Dr Peter Buš delivers public lecture and workshop at National United University in Taiwan

Dr Peter Buš, member of DARC Research Centre, was invited by Assistant Professor Shi-Yen Wu from the Department of Architecture at the National United University (NUU) in Taiwan to give a public lecture and a computational design workshop based on his previous collaborative activities with the NUU.

Dr Peter Buš’ lecture, ‘Transforming architecture in the age of digitisation of construction: participation, automation and evolving responsive concepts for the 21st Century’, conceptually outlined the idea of crowd-driven assemblies for flexible and adaptive constructions utilising automatic technologies in the context of twenty-first century cities.

The workshop, ‘Emergent proto-architectural formations: towards bio-integrated responsive architectural design, computational design workshop’ was attended by 60 students from National United University in Miao-Li and 13 students from the Shadong Jianzhu University in China. The workshop explored potentials and advantages of advanced computational design methods to rapidly generate spatial digital artefacts, ‘proto-architectures’, based on systematic and process-driven modelling techniques integrating the paradigm of emergence into computational models.

Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt premieres ‘Restoring the Palace of Westminster’ documentary at RIBA

Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt and the Kent School of Architecture and Planning (KSAP) hosted an event at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) on Thursday 5 December to launch the new film by Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt, University of Kent and KMTV titled, ‘Restoring the Palace of Westminster’. The film, based on Dr Schoenefeldt’s research project, Between Heritage and Sustainability for the Restoration and Renewal Programme was followed by a panel debate led by KSAP Head of School, Professor Gerald Adler, ‘Can Victorian architecture be sustainable?’ Panel guests included:

  • Hannah Parham, member of the Historic Building Consultancy team at Donald Insall Associates
  • Edonis Jesus, BIM4Heritage
  • Sebastian MacMillan, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
  • Richard Lorch, Editor in chief, Building and Cities
  • Fionn Stephenson, Chair in Sustainable Design (University of Sheffield)
  • Henrik Schoenefeldt, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Architecture (University of Kent)
  • Adam Watrobski, Principal Architect at Houses of Parliament

The event was live streamed on YouTube and is available to watch online.

 

PhD Student Christopher Moore wins prestigious award at National Railway Heritage Awards

Kent School of Architecture and Planning PhD student, Christopher Moore has won with his company the Craft Skills Award at the National Railway Heritage Awards in London for his project to conserve Battle Railway Station in Sussex. The award recognises craftsmanship skills in the use of materials and modern technology in the repair and conservation of historic railway buildings and is judged on a national standard with 100s of projects from across the UK being considered for the prestigious award.

Christopher, who is a chartered surveyor and building conservation accredited specialist, worked alongside Canterbury-based Clague LLP in a joint partnership to deliver the design and the main works for Network Rail and Southeastern Railways. The project involved conserving the station, which is said to be, ‘one of the finest Gothic-style small stations in the country’, whilst ensuring no delays to the trains, no station closures, and that the works were undertaken to BS:7913 for excellence in building conservation. The judges were impressed with the scale of the task at hand and the excellent standard of conservation to this nationally important heritage asset.

Chris said, “It was an honour to work on this project and an absolute dream to be awarded by this national awards scheme. From sourcing the original construction drawings, using digital technology to form the stonework, undertaking sensitive conservational repairs through many nights so as not to shut the station for the public, and the huge amount of research in sourcing vernacular suppliers to match the original materials from the 1850s, we worked incredibly hard on this project and I am very grateful for us to be honoured.”

KSAP students take part in Canterbury Mosque competition

Kent School of Architecture and Planning (KSAP) students were recently invited to take part in a competition to redesign the exterior of the current building of the Canterbury Mosque. The brief, set by Raschid Sowahon, Chairman of Canterbury Mosque located on Giles lane, outlined the following, ‘The Canterbury Mosque was originally a residential building that has been converted into a Mosque. Several extensions have been added to the building to accommodate the growing number of Muslim students and local residents who use the facilities.  We are negotiating with the Council Planning department to enhance the architectural values of this area by presenting a building that is recognisable for what it is used for. It should be an iconic building that will add to the already rich cultural heritage that Canterbury offers. We are looking at creating a frontage of the Mosque that will reflect Islamic architectural design.’

The winners and runners up were awarded their prizes last week at an event organised by Canterbury Mosque. A big congratulations to the winning entry, designed by Stage 3 students Adam Dudley-Mallick and Erlend Birkeland. The 2nd prize went to Canan Iscan, and the 3rd and 4th prizes went to Freda Odonye and Garima Rai.

Adam Dudley-Mallick and Erlend Birkeland, BA (Hons) Architecture Stage 3
Garima Rai, BA (Hons) Architecture Stage 3
Freda Odonye, BA (Hons) Architecture Stage 3

Professor Gordana Fontana-Giusti speaks at AHRA 2019

Professor Gordana Fontana-Giusti, Associate Dean, and Professor in Architecture and Urban Design at Kent School of Architecture and Planning (KSAP) recently presented her paper titled, ‘The Window and the Map: Representation of Space and Collective Life in Early-Modern Europe’ at the 16th Annual International Conference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) in November 2019.

