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: Thursday, 7th of November 2024, 1pm-2pm (GMT)
Where: Online
The next Architecture and Cities Research Seminar will take place on Thursday 07 November, 13.00 – 14.00, online, when Shahed Saleem will present “Public Engagement as Knowledge Production.”
You can access the Teams link here.
All are welcome, including students.
Where: Exhibition Road Courtyard, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
When: Friday, March 3 to Monday, May 1, 2023
Congratulations to Shahed Saleem, Reader in Architecture in the School of Architecture + Cities and BA Architecture DS2.3 tutor. Since the Pavilion’s inception in the days before the pandemic, Saleem has involved students in all aspects of its creation, and over 20 students from our School have helped in its fabrication.
“The Ramadan Pavilion is a purpose-built architectural structure and showpiece of creative art and design to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. The Pavilion will host a series of public events and two Open Iftars as part of the annual Ramadan Festival curated by Ramadan Tent Project.
The aim of the annual Ramadan Pavilion is to celebrate the lived experiences of Muslims across the UK and globe during the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, and to bring attention to the core values and traditions of Ramadan through architectural expression, experimentation and associated public arts programme. ”
V&A website
More info on the project here.
The opening event will take place as a part of the Ramadan Conference 2023 on Sunday, March 5 at 1pm. More info about the event here.
The special issue of Architecture and Culture (Volume 11 Issue 1) seeks to broaden notions of how the sacred, spiritual and secular are imagined and constituted through new architectures. We invite expansive interpretations of faith, religion and spirituality and the spatial and architectural encounters between them. We are interested in innovative faith practices and spaces, and welcome contributions that address the spatial implications of the rising phenomenon of online gathering and worship, necessitated by the Covid pandemic.
The journal invites articles which might explore (but not be limited to) the following themes:
The journal aims to publish a selection of articles from both established and early career scholars. It will also seek perspectives from practitioners (architects, artists and heritage professionals), stakeholders and members of faith communities.
For more information please go here: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/spiritual-sacred-secular-places-faith-twenty-first-century/
Kate Jordan is a Senior Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory at the University of Westminster. She publishes and lectures widely on modern-era Christian architecture: recent publications include her co-edited volume Modern Architecture for Religious Communities, 1850-1970: Building the Kingdom and ‘Places of Worship in a Changing Faith Landscape’ in 100 Years, 100 Churches. Her research on Victorian magdalen convents was shortlisted for the 2016 RIBA Presidents Award for Research. She is currently working on contemporary church architecture, a subject on which she regularly contributes articles and reviews for RIBAJ. In June 2019, she organised a conference entitled ‘Spiritual, Sacred, Secular: The Architecture of Faith in Modern Britain’, co-hosted by the University of Westminster and the RIBA.
Shahed Saleem is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster, and a practising architect. His book, The British Mosque, an architectural and social history, was published by Historic England in 2018 and is the first comprehensive account of this building type in Britain. His architectural design work was nominated for the V&A Jameel Prize 2013 and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2016. His research won commendations at the RIBA President’s Medal for Research and Historic England Angel Award for excellence in heritage research, in 2018. He co-organised the conference ‘Spiritual, Secular, Sacred: The Architecture of Faith in Modern Britain’, June 2019, with Kate Jordan.
Recording of the online event that celebrates University of Westminster‘s work exhibited at the prestigious 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale (22nd May-21st Nov), which took place on the 9th of June 2021, is now available for viewing here.
Academics based within the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries have co-produced three different installations to respond to the theme: How will we live together?
At the event, we hear more about the ideas underpinning each piece of work, and – given the fundamental themes they address – discuss how architecture and practice based research can help us to better understand the world’s most pressing challenges.
Following an introduction to the three installations, Ifor Duncan, an academic based at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, responds to the work. These contributions are followed by a panel discussion and questions from the audience.
More details about the installations and the academics involved are provided below.
