Thursday, January 28, 2016

'Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture' Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts 26 January — 20 April 2016


"...this exhibition focuses on Britain and twelve architects who have broken the mould of British architecture in their own individual ways across its history, united only by the unpredictability of their particular kind of maverick-ness. Celebrating the original and the unorthodox, the exhibition and the book it accompanies ask us to question what we think we know about the course of British architecture."

Featuring the work of FAT (including Sean Griffiths, University of Westminster Professor).

at the RA.

more here.

Friday, January 22, 2016

Model practice: maquettes by Roz Barr Architects


Architects Journal 22 JANUARY, 2016


New National Augustinian Centre and Priory, 2015
This 1:10 model was …...preceded by 1:100 and 1:50 models and facade studies. Scale is always an important decision, and for this we wanted to experience the wall-to-window relationship along with the depth of the facade. This section is through the new priory and the chapel at roof level. It also is a study of our proposal’s most important junction, where the new steel tower connects to the 1960s building. The facade changed as we built the model and it now informs the next stage of the detailed design. (Tulip, black MDF · L 600mm D800mm H 1,800mm)
























Kirkton Steadings, Argyll, 2015
This model is a study about mending a ruin. The birch ply conveys the underpinning methodology below the existing 18th-century stone wall. This is a working model, which we can change and remake as we test options for staircases, the positioning of a mezzanine, the form of the roof structure and so on. It is one of many models made for this project for a tower house in the Scottish landscape, and this is a study of how we ‘adapt’ the existing stone steading. This model embodies why we make. (Birch plywood pine, cardboard · L 320mm D200mm H 300mm)


























New Valer Church, Norway, 2012
This model was part of our competition entry in 2011. ….the model was built on a meeting table over a long weekend. The formwork was CNCd in blue foam, and is almost the most important element of the model. . (Jelutong, plywood, brass · L 320mm D320mm H 575mm).

The models made in our studio are not simply additional tools or objects made at the end of a design stage to showcase a building or interior. Rather, they are maquettes that may be numerous iterations of an idea, or the beginning of some other idea…….The majority are never seen, as they are part of a conversation in a moment of a process that may have come from a sketch, or the testing of a first thought. The act of making is a process of engaging with an idea that requires a decision that can be ‘made’, rethought, and ‘un-made’. This form of adaptation is about the discourse of architectural thinking, and is a critical part of our process in making and realising an idea. We imagine, we make, and the process is adapted through discussions and decisions about materiality and form. Nothing is fixed in this process. Our ideas are always evolving as we transform them into the physical.


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

New book: 'This is Temporary: how transient projects are redefining architecture' by Cate St Hill


"Temporary architecture is flourishing in our urban public spaces. Branded ‘pop-ups’ and follies to provide a moment of light entertainment they are in fact borne of a long history of more holistic architecture that is subtly suggesting how we could live, work and play more harmoniously together."

more here.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Kaos Temple by Church Brigade


"...a young collective known as the Church Brigade has adopted the dilapidated house of worship and transformed it into a public indoor skateboarding park. The old St. Barbara’s has been reborn as the Kaos Temple."

more here.

Friday, January 8, 2016

'Peckham Catalysts' Exhibition 19 Jan- 30 Jan



An exhibition designed, fabricated and installed by University of Westminster Interior Architecture BA Honours students of their models, drawings and videos. 

Starting from the question of how small-scale interventions and adaptive reuse could catalyse development and activity connected to Peckham's community, history and future, these designs put forward ideas for the alteration and expanded use of the existing building at 95A Rye Lane.

Exhibition opening: Monday 18 January 2016, 6 – 8pm 

Exhibition times: Tuesday 19 January 2016 – Saturday 30 January 2016

Peckham Plex
95A Rye Lane 
London, SE15 4ST

Entry is free.

more information here, here, and here.


Sectional Perspective by Interior Architecture BA Honours student Linda Tentori