2016

The role of government in ensuring social and affordable housing is complex. With budget cuts and shifts in political priorities changing the terrain constantly what the governments of our cities need are new long term ideas. This event seeks to propose new design, planning and collaborative approaches to design led by bringing together people from across all sectors and countries. 

How do you build an ocean and field of icebergs within the Museum's Great Hall? Cathy Frankel, vice president for exhibitions and collections, and Christopher Maclay, master carpenter, lead a tour of the ICEBERGS installation to reveal how we took a concept and made it a reality.

Videos

Works of India is an archive of drawings, sketches, artefacts, models, tools and pictures collected and made during two and a half years of life and work. The collection arises as necessity to document the relation between human, natural and built landscape to portray a frame for a way of life in India.

The selected material articulates in six environments which reflects upon the relation between man and nature, god and matter, a certain sacrality which is embedded during the act of creation and a sort of deep rooted understanding in the way of making and building.

Building Trust are happy to announce that we will be working alongside We Yone Child Foundation to design and build a new hall space for a school that we have been working on for the last 2 years. Building Trust have a number of sustainable design and build projects around the World in 2016, ranging from schools and housing to wildlife conservation and healthcare.

We are offering a hands on participatory workshop where you will gain experience in sustainable building techniques and understand more about humanitarian design while building worthwhile projects that will have a huge benefit to the local community. You will gain an insight into a number of building techniques and architectural styles.

The word Scotland is derived from the ancient Greek word for shadow, or darkness and gloom ‘skótos’. Quite simply Scotland’s ancient meaning being ‘shadow land’. “Our weather shapes everything in our world; our psyche, our homes, our fashion, our architecture, our culture … weather is an omnipresent force”.

Scottish practice Stallan-Brand present art and architectural works that explore ‘how our place on earth defines us’ challenging the popular idea that ‘people make places’ by demonstrating that they in fact make us.

On May 28, Beirut-based firm 109 Architectes unveiled Notes on a Tree at the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture. The interactive installation is part of the GAA Foundation’s annual “Time – Space – Existence” exhibition and commemorates Lebanon’s lost public spaces.

Notes on a Tree tackles the role of the architect in countries like Lebanon, where developers often dictate urban planning. The firm uses its own projects as examples of successes and disappointments in preserving public space, which is symbolized by specific trees. Some trees were saved and some were lost, but each one represents a community’s history and collective memory.

The international Summer School "Real Estate Architecture - Revisiting the apartment building" will take place in Liège from from August 20th to 27th. Forty students and recently graduated architects will be invited to rethink the future of the apartment buildings, products of the real estate boom of the 60s. Students will be led by four talented architects: Filipe Magalhaes (Fala Atelier), Hiraku Nissanke (OMMX), Matteo Costanzo (2A+P/A) & Bart Dehaene.

“Contested Fronts” is an exploration of architecture’s role for commoning practices in ethnically and socially contested spaces. It focuses on the agencies of architecture’s ad-hoc technologies that contribute into conflict transformation by advocating reconciliation processes to go hand in hand with urban reconstruction processes. “Contested Fronts” introduces three levels of frontiers’ investigation where architecture claims an active role: geopolitical, disciplinary and everyday urban politics’ frontiers. To do so, it concentrates on the agencies of ad-hoc technology’s materiality and use that encourage the emergence of collectives, with their members coming from areas across divides. Ad-hoc technology has to do with means of spatial engagement, of cartographic representation and of visual communication. It assists tactful organization of physical spaces and of events.

Known as America’s first architect, Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844) defined the Federal style of architecture and the physical fabric of Boston, capturing the vision and spirit of the young Republic. As an architect, town planner, and selectman, Bulfinch designed some of the city’s most enduring buildings, including iconic Beacon Hill mansions and the area now known as the Bulfinch Triangle near the Boston’s TD Garden. Join the BSA Foundation and Boston By Foot for an exploration of some of his greatest works, including the Massachusetts State House, the sites of Boston’s first theater and first Catholic cathedral, and the Tontine Crescent—his architectural masterpiece and ultimately his financial ruin.

The “Architecture Print is Dead, Long Live Architecture Print!” exhibition, curated by Arshia Eghbali, and with the help of Amirhossein Adelfar as executive director, is a part of the First Tehran Architecture Biennial. It opened on May 12 and will continue until July 13. The exhibition illustrates a mini-history of alternative architecture publication parallel to the story of science-fiction fanzines, punk zines, underground press and artists’ indie publications; and also showcases a number of contemporary architecture zines from around the world. “Architecture Print is Dead, Long Live Architecture Print!” celebrates and defines the architecture zine culture. 

Let your inner designer out and explore the playful side of architecture at this hands-on program for adults. Join other kids at heart and build amazing structures with BSA Space’s LEGO® collection, while enjoying beer, wine, snacks, and conversation.

Kick start your playful summer with a panel discussion about the impact of design on childhood development! Inspired by BSA Space’s new exhibition, Extraordinary Playscapes, an array of unique panelists will consider ways to prevent barriers of play in urban areas. The conversation will delve into how play is related to design, psychology, parenting, architecture, and development while highlighting the role of designers in a more playful future. After the talk, participants will enjoy light refreshments and exclusive access to the exhibition.

Join Michael Laris and Missy Benson ASLA of Playworld as they explore the design processes of two very different urban play solutions: PlayCubes (originally designed by Richard Dattner FAIA in 1969) and PlayForm7, both featured as part of Extraordinary Playscapes, currently on view at BSA Space.