6 – Articles from our student writers
Diary entries – July 2008
Aram Mooradian - Part 1 Architectural Association 2008, year-out at Herzog de Meuron
Leaving school for a year out in Switzerland
Alas, the year has drawn to a close. I look at the fifth years and think to myself how sad it is to see so many leave the school to embark on the real world. And then it occurs to me that I'm about to leave the school to go to a far-away land where people have salaries and nine-to-five hour days. Goodbye to the pressure of supporting my own career, hello to blindly cutting blue-foam for someone else's. I have to remind myself that school is a playground; it is my opportunity to produce work that embraces my own ambitions with wild abandon. Why get stressed about working for my tutors when this is really 'me' time? The rest of my career will be dealing with less effusive proposals, marred by the banal tedium of day-to-day obstacles. If only I could stay in school for the next 30 years, producing idealistic and naive visions of the future that exist so solidly in my mind. It is around schools that dreaming takes place. The real world is merely a compromise that has to be met between our childish visions and the stagnant narrow-mindedness of non-architects, who just ... don't ... get us. But as the Pompidou is a dumbed-down interpretation of Archigram's Instant or Plug-In cities, the school-based manifestations of child-like idealism do have an impact on the built world we come to inhabit. As much as I look forward to my year out at Herzog & de Meuron, I am beginning to appreciate how valuable these playground years are.
Art on Show: Psycho Buildings
One of the exhibitions on this month is Psycho Buildings: Artists' Take on Architecture, at the Hayward Gallery, in London.
Psycho Buildings was on my art hit list because of the prospect of an exhibition involving architecture. It has to be said, however, that I was mildly underwhelmed. The word 'Psycho' seems to have been improperly chosen, in my opinion, as there was nothing psychotic about the contents. Rather they oozed melancholy for a state of culture where we, as a society, seem increasingly detached from place, cultural sets and belief systems. The sense of place is literally blown apart in one room, where an IKEA filled, chipboard and PVC filled, 'typical' house is exploded and suspended in time/space by thin strands of fishing line.
I also got the impression that the Hayward Gallery was a little desperate to get bums in seats by choosing interactive pieces that engage the viewers like a playground. But I can't help feeling patronised when told to play in a toy boat. The use of installations such as Gelatin's Normally, Proceeding and Unrestricted With Without Title, 2008 (the boating lake poured into one of the balconies on the roof), installed with good, and altogether playful, intentions backfired on the Hayward's attempt to engage an increasingly apathetic public when hour-long queues to take part in the four-minute long experience stretched through the other exhibition spaces.
The most affected happened to be my favourite piece, Do Ho Suh's Staircase – V, a red gauze replica of a staircase suspended delicately from the ceiling, which was unfortunately polluted by the sound of desperately tired and distressed children.
After my hour long wait for the boat ride, I was panicking at the thought that I might be wasting precious art minutes because of my complete inability to row - flailing my oars vigorously, but to no avail, I eventually drifted to the view-less edge, peering through the grey tower blocks at the small window of river in the distance. I watched as the water soaked into my shoes and through my socks. It seemed that the view was impressive enough, however, to momentarily distract the attention of the teenager in the opposite boat who had until now had his face glued to his mobile phone.
After waiting in line for the Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome (with a trampoline inside) I was insulted to find that I had to draw a red ping-pong ball from a bag full of white ping-pong balls in order to take part – I lost, and thus my grumpiness ... the temptation set in to stomp my feet, clench my fists in consternation and throw a tantrum like one of the leashless children in line for the boat ride, who ruined my experience of Staircase - V.
Victoria Simpson - Part 1 University of Edinburgh 2008
I graduated this week. The ceremony over and the champagne reception drunk dry, myself and twenty-odd other excitable architects went out on the town to celebrate. At about 3am, after we'd been ejected from the club, it was decided it would be a good idea to climb atop a building to watch the sun rise and continue the party. In hindsight, perhaps not the most sensible of ideas – half of the group were in heels – but once safely on the roof the view was incredible.
Last summer, the Fruitmarket gallery in Edinburgh displayed the works of Alex Hartley, who invented the concept of 'buildering' – that is, climbing buildings in the way one might a mountain. Though the collection of photographic stills, Hartley presented a series of possibilities for impossible acts of climbing over the surface of structures, both a striving and an aesthetic experience which deprives the structures of whatever practical use their architects may have intended. The views presented showed the architecture scaled as very different to the traditional depiction in photographs or, indeed, usual physical experience of structure. Instead, architecture is presented as a platform for a new way of experiencing the environment, outside of the constraints of public/private space.
