Symphonie Cinétique by Ólafur Arnalds and Joachim Sauter 2013

A kinetic com­po­sition con­ceived by Ice­landic musi­cian Ólafur Arnalds and Joachim Sauter/ART+COM that combines mecha­nical mo­tion and the poetic synergy of music in a space. The exhibition project focuses mainly on the cor­relation and inter­action of three elements: reflection, sound and movement. Symphonie Cinétique narratively inter­relates the three elements, and brings out their inherent, almost mystic harmony. The result of this process is an artistic synthesis, a unique spatial experience. 

http://www.faithistorment.com/2013/07/symphonie-cinetique-by-olafur-arnalds.html

'Air Structures' and 'Deployable Structures' Book Launch: 9th November

Deployable Structures by Esther Rivas Adrover.

Deployable structures can expand and/or contract due to their geometrical, material and mechanical properties - offering the potential to create truly transforming environments. This book looks at the cutting edge of the subject, examining the different types of deployable structures and numerous design approaches. Filled with photographs, models, drawings and diagrams, Deployable Structures is packed with inspirational ideas for architecture students and practitioners.

Esther Rivas Adrover has experience as an architectural practitioner and educator. After teaching Advanced Descriptive Geometry to architecture students in Spain she studied architecture at Oxford Brookes University where she later taught at degree and postgraduate level. Her interest in complex geometries led her to work for practices including Zaha Hadid Architects, where she worked on various projects in the UK and around the world. She has also exhibited her own work several times at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Air Structures by Will McLean and Pete Silver.

Air can be used in a variety of ways to make lightweight, flexible structures. Filled with photographs, models, drawings and diagrams, this book looks at every facet of the subject, examining air-beam structures, air-cell structures, buoyant structures, inflatable structures and many more. It also looks at the construction methods that use air, such as air-inflated steel and aerated concrete.

Will McLean and Pete Silver teach at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Westminster and are the co-authors of Fabrication: The Designers Guide (2006),Introduction to Architectural Technology (2013), and Structural Engineering for Architects (2014). They both trained in the Architectural Association under John Frazer, where Pete later taught. They also established pioneering courses on real-time environmentally-responsive systems at the Bartlett (University College London).

Monday 9th November 6pm, Room M416

University of Westminster

Department of Architecture

35 Marylebone Road

London NW1 5LS

Room: M416

Nearest Station: Baker Street

Asif Khan lecture: 28 October

Asif Khan
28 October | 18.30 – 20.00
UCL Chemistry Auditorium
20 Gordon Street | WC1H 0AJ | Map
No booking required | first come, first seated


Sensory City
Kenya Hara coined the term ‘Senseware’ to describe forms of matter which stir our sensory perception. Through a series of reflections on current and past projects Asif Khan will explore the meaning and possibilities offered by a sensory approach to design. Could this thinking offer us a new way of creating architecture?

Bartlett alum Asif Khan established his London-based architecture office in 2007. The studio’s interest ranges from cultural buildings and masterplans to houses, temporary pavilions, exhibitions, installations and products. The design solution in each project is highly distinct, yet unified by a meticulous understanding of place, purpose and potential.

Michael Sorkin Inaugural Lecture at University of Westminster: 26 November

Competition for Wuhan Qingtan Lake Ecological Park Urban Design Competition 2014, First Place.

MICHAEL SORKIN
VISITING PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
INAUGURAL LECTURE

26 November 2015, 18.30 – 20.00

University of Westminster
Room MG14
25 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5LS

City States

In his inaugural lecture as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster, Michael Sorkin will speak about the relationship between equity and sustainability in cities and advocate for a radical assumption of responsibility by cities. He will argue for the necessity of creating both new kinds of urban relations as well as new kinds of cities. The talk will be illustrated by a series of examples of work by the Michael Sorkin Studio and Terreform.

Michael Sorkin is an architect and urbanist whose practice spans design, criticism, and teaching. He is the principal of Michael Sorkin Studio in New York, a global design practice focused on urbanism and green architecture, and Terreform, an independent urban research and advocacy centre whose mission is to investigate the forms, policies, technologies, and practices that will yield equitable, sustainable, and beautiful cities for our urbanizing planet

new issue of a+t: 'Design Techniques'

"How do architects deal with the design process? What inspires them? Design Techniques looks at different approaches to the creative moment. The architects themselves reveal their modus operandi, explain how they tackle the project and discuss motivation, devices, influences, justifications, effects and the origins of their design techniques.

a+t magazine and Harvard GSD initiate the SOLID series, Harvard Symposia on Architecture. Design Techniques is the first volume in the series. Faculty, critics and theorists, and students discuss the different approaches contributing personal experiences, working practices, and opportunities encountered in the field of design."

more here.

