Architecture | Digital Arts & Visual Communication | Fashion Textiles | Fine Art | Visual Theories | Foundation
UEL’s Architecture programmes are ranked among the top in the UK and achieved an ‘excellent’ rating in the latest government teaching assessment – the highest level possible. Graduates have won numerous awards including RIBA Silver Medals, Europan Competitions and the Young Architect of the Year Award. Architecture is organised on the Atelier system to support a creative friction between theory and practice. Most of our teachers are active in practice as architects.
Architecture at UEL is part of the new School of Architecture and the Visual Arts (AVA)located in a new building on the Docklands Campus, designed by one of our staff. The building itself is industrial in nature to reflect for the School’s long standing tradition of experimental making as a learning strategy.
The UEL Architecture Programme is recognisable by its ‘hands-on’ approach to architecture, working with the physical exploration of materials and the processes of site and context. As a counterpart to our preoccupation with the physical, the school also has a number of dedicated Computer Studios which explore more theoretical and virtual models of architecture. The School attracts students from a vast range of countries and communities.
The programme provides a cultural platform on which to develop Architectural ideas. It is a place to reflect, a place that enables the architectural idea to become critical. Every member of the School community is expected to take responsibility for their own work and to contribute to the development of innovative architectural Ideas..
In addition to the Extended Degree and Diploma programmes accredited by the RIBA, Architecture at UEL offers an international Masters in Architecture programme, with the following specialist awards: MSc Computing & Design, MSc Material Matters, MA Sustainability & Design, MA Alternative Urbanisms, MA Interpretation & Theories, MA Landscape Architecture and supervises PhDs.
The Masters programme is designed as a forum for specialist research and debate within the field, directed to design professionals primarily within the built environment, either in public or private sector, or for those who wish to pursue a career in Higher Education Mationally or internationally. The Masters in Architecture programme is also validated to provide the first taught element of the Professional Doctorate in Architecture programme, one of the first of its kind in the UK.
Architecture is a social art. To be an architect is to be able to analyse people's needs and hopes and resolve them in space and form. Architects design buildings and also the space between the buildings. Architects work for the client who pays their fee but also for all the people who will use their buildings later. Architecture requires creativity and also judgement. Architectural education develops the talent of each individual student, encouraging you to use your imagination while working in a team with other people.
To become a qualified architect takes a minimum of seven years: 3 years for the BSc (and RIBA Part 1), 2 years for Diploma (and RIBA Part 2) and a further two years practical experience for RIBA Part 3
For further information about Architecture in AVA please visit www.avaarchitecture.org
The Masters in Architecture programmes are designed as a forum for specialist research and debate within the field, directed to design professionals. The programme structure allows for single and integrated programmes with the opportunity to explore the interfaces between and across the following programmes on offer.
Staff: Clara Kraft, Kristina Hertel, Heidi Svenningsen, Reem Charif, Greg Sheng, Timo Keller, Jack Piesse, Michele Roelofsma, Andrew Higgott, Alan Chandler, Janet Insull
un(Dress) ... for a meal
Monday, 24 September, 10.00am AVA Studio space downstairs: presentation of student work. The Common Project requires your attendance from 10.00am to 6.00pm every day till the event on 4th of October at 6.00pm.
The Year starts with a 2 week Common Project. Inspired by the students cultural backgrounds presented on Monday 24th September in the AVA studio space, groups will design and build a series of garments from found materials. These are then tested and transformed at the event which will take place on 4th October on the Docklands Campus. This project offers level one students the opportunity to meet teaching staff and each other.
A fashion show will transform into a meal event and will take place in the evening of 4th October next to the canal in front of the Library / Docklands Campus.
You are the designers as well as participants of this event. We ask you to design several dresses that transform into furniture, shelter, tools, equipment, accessories and containers for a meal in an outdoor environment. The 'small' intervention in this big scale space will temporarily create a place. We will discuss what the requirements are to make this place on
This year students will be introduced to an exciting knowledge exchange programme known as UrbanBuzz. The programme is led by UCL, supported by UEL, and it funds collaboration projects between academia and industry, in the search for a better understanding of how to build sustainable communities.
