AIA UK 2015 KEYNOTE LECTURE

On November 3rd, the AIA UK Chapter in conjunction with RIBA re-launched the Annual AIA/RIBA Keynote Lecture. Since its inauguration, the AIA/RIBA Keynote Lecture series has brought renowned architects, including William Pedersen, Antoine Predock, Peter Eisenman, and Ricardo Legorreta, to the UK.

This year’s event, organized by Lester Korzilius, AIA, RIBA, and Amrita Raja, Assoc. AIA, took place at Jarvis Auditorium at the RIBA Headquarters, and featured a talk by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Their eponymous firm, TWBTA, is known for site-sensitive and well-crafted buildings, encompassing a wide range of types and geographies, from a single family residence in Long Island, NY, to a technology campus in Mumbai, India. Their work has received numerous awards and international recognition, most recently earning the RIBA International Fellowship (2014) and the AIA Architecture Firm Award (2013) - and even achieved infamy, when MoMA’s 2014 demolition of their much-loved American Folk Art Museum, less than 20 years after its completion, had the architectural community up in arms.

After introductions by Brianne Hamilton, AIA UK Chapter President, and Stephen Hodder, RIBA Past-President, to whom the AIA presented a Certificate of Appreciation for his support of our chapter, the architectural duo took the stage, leading the the audience on an introspective journey, from private residential interiors to significant cultural work.  Beginning with an investigation of their own New York apartment, Williams/Tsien expressed their growing interest in interiority and the effect of light on spatial perception.  In their early work, they discovered an affinity for the handmade, and for inverting relationships between the building and its natural context through the use of light and captured landscapes.  

During the second half of the lecture, Williams/Tsien presented their projects within this framework of light and interiority.  Of the many works shown, two stand as exemplary of their architectural ethos, the Cranbrook Natatorium and the Barnes Foundation.  Both projects generate their own interior landscape, kept hidden from the exterior, a surprise for guests to discover.  The Natatorium, engulfed by conifers, contains a jewel of a space, where above the pool, lightwells with operable roofs open up to bring the outdoors in, from rain to the scent of the adjacent forest.  Likewise, the Barnes’ stone exterior reveals nothing of the light-filled volumes within.  There, strict constraints required them to reproduce the collection’s existing sequence of rooms.  In inverting the concept of ‘gallery in a garden’ found in the collections original context, to ‘garden in a gallery’, Williams/Tsien inserted two voids within gaps in the visitor narrative. Each houses a meeting space connected to the landscape via a lightwell, creating a new interior context for the collection.

The duo’s camaraderie was evident on stage, as they took turns elaborating on the work and making a few choice ‘revisions’ to the other’s interpretation of events - generating a few laughs along the way.  The lecture concluded with a few questions from the audience, and the conversation continued in the adjacent room over glasses of wine. The evening was an inspirational insight into the work of two formidable architects.  Many thanks to Tod Williams and Billie Tsien for coming to London to share their exceptional work, and to the team at RIBA without whose hard work this event would not have been possible.   

Author: Amrita Raja

EXHIBITION TOUR: THE WORLD OF CHARLES AND RAY EAMES

Image: Tristan Fewings - Getty Images

Over 40 people turned out for the AIA UK’s private tour of The World of Charles and Ray Eames at the Barbican Art Gallery. Curator Charlotte Dew provided two groups with a more in depth history and examination of the exhibit, taking us through the early days of Eames’ collaboration through their trials and successes and imminent stardom. Fortunately our group had sufficient time to enjoy such an extensive exhibit, spread over two floors and many rooms.

The exhibit explores the lives of these two visionary American designers, with over 380 original works – hand sketches, graphic designs, early bent plywood projects and proto-types, multi-media communication concepts and of course chairs! Working in the post-war era of modernism, the exhibit examines the importance of their work and the timeless quality of their designs. With a wealth of materials from their private archives, viral-quality videos from Herman Miller, and even a newly constructed model of their infamous house in California, the exhibit presents a well-rounded profile of these two internationally celebrated designers.

