London SouthBank University – Summer Exhibition 2009 Review – 30.06.09

The London Southbank (LSBU) Exhibition  was on a swelteringly hot day, temperatures indoors must have been above 30 degrees Celsius but no one seemed to mind. The opening night was a frantic and energetic evening of house music, free drinks and networking. Some guests may have been overwhelmed by the quantity of work to take in, but all in all the night seemed to run well.

The studio spaces were transformed into 4 distinct areas:

BA Arch final year – 2 Bays

Pg Dip Studio 6 and DJ booth – 1 Bay

Pg Dip Studio 7 – 1 Bay

Pg Dip Studio 8 – 2 Bays

The spaces benefited from the light of the setting sun, studio 8 in particular had an aura of energy around it due to an additional set of large windows to the end of the room. The views across London were a good backdrop to this fun evening.  The beer was flowing and everyone seemed in an upbeat mood - just what was needed for the end of another challenging educational year.

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The US Climate Bill; A good opportunity to the development of energy efficient buildings and building technologies

With the past few weeks’ big news events from the Iran politics, UK MP’s claims , Michael Jackson passing and the final of the Confederations Cup, something just equally big happened in the US Congress that rather received small news coverage but could potential have a huge impact on the world’s green energy agenda.

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The Unsustainable urban growth of Gaborone City, Botswana

Gaborone is a very young city, dating back as early as early as 1966 when it was first developed as a Capital city for the newly independent Botswana from the British Protectorate. Before this the administrative centre for the colony had been based from Mafikeng which is now part of South Africa.

The centre of the city was constructed in three years, including Assembly buildings, government offices, a power station, a hospital, schools, a radio station, a telephone exchange, police stations, a post office, and more than 1,000 houses. The basic infrastructure was in place for Independence Day on 30 September 1966.

The city is locked on all sides by different land usage (illustrated on the below zones) which renders it very difficult for further outward growth. Read more

Westminster University – Summer Exhibition 2009 Review – 19.06.09

My second summer exhibition visit was to Westminster University. Situated on a busy leafy street the building is simple and white, I like it. The studios have an impressive mezzanine gallery arrangement that I can imagine helps build a great community and working atmosphere. But something is different than the MET building I visited the night before. There is a distinct lack of mess! I don’t mean the walls, which I presume were recently painted white. The building, the floors, the spaces seem cleaner, crisper, fresher. This can be a good thing, but I feel for Westminster it is a bad thing. Most of the Design Studios (DS) that I look at feel final and complete. Models are mostly laser cut, nearly every drawing is done using a computer and there is a distinct lack of hand drawn sketches, development of projects or hand built models. Even simple models are precision engineered using a laser cutter; this doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but because nearly every image/drawing/model is computer generated the whole aura is of a detachment from people.

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London Metropolitan University – Summer Exhibition 2009 Review – 18.06.09

And so it is that I find myself sitting at my new desk looking out onto a small sunny “village green” in a central London location. I have recently moved from the north facing side of the house to the south facing side: the sunshine in the morning is a great aid to waking up early!

It is the morning after the Department of Architecture and Spatial Design Summer Exhibition 2009 and my head is still reeling from the shear amount of information that I tried to absorb the night before.

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Lord Rogers Accuses Prince of Wales of Meddling in Architecture Affairs

Chelsea Barracks by Lord Rogers

In what is not really new between Prince of Wales and the Architecture profession, the fight for style control by the Royal Prince is now truly taking shape as Lord Rogers accuses him of sabotaging his designs for the Chelsea Barracks scheme. Read more

Free Range 2009 Graduate Art and Design Shows

Week 3: Photography

http://www.free-range.org.uk/cgi-bin/index.pl?yearID=14
http://www.trumanbrewery.com/

The 9TH annual Free Range graduate art and design show is in full swing at the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London. The freshest new talent is rubbing shoulders with the east end crowd in search of their big break. It is a free event and I took full advantage by venturing down on Saturday afternoon.

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Botswana and Southern Africa Architecture Blog (A short Introduction)

By Killion Mokwete

Date:  June 2009-06-15

I would like to welcome our readers to what will be a new dimension to Boidus blogs section focusing on topics and issues emanating from the built environment, Art and Design topics from Botswana and the surrounding regions.

The Three Kings who came to Britain

I have recently relocated from London back to my homeland, Botswana and therefore naturally a new extension to the Boidus Concept has emerged to give us a broader scope of focus at international level. Read more

A Day in the life of Article 25

“The very nature of the art of architecture is to serve humanity”

ALVAR AALTO

 My Crossroads in Architecture

Above: The panel of Sean Griffiths (FAT), Charles Jencks, Winny Maas (MVRDV), Fabien Hecker (Zaha Hadid) and Cameron Sinclair (Architecture for Humanity) at the Barbican Debate. Ethics in Architecture. Image from AJ. 2009

I am at the Article 25 day because like many in my profession I have begun to reconsider what on earth I am doing. The credit crunch has served as a reminder that we are all expendable. In recent months pay cuts, the threat of redundancy and a lack of opportunity to pursue the position I want has led me to wonder what is important. Do I want to facilitate planning applications for faceless corporate sharks or do I want to go back to the source of why we design in the first place- for people.

Above: The relief effort following the Pakistan Earthquake.

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Community Action Planning

Introduction

The articles posted since the Article 25 seminar day have all dealt with the community at grassroots level to establish a brief. The aim of rooting a project in this way will result in a more appropriate result whether that is a building or a whole masterplan. But beyond the bricks and mortars, community engagement can lead to an empowerment that imposed solutions can never hope to deliver. Confidence is built up and results are generally more successful and sustainable. The later point benefits from the fact that if the community engage with the process they will be more likely to care for their environment. In this article we will look at what methods there are to aid in the establishment of the brief through community action planning.

Stephanie Johnson outlined her personal experiences of community action planning and illustrated the many tools at Article 25s disposal. In this environment the Architect becomes the facilitator in a participatory process. There is no hierarchy and it is entirely democratic. Women and children have as much of a voice as men and it is down to the Architect to find the best way to extract this information.

This is of course a very challenging situation compared to your average means of establishing a brief. The Architect is removed from a computer screen at a desk and is forced to conduct research across sometimes entirely alien cultural lines. The biggest challenge is learning to ask the right questions for that cultural situation. For example women may not answer questions in front of men, or there maybe are particular cultural taboos to be observed.

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