Virtual Building Tour – Esteam Centre Somerset College

Image by ©Andre Engelbrecht

This year’s AIA’s 2022 Building Tour Series has been a combination of, virtual and in person events. In June, we were back to touring virtually due to the location of the building. On 09 June 2022, the UK AIA Chapter ‘visited’ Esteam Centre, Somerset College, by Walters & Cohen Architects, and winner of the 2021 AIA Design Excellence Awards, Medium Projects. 

Michál Cohen, founding Director of Walters & Cohen Architects, led a comprehensive virtual tour of the Esteam Centre, Somerset College. At the beginning of the tour, Michál noted that she had given a lecture on 21st-century school design, and as a direct result Somerset College commissioned her team to undertake a masterplan and ultimately develop a concept for a “cross-curricular learning space.” The Initial commission for a masterplan for the college, identified the best location for a new ESTEAM Centre a forward-thinking Institution within the College that accommodates Entrepreneurship, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths. 

The masterplan has positioned the ESTEAM Centre prominently near the entrance, the intent to highlight the school’s inventive approach to learning and purposefully shaping new links across the site to other buildings and amenities. 

Michál further discussed the vernacular traditions of the Cape Dutch aesthetic that influenced the overall character of the proposal.  The development of the external veranda and the glazed elements provides a direct connection from the inside to the outside,  whilst providing passive cooling and solar shading during the sun-drenched months. There is a double-height prototyping/testing space running the length of the building, providing a central gathering space, and encouraging students to share their ideas to think “outside the box.” Off of the central double height space atrium rooms are arranged to accommodate a variety of courses such as coding and robotics, a makerspace, innovation and solution spaces, a reflection space, a physics lab, art rooms and offices. 

Like the external facades composed of large, glazed openings, Michal highlights that the glazed doors allow in light from the atrium, give greater flexibility of use and give a sense of openness in those spaces. Additionally, because of the sites setting, the connectivity and transparency of the learning spaces take advantage of breath-taking views towards the mountains. More importantly, the design provides a place where students can explore and share their ideas openly.

Image by ©Dennis Gilbert

Walters & Cohen also used native vines that will eventually crawl up tension cables on the terrace to make a further connection with local vernacular and aesthetics and simultaneously provide additional solar shading. The white walls and dark gable roofs were noted as a further “contemporary response to the Cape Dutch aesthetic.” I personally very much enjoyed the tour of a building I otherwise would not have been able to experience in such detail from afar. The presentation reminded me that there were some good things that have come out of the pandemic: it gave us “Virtual Building Tours.”

The AIA UK Chapter will continue to host a combination of live and virtual buildings tours recommencing in 2023, offering architects the opportunity to visit notable buildings that have a variety of design interests in the UK and abroad. 

Written by Gregory Fonseca, AIA 

Noel Hill Award Winner Announcement

Image by Noel Hill Award winner: Paris Gazzola

AIA UK is delighted to announce that the winner of this year's £3000 Noel Hill Award is Paris Gazzola, a Master's Graduate from The Bartlett School of Architecture. 

Paris' research focuses on the dichotomy between indigenous and non-indigenous relationships to land in Western Australia. Her research explores the consequences of these two divergent ways of being and their ecological consequences through the examination of archival images, film, diaries, art, interviews and advertising. Her thesis posits that imported colonial knowledge has hindered Australia's ability to peacefully inhabit land, ultimately resulting in its destruction. Her submitted proposal for the Noel Hill Award involved the continuation of ongoing research into indigenous knowledge through interviews and archival research, to explore alternative value-systems and relationships that re-establish sustainable land-management praxis. 

The Noel Hill Award will fund travel into remote communities in Western Australia and help with the production costs of a documentary style film entitled 'Principles for Change,' which will build on the output of her final year project. 

The judges commended the work and had the following comments.

"This project showed a clear and pragmatic methodology for exploring and understanding the real life condition of communities in Australia, and the conversations needed to find an equitable way forward. The overall ambition should be commended for its specificity to the location, but also the importance these discussions can have in translating to a global scale. "

The Noel Hill Award was judged by Jack Penford Baker (Haptic Architects), Rory Alasdair Downes (DSDHA Architects) and Eve Zeltina (ADAM Architecture). AIA UK would like to thank the judges for their participation and careful evaluation of all of this year's entries.

