Dr Peter Buš presents paper at eCAADe 2020

Dr Peter Buš, Lecturer in Digital Architecture presents his paper titled, ‘User-driven Configurable Architectural Assemblies: Towards artificial intelligence-embedded responsive environments‘ at the Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe) conference taking place on the 16th and 17th September.

The paper theoretically elaborates the idea of individual users’ customisation activities to create and configure responsive spatial scenarios by means of reconfigurable interactive adaptive assemblies. It reflects Gordon Pask’s concept of human and device interaction based on its unpredictable notion speculating a potential to be enhanced by artificial intelligence learning approach of an assembly linked with human activator’s participative inputs. Such a link of artificial intelligence, human agency and interactive assembly capable to generate its own spatial configurations by itself and users’ stimuli may lead to a new understanding of humans’ role in the creation of spatial scenarios. The occupants take the prime role in the evolution of spatial conditions in this respect.

The paper aims to position an interaction between the human agents and artificial devices as a participatory and responsive design act to facilitate creative potential of participants as unique individuals without pre-specified or pre-programmed goal set by the designer. Such an approach will pave a way towards true autonomy of responsive built environments, determined by an individual human agent and behaviour of the spatial assemblies to create authentic responsive built forms in a digital and physical space.

Digital Architecture Open Lecture: Dr Dietmar Köring

We are pleased to announce that the first Digital Architecture Research Centre (DARC) Open Lecture of the academic year will be given by Dr Dietmar Köring with his lecture titled, ‘Computational design, digital participation and deterritorialisation’ on Tuesday 6 October at 6pm BST. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, all open lectures will be held online via Microsoft Teams, details to follow shortly.

Dietmar Köring is an architect, researcher, and educator living in Cologne.  He is  is head of the architectural research office Arphenotype, where he focuses on blurring the boundaries of different artistic disciplines. Dietmar was a research fellow at TU Berlin / CHORA City & Energy from 2012 to 2017 and has taught Digital Design at TU Braunschweig from 2010 to 2012, he was Guest Professor for Virtual Realities & Experimental Architecture at the University Innsbruck ./Studio3 in 2011, Technology and Design Lecturer at the Cologne Institute for Architectural Design / C-I-A-D and visiting lecturer for digital design at the DeMontfort University Leicester.  From 2011 to 2012 he was assistant professor for Smart City Concepts at the Technical University Cologne.

He studied architecture  at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne, the University of Western Sydney and  at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts, were he graduated as in 2005 as Dipl.-Ing. (FH). Dietmar received his MArch in 2007 at the Bartlett School of Architecture University College London and his Dr.-Ing. at the Technical University of Berlin in 2018.

Through his career he has worked internationally for offices such as Coop Himmelblau, Graft, 3deluxe and Andrew Wright Associates. His research has been awarded by the Jaap Bakema Fellowship / NAI and his works have been internationally published and exhibited. Dietmar has given international lectures, guest critiques and workshops.

Dr Dietmar Köring’s lecture will discuss algorithmic governmentality and how our co-existence with machines transpires.

KSAP CASE Researchers speak at 35th Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) Virtual Conference

Kent School of Architecture and Planning’s (KSAP) Centre for Architecture and the Sustainable Environment (CASE) Research Centre took part in the 35th PLEA Virtual Conference on the 1st – 3rd September 2020. This year’s virtual conference theme was ‘Planning Post Carbon Cities’.  KSAP had one of the largest presence from a single school, which was attended by professional and experts from all over the world. CASE, along with their collaborators, presented seven papers covering wide range of topics:

  • Kyveli Filippidou: ‘Assessing heat stress in hospital wards using Wet Bulb Globe temperature: A case study in Mediterranean climate’
  • Parin Mohajerani: ‘Evaluation of a Ventilation System of an Auditorium in England, In Terms of Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality’
  • Marialena Nikolopoulou: ‘Climate Change Adaptation and Retrofit of a Victorian Townhouse in Margate: the 5-year Living Lab’
  • Agnese Salvati: ‘Impact of Urban Albedo on Microclimate: Computational Investigation in London’
  • Mohamed Telli: ‘Thermal conditions in urban settlements in hot arid regions: the case of Ksar Tafilelt, Ghardaia, Algeria’
  • Richard Watkins: ‘Earth Tube Efficacy: Analysis of Heating & Cooling Performance from Long Term Data in UK’
  • Muhammed Yeninarcilar: ‘Investigating the Impact of Urban Texture on Urban Albedo: Case Study of London’

CASE’s paper titled, ‘Climate Change Adaptation and Retrofit of a Victorian Townhouse in Margate: the 5-year Living Lab’ written by Marialena Nikolopoulou, Richard Watkins, Elena Rueda-de-Watkins, Leire Dominguez-De-Teresa, Giridharan Renganathan and Alkis Kotopouleas received a commendation at the conference.

In addition to this, Muhammed Yeninarcilar received the SBSE (Society of Building Science Educators) and Jeffrey Cook Student Scholarship to cover his conference registration for his paper titled, ‘Investigating the Impact of Urban Texture on Urban Albedo: Case Study of London’, co-authored by Marialena Nikolopoulou, Richard Watkins, Giridharan Renganathan and Alkis Kotopouleas.

MA Architecture and Urban Design students exhibit at Urban Room Folkestone

MA Architecture and Urban Design students have been invited to exhibit at Urban Room Folkestone as part of their work to stimulate interest in the regeneration of the local area. Programme Director, John Letherland, writes, ‘The design study was focussed on the regeneration of the Folkestone harbourside area. It was intended to engage with a range of issues concerning the relationship between landscape and architecture, and to identify opportunities for ‘place-making’ through an in-depth understanding of the urban context.

As part of the study, the students were asked to produce a concept masterplan that would transform the area between the Harbour and the Creative Quarter. They were encouraged to research the remarkable history of this ancient Kentish seaside town and to suggest proposals that would complement the continued evolution of Folkestone. Once the heart or ‘genius loci’ of Folkestone, the area sits at an important threshold between the land and the sea, and it was. However, it has suffered badly from large-scale bomb damage during WWll, then post-war slum clearance and traffic-planning programmes. What was once a complex warren of small streets, houses and businesses leading back from the inner harbour, is now a largely open and ill-defined area of town dominated by cars, car parks and fast-moving traffic.

The masterplan was to incorporate a variety of new buildings in order to generate funding for the redevelopment of this area, as well as to provide a means by which public streets and spaces can be enclosed and sheltered from the elements. The students were encouraged to suggest practical new uses for existing buildings, features or structures, rethink the existing (income-generating) parking facility and its possible reprovision elsewhere, reorder the current traffic movement system, as well as speculate upon the architecture of the new buildings and their uses. They were given the freedom to remove or add buildings as they saw fit. Apologies are therefore due to any existing building owners and businesses that may have been sacrificed in these entirely theoretical proposals!

The students were also encouraged to imagine and describe a new part of town that is seamlessly connected to the existing urban context, and to take into account the uniqueness of the place where it is to be installed, such that it only has relevance in that place and no other.”

The exhibition is open to the public from Wednesday 19th to Sunday 23rd August from 12pm – 2pm daily.

Former PhD student, Itab Shuayb creates campaign for inclusive communities during Covid-19

Former Kent School of Architecture and Planning PhD student, Itab Shuayb, creates inclusive campaign with cohort of architecture students at the American University of Beirut as part of their final project in her Inclusive Design course, with the collaboration of the Disability Hub at the Centre for Lebanese Studies, LAU, in Lebanon.

 

Itab writes, “Inclusive design is a human-centered approach that acknowledges the rights of all people regardless of age, gender, ability, religion, and ethnicity to participate and contribute to their society. This campaign sheds light on the main issues and barriers that diverse people have encountered during the crisis of Covid-19. Five videos have been designed inclusively with subtitles in in English Language, audio description, and graphic animations that convey the slogan, If the Corona Pandemic does not exclude anyone, so why does social justice not include us all.”

