UEL Architecture Showcase 2018

on show now: Students of Unit A exhibiting proposals and urban strategies for their Dalston project sites. Private view Thu 14 June from 6pm | Public view 15 - 29 June 2018, weekdays 10-6pm, weekends 11-6pm | Docklands Campus, 4-6 University Way, London E16 2RD

HAC - Hackney Arts Centre

Latest news from the Hackney Gazette:
A new Hackney Arts Centre is set to open at the derelict Art Deco Savoy Cinema, just up from the Rio Cinema.

This is interesting news for us, unit A, as it's really set within the same context, just north of our Dalston study area.  It also seems to employ similar techniques of alternative spatial production, supported by investors that are interested in social value and gains for the wider community, rather than greedy short-term thinking.

It shows that your briefs and programmes that attempt to build stronger ties within the local community and strengthen social infrastructure is what is emerging right now in Dalston. Your work is therefore extremely relevant. You are right in the middle of that debate! This should act as encouragement to pursue your projects further at highest levels of motivation and work output.

Tue 27 Feb Drawing Change

Following last weeks pin-up and discussions with guest critics Harald Trapp and Michele Roelofsma about proposals for the Dalston project sites, questions emerged about how the existing qualities of the 'temporary', experimentation and flux could be maintained alongside the architectural interventions that rightly aim to create permanent anchor-points for the local community.

The lecture we gave yesterday contained some examples of graphic representations that attempt to communicate change; for example change over a timeframe, change of occupation, change of activities, change of the space itself... While your building proposals now evolve through means of two-dimensional drawings (plans & sections) we are interested to see how your thinking about opportunity for change will influence the designs. Make drawings that present evidence of this critical thinking and include notions of change alongside or within your orthographic representations of the building proposals.

Exhibition: Place, Spaces, Work: Creative Industries in London

Interesting drawings on show this week until 3rd March by Publica in Clerkenwell. Worth checking out. Looks relevant to our discussions about alternative forms of production of space for Dalstons' creative community. More info on exhibition here.

Fri 23 Feb - Structural models

Following our talk about different methods to experiment with possible structures for your building via a process of model-making, we are keen to see how your tectonic proposals will reconcile the spatial and architectural demands set out by your personal briefs.

Open Studio 2018

Following critical analysis of Dalstons' multi-layered urban fabric, students have developed individual briefs and building programmes during last term. Currently they are working on the first architectural proposals that attempt to anchor existing activities of local organisations and community networks. Those are seen as alternative strategies of spatial production and as a response to increasing pressures on local communities caused by effects of rapid urban transformation and predominant commercial spatial production.

What became clear during the constructive debate at the Open Studios Event, is that interventions to the different project sites will require a combination of both strategic and architectural thinking. An approach that understands architecture more as an adaptive condition, a kind of hybrid. (the opposite of architecture as an idea of static entity or singular typology). 

A key quality observed within Dalston derives from an understanding of space that is shared by a multiplicity of different networks and user-groups which necessitates co-existence and overlap: A kind of porous condition and testing ground enabling various forms of social, cultural and entrepreneurial experimentation. Proposals will need to make provisions to enable this phenomenon to continue.

While the permanent parts of the proposed architectural interventions will establish a new "fixed" and permanent spatial condition, the question is how projects sites can maintain critical opportunities for the informal, experimental and adaptive use at the same time?

Many thanks to all guest critics, especially Heidi Moxon and Moto Auraa Kawakami.

context models

   Dalci

Kiesse

Nelton

sectional models

Marianne 

Julia

Nelton

Daniella

Aziz

Daniel

Berlin field-trip

thank you for everybody's input into the field-trip guide. A real group effort! It is now being printed and everybody gets a copy. Make sure you pick up yours tomorrow at the end of day in the studio. preview below...

model making material and art suppliers...

here is a list of model making and art material suppliers...

Atlantis

4D Model shop

Jackson's

Cass Arts

Great Art