Written by: Nicholas Kehagias AIA, RIBA

Developing the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard

As the global push to address the Climate Crisis continues, the UK construction industry is working towards a more sustainable built environment with the development of a new UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard (NZCBS). The aim is to bring the wider industry together around a unified methodology - defining Net Zero Carbon for the UK, as well as agreeing what metrics will be used to measure buildings and what boundaries must be set for how they are measured (e.g, time, physical extent, activities etc.). 

On Tuesday the 6th of December, Dr. Simon Hatherly, an architect, researcher and sustainable design specialists at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, spoke to members of the AIA UK about the emerging standard and his experience as a member of the development team.  The standard will be an industry driven, science-based framework for Net Zero Carbon and the team hope that might help influence policy at the local and national level and guide designers, builders and governments alike as they pursue a sustainable built environment.

The standard is still in progress, due to be launched in late 2023, and there is currently an open Call for Evidence from the sector groups looking to compile data from example projects. For more information on the Call for Evidence, now extended to 11 January 2023, please see the NZCBS website here.  If you missed the lunchtime lecture and want to catch-up, a recording is available here.

Written by: Katharine Storr, AIA

Beale & Co Reports on Decarbonising UK Real Estate

Chapter partner, Beale & Co, brings us a report from the RCIS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) on decarbonising UK real estate. The publication of the Report demonstrates that there is an urgent need to make buildings, their construction, and their management more sustainable if the UK is to reach net zero and outlines the main policy reforms needed to accelerate the reduction of both embodied and operational carbon emissions arising from real estate in line with national decarbonisation targets.

If you would like to read Beale & Co’s summary of the report, please click HERE

Alternatively, for the full report from the RCIS, please click HERE

2022 Autumns Movie Nights

As the mild autumn set in London this year, we returned to Stephen Street, one of the homes of the BFI for the much-loved continuing education event in the AIA UK calendar: The Movie Nights!

INSIDE PIANO

On a Tuesday night on the 18 of October, we resumed the Movie Night Series with a film by two of the foremost architectural artists and filmmakers: Beka and Louise Lemoine. We screened the fifth project of the Living Architectures series, Inside Piano, which is composed of three films on three symbolic buildings of Renzo Piano's career. A visit throughout the prototype-building of the Centre Pompidou. An immersion in the soundproof world of a submarine floating in the depths of the Parisian underground. A journey aboard a luminous magic carpet of a highly sophisticated architectural machine. A humorous, caustic and quirky point of view, as is typical of Beka & Lemoine.

An exciting debate followed the movie screening, with movie attendees discussing what happens after buildings are occupied, specifically the use and maintenance of buildings. The critique in this film is given by the people who work and maintain the three buildings, and viewers get very interesting and honest views, without grandstanding.

The BFI’s home on Stephen Street displays a curious array of movie mementoes…

GEHRY’S VERTIGO

To wind up the 2022 Movie Night Series, on the 8th of November we went a few steps back in the Beka & Lemoine documentary collection and screened the third project of the Living Architectures series, Gehry's Vertigo. This documentary offers to the spectator a rare and vertiginous trip on the top roofs of the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. Through the portrait of the climbing team in charge of the glass cleaning, their ascensions, their techniques and difficulties, this film observes the complexity and virtuosity of Frank Gehry's architecture. 

This film was akin to a few other Beka & Lemoine documentaries we have screened in the past, in that there was hardly any dialogue. The viewer observed the architecture, and the complexity of working with it as well as maintaining it. Attendees discussed how complex architectural forms affect the use and maintenance of buildings. Some found the complexity of Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao very costly and ridiculously frustrating to navigate & maintain. Other attendees found it refreshing that the city of Bilbao is forced to continuously maintain this building, leaving it looking almost as new as the day it was built, and the maintenance of this building in turn providing a continuous stream of work to more locals.

What an exciting end to our 2022 Movie Night Series!

On behalf of the AIA UK, many thanks to all those who attended the various screenings throughout the year, and for the wonderful debates that ensued. I wish you all a lovely Christmas break and look forward to welcoming you back in February 2023 for the next Movie Series.