Monsoon Assemblages (led by Lindsay Bremner) and Office of Experiments (led by Neal White) have created an immersive installation that challenges and redefines ideas of border, scale and agency. It draws on climate data and field work to convey how climate change and the Anthropocene are resulting in increasing monsoon volatility, shorter rainy seasons and more frequent extreme weather events. The installation investigates these events through the flight of the Globe Skimmer dragonfly that follows the monsoon from east Africa to southeast Asia and back again. Video footage of the dragonfly collected during field work is projected into the exhibition space highlighting the vulnerability of the dragonfly to shifting monsoonal dynamics.
In a collaboration with the V&A Museum, Shahed Saleem’s Pavilion looks at the self-built and often undocumented world of adapted mosques to explore contemporary multiculturalism in London. The work explores three different case studies that illuminate stories of immigration, identity, and community aspiration. The cases are the Brick Lane mosque, a former Protestant chapel then Synagogue; Old Kent Road mosque housed in a former pub; and Harrow Central mosque, a purpose-built space that sits next door to the converted terraced house it used to occupy. The Pavilion is partly carpeted, as in a mosque, and these stories are explored through 3D architectural reconstructions, filmed interviews and photographs.
The African Fabbers School video-installation project, curated by Paolo Cascone and Maddalena Laddaga, proposes an innovative research by practice agenda for the next generation of European and African architects. The African Fabbers School [AFS] is an itinerant laboratory of ecological design and self-construction for community-oriented projects between Europe and Africa. This ecosystem of site-specific projects has structured an abacus of paradigmatic design to build modus operandi based on a learning by doing methodology. Thanks to the interaction between people from different backgrounds (including African artisans, local communities, European students) the [AFS] investigates the relationships between traditional knowledges, advanced design processes and digital manufacturing.
Respondent
Ifor Duncan is a Post-doctoral fellow in Environmental Humanities at the Center for the Humanities and Social Change, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He is a writer and inter-disciplinary researcher, with a PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths. His research concerns the relationships between political violence and watery spaces and materialities. Previously Ifor taught at the CRA and in the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art.
This online symposium will focus on the importance to architectural practice and research of listening. To listen effectively is not just to hear: it means actively seeking perspectives from those people in society whose voices are often the least audible. In exploring a wide range of voices in architectural practice, theory and history, the symposium intersects with the themes of decolonisation and inclusion, which are embedded in the teaching and research culture of the University of Westminster.
The symposium will also focus on the role of universities in developing and promoting the practice of listening and will feature workshops and lightning presentations from students that explore reciprocal dialogue between teachers and learners within architectural education.
The keynote lecture will be delivered by Dr Huda Tayob, Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on migrant, minor and subaltern architectures, the politics of invisibility in space, and the potential of literature to respond to archival silences. She is co-curator of the open access curriculum Racespacearchitecture.org and the digital podcast series and exhibition Archive of Forgetfulness (archiveofforgetfulness.com).
Huda will be speaking on Transnational Architectures of Care, through her research on Somali malls in South Africa and the US.
09:30 Introduction and opening
Kate Jordan & Shahed Saleem
9.45 Session 1
Jane Tankard & Design Studio 3.1
A collaborative visual and verbal presentation emerging out of conversations with students over 7 years. The meetings were structured around speaking and listening to thoughts on pedagogy, studio, reciprocity and notions of home.
Christine Wall
How are architectural histories silenced? This question is explored with reference to two ongoing studies, one a 1970s architectural collaborative in London, and the other the Little Aden Cantonment, the 1960s extension of British colonial military accommodation which became the largest fully modular project in the world.
Tumpa Husna Fellows
Through her practice based research, Tumpa asks how can architecture amplify the voices of underrepresented communities to enable spatial justice and create social value in places, buildings and neighbourhoods? How can designing inclusive spaces help us respond to the climate injustice?
5 min break
11.15 Session 2
Maria Kramer
Leyton Community Hub; a description of the ongoing process of negotiating the complex mix of stakeholders in this project, from student engagement, public consultations & council requirements. How are these various needs and aspirations understood and managed through processes of listening and engaging?
