The Bartlett’s BSc degree programme aims to develop a creative, diverse and rigorous approach to architecture and design from the outset. Year 1 is centred on the design studio and is taught to the year as a whole. Students observe, draw, model and design, based in the School’s design studios and workshop from the first week onwards.

You can now see three videos of the Year 1 program, including a sketchfilm by Brook Lin, who sketched for 13 hours, transformed in a 10 minute film. For more information click here. See the other two videos after the break. read more »

© Superblue Design

This year’s theme for the London Festival of Architecture, “The Welcoming City”, inspired Superblue Design to create an installation where all could sit together to enjoy the space, but also take an active role in making that place.  Entitled Giant Knitting Nancy, the project is a metaphor for the “interwoven cultures, spaces and places that help make the London a distinctive place.”  By collaborating with sculptor Dan Preston and jewelry designer Holly Packer, the team created a large-scale knitted structure which doubles as an “interactive architectural seating unit.”

More about the installation after the break. read more »

© Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Photograph by Philippe Ruault

This just in from the Serpentine Gallery – Jean Nouvel’s pavilion is complete!  In honor of the Serpentine’s 40^th Anniversary, Nouvel’s pavilion is a bold and strong expression comprised of lightweight materials with dramatic cantilevers.  Designing the pavilion allows international architects to experiment with different architectural ideas, and over the years, the commissions’ varied aesthetics have added to the thrill of the exposition.  Nouvel’s bright red pavilion  is drastically different from SANAA’S subdued silvery curvillinear form of 2009, and its vivid color contrasts the park’s greenery, immediately drawing the eye.

More images and more about the new pavilion after the break. read more »

Sean Gair shared with us his submission for the New Landmark for Aldgate International Competition. Within the historic area Aldgate, on the eastern edge of the City of London, GINA (Global Information Network Amplifyer) could stand for the duration of the year 2012, coinciding with the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

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© Richard Lewisohn

Architect: Michaelis Boyd Associates
Location: London
Contractor: Giles Contracts Management Ltd.
M&E Contractor: Link Projects Limited
Kitchen: Exclusive Ranges
Structural Engineer: Akera Engineers
Photographs: Richard Lewisohn

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We just featured an article about London’s construction frenzy, which includes over half a dozen skyscrapers for the city.   This new era will completely alter the city’s skyline as tall buildings will be sprouting everywhere to house new office, commercial, and residential activities.  Of these new structures, Renzo Piano’s 310 meter high mix-used tower, The Shard (be sure to check out our coverage of the tower), will not only become London’s tallest tower, but also the tallest building in all of Western Europe. Of all of London’s new developments, we are excited to see this dynamic tower’s impact on the city and its relationship with London’s context and future neighboring skyscrapers.

We have new images to share from Renzo Piano Building Workshop and more video clips of the construction progress after the break. read more »

The RIBA is delighted to announce the launch of an international open design competition on behalf of The Royal Parks Foundation and Tiffany & Co. Foundation for the design of a new drinking fountain which can then be installed throughout the Royal Parks in London. The programme, called Tiffany – Across the Water, focuses on ornamental and drinking fountains in the capital’s eight Royal Parks and will see the creation of a stunning new fountain in St James’s Park, restoration of the Italian Gardens in Kensington Gardens, as well as improvements to drinking fountains to benefit the Royal Parks’ 37 million visitors each year.

The competition challenge will be to create a well-designed drinking fountain to replace older Parks’ fountains which cannot be restored. The winning designer will see their work turned into reality in the Parks, with the hope that the design will eventually be adopted in other green spaces around the world. For more information click here. Seen at Death by Architecture.

© David Grandorge

Architect: 6a Architects
Location: 65 Peckham Road, London SE5 8UH
Team: Tom Emerson, Stephanie Macdonald, Takeshi Hayatsu (project associate),
Max Beckenbauer, Alessandro Cairo, Sylvie Duvoisin, Trevor Brown, Lucia
Frescaroli, Max Retegui, Mariana Simoes, Susanne Sauter, Eva-Maria Stadelmann, Katharina Schworer, Jonathan Wong
Client: South London Gallery
Structural engineer: Jane Wernick Associates
M&E engineer: Serge Lai Engineers Ltd.
Quantity surveyor: Stockdale
Main contractor: John Perkins Projects
Year: 2006-2010
Photographs: David Grandorge and 6a Architects

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Renzo Piano's Shard

London’s skyline is about to get a complete makeover.  While in the past, almost every tower proposed was stalled due to financial shortcomings, or workers just leaving the job site, now, London is dusting off their old building plans and getting ready to move into a construction frenzy. Thanks to Kieran Long’s article at the Evening Standard we get to know more details about this process:

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This year’s Emirates Glass LEAF Awards entry categories have been announced. This prestigious event, once again sponsored by Emirates Glass, will take place on 10 September 2010. Following the success of last year’s event which took place in Berlin, the 2010 LEAF Awards, now in their seventh year, move to London, where it will attract entries from around the world.

The awards are open to individuals and organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to the world of architecture. Previous winners have included Woods Bagot, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield, SOM, Steven Holl and Terry Farrell. There are 9 categories and the closing date for entries is July 1. For more information, visit the LEAF Awards official website. Seen at Bustler.

Photo: Pasi Aalto / pasiaalto.com

Architectural photographer Pasi Aalto sent us this photos of the 1:1 – Architects Build Small Spaces exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The V&A invited nineteen architects to submit proposals for structures that examine notions of refuge and retreat. From these nineteen concept submissions, seven were selected for construction at full-scale.

