opening night

The UEL architecture show opened on Wednesday night.  Congratulations to the students for pulling it together: it looks great.

our MAASD / production of place installation in 'the box'

Consultation and engagement in HMP Everthorpe

I've been working as part of the RSA Transitions team at HMP Everthorpe in East Riding.  The objective of the project is simple: to reduce re-offending in those leaving prison, but of course its a complex area that is stubbornly resistant to policy initiatives.  The recent Government proposal in this area is the reconfiguring and privatisation of probation services.  Some of the changes make a lot of sense but the subtitle (a revolution in the way we manage offenders) hints at other problems.  The paper acknowledges some of the potential pitfalls of wholesale privatisation and payment by results and proposes ways to deal with them, but changing both what is delivered and how it is delivered throws all the balls up in the air, so I don't believe anyone really knows how they will land.  Its a new context for us to engage with, though and provides a potential for social enterprises to deliver these services, as well as commercial contractors.

Last week we tested out my 'consultation toolkit' which some of the prisoners helped to build in the prison workshops.  It takes the form of a game, using a lightbox and various models to explore different concepts for how Transitions will work on the site.  It seems to work well and next week we'll be consulting in the prison with prisoners and prison staff, then out in the community and with local businesses and public sector organisations.  

shaping up for the show

Its always mixed emotions this time of year, with all the formal work out of the way and the show to look forward to.  Particularly so this year, without Mark Hayduk who died in 2012.  Seeing the work from Mark's unit at the end of the year used to be the highlight so it is difficult to move on.

There has been some outstanding work this year though and there's the usual last-minute panic to put the show together - its always amazing that it does come together in the end.  Opening night Wednesday 19th from 6pm.

Open debate at UEL

UEL Monday June 24^th. London Festival Of Architecture

Room WB. WB.G.02

5.00  (MA/MSc Presentations.  MA/MSc Tutors will give a short

presentation of their course for 2013-2014.  All those interested in joining an MA/MSc programme should attend.)

6.00   Doors open/Bar/Networking

6.30   Tony Fretton

7.00   Maria Segantini

7.30   Liza Fior

8.00   Panel discussion led by Oliver Wainwright, audience question and answer session/debate.

8.30   Close

Chair Oliver Wainright

with Tony Fretton, Maria Segantini, Liza Fior and audience

“This house believes the needs of public space should lead urban interventions”.

Historically the architects design role springs from the clients Statement of Need/Brief.  This may or may not engage with public space/contextual issues.  The relation between building and context both interior and exterior is however at the very core of architecture. On the other hand, many very successful historic contexts have been created without the intervention of architects.  Furthermore architectural intervention in the past has not always been successful.  Are architects the best people to work with public space?  Should the interventions of architects lead public space design or should the needs of public space lead architects, their clients and the design of buildings?

On drugs and prison in the US, from the writer of The Wire

David Simon in yesterday's Observer.

On a less serious note, The Wire put me off TV for a long time, because nothing else ever came close.  Breaking Bad finally got me over it. 

A manifesto for professionalism in architecture

A little knowledge is dangerous as the saying goes, but in the profession of architecture, the practitioner’s brain is now creaking under the steadily increasing weight of knowledge required to meet legislation, best practice, financial and social expectations. This excess of knowledge is equally dangerous for architecture as ‘compliance’ seems to be the sole agenda of our age and buildings must ‘perform’ and act as ‘commodities’ almost to the exclusion of all other concerns.

As ever more of the Architect’s functions are handed over to project managers, health and safety coordinators and even builders, many lament the loss of influence of a once-great profession. Others, however see a new landscape rich with opportunity for architecture to re-invent itself and recapture the high ground as one of the very few surviving, truly creative professions. Such architects recognise that this cannot be achieved by turning their back on this new reality, but by engaging with it; taking it into their design processes and often subverting it. Architecture is also a uniquely optimistic activity and the subversion of pragmatic concerns frequently gives rise to surprising and inventive ideas and a deeper understanding of the objectives of creating architecture in the first place.

At UEL, we subscribe to this optimistic agenda, through the concept of integration. Professional studies is viewed as a body of knowledge that should be considered and integrated in the design process, helping to drive a project forward. Through this process, the knowledge can be re-interpreted and transformed, developing a confident but healthily sceptical attitude in the architecture students. This attitude can subvert constraints into opportunities and find pleasure in exploring and testing the boundaries of rules and requirements. We call this Professionalism.

Roland Karthaus, Professional Studies coordinator @ UEL

Architecture show