Nigel Coates' Tales of the City' Lecture 30 November

Nigel Coates
30 November | 18.30 – 20.00
Christopher Ingold Auditorium, UCL
20 Gordon Street | WC1H 0AJ | Map
No booking required | first-come, first-seated

Tales of the City

Forget the boulevard and the block: it’s an inherent confusion that makes cities so vital. Against a background of mutating functions, and accidental superimpositions, switching scales and flashes of desire, Nigel Coates has always drawn inspiration from the entire breadth of the urban environment. Architecture always needs to celebrate its contingency on life in the city and raise the bar for the citizen. In our role as architects and designers, how can we channel this turbulent mix? In his own form of architectural storytelling citing installations exhibited in various galleries over three decades, Coates will explore his recurring theme of the fictional urban model. From 'Ecstacity' to 'Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens', these mix photography, found objects, 3D printed buildings and occasional film and furniture of his own design.

Mapping Memories Exhibition 15 September Koppel Project Gallery

"Mapping Memories is a researching tool and visualisation platform that stands for the recognition of Latin Americans in the UK. The project is carried out by Verónica Posada (critic for BAIA) and Lorena Raigoso. In London, Mapping Memories aims to make visible the cultural practices of the Latin American community whilst strengthening community cohesion and a reinforcing a sense of belonging in the areas in which Latin Americans live, work and meet. We advocate for the protection of Latin American spaces that are at risk of demolition due to the dynamics of regeneration and gentrification in the city of London."

next Thursday 15 of September at 6:30 pm at The Koppel Project - 93 Baker Street, W1U 6RL.

BAIA Graduate Laura Metcalfe wins National Interior Educators Award for Best Student Project

Opening the Black Box by Laura Metcalfe, viewing lines for open air theatre

Laura Metcalfe has won the National Interior Educators Award for Best Student Project for her project entitled Opening the Black Box.  

Congratulations, Laura!

More about her and other BAIA student's recent awards here.

University of Westminster BAIA students at Parsons The New School for Parallel Cities 1

Parallel Cities 1 explored the process of craft techniques combining digital and analogue media with film and physical models to uncover relationships between bodies, networks, and spaces in New York City.

The workshop brought together 8 graduate and undergraduate students from Parsons’ Temporary Environments course and 8 second year students from the University of Westminster’s BA (Hons) Interior Architecture Course. The students received training in Rhino and Grasshopper, in addition to digital fabrication processes focused on networked workflows. Individually, they developed their own site study of a portion of Long Island City, while contributing to the overall workshop goals of the design and fabrication of a larger group installation.

more information here.

'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

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.

'Ordinary Streets' Film Launch, 6th October at LSE

Tuesday 6th October, 6.30-8pm, Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

‘Ordinary Streets’ is a short film based on an ethnographic and visual exploration of the spaces, economies and cultures of ‘street’. Through the lens of Rye Lane in Peckham in south London, the film engages with issues of migration, urban multiculture and regeneration.

Myfanwy Taylor from Just space will provide a commentary on the film.

‘Ordinary Streets’ is a film by Sophie Yetton, based on research led by Suzi Hall at LSE Cities.

The film screening will be followed by a drinks reception, which will take place directly outside the Wolfson Theatre.

– For further details of the research, please go to the ‘Ordinary Streets’ project page.

– For details about our latest ESRC research across streets in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Leicester, please go to the ‘Super-diverse Streets’ project page.

– For full details on the launch event please see the ‘Ordinary Streets’ event page.

Image: Rye Lane, Peckham (Photo Credit: Nicholas Palominos, Ordinary Streets, LSE Cities, 2012)

University of Westminster BAIA 'Selfie Series' project

selfie at the West India Quay/Canary Wharf and Stratford by 3rd Year student Marilyn Masen

The 2nd and 3rd Year design students started the term off with a charrette that had to do with the theme of 'being a tourist in your own city.' They were asked to visit a place in London that they hadn't previously and document that through a series of selfies. The selfies were meant to reconsider the conventional selfie to not only show themselves but also an embodied experience of place. 

 You can see the results here.

ABSENT installation at Shoreditch Town Hall

"A young woman enters a hotel. She is magnetic and compelling, yet strangely detached, as if in a dream; she knows everyone, yet is utterly alone; she has many lovers, but loves no one; she is 18 years old 

- or is she 80?" 

