Birmingham School of Architecture Grad Show Gazette 2015

BSoA

2015

Birmingham School of Architecture Welcome to the eagerly anticipated Birmingham School of Architecture end of year celebrations, which are being held once again at our new Parkside home. Last year’s private view was incredibly well attended by people flocking to see the student work, our new home, and to network with colleagues, and no doubt it will be just as busy again this year as the event becomes a not-to-miss evening in the regional architectural calendar.

All of our programmes continue to go from strength to strength and I’m sure that you will see even greater confidence in the student work as well as an overriding sense of the School being very clear about its philosophy, direction, and ethos. The students are increasingly embracing both traditional and contemporary (model) making as part of the design process and I for one love the fact that you can hardly move for models in the studios!

At the start of this academic year, our former Faculty BIAD merged with the Faculty of Performance Media and English to become the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media. The new Faculty has 9 Schools as varied as the Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham School of Acting, and the School of English, and we look forward to exciting collaborations as the Faculty matures.

This year we were joined by a whole host of new staff. Both of our BA courses have new Programme Directors, Victoria Farrow for BA Architecture, and Lucas Hughes for BA Landscape, whilst Matt Lucas and Chris Maloney joined us as studio tutors, and Tom Tebby was appointed onto an Academic contract from his previous role as a Technical Demonstrator. Finally, Harriet Devlin MBE joined our team to launch our new MA Conservation of the Historic Environment course.

I’m delighted to say that all of our new colleagues are already making their influence felt in the School. We will also be appointing some further members of staff this summer, including an additional Landscape Architecture lecturer, and in-house Structural and Environmental Design consultants.

This year also saw the validation of our BA Landscape franchise course with the Hong Kong Design Institute, with a similar arrangement in Wuhan, China set to follow suit. Our BA Architecture course was re-validated, receiving an incredible 9 commendations for good practice, cementing the Birmingham School of Architecture’s place at the forefront of contemporary Learning and Teaching strategies within the University.

Following the success of last year’s work placement scheme for our 2nd year Architecture students we were supported by even more practices this year resulting in some 55 students being placed. A testament to the scheme is that a number of the current 3rd year students have found Year Out positions with the practices they did their placement with last year.

I would also like to thank those people, practices, businesses, and organisations for their continued and generous support this year and for helping make the School what it is, a regional centre for Architecture and Landscape, and a key part of those professional and social communities.

I hope that you enjoy the work on display and take the opportunity to network with staff, students and colleagues, and now that the industry is in full recovery, recruit our students to work with you and continue their professional development.

Thank you.

Professor Kevin W Singh Head of School

Cover image: Gaurav Janey, BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA pt I) Back cover image: Simon Day, MArch Architecture (RIBA pt II) Newspaper design Tom Tebby Copyright © 2015 Birmingham City University for more information about Birmingham School of Architecture visit bcu.ac.uk/architecture or follow us @BCU_BSoA

BA Architecture first year 1:200 site model of Warley Woods in Oldbury

BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA pt I); top left, Joseph Bowman; top right, Poppy Palmer middle, Joshua Boardman; bottom, Vitalijus Duk

BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA pt I); top, Lysianne Courdray, left, Obinna Williams, right, Dagmar Heiman

BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA pt I); left, Anila Safeer; right, Jac Doody; bottom, Myles Sharples

BA (Hons) Architecture (RIBA pt I); top, Bonnie Carswell; bottom, Sukhvir Singh Lall

BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture; top left, Gabija Tamausaskaite; top right/bottom left, Evie Davenport; bottom right, Nathan Onions

BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture; top, Xiguang Zheng; bottom, Jlajun Li

MArch Architecture (RIBA pt II); top left John Burton; bottom left, Charles Riach; top right, Jay Rajpra: bottom right, Keith Nye

MArch Architecture (RIBA pt II); left, Alex Billingham; top right, Nur Nu’man Bin Che Hassan: bottom right, Nick Joyce

PG Dip Landscape Architecture; left, Chen Ye; top, Wendy Wan Teng; bottom, Kay Gardener

Study Trip Following the talk, a number of third year students in the middle of final year studies made their way to AL_A’s office off Caledonian Road, North East London to investigate the relationship between working environment and the projects themselves. A tour of the office was really interesting in how they formulated both architectural and furniture projects into one cohesive studio ethos.

