'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.

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.

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.

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.

Sami Rintala Lecture 14 January

'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

Berlin's Reichstag dome and ramp in engineered wood

Finnish engineered timber company Metsa Wood has designed a reconstruction of the Reichstag, the home of the German Parliament, in engineered wood. More information and videos on  www.metsawood.com/planb

Aerocene metallic orbs by Tomás Saraceno in Paris' Grand Palais

"By releasing hot air from inside the Aerocene globes, pressure can be regulated and the altitude of the orbs can be controlled. They could also float along natural jet streams, using these as a way of changing direction."

from dezeen.

The World of Charles and Ray Eames at the Barbican until 14 February

The World of Charles and Ray Eames

21 October 2015 - 14 February 2016

Charles and Ray Eames are among the most influential designers of the 20th century. Enthusiastic and tireless experimenters, this husband and wife duo moved fluidly between the fields of photography, film, architecture, exhibition-making, and furniture and product design.

at the Art Gallery 

Barbican Centre

Silk Street London 

EC2Y 8DS

Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy until 13 December

"Ai became widely known in Britain after his sunflower seeds installation in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2010 but this is the first major institutional survey of his work ever held in the UK and it bridges over two decades of his extraordinary career.

Curated in collaboration with Ai Weiwei from his studio in Beijing, we present some of his most important works from the time he returned to China from the US in 1993 right up to present day. Among new works created specifically for our galleries and courtyard are a number of large-scale installations, as well as works showcasing everything from marble and steel to tea and glass. 

With typical boldness, the chosen works explore a multitude of challenging themes, drawing on his own experience to comment on creative freedom, censorship and human rights, as well as examining contemporary Chinese art and society."

It's recommended that you book ahead of time.

Royal Academy

Burlington House

Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD

more here and here.

'Interior Tales' Book Presentation, Syracuse University London, 9 December

'Housing Social Life', Technical Studies Lecture by Peter Barber, 10 December

Peter Barber – Peter Barber Architects

The Social Life of Housing

Thursday 10th December, 6.30pm, Room M416 (Evans)

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment

University of Westminster

35 Marylebone Road

London NW1 5LS

“We think that space conditions, and is in turn conditioned by, society and culture and that architecture can create the potential for social action and activity” Peter Barber Architects

Peter Barber previously worked with Richard Rogers, Will Alsop and Jestico+Whiles prior to establishing his own practice in 1989. He is currently a design tutor at the University of Westminster, teaching MArch Studio with Ben Stringer. He has lectured about the work of the Practice at many institutions, including the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Architectural League in New York, and numerous international and domestic university schools of architecture including Genoa, Frankfurt, Brighton, Kingston, Glasgow and The Bartlett.

In October 2001 the Practice won first prize in the Architecture Foundation's prestigious Innovations in Housing Competition. The project won a Housing Design Award, runner-up in Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, AIA Award and RIBA Award. It was also short-listed to the last 10 for the 2006 Stirling Prize. A series of radical urban housing projects have followed which have variously won Housing Design Awards, RIBA Awards and AIA Awards. Peter Barber Architects have won the Building Design Architect of the Year for Housing in 2007 and 2010. In 2015, Peter Barber Architects landed the Royal Academy’s top architecture prize for its alternative vision for low-cost housing on London’s Mount Pleasant.

Peter Barber will talk about the development of his practices work and in particular the evolution and reinvigoration of housing typologies such as the terrace/courtyard hybrid at Donnybrook Quarter and the McGrath Road project where Barber reexamines the back-to-back housing typology.

For details contact Will McLean / Pete Silver

w.f.mclean@westminster.ac.uk