Sue Phillips – Open Studio Westminster

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of our report on OPEN2017.

Here we bring you some of the MArch RIBA Part II, Interior Design (BA Hons) and Architectural Technology (BSc Hons) students’ work, which had been on show in our Marylebone studios from June 15th until July 2nd.

MArch RIBA Part II

The MArch programme is underpinned by critical agendas, which through its studio culture, are explored as speculative realities. […] The evolving nature of the city, environmental intervention, digital craft, cinematic investigations of space, chance operations, spaces of conflict, industrial regeneration – these are just some of the themes explored by staff and students. (Darren Deane, Course Leader, OPEN2017 Catalogue)

DS10 lead by Toby Burgess and Arthur Mamou-Mani believes that architecture should be fun and is obsessed with giving the students an opportunity to build their own projects in the real world. The studio is focused is on physical experiments tested with digital tools for analysis, formal generation and fabrication. This year, students worked on three different briefs: From Symbols to Systems: Pavilion Proposal, Pavilion Construction and The Big Plan. The three briefs are 3 steps towards a creation of a pavilion for Burning Man 2017. This year’s field trip was to the utopian city of Auroville and the many temples of Hampi Valley.

DS11 lead by Andrew Peckham, Dusan Decermic and Elantha Evans, had chosen Budapest as the location and focus of their studio projects this year. This choice was directly related to an initial interest in the constitution of twin cities, where twinning as a theme might be understood at different scales: from a transnational context to that of the city itself, its urban districts and interiors. The studio developed three short study project themes, however the main Year One design project was Reconfiguring the Baths, and the Year Two design thesis associated with Architectures of Stasis and Flux. Both were introduced before the visiting Budapest and conducting a city survey.

DS12 lead by Ben Stringer, Peter Barber and Maria Kramer, focused on imagining and designing densely populated and ‘publicly owned’ city island villages in the Thames Estuary, a project that intersects issues of housing, industry, ecology and environment. A key issues that studio deals with is a severe shortage of housing in London and the construction of the Thames Tideway ‘super-sewer’, which will help bring new life to estuary ecology. Both were taken as catalysts for imagining new and better modes of existence and new ways of designing the cities. At the beginning of the second semester students went on a field trip to India, where they visited three big cities: Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

DS13 lead by Andrew Yau and Andrei Martin operates as an applied think-tank, performing cultural analysis and design research. This year the studio focused on the role, relevance and political agency of architecture in contemporary cultural landscape defined by affect, mood, atmosphere and sensation. This was done through the context of Hong Kong’s urban transformation.

DS15 lead by Sean Griffiths, Kester Rattenbury and Ruby Ray Penny studies ‘chance’ as a design method via the transposition into architectural design of the American composer John Cage’s aleatoric techniques for musical composition. The studio’s approach encourages students to divest themselves of existing prejudices, tastes and preconceptions in the development of inventive design processes that challenge the underlying assumption that design is rational, linear and preordained activity predicated on intentionality.

DS16 lead by Anthony Boulanger, Stuart Piercy and Callum Perry returned from a sabbatical this year to continue to build on an ethos that challenges students to create experimental spatial design project that are informed by a critical response to social, cultural, political and economic contexts with an emphasis on an engagements with materials and an understanding of craft. The year began with an intense 5-week creative collaboration with the ceramics expert Jessie Lee at the Grymsdyke Farm. From there the investigation shifted to Porto, Portugal, which became a base for the main individual design project, where students conceived their own briefs and conducted their research.

DS18 lead by Lindsay Bremner and Roberto Botazzi has been participating in the research agenda of Monsoon Assemblages since 2016, a 5-year ERC funded project taking place in three cities in South Asia: Chennai, Dhaka and Delhi. These cities are places where neoliberal development is conspiring with changing monsoon patterns to produce floods, heatwaves, outbreaks of disease or water shortages and making urban life increasingly vulnerable. In 2016/17 the studio began simulating monsoon rain as a way to develop its programme and aesthetics. The students visited Chennai where they were hosted by the School or Architecture and Planning at Anna University.

DS20 lead by Gabby Shawcross and Stephen Harty uses film to design and represent architecture. The aim of the studio is to explore animated relationships between architecture and occupants, simulate moving experiences of space, describe dynamic events and speculate on future scenarios. The year the students looked at motion in architecture and architecture in motion. They made journeys through space (quick direct routes and choreographed spatial sequences) in search of architecture that permits encounter and elicits delight.