Birmingham Student Architecture Society At the end of a busy year for BSAS, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the year’s events and begin to share our experiences and thoughts on why the school’s Architecture Society is becoming an increasingly important part of student life. The Birmingham Student Architecture Society - BSAS as it is known is a not-for-profit group set up in 2012 by a collective of the school’s students who were looking to further enhance studio culture through the organisation of events such as workshops, lectures and socials. As a student led body, BSAS’s agenda is to bring together undergrads, postgrads and staff, facilitating debate on architecture, design and culture while encouraging social interaction and debate between the various groups of the school and those from the practicing architectural community. In the past BSAS has organised film screenings, guest speakers, first year workshops and social events.

notion came through strongly throughout the innovative designs presented such as the Timber Wave project for London Design Festival at the V&A Museum.

Lecture Series 14/15

This process of prototyping in digital and physical forms allowed the design to develop in both realms at a variety of scales. From the structural load analysis digitally to 1:1 elements constructed to show the connections and tectonic assembly of the piece. Compared to the gridlike construction of the Timber Wave, the Spencer Dock Bridge in Dublin, Ireland was another recent project to use similar technologies in a new and innovative way.

The double curved bridge is constructed out of precast and insitu concrete to form an undulated surface set to the rippling waves of the canal. To create the swelling texture, blocks of extruded polystyrene were milled to create a mould that concrete could be poured onto while creating structural supports; this to date is the largest application of the material process to create a surface of this size. A truly innovative piece of design only accomplished through use of parametric modeling influenced by the site constraints, material properties and the form’s dictated by the designers, once again using prototypes to form a beautiful use of a completely different material.

This year our primary focus has been establishing an open lecture series partnership with the Birmingham Architectural Association. This has seen us host six guest speakers from a range of backgrounds varying from working architects, to writers and academics.

As students we felt that supplementing our existing academic programme with speakers chosen by ourselves was and essential part of the societies role in furthering our exposure to architecture.

Lecture List: CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects – Monday 6th October (Interface, Ibstock, Solus Ceramics) Paul Shepheard – Monday 20th October (Interface, Ibstock, Solus Ceramics) Ho Yin Ng/AL_A – Monday 3rd November (Interface, Ibstock, Solus Ceramics) Harbinder Birdi/Hawkins/Brown – Monday 26th January (Interface, Ibstock, Solus Ceramics) Joe Morris/Duggan Morris Architects – Monday 2nd March (Reynaers) Chris Bryant /Alma-Nac – Monday 23rd March (Interface, Ibstock, Solus Ceramics) Ho Yin Ng – AL_A Ho-Yin Ng’s talk ‘Prototyping in Architecture’ was an eye-opening look at the way that he and the studio team at Amanda Levete Architects approach design challenges and opportunities. He is very interested in emerging digital technologies such as computational CAM software and parametric and algorithmic modeling used in all stages of the design process from form finding and prototyping to the final design resolution and installation.

The inclusion of these technologies allows the design process to become enhanced while also resolving the technical application and performance concurrently. This

Employing algorithmic modeling as a key piece within the design process lead to the creation of a complex structural and aesthetic strategy, a sweeping filigree curve that swept out from the entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London onto Cromwell Street.

It was constructed made from around twenty repeated timber sections, only accomplishable by the use of algorithmic modeling to test structural loads thus making the traditionally expensive double curved surface a much more cost effective installation. The setting of parameters meant that the design could be controlled through a number of iterations, each affected by a number of factors to come up with the final section profiles that could be constructed extremely easily.

A number of prototypes of both arms of the studio were on display, from early Styrofoam seating tests of the DRIFT bench to a number of steel perforation tests that were tested for the cladding at the V&A extension project on site at the moment. An interesting point was the use of hand physical model making within all departments.

Originally the preconception was that rapid prototyping and precisely laser cut components would be key in the parametrically driven design models of the office, but it was refreshing to see the use of more traditional methods of card cutting and clay molding to form initial designs. Rather than let the computer algorithm’s dictate the design process and therefore the outcome itself, AL_A uses the powerful software packages to enhance the designs already formulated by the team into sophisticated proposals which have a full technical approach with constructability key to the historically complex geometries.

It was a really interesting insight into a medium-large London firm that has established itself not only within architecture but also furniture design, applying the lessons learnt within architecture to a smaller scale and vice versa; creating an interesting and unique relationship between the two disciplines.