Davide Deriu
‘Beautiful idea; beautiful building; beautiful materials…but I have problems with vertigo.’
Do practising architects listen to prospective users? How can different perceptions and experiences of space be accounted for? Drawing on his ongoing research on architecture and vertigo, this presentation shall discuss how embodied subjectivities are often neglected in the design process.
Through selected examples, this presentation will situate the issue of vertigo in relation to a broad understanding of spatial experience, and argue that a more inclusive approach might be developed through listening and care.
Elantha Evans & Design Studio 11
An introduction to an experimental research session to re-frame design studios with the empathic imagination in mind.
5 min break
12.15 Session 3
Introduction by Samir Pandya, Assistant Head, School of Architecture + Cities
Keynote
Huda Tayob, University of Cape Town
Transnational Architectures of Care
Conversation
Click here to register for the event via Eventbrite
When: Wednesday, 9th of June 2021, 16:00-18:00 (BST)
Join us for an online event that celebrates University of Westminster‘s work that is being exhibited at the prestigious 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale (22nd May-21st Nov).
Academics based within the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries have co-produced three different installations to respond to the theme: How will we live together?
At the event, we will hear more about the ideas underpinning each piece of work, and – given the fundamental themes they address – discuss how architecture and practice based research can help us to better understand the world’s most pressing challenges.
Following an introduction to the three installations, Ifor Duncan, an academic based at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, will respond to the work. These contributions will be followed by a panel discussion and questions from the audience.
More details about the installations and the academics involved are provided below.
Monsoon Assemblages (led by Lindsay Bremner) and Office of Experiments (led by Neal White) have created an immersive installation that challenges and redefines ideas of border, scale and agency. It draws on climate data and field work to convey how climate change and the Anthropocene are resulting in increasing monsoon volatility, shorter rainy seasons and more frequent extreme weather events. The installation investigates these events through the flight of the Globe Skimmer dragonfly that follows the monsoon from east Africa to southeast Asia and back again. Video footage of the dragonfly collected during field work is projected into the exhibition space highlighting the vulnerability of the dragonfly to shifting monsoonal dynamics.
In a collaboration with the V&A Museum, Shahed Saleem’s Pavilion looks at the self-built and often undocumented world of adapted mosques to explore contemporary multiculturalism in London. The work explores three different case studies that illuminate stories of immigration, identity, and community aspiration. The cases are the Brick Lane mosque, a former Protestant chapel then Synagogue; Old Kent Road mosque housed in a former pub; and Harrow Central mosque, a purpose-built space that sits next door to the converted terraced house it used to occupy. The Pavilion is partly carpeted, as in a mosque, and these stories are explored through 3D architectural reconstructions, filmed interviews and photographs.
The African Fabbers School video-installation project, curated by Paolo Cascone and Maddalena Laddaga, proposes an innovative research by practice agenda for the next generation of European and African architects. The African Fabbers School [AFS] is an itinerant laboratory of ecological design and self-construction for community-oriented projects between Europe and Africa. This ecosystem of site-specific projects has structured an abacus of paradigmatic design to build modus operandi based on a learning by doing methodology. Thanks to the interaction between people from different backgrounds (including African artisans, local communities, European students) the [AFS] investigates the relationships between traditional knowledges, advanced design processes and digital manufacturing.
Respondent
Ifor Duncan is a Post-doctoral fellow in Environmental Humanities at the Center for the Humanities and Social Change, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He is a writer and inter-disciplinary researcher, with a PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths. His research concerns the relationships between political violence and watery spaces and materialities. Previously Ifor taught at the CRA and in the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art.
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) is pleased to announce details of this year’s Philip Webb Award architectural competition, which is open to current Part II students at UK Schools of Architecture and recent graduates who completed their studies in 2017 or 2018.
