Book Launch: Revolution? Architecture and the Anthropocene by Susannah Hagan | Wednesday, March 30 at 18:30 (BST) [Online discussion / Launch]

Where: Online

When: Wednesday, 30th of March 2022 from 6.30pm to 8pm

Eventbrite booking here.

The University of Westminster and Lund Humphries are delighted to celebrate the launch of Revolution? Architecture and the Anthropocene, a new book that asks why architecture has lagged behind the environmental curve for the last fifty years.

Susannah Hagan in conversation with Harry Charrington, University of Westminster; Brian Ford, University of Nottingham; Ricardo de Ostos, NaJa & deOstos and the AA School of Architecture and Lindsay Bremner, University of Westminster.

The online event will take place online on Microsoft Teams, and attendees will automatically receive a joining link upon completion of Eventbrite Registration.

About the Speakers

Susannah Hagan is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster. Prior to Westminster, she was Head of Research and the Doctoral Programme at the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art. She has published extensively, and has drawn together architectural design, history and theory to examine environmental practice in four books: Taking Shape: A New Contract between Architecture and Nature (2001), Digitalia: architecture and the environmental, the digital and the avant-garde (2008), Ecological Urbanism: the nature of the city (2015), and now Revolution? Architecture and the Anthropocene (2022).

Lindsay Bremner (Chair) is Director of Research at the School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster, and was Principal Investigator of Monsoon Assemblages, a European Research Council-funded project to investigate the impact of changing monsoon climates on four Asian cities. Previously, she was Professor and Chair of Architecture, Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia (2006-11), and Chair of Architecture, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (1998-2004). Her most recent publication is Monsoon Solidarity: A Global Approach to Climate Justice (2022).

Harry Charrington is an architect and Head of the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster. He worked for Alvar Aalto & Co. in Helsinki, and later practiced in Newcastle and Bristol. He has taught at the Universities of Newcastle, UWE Bristol and Bath in the UK, and Helsinki and Aalto Universities and Vaasa Institute of Technology in Finland. His research focuses on the histories of modernism and on design practice. These include the exhibition Alvar Aalto: Process & Culture (RIBA Heinz), and his book Alvar Aalto: the Mark of the Hand, co-authored with Vezio Nava, which won the 2012 RIBA President’s Medal for Research.

Brian Ford (RIBA FRSA) is an architect, an environmental design consultant and Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham. He was in private practice for over 25 years, including Peake Short & Partners and Short Ford Associates, where he worked on innovative low carbon projects in Europe, USA, India, Australia and China. He initiated a series of multi-partner EU-funded research projects on natural ventilation and passive cooling and was until recently Vice President of the Passive and Low Energy Architecture organisation (PLEA). His most recent book is The Architecture of Natural Cooling (2020, 2nd edition).

Ricardo De Ostos is a director of NaJa & deOstos, a London-based studio developed as a platform for experimental architectural design, before that working for Peter Cook, Future Systems and Foster + Partners. He is a Unit Master at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, director of the AA Madrid Summer School and guest professor at Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. Most recently, he is co-author of the book Scavengers and Other Creatures in Promised Lands (2017).

BA Architecture Year 2 students presenting at the London Student Sustainability Conference | Thursday, February 24 from 12:30 to 17:30 (GMT) | Online

Congratulations to Nedal Harris Ghoshesh, Jessica Abdul Matin and Jack Morris, BA 2nd year students, who will be participating in the London Student Sustainability Conference on Thursday the 24th of February, presenting their design studio semester 1 projects.  

The conference is entirely student-led; with students exhibiting their research and projects through presentations, posters and demonstrations. This is the first time that University of Westminster Architecture students have been invited to participate in this event. 

This is an online event and registration is free:

https://www.city.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/2022/february/london-student-sustainability-conference-2022

Image caption: Left: Jessica Abdul Matin, Right: Nedal Harris Ghoshesh

University of Westminster Sustainability Week Workshops | Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th of February, Cavendish and Marylebone Campuses

Wednesday, 23rd of February – Growing Space Workshop 

Get hands on with our growing spaces and learn how to grow fresh vegetables from food waste! No booking required. 

10am-11am

Marylebone Campus, Growing Space located on Luxborough Street

12pm- 1pm 

Cavendish Campus, Growing Space, behind the Pavilion (1st floor)

Thursday, 24th of February – Dr Bike Workshop 

Bring your bike anytime during the session to speak to our experienced mechanics and get a free bike health check! Also, come and speak to the team about a great deal on second hand bike, helmet and lock for £150. Available for students and staff.  

9am-11am

Marylebone Campus, Front Entrance 

11.30am- 2pm 

Cavendish Campus, Front Entrance

Recording of Barnabas Calder’s Lecture from February 8, 2022

On Tuesday, 8th of February, The School of Architecture + Cities hosted Barnabas Calder, who introduced his important new book Architecture: From prehistory to climate emergency. The book provides the first history of architecture with the climate emergency as the central focus, and was reviewed in The Guardian.

