Westminster Architecture Society Laylac Shahed (President 2015-2016)
The Westminster Architecture Society is a student platform for active engagement and integration of our voices. Our mission has been to create, support and nurture a vibrant community of pro-active, creative and enthusiastic students. Studying architecture is a long journey and we believe it’s important to make the most out of it! We strongly believe in collective decisions and want to create a sense of ownership over our education which is why we created the casual intervention of a ‘WAS Democratic Wall’. This intervention on the 5th floor studio area was a temporary active wall for people to express wishes and share ideas and discussion about what they want from and how to improve their education. This intervention also helped us create a proposal and win the Student Opportunities Fund which has been an incredible resource for us that enabled the society to make the students’ wishes come true. Our In-Campus activities ranged from free yoga sessions to technical software drop-in lectures
Special thanks to Dr Rosa Schiano-Phan for her inspiring proposal of the trip and organisation, and our gratitude to Rita Darch in her administrative and informal collaboration.
(Revit, InDesign, Illustrator tutorials) to graphic design lectures followed by casual consultations and hands on workshops like the Urban Alchemy paper Architecture workshop. Theory and practice are important but so is networking and socialising. They work hand in hand and enable us to create and engage with our colleagues and staff and they manifest enjoyable collaborative environments and better futures. Our social events included A Christmas Party where students from different parts and levels of the Architecture Department met informally and created long lasting networks as they had a drink and enjoyed live music. And lastly we were very pleased to have organised and subsidised a social yet also highly informative trip to the Centre of Alternative Technology in Wales in collaboration with the Architecture and Environmental Design MSc course.