Jan Kaplický ‘drawings’ exhibition November 9th – December 16th 2016

"This exhibition commemorates Jan Kaplický, who was one of the most gifted and visionary architects working at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. His death in 2009 at the age of 71 robbed the world of a designer whose virtuosity was only just coming to wider public attention, having been a benchmark in the world of architecture for nearly three decades. 

His trademark ‘futuristic’ style was formed from the intersection of the bold elegance of Czech modernism, the sweeping lines of the Baroque and intricacy of the exploded technical diagram. His work moved beyond a simple categorisation as High Tech into a realm where technology was both a utopian image and absolute fact. 

Kaplický always felt that drawings were the epitome of the ‘decisive creative act’ and the care and intricacy of his drawings show the workings of a man who was passionate in the pursuit of precision. Produced before the rise of computer aided drafting (CAD), the complexity of form and the delicacy of line are astonishing, and coupled with a wit and originality around programme and a genuine commitment to an ethical use of technology and materials Kaplický’s works represent a liberating and joyful approach to architecture. 

The exhibition re-presents material from a book published last year by Circa Press, featuring Kaplický’s most iconic projects produced on his own and in collaboration with Future Systems partners David Nixon and Amanda Levete. The book is an exquisite testimonial to a man whose quest for a synthesis between technology and form was manifest in the detail and care that are apparent in every line. The drawings are presented at various scales to communicate Kaplický’s obsessions and to demonstrate to a generation of brought up on CAD that the complexity of an idea maybe found in the economy of lines and not solely in their abundance. "

The exhibition has been designed and curated by Nic Clear, Head of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Greenwich and a long time Kaplický fan.

University of Greenwich Galleries
Stephen Lawrence Gallery
11 Stockwell Street
London SE10 8EY
http://www.greenwichunigalleries.co.uk
Dates: November 9th – December 16th 2016
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 11am – 5pm, Saturday – 11am – 4pm

Enric Ruiz-Geli (Cloud 9) Lecture 20th October

Enric Ruiz-Geli (Cloud 9)
Media ICT and El Bulli
Thursday 20th October, 6pm
Robin Evans Room (M416)
University of Westminster
Department of Architecture




Enric Ruiz-Geli is an architect based in Barcelona who works with a group of collaborators and researcher’s as Cloud 9. Enric works at the interface between architecture and art, digital processes and technological material development. The architects’ multifaceted projects include stage designs and buildings, installations and technical patents. In 2011 he was awarded the prize for best building by the World Architecture Festival (WAF) for his groundbreaking net zero-energy building project ‘Media-ICT’ in Barcelona, which featured bioluminescent fireproof paint and an interactive smoke filled ETFE wall.



Key projects of Enric Ruiz Geli / Cloud 9 include the Villa Nurbs in Empuriabrava, an organically formed, ecological and futuristic house; Media-ICT building in Barcelona and the elBulliFoundation for the chef Ferran Adrià. Designed as a living laboratory in Cap de Creus on the Spanish/French border, the elBulliFoundation (culinary institute) is designed to sustainably regenerate its site within a national park using a mixture of ancient and contemporary environmental design strategies and is being developed in partnership with the national parks authority.



For details contact Will McLean - w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk

Technical Studies website - www.technicalstudies.tumblr.com

Lecture by Jonathan Hill 'A Landscape of Architecture, History and Fiction' 18:30, 19 October 2016

18:30 - 20:00 19 October 2016

A Landscape of Architecture, History and Fiction

Architecture can be analogous to a history, a fiction, and a landscape. We expect a history or a novel to be written in words, but they can also be cast in concrete or seeded in soil. The catalyst to this tradition was the simultaneous and interdependent emergence in the eighteenth century of new art forms: the picturesque landscape, the analytical history, and the English novel. Each of them instigated a creative and questioning response to empiricism’s detailed investigation of subjective experience and the natural world, and together they stimulated a design practice and lyrical environmentalism that profoundly influenced subsequent centuries.

Associating the changing natural world with journeys in self-understanding, and the design process with a visual and spatial autobiography, this lecture analyses an enduring and evolving tradition from the picturesque and romanticism to modernism. Creative architects have often looked to the past to understand the present and imagine the future. Twenty-first-century architects need to appreciate the shock of the old as well as the shock of the new.

Location: UCL Campus, Darwin Lecture Theatre, Gower St, London WC1E 6XA

more info here.

Geoff Morrow Lecture 'Engineering Humanitarian Projects' 6th October Robin Evans Room

Geoff Morrow (Structuremode)

‘Engineering, Pavilions, Research and Humanitarian projects’

Thursday 6th October, 6pm, Robin Evans Room (M416)

University of Westminster

Department of Architecture

35 Marylebone Road

London NW1 5LS

To launch the Technical Studies Thursday evening lecture series Geoff Morrow will discuss a series of recent humanitarian projects, pavilions and lightweight structures on which he has worked. Geoff is a structural engineer and the founder and director of StructureMode, established in 2007. Geoff is driven by his passion for beautiful design through an innovative and collaborative approach to structural engineering and materials. He has over 20 years’ experience designing many types of bespoke buildings and structures.

In the last five year Geoff has led a number of humanitarian projects in partnership with Orkidstudio where the creative use of novel engineering strategies and local materials has created some exceptional projects including Fabric cast concrete for Bomnong L´Or Project, Cambodia (pictured) and a prototype for a Pop-up Cardboard Classroom for Nairobi.

Geoff lectures and tutors students in a number of architecture departments, most recently the Bartlett, Oxford Brookes University and here at the University of Westminster as a part of the Technical Studies team.

For details contact Will McLean

w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk

Technical Studies website

www.technicalstudies.tumblr.com

Lee John Phillips 'The Shed Project'

"..artist Lee John Phillips has undertaken a project of epic proportions to celebrate the memory of his late grandfather. Phillips estimates that it will take him about 4-5 years to draw all 100,000+ items left behind in the shed by his grandfather, who passed away roughly 20 years ago... Phillips has been numbering each object in his meticulous project, and has drawn nearly 4,000 at this point."
(from Bored Panda)

more information here.

Odile Decq Lecture 'Architecture Thinking' 5 October 18:30

Odile Decq is a French architect and landscape designer. International renown came in 1990, with her first major commission: La Banque Populaire de l’Ouest in Rennes. Since then, Odile Decq has been faithful to her fighting attitude while diversifying and radicalising her research. Her early and unusual career was acknowledged in 1996 by the Golden Lion of Architecture at the Venice Biennale. Other than just a style, an attitude or a process, Odile Decq’s work materialises a complete universe that embraces urban planning, architecture, design and art. Her multidisciplinary approach was recently recognised in 2016 with the Jane Drew Prize and with the Prix Femme Architecte in 2013.

Among her most recent projects there are: Le Cargo [Paris, 2016]; La tour Saint-Ange [France, 2015]; Fangshan Museum [Nanjing, 2015]; GL Events Headquarters [Lyon, 2014]; MACRO [Rome, 2010]; FRAC Bretagne [Rennes, 2012] and Phantom, Opera Garnier’s restaurant [Paris, 2011].

Odile Decq has been teaching architecture for the past 25 years, a commitment ratified by the opening in 2014 of her own school in Lyon, France.

18:30 - 20:00 05 October 2016

Location: Christopher Ingold Auditorium, UCL Chemistry Building, 20 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AJ
Architecture Thinking