6th Workshop tutorials I

Combined tutorials next week will be in the following order at intermediate Unit 8 space on Tuesday 1st December,

10.00 Karl & Max
11.00 Costa & Olivia
12.00 Merve & Liza
2.00 Kayuan & Maud
3.00 Uliana & Amir
4.00 Gary & Stavros
5.00 Yong

Please be on time for your tutorials.

6th Workshop

W10 Skins as Urban Mediators between Politics and Individuals
30-04 Dec
Students will be required to establish a political argument to define a skin proposal for the Ministry of Internal Affairs in relation to the Plaza de la Revolución.

Readings
Alejandro Zaera-Polo: “The Politics of the Envelope: A Political Critique of Materialism”, Volume 17 pp. 76-105.
Ellen Lupton, Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.

03 Brief

BUILDING A POLITICAL ARGUMENT



After intensively working throughout the term on understanding the relationship between politics of space as defined by architecture and abstract means of government, students will be asked to define their own design proposals, which will be developed in the following spring and summer terms. (2weeks)

Intermediate Unit 8 Life

5th Wokshop Pin-up

The final Pin-up will be on Friday 27th November in Open Room 4 from 10am till 6pm. After that we will go together to Rafael Moneo´s Lecture in the Lecture Hall.

9th Seminar

A seminar by Pier Vittorio Aureli with Diploma 14 students will be on Thursday 26th at 11.30. OPEN ROOM 3 in Bedford Square building.

Pier Vittorio Aureli is an architect and educator. After graduating from the Istituto di Architettura di Venezia, he obtained masters and PhD degrees at the Berlage Institute/Delft University of Technology. His theoretical studies focus on the relationship between architectural form, political theory and urban history. He currently teaches at the Berlage Institute, where he heads the ‘City as a Project’ PhD programme. Together with Martino Tattara he is the co-founder of Dogma, a prize-winning architectural collective focusing on the project of the city.

5th workshop tutorials

Tutorials next week will be in the following order at intermediate Unit 8 space,
Tuesday 24th November
10.00 Karl
10.30 Max
11.00 Uliana
11.30 Kayuan
12.00 Amir
12.30 Olivia
Wednesday 25th November
2.00 Gary
2.30 Costa
3.00 Yong
3.30 Liza
4.00 Stavros
4.30 Merve
5.00 Maud
Please be on time for your tutorials. There will be no chages in the order since it is related to your performance last Friday.

TS3 Design Project submissions Meeting

All 3rd year students of Intermediate Unit 8 have their meeting with Technical Studies staff and Inter Unit 8 tutors on Thrusday 26th November at 4pm in Inter Unit 8 space (4 Morwell Street Building).

5th Workshop

W9 FULL: Construction as people
23-27 Nov
In this exercise, which is complementary to the previous one, students will represent the Ministry of Internal affairs and Plaza de la Revolución through different techniques. They will be specific about how they draw it while understanding the political and representational load of the building.

Readings
Pier Vittorio Aureli, “Rossi: The Concept of the locus as a political category of the city”, in The Project of Autonomy, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008, pp.53-69.
Christopher C.M. Lee and Sam Jacoby (eds), AA Agendas 5 Typological Formations, Renewable Building Types and the City, London: AA Publications, 2007.
References - Buildings
Giusepe Terragni, Casa del Fascio, 1932-1936.
Aquiles Capablanca, Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs, 1953.
Alejandro De la Sota, Tarragona Civil Government, 1956-61.
Rafael Moneo, Murcia Town Hall, 1991-1998.
Foster + Partners, London City Hall, 1998-2002.

4th Workshop Pin-up

The Final Pin up, with your readings of Havana in an A1 format, will be on Friday 20th November in Open Room 4 from 10am till 6pm.

4th Workshop Students´ Presentation

Next Tuesday 17th Novemeber at 9am in Open Room 1 (close to Lecture Hall) you will present your group research work about Havana to your classmates. Please be on time @ 9am.

Then on Wednesday 18th we will have tutorials of your individual studies between 10am to 3pm in Open Room 3 (Bedford Square Building).

4th Workshop

W8 VOID: People as construction
16-20 Nov
This exercise considers the Plaza de la Revolución—where Fidel Castro has traditionally addressed his famous speeches—as embodying Cuban politics. As such, students will be tasked with determining how to represent this void while considering that people—not buildings—are what construct politics. The selection of elements to be represented in students´ particular account of reality defines their political reading of the square.

