Open Studio is an interactive project run by the School of Architecture + Cities at the University of Westminster to make its design, research and practice-based work available online while it is happening. The site acts as a real time teaching and learning environment in which the work of both students and staff is curated and documented – the work of its design studios, or its other teaching and research groups and workshops. Read more in Blog, follow us on Twitter and like us on Instagram.
When: Monday, 16th of October 2023 at 1pm (BST)
Where: Online [link below]
The next Architecture + Cities research seminar will be held online on Monday 16 October, 13.00 – 14.00.
At this seminar, John Cook and Ben Pollock will present the work of Climate Cartographics, a proof of concept grant to test the mapping techniques developed during Monsoon Assemblages, the ERC grant funded project that ended in 2021. The link to the seminar is here.
The 2022 Sustainability Workshop organised by Norman Foster Foundation took place in Madrid, Spain, between 10th and 14th of October.
Georgios spoke about his experience to University of Westminster’s News:
“The Workshop aimed to explore the concept of sustainability at the intersection of natural and artificial. During the week-long programme, we aimed to generate projects and prototypes that demonstrated the transformative potential of combining different types of intelligence, namely ecological, human, and technological.”
To read more, please go here.
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.
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The issue is the fluid edge between city and water and is captured in the term ‘floodscape’, to give definition to a cityscape affected by fluctuating water levels. Manila, as an extreme case of a flood-prone city, presents the challenge of having to balance vital flood management with creating places suitable for urban life that many cities in the global south are facing or will face.
The archipelago of the Maldives averages 1.5 m above sea level making it the lowest country in the world. Such a unique context calls for a different and more fluid approach to design and planning in the face of rising climate uncertainty. Working with local communities, 4D Island, is looking to develop a toolkit of suggestive design moves to aid local decision making.
On Monday, 07 Feb 2022
1PM / M416 + Online
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89688306802
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Calder’s brilliant book […] develops a new frame for architectural writing which frankly makes some of the previous architectural histories look at best parochial, or at worst irrelevant in the face of the global climate crisis.
– Jeremy Till, Buildings and Cities
On Tuesday, 08 Feb 2022
6PM / Online
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81069895744?pwd=OFFWaFRvajcySTNFdGIrT2xmUXFwUT09
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Urban Radicals started out in 2019 as a duo between architects Nasios Varnavas and Era Savvides with the ambition to form an expansive network between friends, colleagues and expert collaborators, to solve problems across contexts and scales. Since then, the studio has grown organically through projects, competitions, parties, dinners, fishing trips, gardening, stories, painting, cooking, workshops, walks, gatherings and conversations.
On Wednesday, 09 Feb 2022
5PM
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89688306802
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‘Today, 600 million people in Africa do not have access to electricity and 900 million lack access to clean cooking facilities.’ Paolo will present the African Off-grid Housing research project on how to design and build off-grid and affordable housing solutions for the African Sub-Saharan context. The AOH project is developed at the School of Architecture and Cities of the UoW with the support of the Global Challenge Research Fund.
On Thursday, 10 Feb 2022
1PM
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89688306802
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An exploratory conversation between two collaborators about the meaning and limitations of sustainable practice. We will discuss the agency of the young architect, value systems and ways of seeing within the production of built matter.
On Friday, 11 Feb 2022
1PM
A huge congratulations to Jamie Williams, a MArch DS18 student last year and his tutor, Ben Pollock who have won the overall prize (Jamie) and an honorary mention (Ben) for their submissions to MIT’s Projection 16 – Visualizing Cities awards. These awards celebrate data visualizations that analyze city dynamics to inform urban planning practice and advocate for just, safe, and equitable cities.
Jamie William’s “The Atlas of the Carbon Economy” combined rigorous research and visual storytelling to unpack the geopolitics of carbon trading. It will also be exhibited at a COP26 fringe event – Imagine Glasgow 2021, COP26 Edition hosted by the New Glasgow Society in collaboration with ACAN/ACAN Scotland, Common Wealth and the Architectural Associations Ground Lab.
Ben Pollock’s “Why and Where We Need to Change, London 2020” highlighted the compound effect that social factors, environmental stress, and climate threats have on London neighbourhoods.
A catalogue of all the projects submitted to MIT’s Projection 16 – Visualizing Cities awards is available at http://visualizingcities-dusp.mit.edu
Featured images: Jamie Williams Atlas of the Carbon Economy (left) and Ben Pollock Why and Where We Need to Change, London 2020 (right)
Monsoon [+ other] Grounds is the third in a series of symposia convened by the Monsoon Assemblages project. It will comprise a key-note address, inter-disciplinary panels, and an exhibition. The event will bring together scholars and practitioners from a range of disciplines to engage in conversations about geologies, soils, histories, spatialities, and modifications of monsoon [+ other] grounds.