There are many projects on the programme, all of which have something to offer this year’s diploma level Professional Studies Assignmments. Two projects in particular involve AVA staff Paul Coates, Christoph Hadrys and Michael Kohn.
Students are therefore asked to attend the following evening lecture on Tuesday October 02, with free food and drinks after, in the Main Lecture Theatre, Business School, Docklands Campus.
2nd October 2007 6.30 - 9.00pm The speakers are:
Michael Edwards, Senior Lecturer, Economics of Planning, Bartlett School of Planning, UCL Professor Allan Brimicombe, Head, Centre for Geo-Information Studies, UEL Paul Coates, MSc Computing and Design Course Leader, UEL Michael Kohn, Director, Slider Studio, UEL AVA professional studies
This is a public lecture and places need to be reserved. There are two ways to do this. Students can choose to sign up to the UrbanBuzz professional networking community at www.urbanbuzz.org and register a place for the event through the website. Alternatively students can email Karen Wilton on k.wilton@uel.ac.uk and state ‘UrbanBuzz UEL projects launch in the subject.’
We understand the totality of the lagoon, the historic Venice, coastline, sandbanks, its adjacent communities on the mainland and the islands as an urban or metropolitan network, a unique mosaic where each island has a specific use in relation to its position and physical characteristics. Venice itself is an ambivalent city, a city that thrives on its glorious past and that, today is defaced and overwhelmed by the monoculture of tourism. The city is being transformed into an open air medieval museum, which has led to the disappearance of city life.
Our goal is not to search for strategies to halt or even reverse this trend but rather to gain a better understanding of the relationship linking urban, architectural, economic, political and social aspects, and based on a project to demonstrate that architecture can have a direct and lasting influence to restore Venice’s equilibrium. Generated by water, all the projects should exploit Venice’s unique set of circumstances to offer new perspectives for the city’s future.
This year we work outside the City - in Southwark: an area which has, historically, supplied the City with food, entertainment, pleasure, and other services.
We start with a workshop/studiolo (a place of intensity and concentration for a specific client, or "guiding spirit") in the remnant vastness around Tate Modern. How does one make a space where something is made? How does one make a (small) building, even?
We will visit and stay at Le Corbusier's monastery of La Tourette.
The main project's site is as constrained as the first project is extensive: one of the courts lining the street that leads to London Bridge. These courts, or alleys, were created for drinking, sleeping, prostitution and resting animals outside the City.
Your brief, however may differ in several respects. The challenge of accommodating diversity and vivacity is one of most historically and environmentally freighted parts of London's fabric will prove fascinating and stimulating ...
The focus for the year is the development of urban space and new housing and community buildings in Brentford Dock. Brentford Dock is a fascinating area of complex history which lies at the junction of the River Thames and a canal system in West London. The unit will study the area in a series of short projects and develop an urban strategy model. We will go on to study and make individual proposals for an urban space called the Brentford Urban Surface bridging differing communities, new housing prototypes and community buildings. The field trip will be to Lisbon to study to study urban space in the city and some remarkable buildings in the city. We will also be looking at projects in the Lisbon region and the sustainability of the city and its outstanding legacy of contemporary and historical architectures. Projects will start from a short introductory project called Aperture Surface to develop themes and issues to be carried through to individual projects for the urban surface, housing and community buildings. We will explore space at a variety of scales from the scale of the city to the scale of furniture in a wide variety of real and computer modelling techniques, materials and media.
Projects
The Unit will work in Iceland.
People, Grass, Darkness, Snow, Rain, Ice, Ash, Warmth, Water, Light, Fish, Hot Springs.
You will design Houses and Workplaces.
We appreciate Materiality of the Everyday. No room for pretending.
