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.

University Prize for Stage 2 Tutors and Technical Support

Tutors on the Stage Two module Collective Dwelling have won this year’s University Teaching Prize for the Faculty of Humanities. The brief for the project, which studied historic buildings in Sandwich and the design of complementary new housing, was devised by Timothy Brittain-Catlin, Benjamin Wood and Patrick O’Keeffe and delivered by a committed team of tutors which also included Dr Manolo Guerci, Felicity Atepke, Jasmine Davey, James McAdam, Tanya Kalinina and David Moore.

The judges, chaired by the Dean of Humanities Professor Simon Kirchin, praised the imaginative and coherent brief and the tutors’ success in stimulating student curiosity and enthusiasm. Stephen Proctor, of Proctor and Matthews, wrote that this was ‘a very ambitious undertaking for students at second year level: not only have the students been expected to engage with in-depth contextual analysis, but also grapple with the complexities of balancing the ergonomic requirements of contemporary domestic space with the technical specifics of servicing requirements and building fabric performance.  All combined with the difficult challenge of accommodating all this within a sensitive historic environment. Through a combined enthusiasm and in-depth subject knowledge, Ben and Patrick have successfully infused their students with a thirst for knowledge which goes beyond that expected so early in an architectural education.  I have been specifically impressed by the level of knowledge the students have attained in vernacular forms and construction detailing.’

In addition, Workshop Manager, Kevin Smith, and 3D CAD Technician, Julien Soosaipillai have won this year’s University Technical Support Award, in recognition of their significant contribution to the success of Kent School of Architecture and planning by providing essential support for both staff and students, with outstanding contribution to CASE (Centre for Architecture and the Sustainable Environment) research project, Urban Albedo.

The three lead tutors will join Kevin Smith and Julien Soosaipillai at the University’s Award Ceremony on 10th July.

Realising Frederick Kiesler’s Endless House

Frederick Kiesler’s Endless House is regarded as one of the most visionary projects in the history of 20th Century architecture. It was a project that spanned almost forty years, developed through sketches, drawings, plans and models between mid-1920’s to the 1960’s but it was never built. Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, considered it important to translate Kiesler’s architecture into reality.

Kent School of Architecture and Planning’s 3D CAD Technician, Julien Soosaipillai, built a digital model of the exterior shell from texts, drawings and photographs of Kiesler’s model for his unfinished Endless House project. This is the first step in DARC‘s current project to realise Frederick Kiesler’s ‘Endless House’.