Installations by Cornelia Parker

"For some years Cornelia Parker’s work has been concerned with formalising things beyond our control, containing the volatile and making it into something that is quiet and contemplative like the ‘eye of the storm’. She is fascinated with processes in the world that mimic cartoon ‘deaths’ – steamrollering, shooting full of holes, falling from cliffs and explosions. Through a combination of visual and verbal allusions her work triggers cultural metaphors and personal associations, which allow the viewer to witness the transformation of the most ordinary objects into something compelling and extraordinary."

not by Parker, but undoubtedly influenced by her:

for more.

+FARM Winter Studio 2016 in the US: OPEN CALL

'Crafting Technique'

Studio Dates: Wed January 6th - Mon, January 11th
Application Deadline: Saturday, December 20th at 11:59pm
Location: Hall House Farm in Perrysburg, New York, US

The project for this winter intensive design, fabrication, and construction studio is an interactive site specific installation. Studio participants will engage in a dynamic design process culminating in the construction of a full-scale structure that amplifies the unique characteristics of the site into a dynamic full scale structure that takes into account digital and analogue process to craft new techniques for making architecture.

Six applicants selected from the open call will work directly with professional fabricators, architects, digital specialists, and educators exposing the participants to emerging design, computation, fabrication, and construction practices in the field of architecture.

[+++ Click to Apply ]

more info on plusFARM.

'Variations on a Theme Park' by Michael Sorkin

University of Westminster Visiting Professor Michael Sorkin's critique of urban public space has overlaps with a critique of tourism and urban leisure and has implications for public space and tourism in the UK and London.

"America's cities are being rapidly transformed by a sinister and homogenous design. A new Kind of urbanism--manipulative, dispersed, and hostile to traditional public space--is emerging both at the heart and at the edge of town in megamalls, corporate enclaves, gentrified zones, and psuedo-historic marketplaces. If anything can be described as a paradigm for these places, it's the theme park, an apparently benign environment in which all is structured to achieve maximum control and in which the idea of authentic interaction among citizens has been thoroughly purged. In this bold collection, eight of our leading urbanists and architectural critics explore the emblematic sites of this new cityscape--from Silicon Valley to Epcot Center, South Street Seaport to downtown Los Angeles--and reveal their disturbing implications for American public life."

More on the book.

Sorkin is lecturing Thursday 26 November.  

The Byzantine Fresco Chapel by François de Menil

"The Byzantine Fresco Chapel is a part of the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas designed by architect François de Menil. The suspended-glass "walls" are not replicas of the chapel that the frescoes were removed from, but created a new context for displaying the icons. In order not to simply replicate the original chapel, de Menil designed "a mediating external building with an embedded steel structure – a 'reliquary box' – which forms a neutral enclosure for a freestanding chapel," according to Christine Slessor in The Architectural Review."

The Tempietto by Donato Bramante, 1502

"Βramante’s Tempietto  sits on the Janiculum Hill (Gianicolo) in Rome, a small temple incorporated into the larger project of San Pietro in Montorio. Currently, the temple occupies a quadrilateral courtyard and is only visible to the public from a single, fixed, exterior point. However... the Tempietto was intended to be viewed from all sides, surrounded by an additional ring of columns, ultimately creating a series of concentric circular boundaries. The interiority of the Tempietto is placed in contrast to the seeming exteriority of the courtyard, only to be made interior again by the surrounding building." -Michael Vlasopoulos

left: section of the building, right: Harvard University team's reconstruction of the building's intended courtyard.

more here.

Body Building Workshop

For PLAY week, a week of diverse workshops meant to inaugurate the newly renovated studio spaces at University of Westminster, BAIA tutors teamed up with David Scott and Ed Lancaster of the fabLAB to produce 'body agent' figures.  The body agents were conceived, built and installed by groups of Interior Architecture and Architecture students to question, surprise and inspire ideas about occupation and use of the new space.

Lecture by Johannes Torpe: The Design Process. 19th November

TECHNICAL STUDIES OPEN LECTURE SERIES

Johannes Torpe – Johannes Torpe Studios

The Design Process

Thursday 19th November, 6.30pm

Room M416 (Robin Evans Room)

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment

University of Westminster

35 Marylebone Road

London NW1 5LS

The founder and vision behind Johannes Torpe Studios, Danish designer Johannes Torpe is an unconventional and self-trained creative in every way imaginable. Working in the fields of interior, product, lighting and graphic design, while also producing music and playing the drums, he is not one to conform to established boundaries. He simply calls himself a design activist, dedicated to telling compelling and authentic stories through creativity and design. 

As creative director of the studio, he infuses the team with his energy, intuitive approach and comprehensive experience from the many aspects of the design and creative industries he has worked in. He channels his unorthodox approach into building the best team in his studio and creating an environment where the designers and projects can grow to reach their full potential. 

Johannes Torpe additionally conducts creative consultancy work for brands. Most recently he worked with renowned high-end consumer electronics brand Bang & Olufsen as their Group Creative Director from 2011 to 2015.

http://johannestorpestudios.com/

For more information contact: Will McLean

w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk

James Corner Lecture: 18 November

James Corner
18 November | 18.30 – 20.00
UCL Chemistry Auditorium
20 Gordon Street | WC1H 0AJ | Map
No booking required | first come, first seated

Intimate Immensity: Public Space in the City

Renowned landscape architect James Corner, founder of Field Operations, will discuss current ideas about the design of vibrant urban public spaces, the importance of seeing cities as landscapes, and the capacity for landscape to create new forms of city-making. He will present his designs for New York’s High Line, Santa Monica’s Tongva Park and London’s South Park at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, among other innovative public realm projects around the world. Read more>>

A new book, The High Line, published by Phaidon, will be available for sale and signing by James after the talk.

'Mirroring Tarkovsky' at BFI, October and November

Director 'Andrei Tarkovsky strove to transcend the limits of his subjects with each new film, thereby expanding our conception of film as art. Ivan’s Childhood remakes the war film into a child’s vision of play and revenge. Andrei Rublev reimagines the Russian history epic through an artist’s unblinking eyes. Solaris stretches science fiction into new realms of psychological disquiet. Mirror’s use of fractured time and vivid recall creates a unique and unforgettable memoir. Cold War conspiracy and paranoia can be found in the mind games of Stalker. An exiled writer’s despair gets tested by Italy’s beauty and mystery in Nostalgia, and The Sacrifice brings Tarkovsky’s belief in self-denial to a blazing conclusion. These films – shown in gorgeous new digital prints – are among the most imaginative, moving and powerful you are ever likely to see.' -Nick James, Sight & Sound Editor

Tarkovsky's films are being shown at the BFI throughout November.  Times and tickets here.