The confirmed keynote speaker is:
Tim Ingold, Professor and Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. His early work involved ethnographic research amongst the Skolt Saami of northeast Finland. This led to a more general concern with human-animal relations. Most recently, he has been working on the connections between anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture, conceived as ways of exploring the relations between human beings and the environments they inhabit, as mutually enhancing ways of engaging with our surroundings. Ingold is author of numerous books, anthologies and essays, including, most recently, The Life of Lines (Routledge, 2015) and Anthropology: Why it Matters (Polity Press, 2018).
15.30 Registration / Tea
15.45 Welcome: Simon Joss, University of Glasgow
16.00 – 17.00 Exhibition walk-about led by John Cook
Exhibitors: Alexandra Arenes, Matt Barlow, Blue Temple, Hari Byles, Corinna Dean, DS18 students, Tumpa Fellows, MONASS, Ben Pollock
17.00 – 18.00 [multi]grounds
Chair: Ed Wall, University of Greenwich
Lindsay Bremner, MONASS: On sediment as method
Ifor Duncan, Goldsmiths College: Sedimentary Witness
18.30 Keynote Lecture: Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen
Chair: Lindsay Bremner
09.45 Registration / Coffee
10.00 Welcome + introduction: Lindsay Bremner, MONASS
10.15 – 11.30 [over]ground matters
Chair: Godofredo Pereira, Royal College of Art
Alexandra Arenes, University of Manchester: Mapping the Critical Zones
Christina Leigh Geros, MONASS: Here be Dragons
Avi Varma, Goldsmiths College: Unjust Intonations
11.30 – 11.45 Tea
11.45 – 13.00 [inter]ground matters
Chair: Kirsten Hastrup, University of Copenhagen
Owain Jones, Bath Spa University: Monsoon + Tide
Jonathan Cane, University of the Witwatersrand: Permeability, Ocean, Concrete
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch: Convivial Grounds
14.00 – 15.00 [under]ground matters
Chair: Tim Waterman, The Bartlett UCL
Anthony Powis, MONASS: The Materiality of Groundwater: Leaking, Seeping, Swelling, Cracking
Matt Barlow, University of Adelaide: Floating (under) ground
15:00 – 16:00 [in]ground matters
Chair: Alfredo Ramirez Galindo, AA
Eric Guibert, University of Westminster: Architectural Soils
Harshavardhan Bhat, MONASS: About a Monsoon Forest
16.00 – 16.15 Tea
16.15 – 17.30 [with]ground matters
Chair: Radha D’Souza, University of Westminster
Naiza Khan, Goldsmiths College: Sticky Rice and Other Stories
Beth Cullen, MONASS: Brick
Labib Hossain, Cornell University: Wetness and the City: A Critical Reading of the Dry and Permanent Ground Through the Practice of Muslin Weaving in Bengal
17.30 – 17.45 Closing Remarks: David Chandler
17.45 -19.00 Drinks
When: Friday, 26th of October 2018, 9:30 – 18:00
Where: AA Lecture Hall, Architectural Association, 36 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES
8,000 meters above sea level exists what climbers call the ‘death zone’. This altitude marks the limit for human habitation, above which our species cannot survive. We thrive in the ‘life zone’ – the earth’s land surfaces and oceans, its geological layers beneath, the dynamic atmosphere above – all affected by gravitational and magnetic forces beyond. This living world is constantly being transformed by our social, economic and political interactions revealing our intricate dependencies on the the earth and its systems.Terms such as ‘Anthropocene’ and ‘Capitalocene’ have drawn attention to the role of political economy in transforming these earth systems and positioned design as a major geological force shaping the planet.
The ‘Design Agency within Earth Systems’ symposium invites participants to look through these planetary lenses to reflect upon the complicity of design in the destruction of the planet; to question the two dimensional, land based political technologies, by which we order our lives and our relations to the earth; to explore the material dimensions of air, ground and ocean as inter-twinings of socio-political and earth systems; and to imagine relations between socio-political and earth systems differently through design.
Two former DS18 students, John Cook and Ben Pollock, will have their drawings featured at the upcoming international conferences and exhibitions in Michigan, USA and Toronto, Canada in September / October 2017.
John Cook’s drawing “CSP Plant Jupiter Overview 3000” was produced for his project “Camdeboo Solar Estate” located in South Africa in 2014/2015 for Design Studio 18, and will be exhibited as a part of the Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape and the Postnatural, an exhibition and symposium, which will take place at the University of Michigan’s Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning from 25th September to 19th October 2017.
Ben Pollock‘s drawing “Global Flows” was produced in 2015/2016, also for Design Studio 18, the year when the studio worked on projects situated in the Maldives. This drawing will be shown as a part of EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology, a festival which will take place in Toronto from 28th September to 8th October 2017.
Find out more here: https://geoarchitecture.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/drawings-by-former-ds18-students-to-feature-at-exhibitions-in-michigan-and-toronto/
![Monsoon [+ other] Grounds – Full Programme_Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd of March,](http://www.openstudiowestminster.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/D2BLq5AX0AAh-O1.jpg)
