Beyond Big Capital: From Gentrification to Sterilization

In the latest of our keynote invited talks we are joined by Dr Anna Minton. Anna is a renowned author, journalist and commentator. Her books are must reading for anyone working critically on the built environment in the UK and indeed further afield.. Her first book - Ground Control - is a study of the privatisation of the public realm in London. Her second - Big Capital - is a searing study of the housing crisis in London, and of the failures than happen when the market is overly relied on as a solution. Her latest - Regeneration Songs - is an in depth study of hidden assets of the regeneration of East London. Each is a part of a broader thesis, a deep concern with the democratic structures of our cities, and a focus on the lived experiences of individual citizens.

In this talk she takes us behind the forces chasing our city. All are welcome to join what will prove to be a fascinating and thought provoking evening.

About Dr Anna Minton

Anna is a writer and journalist and Reader in Architecture at the University of East London (UEL). She spent a decade in journalism, which included work covering the Northern Ireland peace process during the 1990s. But she grew frustrated with with work both as a result of partisan editorial lines and because of the intense pressure on time and resources which undermined proper investigations.

As a result of this she began to write more in depth reports for think tanks and policy organisations, a series of which formed the basis for her first book - Ground Control, which was published in 2009.

Between 2011-2014 she was the Royal Commission’s Fellow in the Built Environment and in 2013 she joined the University of East London (UEL) as Reader in Architecture, where she is Programme Leader of the MRes programme, ‘Reading the Neoliberal City’. Her book on the housing crisis, Big Capital: Who is London for?, was published by Penguin in 2017.

She is a regular contributor to The Guardian, and a frequent broadcaster and conference speaker. She is a member of the editorial collective of the journal CITY and I am Chair of Trustees of Lambeth & Southwark MIND.

Full information about Anna, including where to buy her books can be found here https://www.annaminton.com

In our latest invited Keynote lectures we are joined by the architect and educator Jo Taillieu. Jo’s work is rooted in a playful, rigorous and generous thought about how things are made, and the possibilities that arise when ordinary things might be reconsidered with fresh sight.

He is Professor of architecture at EPFL (CH), and director and manager of his own office, which he founded his  in 2004, which he has been leading since. The practice evolved in 2009 to a collaboration with Jan De Vylder and Inge Vinck, with whom he lead the office architecten de vylder vinck taillieu (advvt) for a decade. In 2018 advvt won the Silver Lion for Promising Young Participant at the 16th Biennale of Venice and was one of the five finalists for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2019. From this point Jo reverted to his sole practice. This lecture will be his first in the UK about the work he has done since then.

https://jotaillieu.com

Raül Avilla-Royo, RCA London and Arquitectos de Cabecera Barcelona: Community Architecture. New Protocols and Disciplinary Shifts in Barcelona

Maria Minić, KSA: The glocal transition of housing from ‘home’ to ‘commodity’ and Belgrade’s emerging resistance

Rohan Shivkumar, KRVIA Mumbai: Lovely Villa - Architecture as Autobiography

Julien Clin, KSA: Visions of Home. Poetics of Heimat in the Cosmopolitan City

Lahbib El Moumni, ETH Zürich

Re-Writing History

Sharing Silent Archives

Marco Veneri, Kingston School of Art

Curating Urban Futures

Urban Farming and Meanwhile Tactics in the Context of Urban Regeneration Strategies

Lahbib El Moumni graduated in 2014 from Ecole d’Architecture Casablanca (EAC); he then worked at OMA-Rem Koolhaas before getting back to his hometown to open his practice and teach at EAC. His interest in Modern Moroccan architecture started when he co-founded MAMMA (Mémoire des Architectes Moderns Marocains) in 2016, an association that highlights the modern heritage of Morocco between 1950 and 1980. He joined the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zürich in 2022 to start his research project on the postcolonial urban design of Africa between 1956 and 1975.