The entry period will open on 19 July and close at 5pm on 13 September 2019. More details, Notes for Entrants and entry forms are available at: https://www.spab.org.uk/about-us/awards/philip-webb-award
Entrants are invited to devise a scheme which sympathetically revitalises a historic building of their choosing, which has decayed or been neglected, but which can be repaired and adapted for a new use. Schemes should incorporate both careful repair of existing fabric and a significant element of new construction in a contemporary design.
The competition will be judged by an expert panel of architects comprising:
The winners of the 2018 Philip Webb Award will present their schemes and receive their prizes an evening event in London on 13 June 2019.
Speakers will be:
More details and tickets are available now via the What’s On section of the SPAB website: https://www.spab.org.uk/whats-on/lectures/contested-legacies-new-conversations
The SPAB and New Design for Old Buildings
The book New Design for Old Buildings [RIBA/SPAB 2017] co-authored by SPAB’s Chairman Iain Boyd and heritage and sustainability writer Roger Hunt remains available from bookshops, the RIBA, and the SPAB: https://www.spab.org.uk/shop
Details of 2019 Autumn Lecture series and other forthcoming SPAB events exploring New Design for Old Buildings – more information will be available soon at: https://www.spab.org.uk/whats-on
Featured image: 2018 1st prize winner Chris Hamill “Armagh Gaol”
When: 13:00-14:00, Thursday, 7th of March
Where: Erskine Room (M523), 5th Floor, Marylebone Campus
Shahed Saleem is a practising architect and teaches both Design Studio and History & Theory at SA+C. He is also a Senior Research Fellow on the Survey of London.
The launch of Shahed Saleem‘s new book The British Mosque will take place on Monday 12th March, following a conference on “The Heritage of Minority Faith Buildings in the UK” organised by Historic England and the Society of Antiquaries.
When: Monday, 12th March 2018
Where: Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE
Shahed Saleem is a DS2.3 studio tutor and a practising architect, who researches and writes on architecture’s relationship with cultural identity, heritage and nationhood. He works regularly with Historic England and is a Senior Research Fellow with the Survey of London.
Historic England has been working with partners over recent years to develop and deepen an understanding of the landscape of faith buildings in 20th century England, including the long-standing traditions of Christianity and Judaism. This particular event will instead focus on those faith groups which arrived in the UK in the late 19th and 20th century, and have since made a significant contribution to the heritage of a modern and multicultural historic environment.
For the first time, the Society of Antiquaries of London and Historic England will bring together this new body of research on Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Zoroastrian places of worship with heritage practitioners, researchers and theorists. The aim is to provide a platform for a discussion on issues of heritage practice and heritage discourse in the field of multiculturalism, multiple identities and the historic environment. This will provide an opportunity for a long overdue debate on the significance and character of buildings whose quality and importance have not been fully recognised in heritage debates.
Featured image: The Shah Jehan mosque, Woking, designed and built in 1889. Listed Grade II*. © Historic England (taken from the ‘Places of Worship Listing Selection Guide’, 2017, p 29).
For conference programme and bookings please go to: https://www.sal.org.uk/events/2018/03/heritage-of-minority-faith-buildings/
In what style should we build? This question, which has resonated throughout European architectural history for some 150 years, is revisited and reapplied in my talk to the predicament of mosque design in Britain today. Style became an existential battleground for the Victorians, representing contested notions of morality, identity, nostalgia and historicism in a period of self-doubt and reinvention. I argue that Muslim architecture in Britain, and in the West more broadly, where diverse Muslim communities are building as diasporic minority communities, is entwined in similar negotiations of identity and positioning.
Drawing from my research into the architectural and social history of the British mosque, I will provide an historical overview of mosque architecture in Britain, and will set out what I see as its current predicaments. Alongside this, drawing from my own design practice and experiences of working with Muslim communities, I will also suggest my own responses to the questions raised.
Shahed Saleem teaches at the University of Westminster and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Bartlett, Survey of London, and a practising architect.
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!
Where: Erskine Room (M/523), Marylebone Campus
When: Thursday 23rd November, 13:00-14:00