This photos belong to the project designed by Rintala Eggertsson Architects. The exhibition started on Tuesday and will be on display till August 30. You can see more photos by Pasi Aalto after the break. read more »

The Festival in 2010 will be a city-wide celebration of architecture in the capital. As London gears up for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games we look at ways that planners, architects and local communities play their part in the development of ‘The Welcoming City’.

Everyone is invited to join the Festival community, to develop projects to take part in debates; to investigate ways that London can be made a better place to live, work and play; to explore the city through guided walks and bike rides and to examine change in the capital in a celebratory way.

A wide range of independent events will surround a number of core activities – some focused on high profile weekend events – others taking place throughout the Festival period. For a complete list of event, go to the festival’s official website.

AA Exhibit Photograph: Architectural Association

Master mind, Rem Koolhaas, is obsessed with research.  At his exhibit currently showing at the Architectural Assocation School of Architecture in London, hundreds of pages of paper filed with research, theories and sketches rest on a plinth in the middle of the room.  Those pages compile an astonishing 400 volumes bound in black folders and contain the story of each one of OMA’s complete works from the past 40 years. So, Koolhaas, prolific writer or awesome architect?  We’re going to go with a little bit of both… read more »

Mantownhuman hosts Critical Subjects, Architecture & Design Winter School on 17-18 November. Critical Subjects is a unique opportunity for 20 or so of the keenest students in the country to engage in a series of intellectual architectural design challenges facilitated by leading names in the field.

Over the course of a day and a half, they will explore topics such visionary architecture, social criticism, historical-thinking and the nature of Good Design. Workshops will provide an open dialogue on classic texts and film, as well as sessions on measured drawing, the politics of design, human creativity, culture, development and the role of expertise. This experimental event will take place at The Kowalsky Gallery, Great Sutton Street, London EC1.

For more information click here.

The Architecture Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of an open international competition to design a New Aldgate, a temporary landmark on the eastern edge of the City of London, to stand for the duration of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, to open in January 2012.

The competition for the design of the project is open to (but not limited to) architects, designers, artists, product designers, and/or any other disciplines. The Architecture Foundation encourages design teams to suggest inspiring and innovative yet realistic designs for this temporary and flexible structure.

The competition will be open to entries from 19 April until 12noon on 28 May 2010. More information on the competition’s official website.

London-based Benson & Forsyth has won the competition to design two skyscrapers in north London. They defeated John McAslan & Partners, Panter Hudspith, Flacq and Studio Egret West, and will design two 21-storey towers, with 355 flats, shops and office space.

Seen at the Architect’s Website. More images after the break. read more »

Sublime Flesh brings together, for the first time, new designs for contemporary spiritual spaces developed by students at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. A collection of research projects located in international cities including Istanbul, Rome, Turin, Lisbon, Havana and Miami, each explores a unique sense of sacredness and the Sublime.

The complex nature of these themes is articulated in a series of exquisite models that express a new ornamental, spatial and technological approach and also a reconsidered religious and cultural dimension for contemporary architecture design.

The exhibition will continue in London Christ Church till April 11. Also, there will be various events through the exhibition. Among those there will be a symposium on Tuesday April 6 14:30-18:30. Speakers are Sir Peter Cook, Marjan Colletti, Rev Rod Green, Robert Harbison, Ali Mangera, Natasha Sandmeier, Yael Reisner, and Marcos Cruz (chair).

For more information, click here.

Jonathan Clark’s renovation of  the 1960s Longford Community School adds a colorful front for the two storey extension and partial conversion project.  Extending from a lifeless masonry building, the choice of using colourful timber offers a nice contrast with a more aesthetic touch. Timber was chosen because the clients desired that the main material selection include environmentally friendly materials.  The extension includes two classrooms and a fitness center on the ground level, and a library on the first floor. The interior also incorporates the vibrant color palette of the exterior, making the interior feel more “relaxed.”  Aluminium grating panels provide solar control as well as some structural stiffening to the external structure.   For the roof, the timber is clad with silver ‘Trespa’ panels that give the impression of “floating/sliding across the exposed timber roof beams.”

More images after the break. read more »

Whatever the uses and abuses of climate research lately, buildings are still said to cause 40 percent of carbon emissions. As such, architects see themselves at the forefront against global warming. But why do most contemporary solutions involve evermore constraints? Indeed, it is now common to hear the argument that more restrictions aid creativity. Doesn’t more freedom aid creativity?

And what about the bureaucracy of carbon bean-counters? From Bioregional, the Carbon Trust and WWF to Biffa, WRAP and BRE, who are these unelected bodies that dictate environmental standards? What is the cost of prioritising carbon measuring, rationing, trading – carbon navel-gazing – in terms of design freedom and critical-thinking?

This, the first of three mantownhuman debates asks: Should architects not maximise – rather than minimise – their footprint? This event will take place March 25th, 7pm at BDP, Brewhouse Yard, London. Find out more here.

On Friday, April 23, 2010, top UK, European and American industry leaders will gather at the Architectural Association in London for a day-long Think Tank to explore solutions that could change the building industry for the better.

Among the firms that will participate are: Adams Kara Tylor London / Atelier Ten / Grimshaw Architects LLP / Foster and Partners / Johnson Controls / Oldcastle Glass/ Arup / Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners / Turner Construction / Werner Sobek / NG Bailey Off-Site

The Think Tank will consist of three 90 minute sessions of a series of “pecha-kucha” style short presentations followed by roundtable discussions. The C-BIP London Think Tank is the second in a series hosted by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation and generously underwritten by Oldcastle Glass®.

For more information on this event, click here.