Watch the campaign videos over on the Centre for Lebanese Studies YouTube channel.

KSAP students nominated for Architects’ Journal Student Prize 2020

A big congratulations to Charlotte Vint and Aubin Torck for their nominations for the Architects’ Journal Student Prize 2020.

Charlotte Vint, Stage 3 BA (Hons) Architecture, was nominated for her project titled, ‘The Echinoid Urban Ruins Activity Centre’.  Charlotte writes, “The activity centre inhabits the ruins of the Lido Complex in Margate; the Echinoid celebrates the Grade II-listed former Clifton Baths through activities that aid in alleviating the current health gap in Cliftonville West. The roof flows out onto the street front, creating an inviting threshold leading both vulnerable citizens of Margate and tourists to congregate, enhancing a unified community. By reopening the Clifton Baths to the public, an urban playground brings cultural enrichment and education of its touristic history, retelling the rise and fall by sensitively celebrating it through rejuvenation.

Sustainably repurposing the waste collected from Margate’s scrapyards through a community drop-off and rewards scheme creates a cleaner urban environment. A sense of locality is achieved through the resources, materials and construction methods, which range from on-site rammed chalk to repurposed mechanical waste used in the proposal. Additionally, addressing a deteriorating coastal complex with rising sea levels required a flood-resilient strategy, which was achieved through a controlled lockgate flood vent system.”

By Charlotte Vint, Stage 3, BA (Hons) Architecture

Aubin Torck, Stage 5 MArch, was nominated for his project titled, ‘Gothic Canterbury Source Market ‘. Aubin writes, “The fire that destroyed the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral provoked a global outpouring of sympathy and unprecedented pledges of support. Amid immediate declarations to rebuild within five years, a wider question arose as to what is 21st-century Gothic. The Source Market takes inferences from the ruins of a citycentre church, lost in the Baedeker Raids, and two subsequent phases of post-Second World War redevelopment.

Sitting at the heart of Canterbury, this new vegetable market is also a barometer of local and national food ‘futures’. The integrated financial Futures Market allows for a regional regulation of crop prices directly linked to the daily supply and demand of the produce within. All aspects of the food cycle are integrated and exhibited, from rooftop aquaponic production, smart crop quality control and storage, to fast-toslow food restaurant, education and coworking hubs.”

HEADER IMAGE: AUBIN TORCK

Dr Manolo Guerci discusses KSAP’s adaptability during Covid-19

Senior Lecturer, Dr Manolo Guerci, shares his thoughts and observations with Press and Public Relations Officer, Olivia Miller, on ‘how teaching and learning within the Kent School of Architecture and Planning has adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.’

BA year coordinators: Rebecca Hobbs (Stage 1), Felicity Atekpe (Stage 2), and Dr Ambrose Gillick (Stage 3), provided key insight and information, as well as Michael Richards, MArch Programme Director, who was also part of a number of discussions which led to this contribution, and indeed trialled and implemented with Dr Guerci quite a lot of what is highlighted in the full Q&A which you can read the full Q&A online now.

Statement for all new Stage One BA (Hons) Architecture students

KSAP BA (Hons) Architecture Stage One, 2020-2021

Your University

The University of Kent is looking forward to welcoming its new intake of undergraduates to its campus this September. ‘Welcome Week’ (Freshers Week, more traditionally) begins on Monday 21st September, with your academic programmes starting one week later, on Monday 28th September.

Academic programme

The BA (Hons) Architecture programme has been running at Kent for fifteen years. It is fully validated by the RIBA, and has continued prescription from the Architects Registration Board.

Stage One – the first year of the programme – is a carefully structured educational experience that mixes teaching in the culture of architecture – its history and theory – with architectural technology and environment studies – how buildings work – with design exercises that push your creativity. It is taught by discrete ‘modules’, study units run by different tutors, some full-time academics in the School and other visiting tutors who spend most of their time in architectural practice outside the University. There are three modules per term (autumn and spring), in culture, technology and environment, and design.

