Tag: Planning

Emerging Territories Symposium: London Lab / Global Hub | Friday, May 13, 2022 from 10:00 to 18:00 (BST) in M416, Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Friday, 13th of May 2022 from 10am to 6pm (BST)

Where: M416, University of Westminster, Marylebone campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS

Register via Eventbrite.

Background

The ‘Emerging Territories’ research group hosts a one-day symposium on current research initiatives of the School of Architecture and Cities, which contributes to the global agenda of sustainability of the University of Westminster. We work at the interface between London-based explorative practices, and globally-relevant projects, with the aim to promote and design more resilient and inclusive communities, places, and territories, around the following priority emerging areas: Climate Urbanism; Health & Wellbeing; Urban-Rural Interfaces; Anthropocene Territories; Public Space and Diversity.

Concept

Urban and Architectural research, in recent years, is confronted with new challenges affecting cities and the built environment: the unexpected outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic, the increasing evidence of the tangible impact of climate change, and the rising tensions among nation states in a changing global scenario. This has resulted in unprecedented social and environmental vulnerabilities, and new rapidly evolving phenomena, such as the digital transition of the way of living, residing and working.

Taken together, these challenges pose serious questions that scholars in the field of architecture and planning should face, in primis the redefinition of the notion of local vs global, and the very idea of scholarly engagement across different places in the new normal.  On the other hand, this can be taken as an opportunity to define new ‘emerging territories’ of research where problems can be captured, solutions can be tested, and ideas can be shared more effectively across multiple scales and contexts.

The aim of the symposium is therefore to bring together interdisciplinary research between architecture and planning, based at the School of Architecture and Cities and to share new ideas and approaches to tackle city problems and their vulnerabilities in the new global context.

Contributors

Krystallia Kamvasinou, Giulio Verdini (Co-Chairs), with Roudaina Alkhani, Lindsay Bremner, Sabina Cioboata, Corinna Dean, Shengkang Fu, Ripin Kalra, Kon Kim, Tony Lloyd Jones, David W. Mathewson, Michael Neuman, Mai Sairafi, Ben Stringer, and others to be confirmed.

For queries on the symposium, please contact:

Giulio Verdini G.Verdini@westminster.ac.uk or Krystallia Kamvasinou K.Kamvasinou01@westminster.ac.uk

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

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

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.

Conference:”Planning 2052″_Friday, January 25, 9:30-18:00 at Rich Mix

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Friday, 25th of January, 9:30-18:00

Where: Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA

 

What will urban planning be like in 2052? This one-day conference brings together policy makers, researchers and practitioners to envisage the role of urban planning in the future.

Planning for the profound political and social shifts that the future requires can feel intractable and overwhelming. Everyday realities makes it difficult to look beyond the rhythm of political cycles and yet it is critical that we do.

By brokering relationships between artists, creative practitioners and policy makers and extrapolating from bold urban planning initiatives, we will collectively engender a hopeful and practical conversation about the future role of policy in tomorrow’s economy.

If you wish to attend the conference, please email Cecilie.SachsOlsen@rhul.ac.uk to get a ticket.

Planning 2052, is part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale and programmed in partnership with the Architecture Foundation, Royal Holloway University, The British Academy and Rich Mix.

For more details about the event: https://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk/events/planning-2052

The Problems and Possibilities of Planning: David Chipperfield in Conversation with Simon Kretz_Friday, January 25, 19:00 at the Rich Mix

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: 25th of January 2019, 7:00PM

Where: RICH MIX, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA

 

British architect David Chipperfield and Swiss urbanist Simon Kretz will explore how planning shapes the city.

In 2016, acclaimed British architect David Chipperfield and the Swiss urbanist and researcher Simon Kretz began working together for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Together with 36 ETH students, they conducted an extensive study of one of London’s large and controversial development areas, the Bishopsgate Goodsyard. Through applying alternative design and planning processes to the East London site, the students created nine different projects under the guidance of Kretz.