—
ABSENT

A dreamlike installation 

Commissioned by
SHOREDITCH TOWN HALL,
LIFT and LEFTCOAST

SHOREDITCH TOWN HALL
Monday 24 August - Sunday 25 October

Mon - Fri from 6pm | Sat & Sun from 12pm

Tickets

and more about 'ambulatory theater-as-installation' here.

DnA Episode: Zombie Urbanism

A recent episode of LA-based podcast DnA asks:

"What happens when residential real estate is treated like a safe deposit box? DnA explores the urban impact of global investment in high end homes -- in London, New York and L.A." 

Listen here.

and read more about 'zombie urbanism' in London here.

The Brewery Yard by Tzannes

"From the Architect: This project integrates the plant equipment for a tri-generation plant with the historic Carlton and United Brewery building on the fringe of the 
Sydney CBD... We developed an innovative formal solution to this problem where the
form of the new work arose from the integration of complex profile of the existing roofline with the organic regular form of the plant equipment within."

from archdaily.

StreetDome by CEBRA

"StreetDome is a vast and unique urban playground for unorganized sports and street culture on Haderslev’s harbor front in southern Denmark. StreetDome’s overall ambition is to set new standards for urban arenas for unorganized sports. StreetDome is an open playground and social meeting place for different ages, skill levels, and cultures — an undulating urban landscape for activity and recreation including a 15,000-square-foot skate park, facilities street basketball, Parkour, boulder climbing, canoe polo, etc."

under construction

artist's interpretation

more at Architizer,

Collages by Frank Dresme

"Project 360U+00B0 was a thesis project produced at The Utrecht School of Arts in 2007. The project, was vested in the production of four psychogeographic maps. These maps are the routes between personal destinations in Amsterdam."

more here.

"The City as a Loft" Adaptive Reuse Lecture by Kees Christiaanse 22 January 2014

'The City as a Loft'

Kees Christiaanse will present ideas and concepts from his book, The City as a Loft: Adaptive Reuse as a Resource for Sustainable Urban Development.

A desire for urbanity, identity and indentification has been a major factor during the last thirty years in stimulating the preservation and conversion of derelict structures dating from the industrial era. Buildings like this have their own specific features and a relationship to history and context, while at the same time being open to current and future needs. The buildings attract involvement by local people and stand out with their qualities of stability and openness. The word 'loft' is used to describe these urban qualities: adaptable, flexible and at the same time powerful and authentic spaces in which people can live and work.

The thirty portraits of reused industrial areas presented in the book show a wide variety of locations all around the globe in which reinterpretations of the legacy of the industrial age are releasing tremendous energy and creativity. The book examines the backgrounds, people and concepts involved and illustrates various strategies for reuse. In essays and interviews, specialists from both the theoretical and practical fields explain their findings and experiences.

18:30 - 20:00 22 January 2014

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

Sean Griffiths on the American Bar in Vienna by Adolf Loos

"The American Bar is an astonishing interior.

As well as being a very radical piece of early 20th century design, as Europe’s first ever cocktail bar (cocktails are an American invention) it brought a decadent New World experience to an old imperial Europe on the verge of catastrophic dissolution."

More from Sean Griffiths at BD.

Thanks to Níall McLaughlin for mentioning the article.

The Left-Over-Space House by Cox Rayner Architects

"This narrow private house demonstrates what can be achieved on the myriad of ‘left-over’ spaces in inner cities, such as disused easements or parking lots. In this case, a 3 metre wide tiny caretaker’s cottage, adjoining a heritage hall has been recycled and linearly extended into a family house for parents and two children."

from DETAIL.

Mercato by Neri & Hu Design and Reserch Office

"Stripping back the strata of finishes that have built up after years of renovations, the design concept celebrates the beauty of the bare structural elements."

more from archdaily.

Wick Session #12: Informal & In-situ

This talk will be about recent work done with students in a former industrial / warehouse part of Johannesberg which has over a number of years been occupied and turned into living accommodation via 'informal processes'. For those interested in informal urbanism and the kinds if issues and difficulties it raises for architectural agency and education, the talk will be extremely interesting. 

more info at http://wicksessions.net/

Interior Urbanism Florence 2013 Poster

more information on this summer's workshop can be found here.

Information Session for IU 2013: Monday November 19