftop race-track of the Fiat factory and Nervi’s concrete cathedrals, by night we watched experimental films and animations.