Tag: Fabrication Lab

Christmas Competition and other updates from the Fabrication Laboratory

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

As we get close to the Christmas Break, we have some updates from the Fabrication Lab, as well as the launch of a short Christmas Competition for our staff and our students.

Twelve Days of Christmas Window and Competition

Fabrication Laboratory is doing what they can to spread some seasonal good will at the end of an extraordinarily difficult year, and are creating a festive window on Marylebone Road. They’re going to use the Lab’s robot arm to film a one-off interpretation of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and are inviting ideas for scenes representing one of the 12 gifts. They’re looking for proposals this week – sketches or sketch models – and we’ll shortlist the best 12 next Tuesday to turn into animated sets for the window and film.

They’re running the project in collaboration with the Baker Street Quarter Partnership, who have brought generous local sponsors and cash prizes for the best three entries – £250 first prize, £150 second, £50 third. The window will open and the film will premiere the day before the students return home, Tuesday 8th December at 18:00.

For full details and a guide to how to participate, see the Lab website:

fabricationlab.london/festivewindow2020

Opening Times

The Lab remains open as it has since the start of the semester, and is available for bookable activities including use of the lasers and CNC machines. The shop, now converted to Click and Collect, is working well and is well used. It will be open for students until the end of the week when onsite teaching ends, and will reopen from the beginning of January. This information is also available on the website.

Lab Closes:      17.00, Friday 11th December 

Lab Opens:      09.00, Monday, 4th January

Lab Improvements

While the Fabrication Laboratory has had fewer students this year, they’ve taken the opportunity to make a whole host of improvements. Unfortunately, most of these will not be available until they are able to open up more fully, post lockdown. But just to keep you in the loop and spread some positive news, here are a few images below.

MArch DS22 tutors, Dr Yara Sharif and Dr Nasser Golzari, to screen their film alongside an interactive installation “Secrets of a Digital Garden” at the Berlinale Film Festival on Wednesday, February 19, 7pm at Betonhalle, Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

MArch DS22 tutors, Dr Yara Sharif and Dr Nasser Golzari, have been invited to show their recent work Secrets of a Digital Garden at this year’s Berlinale Forum Expanded.

The work consists of a film and an interactive installation, previously exhibited at the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019.

Secrets of a Digital Garden follows on the duo’s ongoing research by design, which aims to explore the hidden potentials of the Palestinians landscape, and the right to the rural. 
 
The work was produced in collaboration with Riwaq: Centre for Architectural Conservation, and is realised with the fantastic support of UNESCO, University of Westminster, Fabrication Lab, NG Architects, DOEN, Sweden/Sverige and PART.

The exhibition runs from February 19 to March 22.

The Master’s Banquet _ Friday, September 20, 18:00 at Fabrication Lab, University of Westminster

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Friday, 20th of September 2019, 18:00

Where: Banqueting Hall, Fabrication Lab, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS

Part 1 or Part 2 Architectural Research Assistant position at Grimshaw + Fabrication Lab Co-Lab

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

We are delighted to announce a new collaboration between Grimshaw Architects and the Fabrication Lab. The project is launching in the next few weeks and will have a vacancy for a Part 1 or Part 2 Architectural Research Assistant. We will be looking for a creative, pro-active graduate, interested in working on a cutting-edge, practice-led research project. The position will be open to graduates from this or last year from our BA, BSc and MArch degrees.

The paid role will be based part-time in Grimshaw’s London Practice and part-time at Westminster in the Fabrication Lab. You’ll work on a project-based research agenda within Grimshaw‘s Computational Design Group, drawing on the resources and expertise in the Lab including CNC machining, robotics, 3D scanning and XR technologies. This role will be complemented by working in the Fabrication Lab assisting with the further development of our research-informed teaching.

You’ll need to be highly organised, have strong communication skills and have both an appreciation of the Grimshaw design ethos, as well as the teaching and research ambitions of the Fabrication Lab.

If you are interested in finding out more about this opportunity, please write an expression of interest to D.Scott@westminster.ac.uk, including a few sentences about what attracts you to the position. We expect to hold interviews within the next few weeks and for the position to begin soon after.