I will not recommend that anyone sets about scaling the Swiss Re. or Urbis, not least because it's very dangerous and, I'm pretty sure, illegal. However, from my brief experience on a roof at dawn, I got a sense of what Hartley strives to experience. Whilst I'm not sure I'll be doing it again anytime soon, the chance to see the city from a whole new angle will be one of the lasting memories of the day. That, and the trauma of climbing back down again.
Festival Fever
The news that my fellow RIBAStudent writer Zoë Berman would be off to the London Festival of Architecture this month led me to think about the different ways in which new architecture is perceived, received and celebrated across our country. I've never been to the London Festival of Architecture, though a sneaky look at the event's website| which gives some idea as to the scope of projects, technologies and trends which it encompasses. There is certainly nothing similar of its scale in Edinburgh and though it is undoubtedly a much smaller city, there has been much in the way of architectural development here and throughout the rest of Scotland in recent years.
I've gone back to work in my local pub, a spit-and-sawdust establishment in the centre of town where a vast majority of the regulars are joiners, builders and scaffolders. My chosen profession raises more than a few eyebrows whenever mentioned: upon the news that I've passed a degree in architecture, it is not usually long before some disgruntled punter mentions the 'Scottish Parliament building' and 'eyesore' in the same sentence. There was uproar in the bar when the local newspaper reported last year plans to build a high-rise tower in Leith, 'blocking' the views out to the Firth of Forth. Outside of work, the chatty cabbies of Edinburgh are quite happy to point out the blots on our otherwise historic landscape. Even Foster + Partners' new Quartermile development (which, personally, I think is fantastic) has not escaped criticism.
This is not to say that Edinburgh wholly rejects new building – there are three schools of architecture in the city, a brilliant series of 'Doors Open' days and a thriving architectural industry. Instead, there is perhaps a lack of public celebration of new and progressive development, such as the London Festival of Architecture, which could invite the residents to understand and participate in the way in which the city is shaped. Edinburgh is a World Heritage City and a hotspot for tourists keen to experience the history and traditions of Scotland. However, it is also the venue for the world's largest arts festival and the setting for some of the most incredible and madcap sights a city can offer. This juxtaposition, between the historic and the most contemporary, is in contrast to the often hostile reaction to new, progressive urban development – perhaps as the latter is not a temporary phenomenon.
Last year a 150-foot high purple cow was erected in the centre of town, a venue for the Fringe Festival. Every August, Edinburgh plays host no less that seven festivals of art, music, dance, drama, film, literature and theatre. The architecture of the city is the backdrop to the Edinburgh Festivals; buildings are decorated and lit with coloured lights, enormous tents (and cows) appear overnight and the face of the city is, for a month, a colourful palette of architectural experiment. It is an exciting, jubilant and busy month, which invites tourists and residents alike to partake in the carnival atmosphere. Edinburgh has an international reputation for the arts; perhaps a celebration of the architecture which plays host to these festivals, both past and future, could inspire the same excitement in the development of the city as the anticipation of the Festival itself.
Zoe Berman - Part 1 University of Sheffield 2007, year-out at Buro Happold
A House for An Architect
The opening of the exhibition 'Richard Rogers + Architects – From the House to the City' on 24 April (ends 25 August) set the tone for what is going to be an exciting programme of summer events. The exhibition was initially displayed in the Pompidou Centre and it must have been a challenge for the exhibition designer (Richard's son Ab Rogers) to squeeze down the display into the more compact gallery at London's Design Museum, considering the incredible proliferation of work Rogers has produced and how much work there is to be displayed.
After graduating from the Architectural Association in 1959 Rogers completed his education taking a postgraduate planning course at Yale, and it was there that he met fellow British student Norman Foster. In 1963 they, along with their then respect first wives Wendy Foster and Su Brumell established Team 4. It is perhaps their last collaborative project, the Reliance Controls building in Swindon, that saw them together exploring the application of lightweight, exposed steel structure which has been redolent in Rogers work ever since.
The exhibition is defined by beautiful, sometimes intricate sometimes clunky Marcarno models which act as a fantastic opportunity to see Rogers concern with form, materiality and the experience of a buildings user. From the Pompidou of 1971-7, to Bordeux Law Courts (1992-8), the National Assembly for Wales (1999-2005) and the Terminal at Madrid Airport (1997-2005), Rogers work has an incredible impact on those who visit these places, and his clarity of vision is no doubt what has made him one of today's best know and most successful of architects. Looking to the future he states his ideals on sustainability as a need to utilise derelict land and empty buildings, increase density, value public transport and create diversity and re-use of land. It is a shame that he is yet to have the opportunity and right client to truly expand on these ideals in built projects within the UK.