Lahbib’s doctoral research project “Building the Afropolis: Urban design as worldmaking in postcolonial Morocco and Senegal” focuses on trajectories of urban design in both countries. African independent nations delved into a revolutionary project of nation-building that can only be possible through worldmaking. In this context, this research project explores how independent Morocco and Senegal used urban design in their worldmaking project by tackling, on the one hand, pressing issues such as the need for infrastructure, facilities, and housing and, on the other hand, by educating local expertise in different fields.

Marco Veneri obtained his postgraduate master's degree from the Housing and Urbanism programme at the Architectural Association (2018) and has worked in Rome and London after his degree in building engineering and architecture at Rome's University of Tor Vergata (2015). In London he worked at S333 Architecture and Urbanism and as a site-based architect and design coordinator. Marco has been teaching communication and experimentation in landscape design at Greenwich University and at the Architectural Association. He is the co-founder of OFF-POF where his research and practice focus on urban transformations through participatory action, curatorial projects and inclusive & ecological approaches to urban and landscape design, and planning.

Marco’s doctoral project uses scenario planning and participatory action research methodologies to examine the challenges and opportunities of ‘meanwhile scenarios' in urban redevelopment projects. Drawing on London based case studies and participatory research in Madrid Nuevo Norte (MNN), supported by the CDA partner Distrito Castellana Norte (DCN), he investigates urban farming as a participatory research methodology and means of exploring four main themes: (1) Time as a strategic dimension in designing public spaces, (2) Combining temporary interventions and tactical urbanism with long-term strategic approaches, (3) The interplay of societal actors over extended intervals of "meanwhile" scenarios, (4) Stimulating social engagement and sustainable culture of participation.

Manoj Parmar and Binti SIngh

Urban Stories of India

Manoj Parmar is the Director of Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) in Mumbai. He has been in practice in architecture and urban design since 1992, working on numerous private and public housing/institutional commissions across India as well as in Dubai, Malaysia, and Singapore. He has been actively involved in redevelopment projects across the city of Mumbai and contributed to development guidelines for slum redevelopment in its northern suburbs. His work was discussed at UDRI and CEPT Ahmedabad and he has lectured internationally, including at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Cambridge University. His recent publications include “Smart City in India: Laboratory, Paradigm or Trajectory?” (co-authored with Binti Singh, 2019) and “Resilience and Southern Urbanism Towards a New Paradigm” (co-edited with Binti Singh, 2022).

Binti Singh is an urban sociologist and holds a Ph.D. (in urban studies) and an M.Phil. (in Planning and Development) from IIT Bombay. She is currently Dean (Research and Academic Development) at KRVIA. She is engaged in diverse international research programs and supervises PhD researchers in international universities including University of Virginia, US and United Nations University, Japan. As Associate Editor with Oxford Urbanists she has published “New Frontiers of Urban Theory - A global South Perspective”. Her books include “Culture, Place, Branding and Activism”, an ethnographic study on Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, and “How Will India Fix Her Urban Future?”. Her articles regularly appear in Indian and international journals, including Domus India and BW Smart Cities.

Register hosts a launch event for Casabella’s latest special edition on London.

This special edition has been edited by Ellis Woodman and William Mann, and features working by numerous ‘Register’ members including Simon Henley, Takeshi Hyatsu, Adam Khan and more.

As this special event to mark the launch of the magazine we will host a panel discussion on Londons architectural culture, and the outer suburbs as a place of increasing architectural innovation - particularly as regards community engagement and the making of public spaces.

Join us as Register hosts a live recording of The Londown podcast from Open City, with architecture historian Tom Wilkinson, architect Laura Evans and architect and educator Siraaj Mitha.

Join the studio audience for a special recording of the award-winning Londown podcast at the Stirling Prize winning Town House in Kingston.

Siraaj Mitha and special guests Tom Wilkinson and Laura Evans will review the week’s biggest London architecture news.

Hear fresh takes on the latest controversies and contribute to the recording itself as live studio audience in this pioneering new format.

Event starts 6pm Wednesday 6th April in the Studio Theatre in the Town House, Penrhyn road, £8

The Londown is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal and won Best Podcast at 2021 Archiboo Awards.