Academic delivery

How do we teach the programme, especially in these uncertain times of great public health concern?

The health, safety and wellbeing of students and staff are our top priority, with a blend of teaching that seeks to maintain the quality of the teaching, learning and experience of students whether online or on campus.

Culture

The culture modules each have a weekly hour-long lecture. These will be recorded and made available online, through Moodle, our University online learning environment, and in advance of any related seminars or tutorials. In addition to the weekly lecture there are weekly seminars, where you will undertake supervised assignments related to the module. You will have an allocated seminar with your tutor in a safely-distanced seminar room, studio or workshop. There will also be online seminars and tutorials should you not be able to attend for face-to-face meetings, via Microsoft Teams. We have been working successfully with Teams since lockdown began, in March of this year, and are fully conversant with how it works. You can access Teams using any computer with internet access (including from other countries) – your own laptop, or any University computer anywhere on campus.

Technology & Environment

These modules are structured in exactly the same way as the culture teaching, with their mix of online lectures and face-to-face seminars, either on campus – safely distanced – or online. At KSAP you will benefit from our large, open-plan studios, where social distancing has already been organised. Since all lectures are online, we may use the large lecture theatres, with capacities of some 150 seats, to run safely distanced group activities, such as our ‘bricks-on-sticks’ workshops in the autumn term where you will learn structural principles in a lively, hands-on workshop setting.

Design

The teaching of design has been more difficult to rethink, in these challenging times. But once again, our large studios have allowed us to lay them out in a safely-distanced manner that still allows for face-to-face teaching – the demonstration of drawing, modelling and sketching techniques that you need to learn in order to develop your design skills. We will break down the tutor groups into smaller subgroups of three or four students, conducive to small group discussions and demonstrations of technique. From 9am until 5pm on these ‘studio’ days – Monday and Tuesday, for your Stage One students – the studio will be exclusively reserved for these small-group encounters. At all other times, depending on demand, you will be able to book a space in the studio and use its equipment – standing drawing boards with parallel motions, table-top drawing boards, pinboard-topped tables for simple model making etc, etc – for your own, safely-distanced use, subject to availability and when not being used for timetabled teaching for other year-groups. As with all other modules, there is a weekly Design lecture which you will access digitally. Should social distancing measures be lifted, we hope to be able to re-open studios for 24-hour access.

Folio

A distinctive feature of the Stage One BA at Kent is its year-long module, Folio. Here you will learn the principles of architectural representation – drawing, essentially – through the weekly digital lecture, and then split up into subgroups, similar to how design is taught, as intimately as feasible given current distancing guidelines. You’ll start in the autumn term with learning the techniques and practice of orthographic drawing – absolutely essential requirements for the culture and practice of architecture, and a real strength at Kent – interleaved with ‘free’ drawing and painting exercises. Here, the generally fine autumn weather will enable our staff to take you out of the building in safe groups on campus and in Canterbury, to undertake site drawing exercises. In the spring term the emphasis shifts to Digital Folio, where most of the classes are being planned to be delivered digitally.

Your own practice exercises you will do either on your own laptop or computer, or by using the School’s array of computers. The studio computers have i7 processors with 16GB RAM and Nvidia GTX video cards, they are capable of running the latest software from Adobe, Autodesk and many others used on the course. A range of this software is also available to install on your personal device to enable you to continue your studies outside of the studio. The Welcome Pack that we’ll be sending out in late August will outline details of drawing equipment and computer specifications, compatible with the School’s provision.

Field trips

The annual Stage One overseas field trip has been a highlights of the year. For obvious reasons we are unable to plan for this in the current climate. Instead, we will offer UK visits (in Kent, to London and elsewhere), in smaller groups, and properly health & safety-assessed. The advantage here will be that you will be guided to notable buildings and cities in small, manageable groups. A by-product will also be that these visits will be considerably cheaper than expensive overseas trips!

