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.

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.”

Dr Manolo Guerci to present at Giancarlo De Carlo GDC100 ‘Resonances’ Seminar

Senior Lecturer, Dr Manolo Guerci will be presenting at the upcoming Giancarlo De Carlo GDC100 ‘Resonances’ Seminar taking place on Thursday 16 July at 15.30 BST.

The ‘Resonances’ seminar aims to share ideas and comments on the wide selection of texts by Giancarlo De Carlo proposed in the marathon. The texts are a source and a guide to an extraordinary methodology of reading the place as a fundamental starting point for the design project. A panel of speakers from British universities involved in the marathon will open the discussion to invite all the readers and interested students to propose their thoughts and add new keywords.

Dr Manolo Guerci writes, “The conversation will be on Giancarlo De Carlo and his relationship with the Renaissance, particularly with Francesco di Giorgio Martini. It will focus on an essay De Carlo wrote in 1985 on the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino titled: Gli Spiriti del Palazzo Ducale (the ghosts of the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino). One of the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance at the hearth of Federico da Montefeltro’s patronage, the Palazzo Ducale has long been a subject of fascination for me. As well as the workshop of leading architect-engineers such as Di Giorgio Martini, the palace is also known as the setting of the conversations which Baldassare Castiglione represents as having taken place in the Hall of Vigils in 1507 in his celebrated Book of the Courtier. De Carlo’s essay provides interesting insights.”

If you would like to attend, please use the following link via Zoom:

https://zoom.us/j/93837326233
Password: 685110

You can also keep up to date with Giancarlo De Carlo GDC100 on Instagram.

Professor of Planning, Samer Bagaeen, contributes to Localis’ C19 Housing Recovery Essay Collection

Professor of Planning, and MA Urban Planning and Resilience programme director, Samer Bagaeen, has written an essay titled, ‘Our participatory future’ in response to the theme, ‘The role of housing in supporting the most vulnerable in society’ for the Localis essay collection titled, ‘Building for renewal: Kickstarting the C19 housing recovery‘.

The collection, “encompasses how housing policy and the planning system could be directed to promoting opportunity and prosperity, building sustainable communities as well as supporting lives and engaging with society during the recovery.” It also seeks to answer the question, “What measures can be put in place to create an environment conducive to growth, enabling the housebuilding industry to get back to work safely and deliver the Government’s target of one million new homes by 2025?”

Professor Samer Bagaeen writes, “These are interesting times: people keeping at least two metres form each other; a substantial number of schools closed; all public gatherings cancelled; the UK Government and those around the world putting together ever-increasing stimulus packages; landlords not collecting rent; the homeless being told to stay put in hotels free of charge; and workers furloughed on full pay in some cases.

In more than one city, in England, local authorities went on the hunt for innovative solutions to seek ideas from their residents about the path for a green future. This was before the increasingly louder and louder calls for a green future in the post COVID19 world began to take hold. With pollution in some cities halving on account of the lockdown – lower vehicle emissions as people ditch their car, attention has also shifted to the carbon emissions caused by our built environment and what can be done to reduce these.

As a forum for sharing ideas, citizens’ climate assemblies have gained traction in cities like Oxford and Brighton and Hove. These assemblies bring together a small number of residents (50 in the case of Brighton and Hove), randomly selected to reflect local demographics, alongside a panel of advisors to help shape how a city could address the climate crisis and prioritise actions to take forward.”

Read more, and download the full essay collection here.

Dr Ben Tosland publishes book review in EAHN Journal Architectural Histories

Recently completed PhD student, Ben Tosland, has published a review in the EAHN journal Architecture Histories on Łukas Stanek’s new book Architecture in Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War (2020). The book, as the title suggests, studies the exploration of architects from Eastern Europe in the global south making an important contribution to the studies of architecture history and socialist internationalism. The book is generously laden with previously unpublished images complementing Stanek’s illuminating text, doubling up as a serious piece of original research and attractive object for any architect or historian’s bookshelf.

Architectural Histories is the international, blind peer-reviewed scholarly journal of the EAHN that creates a space where historically grounded research into all aspects of architecture and the built environment can be made public, consulted, and discussed.

More of Ben’s work can be seen in our End of Year Show 2020.

Find out more about Architectural Conservation in Kent and Beyond

Kent School of Architecture and Planning are pleased to announce that we are hosting an online event for you to find out more about the world of Architectural Conservation with Programme Director, Dr Nikolaos Karydis, Senior Lecturer, Dr Manolo Guerci, and PhD student, Anske Bax on Tuesday 30 June at 14.00.

Never has it been so important to have the right skill sets and experience in the job market, now more than ever is the time to invest in higher education to better your chances. The MSc Architectural Conservation provides an invaluable process in delivering a theoretical knowledge to Heritage Conservation, and perhaps even more rewarding is the on-site experience within the modules. Participation with conservation professionals and organisations, provide a unique opportunity of seeing the multiple sectors of conservation practice, helping you to decide the right direction for a truly exciting and rewarding career.

