Tag: Built Environment

ProBE Research Symposium: “Sustainability, Social Impact and Equity in the Production of the Built Environment” | Tuesday, July 9, 2024 at 10am (BST) in Room C1.15-16, New Cavendish Campus

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Tuesday, 9th of July 2024 from 10am to 5pm (BST)

Where: Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE), Room C1.15-16, University of Westminster, New Cavendish Campus, 115 New Cavendish St, London W1W 6UW

To book you place, please visit here.

The Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE) – a multi-faculty research centre spanning Westminster Business School (WBS) and the School of Architecture and Cities (SA+C) at the University of Westminster – is inviting you to a research symposium on reassessing research priorities for the study of the production of the built environment.

The symposium will be an opportunity to hear about ProBE’s current and recently completed research and to discuss priorities for future research on the production of the built environment, in particular the issues that most urgently need addressing, such as combatting climate change, improving vocational education and training (VET), and addressing sectoral equality, diversity and inclusion challenges in UK, Europe and across the globe. It will bring together ProBE members, past, existing and prospective collaborators, project partners from within the University of Westminster and beyond, including academic organisations, unions, industry practitioners, environmental organisations, policymakers and the wider society, for an interactive day of discussion.

The symposium will include keynote presentations from ProBE members and external speakers and panel discussions on the following key research areas:

  • embedding climate literacy into construction VET in different countries,
  • women in construction in Europe and beyond,
  • fuel poverty and energy retrofit in housing in the UK,
  • transforming VET and working conditions in the scaffolding sector across Europe.

Competition for Students: COINS Grand Challenge “Building the Future”_Deadline: 12th of April

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The COINS Grand Challenge is a global competition to uncover students, innovators and leaders with ideas that have the power to positively impact the built environment, and our society. We are searching for viable ideas that use a new or emerging technology to radically reduce costs, to increase efficiency or to improve sustainability, quality or compliance during construction or throughout the built life cycle.

To win cash prizes and gain exposure to influential leaders, all your students need to do is write an essay or create a short video to please describe their idea and its potential impact, and enter it on the Grand Challenge application website.

Entries should be submitted before 12 Apr 2019. Apply here: https://coins.secure-platform.com/a/

Take a look at some of the 2018 Grand Challenge finalists and their winning ideas and get inspired to submit and complete your application.

Finalists travel for free…

If selected as a finalist, undergrads will present their idea to the judging panel in Manchester, UK on Wednesday 12th June 2019. And COINS will get them there expenses paid.

Symposium: “Heritage and Identity”, 29th June 12:00-19:00, M416, Marylebone Campus

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Friday 29th June 2018, 12:00-19:00

Where: Room M416, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS

A half-day symposium bringing together diverse research currently being undertaken at the University of Westminster School of Architecture and Cities exploring the intersections between heritage, identity, politics and the built environment.

Keynote by Liza Fior, MUF architects, on the Venice Biennale and Robin Hood Gardens as a heritage artefact.

 

Everyone has history, but do some have more heritage than others?

If heritage is the process by which social histories are elevated into the narratives that form collective identities, communal, cultural, national, then heritage is about power, authorised and validated by certain social, institutional and state actors. At its most powerful, it is, as Stuart Hall says, the mirror of the nation, and those who are not reflected in it, can never belong to that nation.

With the revisiting of Britain’s colonial and slave-trading history, for example, there is growing awareness that heritage is contested and that we may just be entering foothills of cultural decolonisation. Heritage, thus, could be central to negotiating difference and diversity; it is a hot topic, the subject of government agendas, cultural projects, and identity politics. It remains, nonetheless, a fluid and contested term; what is heritage, who makes it, how is it made, who is it for?

Free admission. More info and bookings: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/heritage-and-identity-tickets-46386694853

HistBEKE (Historic Built Environment Knowledge Exchange) Seminar Day Invitation, Friday 29th June, London

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The HistBEKE project will very soon have a set of recommendations to send to Historic England for their agreement, following which they will be put into action.

We are keen to ensure that the heritage sector, including those in academia, is fully on board with these and that everyone has been able to have an input.

We would like to invite you, therefore, to a seminar day on Friday 29th June in London, either just to attend or to present a short paper. This seminar day is an opportunity to hear more about the HistBEKE project and how the framework will work, including recommendations for the knowledge exchange and research agenda. The future of the project will also be discussed, as well as how it can be used and further developed by everyone in the sector.

Topics for presentations may include, for example:

  • How you might make use of HistBEKE
  • Whether or not your own research agenda/priorities aligns with HistBEKE
  • Knowledge gaps and research themes that we might have missed
  • Knowledge gaps and themes that you might be able to fill (perhaps they could be used as a topic list for MA dissertations?)
  • Thoughts on the recommendations and any further suggestions
  • Guidance / publications / projects that might be added to the knowledge exchange
  • Areas for future collaboration

The key outcome from the workshops was that that HistBEKE should have two key elements:

  1. A Knowledge Exchange – a ‘one-stop-shop’ website that anyone can access for information on building types, conservation techniques, craft skills, materials etc. This will effectively be a Google-style search engine which will provide links/signposts to resources, many of which may well be on your website. This should be a wiki-style page that will be open access so that anyone can update it.
  2. A research agenda and strategy to fill any knowledge gaps and thus add to the knowledge exchange above. This should be ‘managed’ by a network/forum/stakeholder group rather than an open access wiki.

The other recommendations can all be found in the online survey that we are currently running to see how strongly everyone agrees them: https://survey.liv.ac.uk/Histbeke2018Survey.

The recommendations will not be finalised until after the seminar day, however, and all comments will be taken into account.

Please send your expression of interest to Stella Jackson by 31st May and let us know if you’d be able to attend on the 29th June, and if you would like to present a short (max 20 minutes) paper.

Featured image by SPAB (via University of Liverpool)