What if we think freshly about the connection between the individual, the community, cultures and living? Cities accommodate a diverse population with cultural differences and the limits of coexistence are often tested. How does CULTURE and DIVERSITY express itself within an urban environment? Can we build on the capital generated by diverse communities and cultural differences that constitute city living?
The unit will test and explore these themes in LIVERPOOL, the European Capital of Culture in 2008. Since the decline of the manufacturing industries Liverpool lost 50% of its population. This movement away from inner city housing areas created physical and social voids that divide communities and give rise to segregation. How can we make physical adjustments to this environment that give new expression to these “left-over” spaces?
The year will begin with a study trip to Berlin where we will look at examples of how “left-over” urban spaces have been transformed by URBAN PIONEERS.
As light relies on shadow for its manifestation, architectural space is perceived through its physical boundaries. We will explore this notion thought the design of buildings that define both public and interior realms, as opposed to objects that sit in space.
The point of departure will be a study of the spatialmaterial qualities of key London streets. Large orthographic drawings will describe spatial and material qualities of each street in relation to their social success form the detail to the scale of the city.
A unit trip from the Basque Country to Porto will allow us to approach the work of artist Eduardo Chillida and his interior space.
We will apply lessons learnt for the re-establishment of an East London neighbourhood as a collective task, achieved with the contribution of each student.
With the construction of large physical models and drawings, proposals that define public space and complex well defined interiors will evolve. www.estarstudio.eu
Famous as much for its historic seaside fun park Dreamland as for its famous artists JMW Turner and Tracy Emin, Margate has been a destination for travellers and tourists for centuries. After decades of decline and changing attitudes toward British seaside resorts, Margate is hoping to change its identity and destiny with the new Turner Contemporary Museum. But as the city looks toward the future, what should it take from its past? Can a city contain crossed destinies?
As part of our continued research into the relationship between development and the growing importance/impact of cultural tourism, we will be focusing on regeneration and identity in the UK seaside town of Margate. Through a series of studies exploring materials, littoral edges, scale and light, the Unit aims to generate architectural proposals which are generated from and enhance the landscape and seascape of Margate.
As an architecture and landscape team, we will be exploring the meaning of place, and how this is translated across disciplines, cultures and the built environment. The Unit trip to Girona/ Barcelona/Bilbao/San Sebastian will look at recent architecture and seaside development. Our main project will be located in Margate, creating proposals for the Margate.
abstractions, agglomerations, actions air, atmospheres, beckton, boundaries, buildings, canning-town, children, citizen, climate, colour, collision, communities, components, conceptual, conflict, contradiction, crossing, cultures, data, days, decision-making, density, design, desires, development, difference, dimensions, displacements, diversities, economies, elements, environments, engagement, energies, events, experiments, exposure, fabrication, flexibility, forms, friction, games, gender, geography, green-spaces, ground, growing dwellings, habits, housing, horizons, industries, ideas, imaginations, infrastructure, intuition, journeys, kids, knots, knowledge, life, living, light, lines, landscapes, language, london, luggage, making, malmø, mappings, materials, matrix, memory, metaphors, migration, morphology, narratives, networks, 1 ha, participation, pattern, pilot projects, places, play, pleasures, pockets, poetics, politics, principles, production, qualities, questions, recycling, reflections, research, rules, scale, scenarios, sections, simplicity, soho, sounds, space, strangers, streets, stockholm, stories, structure, sustainability, surfaces, systems, technology, tectonics, textures, thames, thinking, time, tolerance, tools, topography, toys, trees, understanding, use, utilities, vessel, visions, voids, walks, waste, water, weather, workshops, x-tremes, year, zed to zoo.
The Unit will explore urban spaces and habitats in London and Scandinavia, your hands and minds are required.
Diploma 3 will pursue this year an interest in an architecture of fragility, one that is responsive to an unpredictable ground condition and yet confident of its position in the sky.
This is the time for drawing angels
John Hejduk
* 1948 film by Luchino Visconti
This year, Unit 4 will examine the idea of the ‘new’. We will look at how ‘newness’ is being embraced culturally as an opportunity for re-invention, and ‘context’ as something that is beyond the immediate built environment.