2:00 – 2:30. ‘Recapturing Lost Architectural Heritage’, lecture by Dr Nikolaos Karydis

This lecture presents recent research in the visualisation of historic buildings in Turkey, Italy and the UK. It also shows how this research informs our teaching in the MSc programme in Architectural Conservation and presents recent student proposals for the repair and reuse of historic buildings in Kent.

2:30 – 3:00. ‘Studying Conservation in Kent’,  Anske Bax and Nikolaos Karydis

MSc in Architectural Conservation alumnus Anske Bax discusses with Nikolaos Karydis, the programme director, about his experience of studying architectural conservation and the way in which his postgraduate course prepared him for his current doctoral research in the University of Kent.

3.00 – 3.30. ‘Why do we preserve and why does it matter?’, Dr Manolo Guerci

This lecture asks a fundamental question when it comes to our understanding of the very complex factors that govern decisions on how we deal with our heritage. In particular, the lecture will highlight what is perhaps the main issue: how we manage a balance between those categories which naturally make a building worth preserving and those (many) controversial instances, across all periods. For, whilst regulations do exist – and vary according to different contexts, their interpretations depend on many factors (political, historical, cultural, economic, etc.). The module is therefore concerned with the historical and cultural aspects behind this complex scenario, so as to provide with an appropriate background for the choices that need to be made when approaching conservation.

If you’d like to attend this free online event taking place on Zoom, email ksapadmissions@kent.ac.uk to book your place.

Howard Griffin takes part in Creative Folkestone and South East Creatives’ Tech Week

MA Architectural Visualisation programme director, Howard Griffin, alongside Paul Simms and Fabrice Bourrelly, will be presenting at Tech Week, organised by South East Creatives and Creative Folkestone with their talk titled, ‘Designing architecture in a virtual space’ on Tuesday 16 June at 10.00am BST.

This talk will look at how gaming technology changes the way we think about design. In this discussion, Paul, Fabrice and Howard will explore the ways (Architectural) design is going through significant changes as 3D, VR and gaming technologies are maturing and becoming increasingly adopted across industries such as automotive, aviation and fashion whilst becoming affordable.

All talks will be live-streamed via the Creative Folkestone Facebook page; they are also inviting up to 10 people to join in the room via Zoom to take part in the live Q&A element. Places are limited so book your place.

PhD Student Anske Bax takes part in Online Reading Marathon

GIANCARLO DE CARLO AT 100 – Online Reading Marathon participation with Kent University and the Kent School of Architecture & Planning.  

By Anske Bax

What is it?

A public marathon of reading and visiting the works of Italian architect Giancarlo De Carlo. Promoted on social media through Instagram among the initiatives by the Committee for the Centennial of Giancarlo De Carlo. The reading marathon organised by Professor Antonello Alici of the University of Politecnica delle Marche, is entrusted to students and housed in De Carlo’s places and architectures in Italy and abroad. The two-years long programme promotes a research network of schools and institutions; inviting master and doctoral students to participate in a marathon of re-reading and re-visiting the writings and projects by Giancarlo De Carlo. The four-minute readings seek to encourage research seminars and symposia. Kent School of Architecture was one of the international institutions to have participated in the readings on the 2nd May 2020.

Who was Giancarlo de Carlo?

Giancarlo De Carlo (12 December 1919 − 4 June 2005) is a major figure in the architectural debate and practice of the 20th century for his capacity of reading contexts and exploring the tensions of the city. He built his first theoretical steps on William Morris and Patrick Geddes and revived the legacy of Giuseppe Pagano and Edoardo Persico. In 1993 he was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal, following the suggestion of Colin St John Wilson, who praised him as ‘the Master of Resistance’ and  ‘the most lucid of his generation of architect-philosophers-in-action’ – for his tireless critical action within the Modern Movement.

University of Kent’s involvement and perspective

International collaboration and wider project participation are very much the norm at the Kent School of Architecture and Planning. A mindset that I noticed almost immediately upon joining the school as a doctoral student. These proud collaborations including the marathon reading for Giancarlo De Carlo harness a wider academic unity and through peer involvement encourages one to open one’s mind in architectural theory. These projects are thanks to the wonderful staff of our department, including my experience made possible by the kind efforts of Dr Manolo Guerci and fellow PhD colleague, Benedetta Castagna.  It was a true honour to be asked to read an extract (Reading 7.1) by Giancarlo De Carlo about the work of Le Corbusier. The Swiss born architect who De Carlo identified as someone who was able to create a defined architectural language, but at some point, it lost connection with the reality of the contexts. A clear statement of De Carlo’s conception about the Modern Movement. My reading is one of many enlightening texts on the Instagram page. I would encourage anyone to participate in this two-year project by emailing myself or Benedetta Castagna.