Tag: Placemaking

Technical Studies Lecture Series: Jonathan Smales + Cany Ash [Human Nature + Ash Sakula] “The Pheonix Project, Lewes” | Thursday, October 10 at 18:00 (BST), M416 Robin Evans Room + Livestream

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Thursday, 10th of October 2024 at 6pm (BST)

Where: M416 (Robin Evans Room), Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS

“This looks like the beginning of the future.”

The Phoenix is the redevelopment of a 7.9-hectare brownfield site within the South Downs National Park, brought forward by Human Nature a campaigning development company led by Jonathan Smales, working with some of the UK’s leading architects, designers, and engineers. The scheme seeks to turn the imperatives of the climate and natural emergencies into opportunities for better design, better placemaking and ultimately healthier and better living. 

Planned to prioritise people over cars, constructed primarily in sustainable timber, powered by renewable energy, and designed to encourage a culture of sharing, it represents a new and regenerative way to make a place, build a community and create a productive and circular local economy. The development will transform a neglected former industrial site into a beautiful green place, providing much-needed homes and jobs, community spaces, a river walk, flood defenses and health centre.

The masterplan for the Phoenix comprises 18 different housing blocks designed by 12 different architects, giving the neighbourhood diversity, character, and housing choice. Architects Ash Sakula are one of the design practices and Jonathan Smales will be joined by founder / partner Cany Ash. Ash Sakula is a thought-leading architectural studio, based in central London. They specialise in working with challenging sites and complex briefs, where fresh thinking and inventive design can most benefit clients and users.

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Lecture Archive

w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk – For details contact Will McLean

Call for Abstracts: Prague – Heritages: Past and Present – Built and Social | A Conference on Culture, History, Art and Design | Deadline: July 10, 2022

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Conference dates: 28th to 30th of June 2023

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 10th of July 2022

Organisers: Czech Technical University, with Amps, Intellect Books, and UCL Press

2023 marks the twentieth anniversary of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Heritage. It established culture as a concept to be safeguarded. That event came three decades after the World Heritage Convention. Through that, UNESCO had set up its World Heritage List of protect sites and buildings. The intervening years have seen multiple shifts in how we define heritage – as both material objects and social traditions. Today more than ever before, the distinction is blurred. The streets on which we live, the edifices we design and the monuments we protect are all connected to the lifestyles, traditions and social groupings we celebrate and safeguard.

What we mean by heritage today then, is an open and diverse question. Our buildings and environments, our cities and neighborhoods, our memorials and our artworks, our cultures and communities are all component parts of what we understand as ‘preservable’ history. The dynamics at play are however complex. Conserving architectural heritage can conflict with development models. Community traditions are threatened by globalization. Monuments are often focal points for cultural contestation. Archeological sites are valued in themselves and simultaneously erased conflict and ‘progress’.

However, the past and the present also overlap and mutually support. Placemaking sees built and cultural heritage as key to urban practice. Contextualization is central to planning laws. Museums are site for communities and display. Heritage organsiations preserve buildings and educate the public. Galleries present historical art while debating meanings in contemporary terms.

Reflecting this scenario, this conference seeks papers on heritage from various standpoints: art and architecture historians concerned with preservation; architects and urban planners engaged with placemaking; cultural theorists and social historians documenting objects, places, people and events. It welcomes case studies that are specific and place-based. It embraces theoretical frameworks that function globally. It is interested in variegated methods of research and analysis.

For more details please go here.