Decolonising Performative Architecture Seminar Series: “Six strategies for a more participatory architecture” Giancarlo Mazzanti, El Equipo Mazzanti, UCL, Thursday, February 25, 3pm GMT | Online

When: Thursday, 25th of February at 3pm GMT

Blackboard link: https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/0c1eb0958d304a78a4b51396245b91fd

The seminar is organised by Paolo Cascone, Yota Adilenidou and Maddalena Laddaga in the frame of Architecture and Environmental Design DS3A “Decolonising Performative Architecture” seminar series.

Giancarlo Mazzanti is the founder of El Equipo Mazzanti, social values are at the center of Mazzanti’s architecture. He seeks to realize projects that give value to social transformations and build communities, and has dedicated his professional life to improve quality of life through the design of the environment and the idea of social equality. His work has become a reflection of the current social changes occurring in Latin America and Colombia, showing that good architecture manages to build new identities for cities, towns, and inhabitants, and transcend reputations of crime and poverty.  

Amongst some of his most relevant projects are the International Convention CenterBiblioteca España, and the South American Games Coliseums, all in Medellín, Colombia. Works in other areas of Colombia include the Tercer Milenio ParkEl Porvenir Kindergarten in Bogota, Timayu Kindergarten in Santa Marta, Pies Descalzos School in Cartagena, and Marinilla Educational Park. Mazzanti graduated from Javeriana University in Colombia, with postgraduate studies in industrial design and architecture in Florence, Italy. He has experience as a visiting professor in Colombian universities, as well as in world-renowned universities such as Harvard University, Columbia University, and Princeton University. He is also the first Colombian architect to have his works in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 

T R A J E C T O R I E S Talk Series: “Community” with Cassie Li and Robert Newcombe, Thursday, February 23, 18:00 GMT | Online

When: Thursday, 23rd of February at 6pm GMT

Join via Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZmI1MzhkYTAtYTA3Zi00MDdkLTg0M2ItNDRmYzdiMWE4ODdi%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22bb3c97ff-11b5-4b37-92cf-1897b2d8766b%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%220ca04870-4816-4cbc-81f3-221d818f2d11%22%7d

T R A J E C T O R I E S  TALK SERIES | THURSDAYS from 6PM GMT

A new series of talks inviting architecture graduates to reflect on their time as students and their exciting next steps. Each week two speakers will explore personal creative aspirations, ideas and agendas, and present the somewhat unexpected trajectories of their early careers. Looking forward to seeing you all there! 

Cassie studied her Part 1 at the University of Westminster with a semester abroad at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Whilst studying her BA, she worked with the architectural group CAUKIN Studio on designing and building community projects in Fiji as both a participant and project leader, where she gained hands-on experience in local timber construction. After graduating Cassie went on to work at dRMM Architects for a year before joining CAUKIN Studio full-time in January 2021.  She is now working on developing international humanitarian projects as well as UK-based projects with a focus on social impact. 

Robert completed his MArch and BSc Architecture degrees in the Bartlett School of Architecture, which culminated in designing spatial interfaces for inclusive participatory processes, to facilitate meaningful community-led design outcomes. During his studies and after having graduated Robert co-directs the Aldea Foundation in Chile, working with an interdisciplinary team to design architectural and public space interventions, organise public city-wide architecture festivals and run educational workshops for young people. 

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows’ article for RIBAJ: “Practical steps towards real inclusion”

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, an architect, researcher, and the BSc Architectural Technology Year 2 leader has published an article in The RIBA Journal on how the architects can use their skills to help improve conditions for the disadvantaged and marginalised communities and members of our society.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and highlighted the urgency for community collaboration towards positive societal changes.  The pandemic has changed our lives in many ways. My family is grieving the loss of several family members and friends (of Bangladeshi origin), living in the UK.

Research issued by Public Health England reveals that you are more likely to die from Covid-19 if you are BAME than someone who is white, and people of Bangladeshi ethnicity are twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those who are white and British. The recent global protests for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement brought to focus communities’ collective actions to rise up against racial injustice and various social and health inequalities which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The power of community action and collective response has become urgent for communities worldwide, whether they are affected by racial injustice, health inequality or new developments in their neighbourhood (sometimes resulting in eviction) and for all those passionate to change systemic racism and inequalities.

As practitioners and architects, we could act many ways to facilitate the voices of those who have been marginalised in the society. One of these is to get involved in local planning issues: for example, by alerting the planning authority to any new development that negatively affects low-income communities in the neighbourhood through gentrification.

I am passionate about being part of the change in my area, so volunteered to be part of my borough’s design review panel. There I have the opportunity to help address some of the issues and push the design team and the developers, to hear and respond to the voices of the community. Unfortunately, in all the recent projects we have reviewed (which happened to be led by influential architects), the design decisions did not reflect local engagement (in an area with one of the largest BAME communities in London), and showed a lack of communication with the community they had designed for. Very little work had been done towards any such local engagement in the design process. […]

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows for RIBAJ, October 2020

To read the full text please go here.