The AIA UK Chapter will be planning more of these private tours, following this success. However, if you could not make it to see The World of Charles and Ray Eames with us this time, you should book your tickets before the exhibit closes in February. 

Image: Tristan Fewings - Getty Images

Image: Tristan Fewings - Getty Images

Image: Tristan Fewings - Getty Images

Image: Frederick Grier

Author: Frederick Grier

AIA FILM NIGHT | 21 OCTOBER 2015

We started off the Autumn movie series screening ‘How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?’ This film traces the rise of one of London's and indeed the world’s premier architects, Norman Foster, and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design.

The title is taken from a question put to him by his hero, American architect Buckminster Fuller, referring to the Sainsbury Centre next to UEA, a quirky question designed to get him and us thinking about the concept of mass in architecture. Portrayed are Foster’s origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the design of projects such as the largest building in the world Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, the Hearst Building in New York and works such as the tallest bridge ever, in Millau France. The attendees loved the movie, unfortunately the weather wasn’t that good on the night of the screening and this seems to have prevented some people who had purchased tickets from attending the screening.

The final movie of year shall be ‘The Socialist, The Architect and the Twisted Tower’ which we shall screen at the BFI on 18 November  at 1900hrs. We look forward to seeing you there!

Author: Chris Musangi 

AIA UK 2015 Exellence in Design Awards, Noel Hill Travel Award

Arriving into a hot, humid, Cambodian day, we were greeted by our destination and the place to which we would call home for the next two months. Taking the day to adjust to the time and climate differences we talked over the project in preparation for work the next day.

Waking up in darkness began the early morning routine throughout the project. An ambitious two month time scale had been set to complete the build. Making our way to site which was located adjacent to where we were living in the slum we started work on foundations. To our surprise we found that the demolition company whom we had hired to demolish the existing concrete framed building on site had forgotten to tell us that they had not removed the foundations of the previously existing school the week before our arrival. Being unable to start our build without this job being completed, we hired an excavator on site to simultaneously dig our pad foundation whilst removing the foundations of the previous building. Whilst this was underway on site half of the team set to assembling the vast amount of steel reinforcement cages which had to be assembled for the foundations and full concrete structure.

tarting the second week we prepared for what would be our first experience of pouring concrete foundations by hand on a constrained site. Access to the site was limited. We anticipated that the ready mix concrete truck would not be able to squeeze up the tight dirt path to our site therefore we had to devise a way to procure the concrete on site. This came with the employment of two flat bed trucks and hundreds of recycled twenty five litre paint buckets. The buckets were filled individually in the flat beds at the bottom of the access path, transported to the top of the site where the use of a human chain would send them to the specific pad foundation. This process would repeat throughout the build and become a regular occurrence on each concrete pour. Completing the first concrete pour over two days, with a day of rain delay in-between, we were ready to start on the timber falsework which would support the pour of our main concrete structure.

Our main structure was to be poured in reinforced concrete using an unconventional formwork made from a geo-textile fabric. By using a fabric formwork we saved ourselves an extensive amount of timber, this was beneficial for the build due to the lack of sustainable timber which can be found in Cambodia. The geo textile however required a timber falsework which creates tension in the fabric whilst the concrete is being poured, vibrated and cured. Erecting this structure of timber falsework and fabric formwork created a puzzling maze on site which had to be expertly navigated whilst the concrete structure was curing.

When revealing the concrete structure once it had dried we found that it had a few wobbles due to the manual pouring technique and only being able to hand tighten the fabric formwork in it’s falsework clamps. With the concrete still being structurally sound we noticed that when taking a closer look at the detail that the geo textile formwork had left a fascinating gridded texture in the structure.