Readings
Roberto Segre, “The Pearl of the Antilles”, in Cruelty and Utopia, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005, pp.134-145.
Hanna Arendt, “Introduction into politics”, in The Promise of Politics, Schoken Books: New York 2005, pp. 93-200.

References - Squares
Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, 1417.
Plaza de la Revolución, La Havana, Cuba, 1953.
Three Powers Square, Brasilia, Brazil, 1960.
Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1964.

02 Brief

REASSESSING DISCIPLINARY TOOLS

These two weeks engage students in reconsidering architectural means of representation at an urban scale in relation to politics and will serve as our first approach to La Habana. Students will be required to complete two exercises to fully recognize the reality of the Plaza de la Revolución before presenting their own design arguments. (2 Weeks)

AMIR ATTA Yousefi KARL Karam MERVE Anil ULIANA Apatina

3rd Wokshop Installation

BREAKING THE SPACE

LYZA MAX STAVROS

3rd Workshop Installation

NARCISSIM

8th Seminar

Self-organisation and Self-control: The Networked subject of Late Capitalist Urbanism

This lecture presents a critique of architectural and managerial theories of so-called 'self-organisation' focused at the points of their convergence within urban and pseudo-urban public space. Drawing upon post-autonomist accounts of networks, 'swarms' and multitudes as the instruments of contemporary processes of capital accumulation, and upon original research, architecture's engagement with contemporary organisational paradigms and their material expression will be critically examined.



Douglas Spencer has studied design and architectural history, cultural studies and critical theory, and has taught history and theory at a number of architectural schools. His research and writing on urbanism, architecture, film and critical theory has been published in journals including The Journal of Architecture, Radical Philosophy, AA Files and Culture Machine. He has contributed chapters to collections on urban design, utopian literature and contemporary architecture, and is currently researching for a book which formulates a Marxian critique of contemporary architecture and ‘control society’.

The Seminar will be held on Saturday 14th Novemberat 11am in Open Room 5

7th Seminar

Conflict Cities Research Cluster in Cambridge - Jerusalem
Maximilian Gwiazda is employed as a post-doctoral researcher on the ESRC-funded ‘Conflict in Cities and the Contested State’ project (www.conflictincities.org). He completed his PhD in the History and Philosophy of Architecture at Cambridge in 2007. His current research focuses on Jerusalem and relates to the visual analysis of the interplay of heritage stewardship, nationalism and urban design in the politics of planning in East Jerusalem. Gwiazda is a founding member and former president of “Architecture Sans Frontières – Cambridge”, an international network of academics, practitioners and public agencies dedicated to the social dimensions of urban development. Gwiazda is an Academic Associate of Pembroke College and acting Director of Studies at Selwyn and Wolfson colleges (2008-2009).
http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/conflictincities/

Seminar will be held on Friday 13th in Open Room 3 @3.30pm , 36 Bedford Square building.

FIRST WORKS

http://nuriaalvarezlombardero.blogspot.com/2009/11/first-works.html

3rd Workshop Final Pin-up

Next Friday 13th November we will have our final Pin-up for the Instalation. All Inter Unit 8 will decide which instalation express better the brief aims.

Please set your drawings, plans and text in an A1 sheet. Other drawings, models, sketches,etc can be part of your presentation. However your presentation should be based in this A1. Thus you should be strategic in what you show from your proposal to catch others attention. This is a kind of competition where all of us (tutors, students and guests) will vote for the best idea. See you at 10am in Open Room 3.

3rd Workshop Tutorials 2

Next Tuesday 10th November tutorials will be in the following order,

2pm G.1. Lyza-Max-Stavros
3pm G.2. Amir-Karl-Merve-Uliana
4pm G.3. Gary-Kayuan-Olivia
5pm G.4. Costa-Maud-Yong

Please start to review books and travel guides of Havana. We will meet @ 2pm to talk about the travel.

Canales & Lombardero work exhibited

http://nuriaalvarezlombardero.blogspot.com/2009/11/exposicion-metalocus-25-25-x-10.html

METALOCUS 25. 25 = X> 10 exhibition at Raquel Ponce Gallery in Madrid

Wilfredo prieto-Cuban artist in AA

Next Tuesday 3th November at 6pm in the lecture Hall the artist Wifredo Prieto will participate in Stefano Rabolli Pansera cluster Beyond Entropy. He is a cuban artist to who you can ask some questions about Havana. Francisco Gonzalez de Canales will translate his talk to English.