What a difference a year makes ...

A diverse group of unfamiliar students waits apprehensively in a corridor - what will this experience hold?

A year later they are saying goodbye to their friends as they all go on to new academic or professional careers with Masters degrees under their belts. Congratulations to a bumper crop of MA A+U graduands.

More Masters

A further selection of work from the recent submissions by the MA A+U 2012 cohort

Jack Penford Baker

Kihong Kim

Aylin Tara Bahcecioglu

Zoe Mason

Lisa Kinch film here

Anna Lucas

Nicholson Kumwenda

Masters Submissions 2012

23 MA A+U students submitted their final thesis documents at the Manchester School of Architecture this morning, presenting a wide-ranging set of proposals and explorations in Architecture and Urbanism. Prior to assessment commencing here are a few images of the very high standard of research presented.

Laura Minca

Angela Heaney

Yussur Al-Chokdar

Damien Wolliscroft

Mark Turner

Rajinder Matharu

Edward Patton

The students also collated items from the very successful Symposium they organised in May as a documentary record of what has been a very enjoyable academic year. You can see more material from MA Architecture + Urbanism 2012 at the MA Show at Cube Gallery, Manchester between 28 September and 5 October.

Architecture + Urbanism recommends "Palladio Virtuel"

An upcoming exhibit at the Yale School of Architecture is turning the work of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio on its head. Through an in-depth examination of 20 Palladio-designed villas, architect Peter Eisenman and Yale architecture critic Matthew Roman counter notions that the architect’s work was founded on ideal forms. Using color-coded diagrammatic models of each villa (highlighting traditional architectural components such as the portico, circulation, and central figured spaces) the pair argues that the villas’ forms fell away from the architect’s renowned part-to-whole stability to the point that their components became unrecognizable. Even Palladio was willing to reread and renegotiate his designs. At the end of his life, the architect redrew his buildings to reflect new ideas about how he wanted the structures to look and function. Eisenman has referred to the value of Palladio previously.

The exhibition runs from 20 August - 27 October 2012

This Year's Models

Periods of economic depression and lack of construction often lead to moments of reflection and reassessment in architecture, and the current European crisis is no exception. As in previous such periods modes of representation come to the fore and it is therefore no surprise that two great European architectural collections are currently hosting exhibitions focussing on architectural models.

In Frankfurt-am-Main, the German Architecture Museum is hosting Architectural Model: Tool, Fetish, Small Utopia from 25 May -16 September 2012
There is a short video on current techniques here

And in Rome MAXXI is hosting Modelli Models from 19 July - 2 April 2013
There is a short video (in Italian) on the exhibition here

Architecture + Urbanism recommends "Common Ground: 13th Venice Architecture Biennale"

29 August - 25 November 2012 Venice

          “The emphasis of the 2012 Biennale – explains Director David Chipperfield – is on what we have in common. Above all, the ambition of Common Ground is to reassert the existence of an architectural culture, made up not just of singular talents but a rich continuity of diverse ideas united in a common history, common ambitions, common predicaments and ideals. We began with a desire to emphasise shared ideas over individual authorship, and realized that this required us to initiate dialogues rather simply make a selection of individuals. We began by asking a limited group of architects to develop ideas that might lead to further invitations: everyone was asked to propose a project along with a dialogue that reacted to the theme and showed architecture in its context of influence and affinity, history and language, city and culture.
The final list of contributors demonstrates a rich culture of difference rather than a selection of edited and promoted positions. We want to emphasise the common ground that the profession shares, notwithstanding the apparent diversity of today’s architectural production. The sharing of differences is critical to the idea of an architectural culture.”
 
          “The role of the architect – clarifies Chipperfield - is at best one of critical compliance. Architects can only operate through the mechanisms that commission them and which regulate their efforts. Our ideas are dependent on and validated by the reaction of society. This relationship is not only practical but concerns the very meaning of our work. In the increasingly complex confrontation between the commercial motivations of development and our persistent desire for a humane environment there seems to be little dialogue. If architecture is to be more than the privileged, exceptional moments of our built world, we must find a more engaged collaboration of talents and resources. Common Ground invites us to consider how these shared perceptions, concerns and expectations may be better directed.”


A short film of the 2008 Biennale is available here, and a brief comment on the 2010 Biennale is available here.

From Spade to Olympic Torch

MA A+U are delighted to see that Richard Reynolds, the Guerilla Gardener, who spoke at the inaugural MA A+U Symposium in 2010 will be carrying the Olympic Torch at 12.00 noon on Thursday 26 July from Havil Street London SE5 along Peckham Road on its journey towards the Olympic Stadium. Here is a clip of Richard speaking at the Symposium.