Congratulations to Reece Murray from DS3.4 BA (Hons) Architecture and Rebecca Kelly from DS11 MArch on being nominated for this year’s AJ Student Prize.
To read more about their projects visit here.
Category: News
Giorgios Malliaropoulos from MArch DS18 to participate in 2022 Sustainability Workshop organised by the Norman Foster Foundation
Congratulations to Giorgios Malliaropoulos, MArch DS18 student, on being selected from hundreds of applicants to be one of ten to participate in the 2022 Sustainability Workshop and represent the University of Westminster.
His interest in sustainability has been proved through his University project last year – ‘’Institute of Ground Tectonics’’ developed while at DS18, under the tutelage of Laura Nica, John Cook, and Ben Pollock. The project is a laboratory for investigating soil structures , sampling analysis and morphological changes in land. Constructed out of a series of innovative aggregate mixtures, the proposal was aiming to minimise the use of material and carbon-intensive materials, materials that would adapt to extreme weather conditions such as drought and storms. This project included complex climatic data gathering, diligent research, Computational fluid dynamics simulations, high standard drawings, and carefully crafted prototypes.
Giorgios is currently finalising his research topic and agenda for the workshop, but he is interested in exploring soil morphologies & the possibility of controlling through design, nutrient concentration for more fertile soils and enhanced agriculture yields.
Fire Experience Day for Architecture Students
On June 9, 2022 a group of staff and students from the School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster attended a pilot day hosted by the Fire Service Training College. The experience and information gathered was particularly useful with regard to the new Building Safety Bill and also the incoming RIBA/ARB criteria on Fire and Life Safety Design.
Staff attending:
- Scott Batty
- William Mclean
Students from Year 2, BA Architecture:
- Luke Harvey
- Ruhsan (Roxan) Sadrettin
- Kyrah-Chae Copeland-Thompson
The School hopes to be able to expand to a whole year group next year.
All images by Scott Batty
Dezeen: “University of Westminster spotlights 10 architecture, environmental design and technology projects”
Dezeen magazine has featured a selection of 10 students’ projects from the School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster.
The featured students are: Asena Koksal (MArch DS25), Edoardo Ripamonti (BSc Architecture and Environmental Design), Jan Macbean (BA Architecture, DS3.3), Joshua Dalsan (BA Architecture, DS3.6), Lilla Porkolab (MArch DS10), Malgorzata Socha (MArch DS15), Nikol Kaso (BA Interior Architecture), Suha Faisal Valiyaveettil (BSc Architecture and Environmental Design), Zhengyao Hu (BA Interior Architecture), Zuzanna Jodlowska (BSc Architectural Technology)
The Dezeen feature can be accessed here.
Featured image: The water healing mosque of Royal Docklands by Suha Faisal Valiyaveettil
The Westminster Hydro Green Wall Installed in Marylebone Campus
This academic year, several of the BSc Architecture and Environmental Design students [who are part of the Westminster Environmental Society] and academics have been collaborating with Square Mile Farms in the creation of a hydroponic green wall for the production of food.
This project is the result of the successful application to the Westminster Green Fund.
The wall was installed in the entrance of Marylebone campus on Thursday, May 26th and will be ready for the first harvest after 4 weeks. The installation process was lead by students and Square Mile Farms team. The Vice Chancellor Peter Bonfield also visited the site and chatted to the team.
The official launch and the first harvest are scheduled for June 24th. To attend, please register here.
From September, the BSc Architecture and Environmental Design students will take charge of the maintenance and harvesting of the wall.
Congratulations to all involved!
RIBA Scott Brownrigg Award for Sustainable Development | Deadline: Friday, June 24 at 5pm
The RIBA Scott Brownrigg Award for Sustainable Development provides £5000 funding for research to address environmental and ethical issues and enhance the quality of life of communities across the globe.