Last year, Chipperfield and Kretz published a book to reflect on their research and the problems and possibilities of the planning system titled, On Planning – A Thought Experiment.

The book explores the wider conditions under which an ideal urban development project could flourish. Their conclusions consider how future large-scale developments elsewhere could have a more positive urban impact, both at the scale of the neighbourhood and wider metropolis.

This discussion concludes Planning 2052, a major day-long conference exploring the future of the planning system. It acts as the final session of the day and is ticketed separately.

Book tickets here.

“Cleveland – Alternatives to the Present” Conference on Architecture, Urbanism, Sociology, Development & Planning_Deadline for Abstracts: 5th June 2018

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Where: Kent State University, Cleveland

When: 01-02 November 2018

Deadline for abstracts: 05 June 2018.

To download form and more info: http://architecturemps.com/cleveland/ 

Context:

Alternatives to the Present…… The New Urban Agenda of the United Nations presents itself as a blueprint for governments globally. Through it, UN-Habitat seeks to combine the material, social and environmental agendas molding the urban world. The American Planning Association reflects this, advocating for planning that promotes social equity, inclusive communities, and expanded opportunities for all. The International Union of Architects speaks of revolutionizing design to ensure sustainable human settlement, while the AIA champions liveable communities. In the UK, the RIBA links housing design and social inclusion and the National Housing Federation connects the provision of homes to public health. All this reflects the field of sociology and geography with the ISA identifying cites as the principle site of social conflict and political contestation and the American Association of Geographers linking the notions of resilience and urban justice.

This apparently holistic view suggests that 20th Century top-down and disciplinary reductive understandings of the urban condition, such as those attributed to the Athens Charter, are a thing of the past. It also suggests a scenario in which social equity is fully integrated into notions of development. However, even a cursory glance at the reality of early 21st Century urbanism shows this is clearly not the case. On the one hand, individual disciplines still tend to work in isolation and even in competition, while on the other, Neoliberal agendas still represent the raison d’être of most development projects. The Alternatives to the Present conference seeks to critique the dichotomies involved in this increasingly confused scenario by bringing together various disciplines to interrogate the diversity of factors either limiting or activating the possibilities of an equitable urban future.

Key Dates:

Abstracts: 05 June 2018 | Abstract Feedback: 25 June 2017 | Registration opens: 01 July 2018

Conference: 01-02 Nov 2018

Full Paper Submission (where applicable): 10 Jan 2019 | Feedback for publication: 10 March 2019 | Full Publication: 10 July 2019

Nb. There will be a second round of late abstract submissions on 01 September 2018.

Featured image from Amps web-site.

Constructionarium, CITB HQ Norfolk, 20th-25th May 2018

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

The Faculty has run the Constructionarium for Construction students for the past 10 years – with great success.

The Constructionarium offers Year 2+ students a week at the CITB HQ in Norfolk building scale models of various structures, and is a fantastic opportunity to gain hands on experience of managing and constructing a real construction project, and will allow you to demonstrate valuable site experience on your CV.

Roles undertaken by the students include project management and planning, setting out, carpentry, steelwork and laying concrete.

This year the Constructionarium will be open to Architecture students!

The Constructionarium will run from Sunday 20 – Friday 25 May.

The cost will be capped at £75 per student and for this you will get transport, accommodation, and 3 meals a day.

Here’s a link to a couple of the time lapse videos of previous trips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao_M175H–s&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fcsWYZNomo&feature=youtu.be

 

This year we will be constructing scale models of Ove Arup’s Brewery Wharf Bridge and Ravenspurn Oil Platform.

We now have the link available for you to make your £75 deposit which will secure your place and is all the financial contribution we require from yourselves.

We will have a pre-trip preparation day here at the University beforehand, and this is provisionally scheduled for Wednesday 16th May.

Should you wish to attend the field trip or have any questions, please email Sean Flynn at s.flynn@westminster.ac.uk with your full name and student number and use the link below to make your payment: https://store.westminster.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-architecture-and-the-built-enviroment/field-trips/constructionarium-field-trip