The presentation was part of Professor Fontana-Giusti’s long-term research on perspective in the architecture, urban design and the new consciousness in the Early-Modern period. The focus of the paper was on two models of spatial representation and related epistemological paradigms: the one that has emerged at the Italian peninsula and the other developed in Holland. By comparing the two models, the conclusions were drawn about their differences, complementarities and legacies.

Gordana Fontana-Giusti is a member of the AHRA Steering Committee Group and has been actively involved in its work. She was also the founding director of KSAP’s MA Architecture and Urban Design course, as well as a PhD supervisor with areas of interest in architectural theory, representation and urban design.

Two scholarships available for MSc Bio Digital Architecture

The Kent School of Architecture and Planning (KSAP) are excited to announce the availability of two scholarships for students wishing to study the new MSc Bio Digital Architecture course.

The Bio Digital Architecture Outstanding Student Award is funded by the Kent School of Architecture and Planning for students starting full time on the course in September 2020. The award consists of a 50% fee waiver at the 2020/21 full time Home/EU/Overseas rate.

This new master’s programme will teach you how to think about architecture experimentally. You will study computational design methods, and new modes of simulation and production, which will be complemented with contemporary scientific ideas from the life sciences. Thinking interdisciplinarily, you will learn to apply contemporary architecture and scientific ideas, to think about space and form generatively to create innovative and exciting architectural scenarios.

Please visit the KSAP website to find out more about the Bio Digital Architecture programme and information on how to apply.

MArch Unit 1 visit Milan during Enhancement Week

MArch Unit 1 visited Milan during Enhancement Week at the end of October, on a field trip led by Dr Manolo Guerci and Peter Buš. During their visit, they explored numerous buildings and sites covering Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, 18th and 19th century and modernism. Interested in finding out more about their trip? Watch MArch Stage 5 student Andy Kong’s great short film.

Professor Marialena Nikolopoulou to speak at CIBSE Build2Perform Live 2019

Deputy Head of School, and former Director of CASE Research Centre, Professor Marialena Nikolopoulou will be speaking at the upcoming CIBSE Build2Perform Live 2019 at Olympia in London on Wednesday 27th November 2019 with a talk on Urban Design. Her session will run through how the Urban Albedo collaborative research project is looking at the impacts of the urban fabric to the urban temperatures and how new material can improve urban climate. The session will cover:

  • Understanding the principles of urban design
  • Find out the seasonal effects of albedo on urban temperature
  • Understand the impact of urban fabric on urban albedo.

FEW-Meter Project hosts successful Technology and Green Spaces Symposium

Dr Silvio Caputo is leading the UK team in an international 3-year project, funded under the SUGI called Food-Water-Energy Nexus, which started in June 2018. The FEW-meter project aims at measuring the efficiency of urban agriculture in terms of resource consumption, food production and social benefits. Each one of the five countries involved in the project (UK, France, Germany, Poland and USA) will focus on a specific type of urban agriculture and a particular city. The UK will be looking at Community Gardens and City Farms in London, which have recently seen a surge of interest.

Recently, as part of the project, Kent School of Architecture and Planning, and Social Farms and Gardens, the association representing UK community gardens and city farms, organised a symposium, ‘Technology and Green Spaces’ on 29th October 2019.

The symposium was very well attended and participants included organisations such as Forum for the Future, universities such as University of Salford and many other associations that work in the field of urban agriculture and the management of green spaces in cities.

The symposium was structured in two sessions: the first one exploring new food technologies and how these are changing the landscape of urban agriculture and the second one looking at digital tools to enhance user’s experience in public parks. The day ended with a discussion on the future of these technologies, their risks and benefits, with a very high-level exchange of opinions that will surely set the future agenda for projects in this field. KSAP and Social Farms and Gardens will draft a report to summarise the main findings of the event, which will be very useful to trace the evolution of the use of green space in cities.

Dr Peter Buš to give lecture at National United University in Miao-Li

Dr Peter Buš, Lecturer in Digital Architecture and member of DARC Research Centre, will be visiting Taiwan later this month to give a lecture at the National United University in Miao-Li. His lecture titled, ‘Transforming architecture in the age of digitisation of construction: participation, automation and evolving responsive concepts for the 21st Century’, conceptually outlines the idea of crowd-driven assemblies for flexible and adaptive constructions utilising automatic technologies in the context of twenty-first century cities.

The presentation will also look at the results from Peter’s Richard Rogers Fellowship residency in London conducted last Spring dedicated to large-scale urban prototyping for responsive cities. Peter argues that building technology needs to incorporate human inputs following the aspects of customisation to build adaptive architectural and urban scenarios based on immediate decisions made according to local conditions or specific spatial demands. The presentation will focus on large-scale automatic prototyping for built applications at the theoretical level along with interactions between humans and automatic building technologies.