The lecture is now available for viewing:

Barnabas Calder “Architecture: from prehistory to climate emergency” Introduction | Tuesday, February 8 at 18:00 GMT | Online

When: Tuesday, 8th of February at 6pm GMT

Where: Online

Eventbrite booking here.

Join us online at the School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster and Barnabas Calder who will introduce his important new book Architecture: From prehistory to climate emergency, which provides the first history of architecture with the climate emergency as the central focus.

The book is reviewed in The Guardian here.

Call for papers for ‘Voices in Architecture’, AHRA Research Student Symposium, April 20th and 21st, 2022 | CfP Deadline: Monday, February 14, 2022

Co-convenors: Maja Jovic and Kate Jordan

The AHRA Research Student Symposium 2022 “Voices in Architecture” considers voices in architectural research, posing the critical questions: who speaks and for whom? How do we give voice without assuming authority? How do we listen without judgment? How do we adjust the volume of our own voices?

A key objective of the symposium will be to connect architectural research with wider political concerns around democracy, protest and populism and we are particularly attentive to processes of public engagement and empowerment, social stratification and elitism. The symposium also seeks to investigate diverse modes of production and their social worlds and is interested in submissions that explore vernacular traditions, informal settlements, transient and temporary architectures. The organisers invite contributions that consider human-centred research methodologies both within and beyond the discrete boundaries of architecture, welcoming submissions from disciplines including literary theory, cultural studies, art history, anthropology, geography and planning. In line with this, we welcome paper presentations, as well as non-standard proposals (film, performance, photography, etc.). The research methods explored will include (but not be limited to) oral histories and interviews; ethnography; participative and interactive practices; social media and digital technologies, use of archives and material culture. We will explore the practical and ethical boundaries of such research, giving consideration to questions of privacy and to the politics of identity. We are interested in modes of dialogue: can we find ways of speaking ‘with’ as suggested by Ariella Azoulay in her recent work? Research that offers a platform to voices of otherness is particularly encouraged – the symposium is committed to the objectives of decolonisation in architectural history, theory and praxis, foregrounding narratives of gender, sexuality, race and non-conformity.

The keynote lectures will be delivered by Professor Christine Wall (University of Westminster) and Alexandre Apsan Frediani (International Institute for Environment and Development). To further provide the early career researchers with an insight into ways of ‘using’ their research, besides paper presentations and discussions, the symposium will offer three sets of activities that participants can choose from. These activities will each include a visit to a site, followed by a workshop:

  • A visit to a rapidly gentrifying area with a workshop on design charettes, interrogating the need to invite different voices to decision making processes, questioning whose voice is being heard and how is this practice changing;
  • A visit to a heritage site with a workshop on public engagement, supporting creative thinking of the ways research can reach the public sphere and benefit from augmenting the voices – both those of the researchers as well as those the research is focusing on;
  • A visit to an archive focusing on minority voices, with a workshop on archival research.  

All activities will be offered in a blended form and include physical visits with digital counterparts. 

Please send your abstracts, if the contribution is in standard paper presentation form, or proposals for other forms of contribution and participation by Monday, February 14th 2022 to VoicesInArchitecture@westminster.ac.uk. Other forms of participation (film, performance, photography, graphic work, etc.) should be discussed in advance with the Organising Chairs.

Abstracts and proposals may be in Word, Notepad or PDF format with the following information:

  • author(s)
  • affiliation
  • e-mail address
  • title of proposal
  • type of proposal (ie. paper presentation, film, performance, etc.)
  • body of proposal (300 words)
  • up to 10 keywords
  • biography (200 words)

2022 Environmental Conference | Saturday, January 22 at 9.15am (GMT) | Online event

When: Saturday, 22nd of January at 9.15am

Where: Online Event (to book tickets please go to Eventbrite)

In recent years, there is an increasing awareness of climate change and environmental sustainability. To act on climate change and explore environmental concerns, 8 universities from the UK and Singapore have come together to organise an environmental conference to raise awareness and discuss potential solutions to related issues. 

The conference is a one-day event and will have 6 sessions to cover an array of environmental subjects. This event connects students with industry leaders, through a day of presentations, Q&As and networking sessions in collaboration with our speakers. 

Technical Studies Lecture Series: “Dynamic Building Skins” by Doris Sung from DOSU Studio / University of Southern California | Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 18:00 (GMT), Room M416, Marylebone Campus + Online

When: Thursday, 2nd of December at 6pm (GMT)

Where: M416, Marylebone Campus, School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS 

Link to join livestream 

‘… if we are to develop truly sustainable architecture, we don’t necessarily need more materials. We need smarter ones.’ 

Doris Sung 

In her ‘Bloom’ project, architect and inventor Doris Sung created a large lightweight monocoque structure comprised of 414 hyperbolic paraboloid (hypar) shaped panels made from a bimetal lamination of two alloys of nickel, manganese and iron with different thermal expansion coefficients. Bloom is a wonderful exposition of the properties and potential of bimetals in the creation of new responsive building skins that can passively open and close to ventilate and shade the building. An animated film of the Bloom project shows how the surface is activated by sun and shade.  