Technical Studies Lecture 22nd October: Sang Hoon Kim

TECHNICAL STUDIES OPEN LECTURE SERIES

Sang Hoon Kim – Populous
Olympic Stadium Transformation
Thursday 22nd October, 6.30pm
Room M416 (Robin Evans Room)

Sang joined Populous in 2001 to work on the redevelopment of Ascot Racecourse. As a member of the core team responsible for design of the building, he established the complex geometry of the tensile fabric roof structure. The project was opened to great acclaim by her Majesty the Queen in June 2006 at Royal Ascot.

Following completion of the Ascot Racecourse project, Sang joined the design team of another award-winning project, the London Olympic Stadium and Sang has been involved in this project from initial conceptual design stage through to final completion and transformation.

More recently, Sang has helped to develop the Strategic Masterplan for Lord’s Cricket Ground. Sang has continued his involvement with Lord’s, by leading the coordination of the architectural and engineering design for the redevelopment of the Warner Stand. Sang’s extensive knowledge of sport facility design allowed him to contribute to the sport chapter of the latest edition of the Metric Handbook (Planning and Design Data).

Sang will talk about the London Olympic Stadium, and the Olympic Stadium transformation recently completed for the Rugby World Cup.

Sang Hoon Kim is an alumnus of the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster.

For lecture details contact Will McLean / Pete Silver
w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk
www.technicalstudies.tumblr.com

Funambulist Magazine Launch 2nd November

The Westminster Law & Theory Lab kindly invites you to

the London Launch of The Funambulist Magazine: Politics of Space and Bodies

on Monday, 2nd of November, at 7pm

at The Pavilion, University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish St, W1W 6UW

Presentations of her article for the third issue by Reina Lewis, University of the Arts, on Islamic Fashion

Presentation of the first three issues by Leopold Lambert 

Reina Lewis is professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, and the author of Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures (Duke University Press, 2015)

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos is the Director of the Westminster Law and Theory Lab and the author of Spatial Justice: Body, Lawscape, Atmosphere (Routeledge, 2014)

Leopold Lambert is the founder and editor of The Funambulist Magazine and the author of Weaponized Architecture (dpr-barcelona, 2012) 

The Funambulist Magazine is a bimestrial publication about the political relationships of the designed environment with the bodies. It operates alongside a blog and a podcast (Archipelago) that both share the same editorial line. 

List of the first four issues:

- 01 September 2015: Militarized Cities

- 02 November 2015: Suburban Geographies

- 03 January 2016: Clothing Politics

- 04 March 2016: Carceral Environments 

Followed by drinks reception

The event is free but places are strictly limited.

Please RSVP via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/london-launch-of-the-funambulist-magazine-politics-of-space-and-bodies-tickets-19004492950

Sound Installation in Estonia by Birgit Õigus

At Pähni Nature Centre in Estonia... "art academy students have developed and set up huge wooden megaphones to make the never-ceasing but scarcely noticeable calls and movements of forest inhabitants completely audible. The student Birgit Õigus designed the funnel-shaped megaphones for a project in the "Outdoor" auditorium at the academy. Hannes Praks, Head of the Interior Architecture Departments, explains, 'Being three metres in diameter at their widest point, the megaphones create a bandstand for the sounds that the forest produces.' Visitors can settle down comfortably inside the megaphones to enjoy the surreal backdrop of sounds."

more at DETAIL blog.

Technical Studies Open Lecture: William Alsop. 15th October.

TECHNICAL STUDIES OPEN LECTURE SERIES

Professor William Alsop – ALL Design

Progress Report

Thursday 15th October, 6.30pm Room M416 (The Robin Evans Room)

University of Westminster

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment

35 Marylebone Road

London NW1 5LS

Will Alsop OBE RA was born in Northampton, the shoe making capital of Britain. He studied architecture at the Architectural Association in the 1960s and worked for the sartorially monochrome iconoclast Cedric Price for four years. He has been awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize for Peckham Library, London and the first RIBA World Award for The Sharp Centre for Design (OCAD), Toronto, amongst numerous other prestigious accolades for a multitude of projects. His work encompasses all sectors of architecture including urban design and planning. His studio practice also incorporates painting and product design.

