Tag: Design

Call for Projects / Papers: “Design Agency within Earth Systems”, Architectural Association Symposium_Deadline 7th July 2018

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

8,000 metres above the 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 magnetic forces beyond. This living world is constantly being transformed by our social, economic and political interactions revealing our intricate dependences on 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.

Speakers for symposium include: Neil Brenner (UTL, Harvard GSD); Stuart Elden (Warwick University); El Hadi Jazairy and Rania Ghosn (Design Earth); Marti Franch (EMF Landscape Architecture) + more.

Deadline: 07 July 2018, for notification no later than the end of August 2018.

Successful applicants will be expected to cover their own cost for travel and accommodation.

For more info please download the call for projects / papers:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5mp15tdz3ymuq80/AABPGZEAFT9BZr1Nh6hK2oy-a?dl=0

Architecture Research Forum: “What About Design?” Kester Rattenbury, Thursday 17th May, Erskine Room, 5th Floor, 13:00-14:00

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

KESTER RATTENBURY: “WHAT ABOUT DESIGN?” The Research Assessment and You

Westminster has an amazing body of active, diverse, internationally recognised staff teaching our students design. Their outputs – your outputs – include buildings, competition designs, exhibitions, books, collaborations, products, blogs, new ways of working. This work is recognised locally, nationally and internationally. But is it research?

Arguably in all case, and demonstrably in some, yes, it is. And when the next national University research appraisal, the REF, takes place, all staff will be considered to see what their ‘research outputs’ have been, and will have to make submissions demonstrating this.

In the last REF, Architecture was able to submit Design Portfolios of selected staff projects for the first time. This Research Forum opens the discussion on how this will work – and whether we can in any way shape the process so as make the work of our remarkable staff a more more visible part of our School.

This is a short, three part event to open the discussion:

*Professor Lindsay Bremner and Professor Susannah Hagan will give short accounts of how the process worked last time;

*Toby Burgess and Arthur Mamou-Mani will give short presentations of the range of work they do, as an example of the range of our staff work

*Open discussion chaired by Kester Rattenbury on how we might approach Design Folios in the next REF and whether we could turn any part of the exercise to our advantage.

When: 17 May 2018, 13.00–14.00

Where: Erskine Room, 5th Floor

The Architecture Research Forum is a seminar series hosted by the Architecture + Cities Research Group where staff present work-in-progress for discussion.

ALL WELCOME

Roca One Day Design Challenge UK, Roca London Gallery, Saturday 26th May, 9:00-20:30

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The second edition of the Roca One Day Design Challenge UK will take place in London on Saturday, the 26th May. Once again, the event will take place at the Roca London Gallery, emblematic building in the city designed by the renowned architectural firm Zaha Hadid Architects.

As usual, the challenge will consist of a competition against the clock in which the participants will have to design a product related to the bathroom space in just one day.

When the challenge finishes, a professional jury made up of internationally renowned architects and designers will evaluate the projects based on the creativity and originality of the designs, the feasibility of the project and the quality of the presentations.

The competition, organised by Roca since the year 2012, is aimed at young students and professionals under the age of 30 that wish to test their creativity and participate in a collaborative event with other young people from these sectors.

Are you under 30 and living in the UK? Register for the next Challenge and show us what you’ve got!

When: Saturday, 26th May 2018, 9am-8.30pm

Where: Roca London Gallery, Station Court, Townmead Rd, Fulham, London SW6 2PY

To register online go to: http://www.onedaydesignchallenge.net/en/contests/united-kingdom/united-kingdom-2018

Detail Design Clinic: Monday 26th March, All Day, M416

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Detail Design Clinic offered to 2nd Year students on their Des2B:Design and Detail Module is taking place today in M416.

The Detailed Design Study (DDS) is an investigation into materials and technology, at both detailed and strategic level, supporting the development of the Des2B developed design project.

The making of architecture – its construction and the experience of it – will be explored as strategic sketches and also a series of ‘Technical Moments’ or ‘Human Scale Details’ which make up part of the building envelope and together develop its design.

The lectures, seminars, tutorials and symposium serve as an introduction to the practice of ‘architectural detailing’; the process and rigour required to design the details of a building and the relevance of material choice to construction and environmental considerations.

Morning Session with:

  • Scott Batty Architect_UOW
  • Jeremy Young_Featherstone Young Architects
  • Wayne Head_Curl la Tourelle Head Architects
  • Theclalin Cheung_ Curl la Tourelle Head Architects

Afternoon Session with:

  • Scott Batty Architect_UOW
  • Jim Potter_Waind Gohil + Potter
  • Elantha Evans Architect_UOW
  • Andrew Whiting_HUT
  • Sangkil Park_MAKE

Volunteering Opportunity – Caukin Studio’s “Design, Build, Travel” Project

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Caukin Studio is still looking for volunteers to fill a couple of places on their Masama Project in Sierra Leone in November 2018, and the last four weeks of Savundrodro project, Fiji in August / September 2018.

More information along with the briefing documents can be found on the Caukin Studio’s website.