Social life

The University and the Students Union is developing plans for a safe social life, on and off campus. Clearly, the mass gatherings that have been the hallmark of student social life cannot take place in their former formats. However, Kent is blessed with a large, airy and low-density campus, and the onus will be on the myriad student clubs and societies to provide safely distanced events. Our own KASA – the Kent Architecture Student Association – is organising its term-time events, including the weekly guest lectures (all online this year, for obvious reasons), but also a serious of small-scale social and communal meetings.

FAQs

The University has produced answers to these frequently asked questions. Do please follow the link!

Professor Gerald Adler, Head of School and Rebecca Hobbs, Stage 1 Coordinator, BA (Hons) Architecture
Kent School of Architecture and Planning

Interested in studying architecture? Come along to our Virtual Open Day!

Interested in studying our BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA/ARB Part 1) course, or our MArch (RIBA/ARB Part 2) course? Come along to Kent School of Architecture and Planning’s upcoming Virtual Open Day in collaboration with KMTV on Wednesday 29 July from 12.00 – 13.30 BST.

The schedule for the Virtual Open Day is as follows:

  • BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA/ARB Part 1), 12.00 – 12.45 BST, click here to join
  • MArch (RIBA/ARB Part 2), 12.45 – 13.30 BST, click here to join

Our BA (Hons) Architecture degree is the first step towards qualifying as an architect. You study areas such as regeneration, sustainability, landscape, community, and urban life. You also develop the practical design skills needed within the profession. You are encouraged to be creative and experiment through models, drawings and digital representation – gaining confidence through your project work.

Find out more here with BA (Hons) Architecture Stage 2 Coordinator, Felicity Atekpe, and Stage 3 student, Amy, from 12.00 – 12.45 BST on Wednesday 29 July.

Our MArch architecture programme is a two-year (known as Stage 4 and Stage 5) full-time undergraduate professional programme focused on architectural design. It forms the second part of the UK’s traditional five-year continuum of professional undergraduate education in architecture.

You study modules covering design, technology, employability and cultural context. These place a prominent focus on your design skills, while also developing your understanding of sustainability, critical thinking and professional practice. Teaching is delivered through a unit system and generally involves a hypothetical design project. You work with a mix of Stage 4 and 5 students and learn through an iterative process, facilitated by seminars, tutorials and peer-to-peer learning. Additional lecture and seminar modules cover technology, cultural context, dissertation and employability.

Find out more here with MArch Programme Director, Michael Richards, and Stage 5 student, Andy, from 12.45 – 13.30 BST on Wednesday 29 July.

If you have any queries about the event, please feel free to email ksapadmissions@kent.ac.uk.

Dr Ambrose Gillick is Principal Investigator for British Academy funded research project

BA (Hons) Architecture Stage 3 Coordinator, Dr Ambrose Gillick, is Principal Investigator for a successful British Academy funded research project titled, ‘British Academy Special Research Grants: Covid-19 – ‘Making-Unmaking-Remaking Home in Lockdown Margate‘. Co-investigators of the project are Professor Helen Carr (Kent Law School) and Professor Karen Jones (School of History). The research project will run from July 2020 until October 2021.

Dr Gillick writes, “Set in Dalby Square and Gardens, Margate, a vulnerable community disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, this project explores and maps home as process and network in a COVID 19 context using a transdisciplinary methodology drawing on law, history, architecture, health and housing studies. In this project home is understood as simultaneously bounded and networked, a space and a set of processes and relationships. We utilise the focus on home networking and home making-unmaking-remaking that has been the inevitable consequence of ‘lockdown’ to unpack the taken-for-granted understanding of home as a safe haven and explore issues around social and environmental regulation, inequalities, marginalization, vulnerability and dislocation as they have been intensified by COVID-19. We situate these in, somewhat paradoxical, historical understandings of Margate as a ‘haven of health’, and develop a toolkit for a rich and productive understanding of contemporary home making, unmaking and remaking during a global pandemic.”