The award is open to individuals or teams of architecture graduates and practitioners for projects lasting between three and 12 months. At least one candidate in the team should:
- – have successfully completed a RIBA-validated Part 1 course or with candidate course status in the UK or abroad, and
- – be enrolled, or have been granted a place of study, in a RIBA-validated Part 2 or 3 course or with candidate course status in the UK or abroad by the beginning of the period covered by the award, or
- – have graduated from a RIBA-validated Part 2 or 3 course or with candidate course status in the UK or abroad
For more information please go here.
Featured image via RIBA.
Urban Inclusion in Middle Eastern Cities | Contribution by Nasser Golzari (UoW) to “HABITAT: Embracing Change in the Post-2030 Future”
Congratulations to Dr Nasser Golzari on his contribution to “HABITAT: Embracing Change in the Post-2030 Future”
SDG 16: “URBAN INCLUSION IN MIDDLE EASTERN CITIES”
Credits to all authors, The Global Sustainable Technology & Innovation Community G-STIC, Thames & Hudson and HABITAT Coalition.
The exhibition in the press: urbanNext the Photographic Atlas of Cities Series: https://urbannext.net/habitat/. urbanNext is digital multi-format platform by @actar.publishers expanding architecture to rethink cities New York & Barcelona.
Featured image: Multi-storey buildings made from mud in Shibam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2012 Yemen became a site of civil conflicts which still continue. © dinosmichail, Shutterstock
New Charrette call: Issue 9(1) | Beginning Architecture: Contextualising thresholds in architectural education
The latest call for contributions to issue 9(1) of Charrette, under the theme Beginning Architecture: Contextualising thresholds in architectural education, is now live, with Raymond Quek (Norwich University of the Arts), Angeliki Sioli (TU Delft), Jodi La Coe (Marywood University) as guest editors.
The deadline for Call for expressions of interest (500 words) is 8th July 2022, and the deadline for Submission of full contributions 31st October 2022, for publication in Spring 2023.
For more information please check the attached document.
Patent for the design of a Helical Structural Framework
Pete Silver, Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Cities has been awarded a patent from the UK’s Intellectual Property Office for his design for a helical structural framework. Hopefully, we shall be able to prototype and construct this at a large scale on campus.
Lindsay Bremner wins new British Academy Research Grant
Lindsay Bremner and an interdisciplinary and intersectoral team of researchers from India, the UK and Canada have been awarded a British Council Knowledge Frontiers: International interdisciplinary Research 2022 grant for a two-year project titled ‘Reimagining the Good City from Ennore Creek, Chennai.’
Ennore Creek is a coastal wetland and backwater of the Kosasthalaiyar River in north Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Rich with mangroves, salt flats, canals and the myriad life-forms that thrive in them, it is home to numerous fishing communities and serves as a buffer against floods and sea level rise. After the 1950s, when Chennai began associating the idea of the ‘Good City’ with industrialisation and modernisation, Ennore was rezoned for heavy polluting industries. Land-use changes and lax environmental controls resulted in pollution, coal ash leakage and dumping of toxic material into the creek, degrading its ecosystem and impacting the health and livelihoods of its communities. This project will bring together diverse communities of knowledge and practice to reimagine and rearticulate the future of the creek in the interests of local communities, in the context of permanent weather extremes, climate challenges and a state-led creek eco-restoration proposal.
Co-investigators on the project, which will run from April 2022 – April 2024 are historians Dr Bhavani Ramesh (University of Toronto), and Dr Aditya Ramesh (University of Manchester); anthropologist Dr Karen Coelho (Madras Institute of Development Studies); environmental chemist Dr Asif Qureshi (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad); community activist and writer Nityanand Jayaraman and K. Saravan and Pooja Kumar (Coastal Resource Centre, Chennai).
This research is supported/funded by the British Academy’s Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary research 2022 Programme.
Featured Image: Ennore Creek with the North Chennai Thermal Power Station in the background by Shafeeq Ahamed S, Age 17, 2022.