One Day Conference: Dis/Ordinary Spaces_The Bartlett School of Architecture, Saturday 17th March, Room G.12

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Saturday 17 March, 10am – 5:30pm

Where: Room G.12, The Bartlett School of Architecture 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB

Dis/Ordinary Spaces is a one-day conference exploring ways of approaching disability differently.

Participants will imagine access and inclusion as creative generators, not merely as technical or legal ‘problems’ for architectural design.

Keynote speaker: Aimi Hamraie – Critical Access Studies and Socio-Spatial Practice

Speakers: Kim Kullman, Leo Care, Professor Barbara Penner, Dr Jos Boys

Free and open to all Eventbrite booking required.

* Please note the date of this event has changed from Friday 16 March to Saturday 17 March in support of strike action taking place by UCU over pension changes.

FAB FEST 2018 “Digital City”

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The next edition of FAB FEST will take place from 2nd to 10th July 2018 in Ambika P3.

The festival will broadly follow the same format as the previous two events, although some changes are to make it even bigger and better.

Notes from the organiser on the changes for FAB FEST ’18:

  • We are making an open call to all interested students of architecture and are asking for submissions of Design Concepts this year for either pavilions or smaller installations. All the requirements for submission are on our website.
  • Teams have a month from now to form a team and submit their applications. Successful teams will have a further two months to develop their ideas and produce, with our help, the fabrication information for their pavilion or installation. We’ll then manufacture the parts in the Lab and provide them flat-packed, ready for teams to assemble in P3 from the 2nd July.
  • During the assembly week, we will now have use of the newly refurbished Fabrication Lab, and it will be open in the evening all week for participants in the festival to meet each other and unwind.
  • As requested by previous participants, we are asking teams to keep more closely to the brief and to the rules this time, and so will be making the competition aspect of FAB FEST fairer and more prominent. Many teams have taken the competition seriously, and FAB FEST prizes are becoming prestigious for students to win. We will be making more of this aspect of FAB FEST this year, with more guest judges and a bigger judging and prize-giving event on the Friday night.
  • The following events on the Saturday and afterwards are also differentiated more clearly this time. There are now three distinct events following the main week of pavilion assembly and competition:
  • ‘Let’s Make!’ – We are working with a number of local schools over the coming months to develop the community outreach aspect of FAB FEST, and the Saturday afternoon will now be an opportunity to share the contribution from our local community, and to have a more family-oriented set of making and drawing workshops.
  • ‘Music@ FAB FEST’ – For the Saturday evening, there will be a much higher profile musical performance, making use of the one-off artistic venue that P3 and the pavilions provide. We have some of London’s hottest bands in our sights to make the most of this unique opportunity. The event will be open to all FAB FEST participants, but strictly ticketed this year.
  • FAB FEST Exhibition – Finally, we’re extending the exhibition element of the event, to give more people the opportunity to see the pavilions that everyone has worked so hard to produce, before it is recycled back into new card boards for next year’s event (98% of it!).
  • We are also developing the underlying research interests we have been pursuing through FAB FEST. We’ll be building on papers presented last year both on the role of FAB FEST as an experiment in teaching digital design and fabrication, and as a transient intervention in the City. This year we’re working on links to industry, exploring its relevance to the trend towards offsite construction. Let us know if you might be interested in working with us on any of this research.
  • Finally, we have new partners this year contributing to the events, including the Westminster Architecture Society and Digital Construction Week, with more joining over the coming months. Please refer back to the website for current developments.

For full details, please see the new website: fabfest.london, or pop down to the FabLab if you have any questions.

Call for Participation: Symposium ENABLE, KU Leuven, April 2018 – Deadline 16th February

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Call symposium ‘ENABLE’

A tribute to Prof. Johan Verbeke

The Faculty of Architecture KU Leuven proudly announces the symposium ENABLE on April 20-22 2018 in association with EAAE, ARENA, EURICUR, eCAADe and ELIA

The European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE), the Architectural Research European Network Association (ARENA), the European Institute for Comparative Urban Research (EURICUR), the association for Education and research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe) and the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA) continue to dedicate themselves to the development of research in all fields of architecture, technology, design and arts. This also includes subjects such as environmental design, sustainable development, interior design, landscape architecture, urban design/urbanism, music, performing arts, visual arts, product design, social design, interaction design, etc.

Together they are organising a symposium as a tribute to Professor Johan Verbeke. The symposium is building further on Johan’s critical approach, his advocacy for designerly thinking in research, his plea for research through design, based on the insights as they emerge during design practice. It is also building further on Johan’s vision to bring together arts and architecture, design and performance, from product design to landscape.

This symposium is called ‘ENABLE’, because we want to discuss the deployability and impact of design thinking, research and practice. This discussion and the cross-over with stakeholders outside the design world, governments, private companies, management thinking, … can be combined in notions such as ‘activating’ and ‘enabling’. Enable means to make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to; to authorise to give (someone) the authority or means to do something; to make it possible for to empower, to facilitate, to implement.