DS21 lead by Clare Carter, Gill Lambert and Nick Wood is interested in edgelands. Working within a post-industrial landscape, the studio made a proposition for revitalising and re-imagining the town of Doncaster and its former mining colonies. The year began with a forensic study of the land, resulting in richly illustrated mappings, followed by production of artefacts which came as a result of working with the material culture of local communities. The major design project Doncaster Works had students speculating on the idea of a resurgent Doncaster, whether to make a new civic space, repurpose an existing structure or suggest a new industrial infrastructure for the town and its environs.

DS22 lead by Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif aims to create a strong link between the practice, research and academia, so this year the studio continued ‘research by design’ journey across ‘absent’ and uncertain landscapes where time and mobility have become irrelevant. Looking at the Mediterranean sea as a prototype for hyper-connected and enduringly fragile world of present, leading to the edges of the Red Sea, Dead Sea and Persian gulf, the students tried to unpack the and expose the hidden layers and dynamic potential of coastal cities.

Light and Flight is a collaborative project between DS22, Palestine Regeneration Team (PART) and Golzari-NG Architects, in collaboration with Amos Trust. Exhibited at the OPEN2017, the project was also part of London Festival of Architecture (LFA). The installation celebrates notion of memory – this year’s theme at the LFA.

Interior Architecture (BA Hons)

Interior architecture is a distinct context-based practice concerned with re-reading, re-using and altering an architectural shell. Whether at the scale of the city, a building, or a room, the ‘interiorist’ always starts with something and within something. By altering those structures, Interior Architecture allows a building to have many different lives. London is our campus and projects this year included study spaces in the Victoria and Albert Museum, installations at Wilton’s Music Hall, live-work dwellings on Columbia Road and a broadcasting facility in Unity House, Woolwich. (Ro Spankie, Course Leader, OPEN2017 Catalogue)

Year 1: lead by Lara Rettondini (Module Leader), Sue Phillips, Yota Adilenidou, Allan Sylvester, Matt Haycocks

In the first year, students on the BA Interior Architecture course are introduced to underlying concepts and principles associated with the discipline and learn fundamental processes, skills and techniques relevant to conceive and develop, resolve and communicate spatial design proposals. They are also get to grips with the use of graphic design, CAD and 3D modelling software, as well as the Faculty’s Fabrication Lab. The projects undertaken over the course of the first year range from short-term tasks in semester one, followed by a study space design for researcher-in-residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum, to the interior design of a small building in semester two.

Year 2: lead by Matt Haycocks, Mike Guy, Mohamad Hafeda, Tania Lopez Winkler, Alessandro Ayuso (semester one includes: Julia Dwyer, Diony Kypraiou, Ro Spankie)

This year the students were asked to look at two very different buildings: Wilton’s (a Victorian music hall in London’s East End) and Unity House (a marine engineering workshop on the banks of the Thames in Woolwich). Both studio projects were focused on the role of the existing building fabric in the process of regeneration, but also the role politics and the place play in interpreting the present and imagining the future. In semester one the students joint the third year students to work on the ideas related to domesticity and home, then worked on design proposals for the temporary inhabitation of Wilton’s Music Hall and finally in semester two they devised their own proposals for the adaptation and reuse of Unity House.

Year 3: lead by Ro Spankie, Alessandro Ayuso, Diony Kypraiou, Matt Haycocks (semester one includes: Julia Dwyer, Mike Guy, Mohamad Hafeda, Tania Lopez Winkler)

Third year students started this academic year working together with second year students on a joint project Home Acts. The aim was to explore an idea of home constructed through acts and rituals, rather than brick and mortar. Their own experience of home was then rehoused to a public realm, culminating into an installation and/or performance at Wilton’s Music Hall. The final Major Project in BA Architecture is self derived with students selecting their site and setting their programme.

Architectural Technology (BSc Hons)

Architectural Technology offers specialism in the technological, environmental, material and detailing decisions necessary to solve design problems. It requires sound understanding of design process, design and architectural composition, construction technology, and management tools for the effective communication of design information. (Virgina Rammou, Course Leader, OPEN2017 Catalogue)

This year, the second year students were asked to design a nursery school for 85 children and the third year students a new building for White Cube Galleries.

Year 2: lead by Adam Thwaites, Paul Kalkhoven, Tabatha Harris Mills, Virginia Rammou

Year 3: lead by Adam Thwaites, Paul Smith, Tabatha Harris Mills, Virginia Rammou

Make sure you like and follow our Instagram and Twitter pages, as we plan to reflect back on the OPEN2017 throughout the month of July.