Acknowledgements Finally we would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporter, who without this would have not been possible. Firstly, thank you to Mike Duff, president of the BAA for his continued support of BSAS and the CELT department for their funding. Secondly thank you to, Ibstock Brick, Interface, Reynaers Aluminum and Solus for their generous sponsorship.

BSoA Staff Prof. Mohsen Aboutorabi Shajdha Anwar Dr. Maria Caserio Ant Clerici Prof. Richard Coles Alessandro Columbano Mark Cowell Harriet Devlin MBE Mike Dring Victoria Farrow Prof. Christian Frost Russell Good Lucas Hughes Prof. Ljubomir Jankovic Matthew Lucas Chris Maloney Davinder Mehat Prof. Kathryn Moore Wendy Ross Prof. Kevin Singh Ian Shepherd Jim Sloan Tom Tebby Hannah Vowles Visiting Tutors/Specialists Emeritus Prof. Jim Low Emeritus Prof. Derek Cassidy Prof. Richard Snell Julie Fitzpatrick Jemma Browne Yusuf Adams Tom Perks Olive White Anna Parker Andy Hilton Tom O’Donnell Julie Widowson Rebecca Walker Tim Richardson Paul Wakelam Barbora Bott Mike Driver Henry Morris Nic Howett Mark Barry David Sharpe Alan Budden Eduardo McIntosh Patrick Lewis Alexis Germanos Holly Galbraith

Rob Annable Dr. Sandra Costa Liz Ackerley Peter Dunlop Eccles Ng Adam Carthy Sam Roberts Danielle Jeynes Visiting Critics Alastair Ogle Martin Ball Irena Dumitrascu Mark Hughes Maria Law Frazer Bufton William Beecham Joe Harris Guveer Bhachu Chris Marquis Phil Twiss Charlotte Lewis Joan Kerr Ollie Chapman Mike Duff Paul Humphries Peter Croft Matt Vaughn Nicholas Choy Darren Cobb Allan Haines Liz Turner Islah Ali-MacLachlan Hugh Moss James Thomson Nick Cramp Anthony Chilton Sophie Hamer Ashley Carvalho Neil Rose Nic Howett Simon Pope Gavin Orton Phill Shepherd Rod Heyes Luke Nagle Rav Kumar Paul Graham Raven Tom Cotton Vivek Jnagal David Holland Holly Doron Ruppenthal Paj Valley Graham Woodward

Robert Kitch Barry Moore Andy Williams Jeremy Peachey RIBA Part III Invited Speakers Ruth Reed Michael Dunn Keir Hurst John Jacobs Rob Annable Robin Nicholson Bob Pritchard Dan Gibson Basil Sawczuk Lorna Parsons Adrian Dobson Rachel Hobbis Tom Taylor Rob Kennedy Hans Haenlein Anthony Lavers RIBA Part III Professional Examiners Madeleine Dring Paul Mulligan Helen Wootton Mary Kelly Sue Spackman Amanda Harmer Martin Killick Amanda Jones Bob Ghosh Paul Hewes Phil Cole Sandy Greenhill Satwinder Samra John Norfolk Conservation of the Historic Environment Lecturers/ Specialists Nick Molyneux Mike Hodder Bruce Induni Victoria Bryant Joe Holyoak David Mahoney Simon Buteux Mary King Peter Frith

Dan Roberts Tony Herbert Kathryn Sather Prof. Geddes Dr Jeremy Ashbee Shane Kelleher Tim Ratcliffe Simon Ayres Stuart Preece Alan Gardner Andrew Arroll Veronika Vklova Brad Steele Paul Belford Henrietta Billings Prof. David Chapman David Platts Alan Clawley Prof. Peter Robery Lesley Durbin Andy Fuller Terrence Lee Robert Demaus Corey Lane Treasures of Ludlow Duncan James Simon Harper Sarah Kay Catriona Hughes Dr Ian West Laura Stevens Andrew Bush Jane Bradney Ryan Taylor Joe Hawkins

Bournville Architects Bryant Preist Newman Chartered Practice Architects Creative2 Architecture Croft Architecture D5 Architects Dalkin Scotton Daniel Hurd Associates FCB Studio Glancy Nicholls Architects Glazzards Glenn Howells Architects Hawkins Brown IBLA IDP Jacobs (WCC) Jessop & Cook Joe Holyoak K4 Architects Murphy Philips Pinegar Heywood PCPT Robothams Architects S&P AFL Architects Seymour Harris St Paul’s Associates Studio Spicer Suzanne Barnes Design Partnership The Space* Studio Troyka Associates Tweedale Urban Synthesis Vagdia and Holmes Weedons West Hart