Finishing the concrete frame sped the build up exponentially. We moved on to the upper steel ring beams and roof trusses which were manually lifted using a pulley system and welded into place. Following this the insulated aluminium roofing panels arrived on site, again being manually lifted onto the roof and secured intoplace. The site started to become busier with the final push getting near. A team of masons arrived on site 

completing the retaining walls which created raised areas within the playground as well as the perforated brick gable walls, these acted as a double skin meaning that there will always be a cooling air flow around the building. Whilst this was happening electricians wired up the lighting, sliding doors were hung and the brick floor was laid. The building started to come together and we gained a glimpse of the community centre which we had designed.

With the finish line close working days got later and we pushed through to make sure that the school would be ready to move into by the time we left. Working up to the very last minute, we tied the last pieces of bamboo to the doors, stopped and enjoyed the celebration with the local community. Most of the team left the following morning so to say goodbye we joined together in the classroom of the centre with some of the Cambodian workers, with whom we had became close friends throughout the project, for a final meal and time to reflect and dream of what would come next in our architectural adventure.

Author: Ryan McGaffney and Jennifer Taggart

AIA CONTINENTAL EUROPE VIENNA CONFERENCE

The AIA Continental Europe chapter held their bi-annual meeting/conference in Vienna from 1-4 October and approximately 70 people attended.  The conference was excellently organised by CE’s Les Jordan, AIA who said that the London Conference had set a very high bar!

Highlights of the trip included a guided tour of Otto Wagner’s Postsparkasse, a talk and tour of Vienna University that included buildings by Peter Cook, Zaha Hadid, and the surprisingly good lecture building by Laura Spinadel/BUSarchitektur.  There were also interesting presentations by 3XN Architects, and by the very talented Thomas Pucher of his eponymous firm.

There was also a walking tour of historic Vienna to give some balance to the modernist weekend. On our free night, Heather and I visited the Spanish Riding School to see a combination concert of the Vienna Boys Choir and a show of the Lipizzaner horses – magic! – While others managed to get tickets to the renowned Vienna opera.

The weekend was friendly and fun.  For those that haven’t gone on a CE tour – try one! Upcoming conferences are in Barcelona (Spring ’16) and Cypress (Autumn ’16).

Author: Lester Korzilius AIA RIBA

RECEPTION WELCOMES NEW CHAPTER SPONSOR, BEALE & COMPANY

On October 6th, Beale & Company hosted a reception and seminar for Chapter members at their new City office.  The purpose of the event was to introduce members to Beale's new Legal Telephone Helpline and to make attendees aware of the onerous new rules of CDM 2015.  We had a good turnout for the event with many familiar faces and a few new members in attendance.  

An introduction was made to the exciting new member benefit that is being provided by Beale & Company - the free Legal Helpline!  An experienced team of solicitors is a phone call away and happy to provide members with guidance in respect of issues arising in connection with their practices in relation to:

• Appointments and collateral warranties
• Assignment and novation
• Non-payment
• Disputes
• Intellectual property rights
• IT
• Employment
• Corporate and commercial matters

To get in touch simply telephone +44 (0) 20 7469 0400 (please quote "AIA UK Helpline"!After an enjoyable drinks and canapé reception, attendees earned 1.5 LUs by participating in a discussion about the new CDM 2015 requirements.  These now applies to all construction projects in the UK.

Solicitors Andrew Croft and James Vernon gave an overview of the regulations and spoke specificallyabout the new role of the so called Principal Designer.  The new regulations came into effect on the first of October and expand the responsibilities of the architect.  The regulations apply to every construction project in the UK, no matter how small, if more than one contractor or subcontractor is involved.

There was certainly a great deal of uncertainty among the attendees about the architect's responsibilities and liabilities with the new regulations.  This was reflected in the questions asked by the audience.  Beale & Company have several resources available to help Chapter members better understand CDM 2015.  These include a "white paper" and a pre-recorded webinar.  For those needing additional guidance, please contact Beale & Company on the Chapter's new Helpline.Beale & Company is a commercial law firm with a long history of acting for consultants and architects, with specialist experience in the construction, engineering and infrastructure sectors, both in the UK and internationally.  We are pleased to welcome Beale & Company to the AIA UK!