Happy summer everyone!

Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning. (Diane Ackerman)

Following the success of previous year, PLAYWeek 2 was back in November 2016, with more than ten workshops on offer. The play-dates took place on the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th November, on Marylebone campus and various locations around the city.

Judging by the voting results, students were keen on learning new skills, either through the use of new software and technologies, or through more hands-on approach in the FabLab.

An Introduction to Programming Light and Colour, organised by Richard Difford and Jonathon Hodges, offered an opportunity to explore the creative possibilities of Processing and Ardunio with DMX lighting to design and prototype architectural lighting (cover image). The final product was definitely a crucial component which helped lift the mood of the final exhibition, and brought a party vibe to the end of the PLAYWeek.

Digital Traces workshop organised by Stefania Boccaletti and Roberto Bottazzi was an opportunity to delve into the world of Big Data, machines, algorithms and numbers, where the students themselves were being the subjects of investigation. The information stored on students’ hard drives, primarily images, were used as raw material which was mined and eventually visualised with a help of Grasshopper and ImageJ free software. The aim of this two-day workshop was to give students a light and fun introduction to the issues and opportunities engendered by Big Data, not only through the use of software, but also through discussions and presentations.

For those with a penchant for VR, gaming and non-linear immersive experiences, Shot Disco workshop, lead by Gabby Shawcross and Ross Cairns of the design studio The Workers, was an ideal place to learn more about gaming engine Unity. The students were given a chance to produce their own interactive environment with dance floor, dynamic disco lights, smoke and mirrorballs.

The use of different softwares was crucial in Art Forms in Nature workshop, lead by Harry Paticas and Tom Raymont. Inspired by a publication “Art Forms in Nature” by Ernst Haeckel, participants of this workshop were invited to look for patterns of complex order in natural objects, such as shells, bones and seed-cases. Working with 20 unusual natural artefacts and using a 3D scanning, drawing and modelling tools by the end of the PLAYweek students have produced a shared library of digital models and an exquisite drawing each.

Lara Rettondini, Matt Haycocks, Yota Adilenidou, Sue Phillips, Allan Sylvester and FabLab staff joined together to organise the Design of Display / Display of Design / Play at the V&A workshop where students were given an opportunity to work with the V&A Museum as a client, to address an external agenda and specific client requirements. Workshop started on Wednesday at the V&A Museum where students met Johanna Agerman Ross, the Curator of the 20^th Century and Contemporary Furniture and Product Design and had a chance to engage with the space in which they were to intervene. Thursday and Friday were studio days where the students worked within three groups on different proposals, which were presented on the last day of the workshop. Due to the complexity and size of the project the group aims to carry on working on it as an extracurricular activity over the coming months.

Those who were eager to get their wellies out way before the festival season went for the Earth Building workshop at the EnvLab. Working with rammed earth, by Friday the participants were very proud of their newly built bench.

Quite a spectacular structure was built and dismantled by the participants of Tensegrity workshop, lead by Geoff Morrow, Gavin Weber, Will McLean, Pete Silver and Scott Batty. Previously showcased at Vision London this lightweight pavilion with a tensegrity ring and tensile fabric membrane was assembled and then taken down at the Pod during this two-day workshop.

Maria Kramer offered students an opportunity to develop their own briefs and projects in her Your Project workshop. Experimenting with different shapes, sizes, materials and lighting, participants were encouraged to try out different solutions and options to strengthen their design ideas.

Some of the activities took place off campus, such as Lantern Walk with Harry Charrington, where the students met at the Blackfriar armed with their sketchbooks, and were taken on a “good walk through our city”.

Elly Ward from Ordinary Architecture gave a private tour of the exhibition “Origins: A project by Ordinary Architecture” on show at the Royal Academy. At the Origin Myths one-day workshop participants were encouraged to embrace their own erroneous theories, misunderstood theories, personal mythologies and speculative wild-goose chases to invent new origins of architecture. Their drawings and models were exhibited and presented at the end of the day.

And while the workshops, walks and tours were underway, an alternative vision of the PLAYWeek was being created by the participants of the Drawing PLAYWeek workshop. Lead by Alessandro Ayuso, Mike Guy and Ro Spankie, this group explored how to depict inhabitation in architectural drawings, and celebrate the inventiveness and liveliness of the students and staff’s inhabitation of the building, by ‘populating’ the drawings.