Join us for the 65th Invited Register lecture 15th March 18:30 in the atrium, 4th floor, live streamed from Miami, by Carie Penabad of practice Cúre & Penabad. (link to teams below)

CÚRE & PENABAD

Founding principals Adib Cúre and Carie Penabad have insisted on the importance
of architecture and the design of the city as a singular investigation where inquiry
and realization, poetry and practicality, history and invention are inextricably
linked. The work of the firm brings together the experience and cultures of three
different countries: Colombia, where Cúre was born; Cuba where Penabad’s
ancestors are from; and the United States, where the couple studied at the
University of Miami and Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The Miami-based firm of CÚRE & PENABAD Architecture and Urban Design has
received numerous awards including nearly 20 American Institute of Architects
awards, state and local preservation awards, a Silver Medal prize at the Miami
Biennale, and most recently the firm received the prestigious Emerging Voices
award from the Architectural League of New York, a competition that recognizes
individuals with a distinct design voice and a significant body of realized work.

Parallel to their design practice, Cúre and Penabad have engaged in teaching,
writing and research. They are currently Professors at the University of Miami
School of Architecture and have taught at Northeastern University, Boston
Architectural Center, and most recently Yale University as the Louis I. Kahn Visiting
Assistant Professors of Architectural Design. Their publications include Marion
Manley: Miami’s First Women Architect (University of Georgia Press, 2010); Call to
Order: Sustaining Simplicity in Architecture (ORO Publishers, 2018) and the
forthcoming book: Made in Miami/Hecho en Miami (ACTAR Publishers, 2022).

https://www.cureandpenabad.com

Join Aslihan who shares PhD research in progress. Room KPTK101 and online (Teams)

Respondents: (tbc)

Between Heritage and Development: The Case of Belper

This practice-based research seeks to generate a research-led design approach for a post-industrial UNESCO World Heritage Site that supports continuity and consistency in the historic built environment through innovative critical design practice. The focus is the town of Belper in the Derwent Valley, developed by mill owners from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century.

An example of the pioneering period of the Industrial Revolution, Belper's identity is defined by its overall form and its relationship to the industrial landscape. It is essential that these relationships are definite and recognisable. However, the town is currently under pressure from diverse and conflicting socio-economic forces due to the post-industrial decline of the cotton manufacturing industry.

This research project aims to generate a coherent design model for Belper that fits into the town's historical context, drawing from theoretical investigations of alternative urbanism and heritage studies, alongside extensive first-hand investigations of Belper's architectural heritage and urban fabric. It suggests a new design thinking developed with a holistic approach, which considers the site and its history together with lived experience. Knitting together the new and the existing, the research-led design proposal promotes appropriate and viable mixed-use development that repairs and upgrades Belper's existing urban grain while recognising the evolving nature of its historic character.

Join Delia in sharing PhD research in progress - online (Teams)

Respondents: (tbc)

Mapping of Ecosystem Benefits

Urban ecosystems are still an open frontier in ecosystem services research. Urban ES are often compromised in urban designs resulting in diminished air, water, and soil quality as well as intensified vulnerability to flooding and heatwaves, because there is still a gap in ES assessment methods for landscape architecture. Thus, a method for mapping ecosystems services and functions for design, complying with the demand for a more comprehensive qualitative background data for urban planning measures, was needed. Key ideas from landscape ecology that are relevant to green urban infrastructure for sustainable cities include: a multi-scale approach with an explicit recognition of ES relationships and an emphasis on physical and functional diversity. With an understanding of ecological processes, the ES dynamic and the importance of functionality is the point of integration. Connectivity is an emergent property of landscapes that results from the interaction of landscape structure and function, which is beneficial to people and environment by combining socio-economic, development with eco-environmental conservation. To ensure that the mapping method was applicable on a regional scale, and yet still included detail, the assessment of ES was combined with GI typologies. It aims to open up a new line of thinking for new ecosystem services mapping development in landscape architecture.

Join Pietro in sharing PhD research in progress - online (Teams)

Respondents: Alexandra Crivat and (tbc)

Tracing the Boundaries of Governmental Decision: Computational Techniques of Classification and the Global Human Settlement Layer

My research interrogates how the relationship between technologies of visibility, rationalities and practices of planning and governance, has been impacted by the advent of the digital. How did the proliferation of digital technologies of inscription and computation transform the way the world is seen and acted upon?