Doris Sung has subsequently developed a whole series of innovative architectural applications using thermobimetal. Her initial research on self-shading, self-ventilating and self-assembling alongside contemporary fabrication technologies has expanded the physical potential of the material, for example in the twisting and folding of her Oculus prototype, and she has now patented systems that are being commercialised for wider application. Her InVert™ window-shading system incorporates small bimetal ‘petals’ within a double-glazed glass module, and as the temperature from the sun increases, the bimetal elements deform and block the sunlight and shade the building’s interior. As the sunlight moves and the temperature cools, the bimetal elements revert to their original shape and position. The resultant solar shading reduces heat gain, which in turn can reduce artificial cooling needs by 28–42%,36 depending on the geographical location. 

https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/

For details contact: Will McLean 

w.f.mclean@wmin.ac.uk 

ArCCAT Climate Action Week + Technical Studies Lecture Series: “Environmental Design Sourcebook” Book Launch + Panel Discussion with Pete Silver and Will McLean | Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 18:30, Room M416, Marylebone Campus + Online

When: Thursday 28th October 6.30pm, M416 

Where: M416, School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS + Online:

A new social and ecological prerogative demands appropriate material choices, a re-invention of construction and evolving building programmes that looks at lifecycle, embodied energy and energy use. 

To coincide with the university Sustainability Month and the recent publication of Environmental Design Sourcebook: Innovative Ideas for a Sustainable Built Environment (RIBA Publishing, 2021), the Authors, Dr 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 architects), Rosa Schiano-Phan (UoW), Guy Sinclair (UoW) and Urna Sodnamjamts (Hût Architecture). 

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. 

https://technicalstudies.tumblr.com/

For details contact: Will McLean  

w.f.mclean@wmin.ac.uk 

Falling Away: A one-day symposium held together with the exhibition of Catherine Yass’ film works in Ambika P3

The symposium will bring together researchers and practitioners from a diverse range of disciplines to discuss the agency of falling in contemporary culture. Metaphors of falling are often evoked to describe the current period of insecurity and instability. At the same time, the built environment reflects and in turns reproduces this state of suspension: while highrise construction reshapes the landscapes of cities around the world, including London, its impact on our perception of gravity is yet to be understood. Typically defined as ‘the force that makes objects fall toward the earth’, gravity is so pervasive that we may overlook the ways in which it conditions our daily lives, and how we abandon ourselves to its force – or resist it.

How do creative practices engage with the perception of gravity, balance and falling? Can they mediate our fears and desires to lose the ground? What links can be drawn between the vertiginous spaces of our cities and the conditions of social instability in which we live? These and other related issues will be addressed from a variety of perspectives drawing on art, architecture, design, geography, psychology, and dance. Structured around a series of conversations, the symposium will conclude with a panel discussion with the artist Catherine Yass.

The event is organised in conjunction with Falling Away, a major exhibition of Catherine Yass’s work in Ambika P3. Curated by Davide Deriu and Michael Mazière, the exhibition comprises seven vertiginous films of modern architectural structures that embody the institutions which built them. Spanning the past two decades, it is the first retrospective of the artist’s extensive body of film work in the UK. The joint events are aligned with the Vertigo in the City project based at the School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster.

Confirmed speakers

  • Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond, Artists-Researchers and Professors of Artistic Research, University of Applied Arts Vienna
  • Amy Butt, Practising Architect and Lecturer in Architecture, University of Reading
  • Emilyn Claid, Dance artist, director, performer and educator
  • John Golding, Professor of Applied Psychology, University of Westminster
  • Andrew Harris, Associate Professor in Geography and Urban Studies, University College London
  • Catherine James, Art Historian and Lecturer in Academic Practice, University of the Arts London
  • Michael Mazière, Ambika P3 curator and Reader in Film and Video, University of Westminster
  • Brendan Walker, Thrill Engineer and Professor of Creative Industries, Middlesex University
  • Catherine Yass, London-based artist
  • Convenor: Davide Deriu, School of Architecture + Cities, University of Westminster

View the Programme for the ‘Falling Away’ Symposium

View the Falling Away Exhibition Catalogue

Register for tickets for the Falling Away Symposium on 22nd October

Register for tickets for the private view of Falling Away on 21st October

View the Falling Away Exhibition Catalogue

Tickets

The event will be delivered as a webcast, with a limited number of tickets set aside for in person attendance in the Robin Evans Room – broken down into AM and PM slots.

Half of available tickets for in person attendance have been set aside for students, so we would much obliged if you could share details with them – and those who you think may find the event of interest. Those attending virtually are welcome to join the session at any point, and a link will be shared with registered attendees prior to the event.

A recording of each of the sessions will also be made available on the School of Architecture and Cities YouTube Channel shortly after the event.