Written by: Chris Musangi AIA

2022 AIA Student Charrette

As the doors of the Building Centre swung open for the 27th annual student charrette, the organisers peered out at the quiet streets nervously. 8:30am on a Saturday morning is a challenging call-time for any event, let alone a student design competition, but it seems the nation's Part 1 students are made of sterner stuff, and as ever, they didn't disappoint. From Sheffield to Bournemouth, and Bath to Canterbury, they arrived from the four corners of the UK to be greeted by the reviving aromas of hot coffee and fresh pastries. In total, students from 8 different universities made the journey to central London to test their mettle against the local contenders and erstwhile champions, Westminster and London South Bank. Returning students found themselves on familiar territory, this being the second time the event has been run at the Building Centre, but a welcome first event there without masks and Covid restrictions.

The day began with the all-important presentation of the brief. This year's brief, titled ‘A West End Wonderland,’ was a natural evolution of the Covid-inspired challenge set last year, and asked students once again to transform the small cobbled crescent directly in front of the Building Centre. Whereas last year's challenge focused on drawing visitors back into the West End with a temporary pavilion, this year, students were tasked with creating a public space that would improve the public realm and create a positive experience for those living, working and visiting the area. Not an easy task for a day's charretting!

The brief sought to challenge students to design within the real-world context of Camden Council's ambitious West End Project, introducing them to the council's plans to develop pocket parks, improve the pedestrian realm and carry out improvements to traffic flow throughout the West End. They were able to visit the newly opened Alfred Place Gardens, which has transformed an underused service road into a generous and well-used public park. One of the key development sites of the West End project, its proximity to the competition site meant that students were able to spend time evaluating how the park is used, by whom, and what activities take place there, feeding the information into their own design process and proposals. 

For any visitors peering through the windows of the Building Centre around lunchtime, the sight would have been an unusual one. With the AIAUK providing all materials and a hearty lunch, the students were free to let loose their creative energies without distraction; students, sandwiches and a vast assortment of drawing and modelling materials were liberally scattered all over the ground floor galleries. Walking through the creative chaos, it was difficult to discern exactly which direction each team was moving in, but assurances were forthcoming from their trusty mentors, who gently cajoled, encouraged and guided students throughout the day, challenging them to refine their ideas and steering them away from dreaded design dead-ends.

Jurors were welcomed early in the afternoon and installed in the Building Centre's upstairs seminar room, blissfully isolated from the frantic efforts below. Their afternoon was a busy one, judging this year's Noel Hill Award submissions, before making their way downstairs to judge the Student Charrette. This year, we were joined by practicing architects from DSDHA Architects (who developed the strategy for Alfred Place Gardens), Haptic Architects, and ADAM Architecture. Each juror brought a slightly different focus, with their experience in designing public spaces, the conservation of traditional buildings, and collaborative design processes all contributing to a productive and insightful judging session. 

All the teams impressed with their creativity and inventive representational techniques, but there could only be one winner. After a lengthy deliberation period, the judges emerged to crown the team from Nottingham Trent University as winners. Their proposal carefully considered existing context and movement patterns through the site, leading to the design of a public space for quiet reflection. The design centred on a large tree and fountain feature, creating an oasis of calm in the hustle and bustle of the West End. Two runners-up were also announced, with Westminster and London South Bank both awarded. Westminster impressed with their proposal for an inflatable pavilion that 'breathed' in response to pedestrian flows throughout the West End, while London South Bank's proposal, 'Life After Bubbles' proposed a series of interconnected spherical pavilions hosting a range of programmes and providing a new focal point for the area.

The winning team, from Nottingham Trent University with their proposal. Mentor: Ellie Measham AIA

Daria Tsukan, Fairea Bahar, Fejiro Fovie, Jemal Medina, Thandiwe Daka, Josiah Prempeh, Arvi Matundan, Jay Earnshaw

Runners Up: Westminster University. Mentor: Stephen Lawler AIA

Isabella Testolin, Sofia Whilby, Victoria Pearce, Darya Prokopets

Runner Up: London South Bank University. Mentor: Francis Hur AIA

Cem Bektas, Ada Bartholomew, Emily Kajdi, Kimberley France, Zara Boshan, Shanai Kedoo-Campbell

AIAUK would like to thank all the students that took part, as well as their mentors Pierre Baillargeon AIA, Jeeun Song Dusoir AIA, Francis Hur AIA, Stephen Lawler AIA, Ellie Measham AIA, Pavlina Stergiadou RIBA,  Martin Vivona AIA, and the judges Jack Penford Baker RIBA, Rory Downes RIBA and Eve Zeltina RIBA for their energy and enthusiasm.

Written by: Nicholas Kehagias AIA, RIBA