To answer to this question, I investigate visual/pragmatic procedures of construction of discrete boundaries in digital information. More specifically, I focus on computational techniques of classification, and how they spatially organise decisional boundaries.

In my presentation, I will show how computational methods of classification can travel across scales, and be indiscriminately applied on populations, geographical information, and remotely sensed imagery. To do so, I will focus on the experience of the Global Human Settlement Layer: a technology developed at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, to classify, automatically detect and map human presence on earth over time. By unpacking the classificational tools employed in the GHSL, I will show how they inform the setting and execution of governmental decisions, while their parameters bear the imprint of the political and pragmatic contexts in which they were devised.

Join Julian Clin who shares PhD research in progress. Room KPTK101 and online (Teams)

Respondents: Ralitsa Genkova and Kenza El Boudour El Idrissi

Image credits: Rut Blees Luxemburg, “Meet Me in Arcadia” from: A Modern Project, 1996.

The Edge(s) of Home – Architecture, Poetics & Belonging in the City

The notion of home is a complex one; even more so in a dynamic, constantly changing, gentrifying city. In a famous essay, Doreen Massey equates home to “the product of the ever-changing geography of social relations.” Adding to that a loaded question mark in the essay’s title — “A Place Called Home?” (1992) — Massey challenges the very concept of place (and space) that is at the heart of home.

The main point of contention lies in boundaries, which are seen as inherently reactionary and exclusive. But do the built environment and architectural space really not factor into a sense of home? Is home not a defined, that is ‘bounded’, place? (De + finire, Latin: to draw boundaries.) Is there really no place called home in the city?

Building on the German idea of ‘Heimat,’ on Heidegger's “gathering fourfold,” and on contemporary London writing, in this talk I will seek to draw the edge(s) of home—that is, return boundaries to the concept—and begin to explore the role of architecture (and its poetic representation) in matters of belonging.

Join us for the first of our new biannual series of seminars about research by practice in architecture. 

The day will involve two distinguished guests joining researchers from our school and beyond engaging in a series of conversations about the nature of practice research in architecture and its potential. 

Prof Tom Holbrook is a director of 5th studio, and has a PhD by practice in RMIT where he is now a Professor. His research concerned territories of practice - in particular on the role of the architect as a generalist with a particular ability to bring spatial intelligence to bear on the significant issues of planning, settlement, and identity. https://www.5thstudio.co.uk
Dr Alice Casey is a director of TAKA Architects and has a Phd by practice from RMIT. Her reseach concerns 'Tangible Thinking in architecture with a particular emphais on HOW we look; and, as a result, HOW we work, research, practice and design. Using her practice as a case study she examined the relationship of the drawing to the building and the photograph, and how that inflects their design process and how they practice through ‘learning by doing’ and ‘trial and error’ - identifying and situating knowledge and rigour in the process. http://taka.ie

Our draft timetable is as follows: 

09:30 - 10:30 Tom Holbrook and Alice Casey briefly present their research and engage in a chaired discussion about methodologies and the value of the research to their evolving practice. Will include extensive time for discussion and questions from the floor. 

10:30 - 10:45 Break

10:45 - 11:45 In Process review. PhD researcher Tom Coward (director of AoC architects) presents his evolving work as part of the PhD by pracice in Kingston. His research concerns the nature of conversation as method and metaphor for practice. Drawing on in depth analysis of his spatial history and close reading of his practice this presentation will summate key aspects of the research and allow time for their discussion. 

11:45 Break

12:00 - 13:00 - Candidate presentations. Presentations from two potential applicants to the PhD by practice programme. Each will present an aspect of their practice for 15 minutes which will be followed by a panel discussion. 