It was in contrast to this, a well oiled machine of international architectural practice, that I watched Oliver Hodge's film Garbage Warrior which follows the story of Michael Reynolds, a New Mexico based architect who seeks to produce environmentally conscientious energy-independent houses using the detritus of a consumer society: beer cans, car tyres, plastic bottles and unwanted materials.
As chairman of the government's Urban Task Force and Millennium Communities Competitors Advisory Panel, having been awarded umpteen honorary doctorates and a Knighthood in 1991, Rogers is not shy of courting the establishment. On the other side of the pond, the slightly renegade and ruggedly dishevelled Reynolds has for many years been wrestling with local authorities hoping that they will recognise the value of his self-sufficient off-grid communities and change the rigid legislation that saw Reynolds's "earthships" marginalised as hippy experiments in breach of the Santa Fe state standards. When initial attempts to get local authority onside failed, Reynolds found himself being invited to advice on rebuilding methods for communities struggling after the 2004 tsunami. This is where his self-build methods of creating dwellings using water bottles, tyres and earth was wholly embraced.
Reynolds is a beguilingly charismatic character, passionate in his goals. What could potentially have been a wistful lament of a film is in fact inspiring and filled with hope.
And it was with the environmentally progressive work of Reynolds sharp in my memory that I attended the opening night of Beginnings – Project from the RIBA/ICE McAslan Bursary held in the Dream Dreamspace Gallery.
The bursary was established in 2004 with the RIBA (with the Institution of Civil Engineers joining in 2005) to promote "social and community improvements in the UK, and overseas, through collaborative projects developed by architectural and engineering students, and recent graduates." The selected projects have at their core a concern for "human need, and the alleviation of human suffering."
There was a touching, almost wistful poeticisms to Adam Khans's physical model of Big Barn, a proposal for the New Horizon Youth centre that responded to the needs of homeless and vulnerable youngsters. Meanwhile a time lapsed film showed the construction process of Julia King and Asif Khan's prototype for housing on the Thai-Burma boarder. The project sought to improve the shelter of the population of Mae La refugee camp where 50,000 people are housed in 10,000 homes that are forcibly reliant on "NGO handouts, with building materials handed out like food rations." Whilst studying for their Diploma at the Architectural Association, the pair travelled to Northern Thailand where they worked with local carpenters to design a 1:1 prototype house that was built in one week. Pivotal to the project was the development of a flexible structural jointing system and articulated roof edge, models of which were on display.
"Article 25: Vernacular Values" was another bursary-winning project, carried out by Nikki Linsell and others in Transylvania, Romania. It was a valuable reminder that explorations into the progression of socially conscientious architecture is not confined to physical building projects but is equally shaped by extensive studies and research. In this case, the team had set out to document the "Saxon vernacular architecture of the region… (and employed) appropriate community participation methods to encourage local communities in preservation of the character of their village – to empower the community to continue to sustain its ethnic identity in architectural form".
The Oxford Conference 2008: 50 Years On – resetting the Agenda for Architectural Education (22-23 July, student tickets £118) will see hundreds of delegates descending on Oxford to hear eminent speakers discussing the future of architectural education. One of the key issues being explored will be how students of architecture are educated in terms of environmental and social sustainability. The RIBA/ICE McAslan Bursary is an exemplary case of both governing body and architectural practice supporting and encouraging student work that, though small in scale, is ambitious in scope. Whilst 'green architecture' has become a fashionable badge that at times risks being more fashion than factual, issues of socially sustainable are too often marginalized to the periphery of the industry. I hope that the Oxford Conference will address this challenge bringing the issues of social sustainability and its place in architectural education to the fore.
The opening day of the London festival of Architecture on 21 June saw me and a fellow Part-1 setting off with 47 architects and designers on a cycle tour of architects and artists house, guided by the design commentator and founder of The Design Museum, Stephen Bayley. And so a breathless month of architecture events came full circle and whilst standing in front of Walter Gropius and Erich Mendelsohn's respective houses on Old Church Street I found myself thinking back to the Rogers exhibition and wondering how, after all his international success, he might approach the design of a single dwelling today. As the LFA rolls on, with the multinational giants rubbing shoulders with young practises and student work alike, how do we go about sharing knowledge and ideas, regardless of a scale or acclaim? Rogers started off with Team 4's Creek Vean house in Cornwall, Reynolds wanted to build a self-sufficient house for his family and the Beginnings exhibition saw students pursuing a set of ideals through the singularity of 'house'. Perhaps at times forward thinking just needs to start closer to home.
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