Work Placement Practices

Digi-Lab Mentors

3D Reid ADP AHR AJA Architects APEC ArchialNORR Associated Architects AT Architects Axis B+G Architects Baart Harries Newall Baily Garner BDP BM3 Birmingham City Council Broadway Malyan Brophy Riaz

Joseph Bowman Stefan Manteanu Nadia Ouhabi Jason Keyles Ellie Rowe Birmingham Student Architecture Society (BSAS) Joseph Bowman Jac Doody Sarah Ives Samantha Evans

Acknowledgements Thank you to all the following for your contribution this year: Arup for your valuable input in technology; Spurgeon Smith, Rowan Green, Bonnie Hay and Miles Marshall for your help in the Parkside workshops; David Huggins, Michelle Bland and the rest of the Building Service team; Tony Davis and Darren Elliot for all the late night printing; Luke Millard, Elgan Hughes, Prof.

Stuart Brand for your continued support at CELT; Jo Birch, Steve Harding, Nayan Patel and Charmaine Stint at EIBE, Allan Haines (Edicct); David and Martin at Ibstock Bricks; Chris Hufford, Nick Gibb and Gary Church at Willmott Dixon; Jayne Higgins at Nest Gallery; Hassan Hemida, Ian Jefferson, Mark Sterling, Rachel Fisher (University of Birmingham), John Nolan (Nolan Associates), Laura Kidd, Tomás Garcia (HS2), Gursharan and Matt Dobson at RIBA West Midlands; Steve Williamson and David Sadler from Ibstock for support of the New York trip; David Turnbull at Cooper Union and Mark Wagner at Brody Davis Bond, New York; WS Atkins, Arups, Capita Symonds, Pegasus Planning Group, Define, FIRA for their support with Landscape Architecture; Mike Duff at Birmingham Architectural Association.

Co.LAB Collaborative Laboratory is a cross-disciplinary architecture & design initiative within the Birmingham School of Architecture. We focus on ‘live’ projects where our students and staff engage with real clients, delivering outcomes across a range of scales and formats.

Co.LAB use the architectural discipline to set a new agenda in collaborative output in urban strategies, architectural design, investigating the built environment and communicating ideology and form alongside the visual arts.

Students develop skills in entrepreneurialism, employability and engagement – all through a ongoing process of collaborative design.

This year students from both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes participated from BA (Hons) Architecture, BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture, MArch Architecture, BA (Hons) Art & Design and MA Zero Carbon Design & Retrofit.

Elective projects this year: Wyre Forest Explorations partner: Kate Darby Architects, Wyre

Forest Landscape Partnership Aluminium Tectonics partner: Ash & Lacey Malvern Outdoor partner: Malvern Outdoor Elements Modern Gazetteer: Paradise Lost partner: BMAG, Museum Collection Centre Zero Carbon partner: BCU Research Heath Town Open Platform partner: Black Country Make Trends Pavilion partner: Global Color, BCU Textile

Design Stirchley High Street partner: Lifford Business Association Design Mentoring partner: St. Edmunds Secondary

School Extra-curricular projects: Concrete Workshop Birmingham Space Jam

partner: The Concrete Lady partner: Backpack Studio

find us online: w: fb: tw: bl:

birmingham-colab.org facebook.com/birmingham.colab bham_colab http://liveprojectsnetwork.org

Acknowledgements: Stuart Brand, Luke Millard, Elgan Hughes at CELT (BCU) for their continued support; Charmaine Stint, Jo Birch, Steve Harding, Tom Cahill-Jones, David Wright and David Rees at EIBE (BCU); Stuart Whipps; An Endless Supply; Matt Dobson and Gursharan (RIBAWM), John Hall and Jean Ensell (Ensell + Hall); Tim Selman (WFLP), Kate Darby, John Iles (St.George’s Guild); Trevor Nock and Nick Pike (Solutions2); Henry Woodlock (Ash & Lacy); Bonnie, Spurge and Rowan in the workshop; Nick Hands and Beverley Nielsen (Malvern Outdoor); Rob Kennedy (MDA Consulting); Jez Monk-Hawksworth (BCM); Lakshmi Devi (St.Edmunds RC School); Rhiannon Hodgeon (The Concrete lady); Mohammed Rahouma and Shamil Chauhan (Backpack Studio); Andre Reid (Black Tape Studio)