The seminar is by invitation only - if you are interested in attending please email Prof Andrew Clancy

Image by Tom Coward - Unit 9 casestudy

The celebrated Danish artist Per Kirkeby (1938-2018) built more structures in his lifetime than many architects. While best known for his paintings, Kirkeby embraced sculpture, film, poetry, art criticism, travel writing, ballet sets and theatrical costumes and film – he was a friend a collaborator of maverick filmmaker Lars von Trier – as well as architecture. Invariably built in brick, these “buildings without purpose” always did have a purpose, but not necessarily a prescribed function. Often elemental in form, and reflective of his lifelong passion for geology, they serve as reminders that buildings not only enclose space but just as importantly make the space around them.

In This lecture Prof Thomas Bo Jensen interrogates the role the buildings played in the artists practice, and the references that he drew from in making them. Thomas is head of Research at the Aarhus School of Architecture and has written a series of remarkable books which reframe and contextualise key figures within practice - Including Per Kirkeby and PV Jensen Klint

All welcome to join us for the next in our invited series of talks - when we are joined by Toshiko Mori.

Toshiko Mori, FAIA is the founding principal of Toshiko Mori Architect PLLC, and the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), where she served as chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. She was inducted to the Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of Design in 2020 and has been a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2016.

She participates in international symposia and conferences and has lectured at universities across the country and around the world. Her recent lectures include “Cocktails and Conversation” at the Center for Architecture in New York; “Transforming Communities through Architecture” at the Japan Society in New York; the Topaz Medallion keynote address at the 2019 AIA Conference on Architecture, “Blueprint for a Better Future” in Las Vegas; and the keynote speech at the 2019 AIA Women’s Leadership Summit. 

Her firm’s recent work includes master plans for the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch and the Buffalo Botanical Gardens; “Thread: Artists’ Residency and Cultural Center” in Sinthian, Senegal; “Fass School and Teachers’ Residence” in Fass, Senegal; and the expansion of the Brown University Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Their projects have won awards from Architizer, The Plan, and AIA, and have been internationally exhibited, including at the 2012, 2014 and 2018 Venice Architecture Biennales. TMA has been listed in Architectural Digest’s biennial AD100 in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, and in AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects. Recent publications include the Fass School and Teachers’ Residence in Architectural Record, the Mott Street Development in Architect’s Newspaper, and three features in Architectural Digest for the Fass School, Treeline a private art barn, and a beach house in Suffolk County, NY. 

Nikkei Business recently listed Mori as one of 50 Japanese Changing the World; Newsweek Japan listed her as one of 100 Japanese People the World Respects; and Forbes Japan featured her as one of 100 Self Made Women. Her work was featured in Monocle, in “Japan, Only the Best: The Nation Making a Difference in the World,” and was featured in Iconic Women of Design, a video series by the New York Times’ T Brand Studio. Her writing has appeared in A+U, The PLAN, and the World Economic Forum Agenda blog. In 2020, the firm published two new monographs, one for A+U magazine’s February 2020 issue, and another with ArchiTangle titled Toshiko Mori Architect: Observations. 

Mori’s recent awards and honors include the Louis Auchincloss Prize from the Museum of the City of New York in 2020; the ACSA Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society Gold Medal in 2016; Architectural Record’s Women in Design Leader Award in 2019; and the AIA / ASCA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education in 2019. Her project “Thread: Artists’ Residency and Cultural Center” was awarded the AIA 2017 Institute Honor Award for Architecture and was one of the winners of the inaugural FIBRA Award for Contemporary Plant Fiber-based Architecture in 2019. In May, her project “Fass School and Teachers’ Residence” was featured by The Guardian as one of the world’s top 10 new architecture projects. 

See projects at www.tmarch.com

Join is for the next in our series of informal talks. During this time when we cannot travel register itineraries invites members to take us to places they have studies and work via their photos and sketches made at the time.

This edition sees Laura Evans who in her own words “Uh, went to Cuba, drank A LOT of rum, had a few incredibly close brushes with death, somehow came out of it a better person? Then something about buildings maybe?”

Join is for the next in our series of informal talks. During this time when we cannot travel register itineraries invites members to take us to places they have studies and work via their photos and sketches made at the time.

This edition sees Bruno Silvestre taking us to Switzerland and Italy as he recalls both his first and last trips during his college education in Coimbra Portugal.