His practice is founded principally to 'make life better' - the philosophy extends from the design of individual buildings to embrace broader principles of urbanism and city development and he uses painting, writing and 'playing' to further understanding of design. He sits on the architectural advisory boards for Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea Councils. He is visiting Professor of TU Vienna; Professor of Architecture at Canterbury School of Architecture, UCA and this year was awarded the degree of Honorary Doctor of Design (HonDDes) from the University of Greenwich, in recognition of his achievements.

“Because of his avant-garde and strikingly different buildings, Will Alsop has always been considered something of a ‘maverick’ or ‘infant terrible’ in the British architectural scene. Once dubbed "architecture's Mr. Blobby" by the press, Alsop's buildings often don't always look like buildings at all- most are a riot of bright colours, blobby pods, spindly supports and look nothing like the surrounding environment. His government offices in Marseilles are painted in Yves Klein Blue (YKB) and attract one million visitors a year, despite being intended only as the French equivalent of a county hall.

Open University

'Transforming Data' Symposium at University of Westminster

TRANSFORMING DATA: CREATIVE AND CRITICAL DIRECTIONS IN THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster

Saturday, 24 October 2015 from 11:00 to 17:30 (BST)

London, United Kingdom

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transforming-data-creative-and-critical-directions-in-the-arts-and-humanities-tickets-18860406985

In recent years cultural, social and political landscapes have been redrawn as unprecedented amounts of data has entered the public domain. This in turn has posed significant questions cutting across issues of privacy, security, culture and politics, giving birth to new aesthetic, political and social practices. This free one-day symposium brings together an interdisciplinary mix of artists, designers, academics and developers to reflect upon this phenomena, show work, exchange experiences and signpost important trends.

Questions the symposium will explore include:

How are artists and designers using data? What approaches are they taking? What issues are they tackling?

What can and can’t data tell us about the world? What are its limits in terms of representation and application?

What cultural institutional structures are emerging in response to data, what opportunities does this provide for creative practitioners?

How can we understand a political economy of data, and what alternatives to its use might this approach enable?

Speakers include:

Mark Graham: Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford.

twitter.com/geoplace

Christian Fuchs: Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster 

twitter.com/fuchschristian

Julie Freeman: Artist, Open Data Institute, Queen Mary University of London

translatingnature.org

twitter.com/misslake

Hannah Redler: Independent Curator

twitter.com/hannah_redler

Joanna Boehnert: Designer and design theorist, Centre for Research in Education, Art and Media, University of Westminster (CREAM).

(eco-labs.org)

twitter.com/Ecocene

Tom Corby and Gavin Baily: Artists, Centre for Research in Education, Art and Media, University of Westminster (CREAM). 

twitter.com/tom_corby1

Doug Specht: Doctoral Researcher and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster

twitter.com/DougSpecht

Giles Lane: Director Proboscis

proboscis.org.uk

gileslane.net

Anastasia Kavada: Symposium chair, is Senior Lecturer in the Westminster Faculty of Media, Arts & Design at the University of Westminster.

twitter.com/AnastasiaKavada

-------------------------------------

The project is the result of collaboration between: the Centre for Research in Education Art and Media (CREAM), the University of Westminster; and the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of its Digital Transformations theme.

www.ahrc.ac.uk/research/fundedthemesandprogrammes/themes/digitaltransformations/

Aesop Store by Tacklebox

In this video Jeremy Barbour of Tacklebox explains the approach to the design of the Nolita Aesop store.

See more of Aesop's Taxonomy of Design videos here.

La Monte Young 'Dream House' Installation

'Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the Dream Festival ... Dia presents a newly acquired, site-specific iteration of Dream House by La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi at 545 West 22nd Street in New York City.

Dream House has been described as “a time installation measured by a continuous frequency environment in sound and light, in which a work would be played continuously and ultimately exist in time as a living organism with a life and tradition of its own.” 

“Dream House is a landmark contribution to the history of sound and light, a truly immersive experience, and one of the most important manifestations of Young and Zazeela’s collaborations,” said Jessica Morgan, Director, Dia Art Foundation.'

read more about the installation here.

National Sawdust in Brooklyn by Bureau V

National Sawdust is a multi-purpose space that "...aims to be many things: an acoustically sound concert hall, a rehearsal and recording studio, an incubator for contemporary music, and a restaurant and bar featuring an award-winning chef."

photos by Kim Nowacki/WQXR)

You can read more about the space and the design here, and listen to a news story below.