Operating in London and Beijing, we will explore the Market as a collective space; where the pragmatic exchange of goods leads to a transient network of operations, territories and opportunities; a place of social gathering, exchange of ideas, news and gossip. We are interested in how these social functions might enable the re-territorialisation of the public realm; a type of collective urbanism.
The project for the year is to design two market buildings, one in East London and another in Beijing. We will continue our interest in complex geometries and the relationship between these and the constructions of situations that bear an accommodating potential for its user. A research into network structures will support the unit program and deliver technical and organisational prototypes.
A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.
Louis Kahn
Aim of the unit is to develop a framework within which to study architecture. This is based on the creative tension between a personal architectural agenda and a given site. Preoccupation with environmental issues in relation to highly-charged urban contexts necessitates and encourages the development of an intellectual platform through which to explore the year’s projects. The unit focuses on developing a large-scale urban strategy and an understanding of materials and technique in order to have the tools necessary to design a building proposal. As last year, the unit will work with a basic brief that has to be addressed by the whole unit. Students are then invited to elaborate on this, where appropriate, in discussion with tutors. A series of workshops and lectures will be strategically placed throughout the year to assist students in the development of architectural and technical strategies, as well their drawing and design skills. In addition, there will be occasional sweepings workshops to deal with individual design problems.
Conglomerate Urban London’s public space on the river Thames residential – industrial mix
The river Thames is one of London’s greatest assets and at the same time the most underused. The river provides the largest, open, and continues ‘green spaces’ in London. Historical it was the main contributor to London importance as political and commercial centre.
This year unit 9 continues its research into large urban structures and their impact on the existing urban + natural systems. The unit will investigate issues of urban form, public space and sustainability.
The long standing agendas and interests of the unit in advanced design and manufacturing techniques will continue and we will strongly emphasise physical making and testing!
The unit will be collaborating with leading professionals from architecture and engineering throughout the year on the subjects of advanced design, manufacturing techniques, and material / structural methodologies.
The unit will continue to look at comfort for inhabitation and test its idea architecturally and urbanisticaly. We aim for an architecture, which is preoccupied with its relationship between materiality and sensory experience.
Our site is a coastal island, urban landfill site, at the edge of central Copenhagen, Denmark. Our project - the urban retreat - seeks to create a new destination for city dwellers with contributions to the everyday use. We aim to inject new life to a post-industrial landscape by negotiating territories between water, land, infrastructure, industrial remnants and public buildings.
Our idea of threshold is to utilise climatic conditions as a positive and initiating architectural force. It should enhance experiences in order to test its relations to material, structural resolution, form and scale against body and landscape. The (re)active threshold ultimately forms the key to the writing of architectural language and materialises itself as tectonic poetry.
‘Architecture exists in a different reality from our everyday life and pursuits. The quality of architecture does not lie in the sense of reality that it expresses, but in its capacity for awakening our imagination’
Christian Norberg Schultz
Our work this year will be an investigation into an architecture of the senses, an architecture of human experience and the inner language of buildings; of perception, dreams and imagination:
CINEMATIC: aperture, exposure, projection. It is impossible to separate architecture from occupancy and all forms of occupancy require architecture to exist in both time and space. We believe in an occupied architecture that interacts with its environment and a significant architecture that requires deliberate attention to how things are made and the sensuous qualities of materials.
As part of the units ongoing concerns we will explore ways of representing , imagining, designing and realising spatial propositions; learning from and utilising film technologies, composite imaging, scenography and sound design.
We aim to shift ideas away from the static and towards dynamics and the processes of use within spatial experience. We seek temporal, narrative architectures that use space, time, sound and materiality to communicate a relationship of human interaction.
© 2008
Your opportunity to see the campus, studios and workshops, meet students and staff, ask questions.Open Days >>
Details of Degree Shows, external exhibitions and national design shows.Showcase 10 >>
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