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.
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.
Monsoon Assemblages will launch Monsoon as Method: Assembling Monsoonal Multiplicities (Actar 2022) online on 8 June, 13.00 – 14.30 (BST). Do join us to celebrate the publication of the book.
At the launch, Lindsay Bremner, Christina Geros, Harshavardhan Bhat, Anthony Powis and John Cook will be joined by Edd Wall, Alfredo Ramirez, Karen Coelho, Pamila Gupta and Jonathan Cane to discuss the book and its methods.
To attend, register using the Eventbrite.
The Architecture and Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT) has developed an exciting, slightly-longer-than-a-week programme of events between October 18th and October 28th to support the University’s Sustainability Month, a lead-in to COP 26 in Glasgow at the beginning of November.
Go here for further details of the University’s programme: here: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-university/vision-mission-and-values/sustainability-month.
The ArCCAT programme is as follows:
Cartographies of the Monsoon Exhibition Opening
Venue: Gallery Café, 309 Regents Street, W1B 2HW
Lindsay Bremner in conversation with Tom Corby, Associate Dean of Research, Central St Martins.
This exhibition will show a selection of the maps produced by John Cook for Monsoon Assemblages, a research project in the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster funded by the European Research Council between 2016-2021. The project drew on the environmental humanities, the natural sciences and the spatial disciplines to develop an understanding of the entanglements of the monsoon in everyday life, politics and planning in Chennai, Delhi, Dhaka and Yangon, four of South Asia’s rapidly growing cities. The maps were mechanisms through which the project team constructed understandings of the materiality of the monsoon and the many mechanisms that drive it.
What about ‘the other half’ of the ‘UN sustainability goals’?
Venue: Studio
UoW students-as-co-creators project team 2021: Dana Al Khammach, Elantha Evans, Rebecca Kelly, James Mason and Lavinia Peninno.
Join us for a curated, interactive and enjoyable 15-20 min session anytime between 12.30-14.30 on Monday 25th October 2021. This is about what YOU think we can do together, and is part of a wider project about architecture, empathy and the empathic imagination. Come along! And sign up here for more info on the project and future collaborations.
Offered as part of ‘Sustainable Disclosures’ // Expanding architecture education to better nurture people, places and practices for sustainable, inclusive futures (http://eepurl.com/hFy9q1).
Launch of Design Competition for a material reuse station for the studios
Venue: Studio
Doiny Kypraiou, Stefania Bocoletti, Paolo Zaide and Tabatha Mills.
For both students and architectural designers, the physical model is a manifestation of ideas. The act of physical model-making is central to architectural education and our studios. It presents the opportunity to test, explore, speculate, compose and further the design process. How can you as students begin to challenge wasteful practice? Can we make our studio practice more circular?
Five teams of 4 L5 students each, drawn from each of the undergraduate degrees (Interiors, Architecture, AED, Technology) will participate in this design challenge for a week.
The King’s Cross journey to carbon neutrality
Venue: Robin Evans Room (M416) and online; book at Eventbrite: https://www. eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-kings-cross-journey-to-carbon-neutrality-tickets-183433162527
Organiser and Moderator: Johannes Novy
Speaker: Stephen Kellett, Sustainability Manager, Ardent Services LLP
Discussant: Roudaina Alkhani
The King’s Cross Estate is one of Europe’s most significant regeneration projects – this talk will highlight the key decisions made from the projects inception through to the design of its buildings and the management in operation that have enabled it to achieve carbon neutrality, on its journey to net zero carbon.
Opening of the ArCCAT Sustainable Design + Research Exhibition
Launch of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Campaign
Venue: Marylebone Learning Platform
Speaker: Peter Bonfield
Curators: Lindsay Bremner, Grace Lancto, François Girardin and David Scott, with the assistance of Chris Meloy and John Whitmore.
An exhibition of staff and student work from the School of Architecture and Cities supporting sustainability goals accompanied by the launch of a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Campaign by the Fabrication Lab and the University’s Estates team.
Practicing Sustainability: from Portfolio to Practitioner
Venue: Robin Evans Room (M416) and online | to book tickets please go to Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/practicing-sustainability-from-portfolio-to-practitioner-tickets-191649176847
Organiser and Moderator: Harry Charrington
Speakers: Chris Morgan; John Gilbert Architects, Glasgow; Gordon O’Connor-Read; Rural Urban Synthesis Society and Laing O’Rourke.
How do you take the ideas and commitment of your student portfolio into architectural practice? How can you build a career that reinforces your ideals and aims, rather than compromises them? These two talks, by architects at very different stages of their careers will illustrate ‘how they do sustainable practice’, and the challenges and success they have had in addressing the concerns they had as students through their built projects.
Environmental Design Sourcebook Book Launch and Panel Discussion
Venue: Room M416 and available on https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/
Organisers: Will McLean and Pete Silver
To coincide with Climate Action Week and the recent publication of Environmental Design Sourcebook: Innovative Ideas for a Sustainable Built Environment (RIBA Publish- ing, 2021), the authors Will McLean and Pete Silver will host a book launch and panel discussion. The discussion will feature contributors from the publication including industry collaborators, and University of Westminster staff and student researchers: Kirsten Haggart (Waugh Thistleton), Rosa Schiano-Phan, Guy Sinclair, Urangua Sodnamjamts, Pete Silver and Will McLean.
This panel discussion about design for climate change is the first of a planned series exploring knowledge transfer networks and partnerships with industry. These discussions are hosted by the University of Westminster (on and off-site) and are supported by Dr Stephanie Lasalle from the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office.
For details contact Will McLean: w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk
Where: Gallery Café, 309 Regent St, 18 October – 15 November
When: 18 October, 18.30-19.30
Speakers: Lindsay Bremner, PI of Monsoon Assemblages in conversation with Tom Corby, Associate Dean of Research, Central St Martins.
This exhibition shows a selection of maps drawn by John Cook for Monsoon Assemblages, a research project in the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster funded by the European Research Council between 2016-2021. The project drew on the environmental humanities, the natural sciences and the spatial disciplines to develop an understanding of the entanglements of the monsoon in everyday life, politics and planning in Chennai, Delhi, Dhaka and Yangon, four of South Asia’s rapidly growing cities. The maps were mechanisms through which the project team constructed understandings of the materiality of the monsoon and the many mechanisms that drive it. At the opening, Lindsay Bremner will discuss the maps with Tom Corby, Associate Dean of Research at Central St Martins.
Monsoon Assemblages was led by Professor Lindsay Bremner, with Dr. Beth Cullen, Christina Geros, John Cook, Harshavardhan Bhat and Anthony Powis. Monsoon Assemblages was a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 679873, 2016-2021).
Featured image by John Cook.
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
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)