How does the research field of practices reaches out towards building developers, city policy, city planning? And how is the design world reacting to questions and challenges generated from these ‘external’ stakeholders?

Design researchers and PhD students will be able to participate in an environment dealing with research outside the architectural or artistic discipline and research within design studios.

The symposium is structured around three half days with three themes derived from the ‘Enable’-concept:

  • ‘Slow modelling’
  • ‘Impurity’
  • ‘Form influence’

Each theme will include discussants from within and outside academia. Students, end-users and policy makers will be welcomed in each panel.

Rapporteurs will have the responsibility to report back at the end of the symposium. Several rapporteurs are needed for each theme, the results of this report will be used for a journal publication or other publication afterwards.

On both locations of the symposium the exhibition ‘a tribute to Johan’ will be visible. For this exhibition, we invite participants to provide 1 object or poster to be exhibited during the symposium.

Important dates:

  • Submission of abstracts for peer review (discussants, rapporteurs and exhibition) at enable.architecture@kuleuven.be by 16th February 2018
  • Notification of acceptance: 26th February 2018
  • Registration: from 26th February 2018 onwards
  • Conference dates: 20th – 22nd April 2018

For further information, please visit the conference website.

Alumni Event Series: Ian Ritchie “What it Takes to Design with the Mind in Mind” – Tuesday 20th February, 18:30, Robin Evans Room (M416)

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The next guest in the Alumni Event Series will be Ian Ritchie with his talk “What it Takes to Design with the Mind in Mind”.

When: Tuesday, 20th February, 18:30

Where: Robin Evans Room (M416), Marylebone Campus

Free drinks and refreshments provided.

ALL WELCOME!

Call for Papers: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Cardiff University, 28-31 August 2018 – Deadline for Abstracts: 9th February

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Elusive landscapes of ‘design’ in the city

Session convenors: Gabriele Schliwa (University of Manchester) and Robert Cowley (King’s College London)

Although design was historically associated with the form of industrial and commercial products (and with the professional field of ‘urban design’), processes of ‘design thinking’ and the conceptual language of design have become commonplace in many spheres of practice and governance. In line with Richard Buchanan’s early understanding of design thinking as a ‘new liberal art of technological culture’ (Buchanan 1992), varied design processes are now advocated and applied across fields as diverse as public service delivery, democratic institutional decision-making, corporate management, international disaster relief, and even military operations research. This long-term trend has significant implications for urban space, not only in relation to governance approaches and new types of citizen engagement, but also in, for example, the development of infrastructural innovations, experimental and grassroots initiatives, the implementation of sustainability agendas, and the spread of digital/’smart’ urbanism.

This panel aims to critically and constructively engage with emerging modes of governing and reshaping urban space and social relations through the lens of design.

The scattered and elusive landscapes of design in the city we seek to explore include:

  • Design processes that follow ‘the concept of co-‘ (Bason 2014) such as co-design, co-creation, co-production or collaboration and are often concerned with ‘citizen engagement around urban issues’ (Balestrini et al 2017)
  • Design concepts previously used in the digital design sector and/or in the context of business innovation (e.g. service design, experience design, interaction design, interface design, human-centred design)
  • Ways of thinking including design thinking and resilience thinking (Cowley 2017) or creative thinking
  • Shifting identities, often from private towards public subjectivities, e.g. consumer to citizen, user to participant or claims about ‘citizen-centric’ goals (Cardullo and Kitchin 2017)
  • Workshops, events or projects such as e.g. innovation labs, living laboratories (Evans and Karvonen 2014), civic hackathons or jams in support of smart or sustainable city agendas
  • Cybernetic urbanism and aspects of environmental control (Gabrys 2014, Halpern 2015, Krivý 2016, Luque-Ayala and Marvin 2017)

Considering this variety of logics and activities, we would like to invite position papers or short provocations based on related empirical work, personal experience or theoretical considerations. These will be followed by a wider discussion. Contributions could address (but are not limited to) the following themes:

  • Rationalities – What does design as a mode of governing promise and what does it deliver in practice?
  • Contexts – In which contexts is ‘design’ as a mode of governing being mobilised today?
  • Levels of facilitation – Who is hosting, facilitating and participating in ’design thinking’ or ’designerly’ initiatives
  • Governing spaces – What are its spatial dimensions and spaces of inclusion and exclusion?
  • Power – What are the mechanisms of empowerment and disempowerment?
  • Historical perspectives – What are the origins of ‘governing through design’ approaches and current drivers behind this trend?
  • What theorisations and conceptualisations do we need to better understand the power relations and implications of design or designing in cities?
  • How can we maintain a critical, reflective, and constructive practice when designing with people becomes part, or even the focus of our academic work (particularly under funding schemes aimed at impact and innovation)?
  • What are its opportunities, limitations or dangers when attempting to steer society into more desirable directions?

Please submit your proposed title and abstract (200 words) to gabriele.schliwa@manchester.ac.uk and robert.cowley@kcl.ac.uk by Friday 9th February 2018.

Featured image source: http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Timeline.htm