Fab Fest 2018: “Digital City”, 2nd-10th July 2018

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

FAB FEST is a week-long celebration of design and making, hosted by the Fabrication Lab at the University of Westminster. For the third year running, it invites creative designers from around the world to envision and build their ideas about architecture and the city. It will feature over 80 pavilions and installations designed internationally, manufactured in the Fabrication Lab, and assembled and installed in Central London.

After five days of making, entertainment and international competition, FAB FEST opens to the local community and the general public, with lightweight, recyclable pavilions forming the transient architecture for a series of making events, live musical performances and a three-day exhibition. All the materials for FAB FEST are then recycled, for next year’s event.

FAB FEST this year asks designers to reflect on and offer creative responses to the contemporary digital condition. Proposals might push the boundaries for the digital production of architecture, or engage with wider aspects of how the digital affects our architecture, cities and daily lives. The challenge is to propose a compelling and engaging proposal for a pavilion or installation to manifest your ideas. What does the Digital City mean to you?

For full details, see FABFEST.London

Key Dates:

International Fabrication Competition: July 2nd – 6th | Prize-Giving, Friday July 6th 19:00

Let’s Make! Family-Friendly Making Festival: Saturday July 7th 12:00-16:00 | Music@FABFEST 18:00-22:00

FAB FEST Exhibition: Sunday – Tuesday July 8th – 10th 10:00 – 17:00

Robotic Carving Workshop, 28th-29th June 2018_Deadline for applications: 20th June

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: 28th – 29th JUNE 2018

Deadline: 20th June 2018

The Robotic Carving A.R.T. 2018 summer workshop will investigate ways to transform abstract, intangible data, such as material distribution or density, into physical form.

Participants will learn how to apply structural analysis and topology optimization on shell structures and how to translate structural data into robotic instructions.

The workshop will culminate in a 1:1 robotically carved wall installation that will be exhibited in FAB FEST ‘18.

Apply now online at fabricationlab.london

Architectural Gateway Workshop with Sami Rintala, 18th-22nd June 2018_Deadline for applications: 15th June

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: 18th – 22nd June 2018

Deadline: 15th June 2018

The Architectural Gateway summer workshop is a collaboration with the critically acclaimed Finnish architect Sami Rintala.

Sami’s work is based on narrative and conceptualism, resulting in a layered interpretation of the physical, mental and poetic re-sources of a site. The workshop will culminate in a large-scale installation made of structural corrugated card. It will feature as an entrance to FAB FEST ‘18, as well as forming a dramatic, transitional gateway to Digital Construction Week, a major industry event taking place in Excel in October.

Sami Rintala ran the “last” design & build project with DS3.6 students in Finland last year, and is a remarkable design-through-making teacher:

http://www.fininst.uk/events/lastu-mobile-home/

We are very grateful to the Finnish Institute in London for their generous support for this workshop.

Apply now online at fabricationlab.london 

Mobile Home London project: DS3.6 venture into the Finnish woods

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

At the end of April, DS3.6 set off on an adventure into the wilderness of Finland. Destination was Lusto – The Finnish Forest Museum, some 4h drive northeast of Helsinki.

Under the guidance of a Finnish architect Sami Rintala and the DS3.6 tutors, Harry Paticas and Tom Raymont of Arboreal Architecture, fifteen students were tasked with designing and building an environmentally friendly wooden shelter with a hearth, which will be available for public use from the 8th May.

Sami Rintala visited the Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Westminster in January 2017, as part of a collaborative project between The Finnish Institute in London and the University of Westminster. He gave a series of lectures and workshops at the Fabrication Lab, where the students were given a chance to research materials and techniques to develop the wooden shelter, and prepare for the work on site that was to follow in the spring. The project is run by professor Harry Charrington (UOW), Sami Rintala (Rintala-Eggertsson Architects), Harry Paticas (UOW, Arboreal Architecture) and Tom Raymont (UOW, Arboreal Architecture).

This project titled Mobile Home London is an integral part of the DS3.6‘s programme this year. It was organised as a part of the largest ever collaborative project between Finnish institutes in Paris, Berlin and Benelux Countries, called Mobile Home 2017, to mark the centenary of Finnish Independence.

You can follow the progress of the students’ work on The Finnish Institute’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FinInstLondon/ 

Photos by Niklas Nabb.