U7 Term 2 Crit

U7 Term 2 Crit

Presenting work in progress for Project 2 | Short Stay.

Date | Tuesday 01 April 2014

Location | Wates House Room 1.01 

Time | 10am

Guests |

Adam Atraktzi | Davis Miller Architects

Matthew Butcher | Post-Works | BSc Programme Leader | Unit 12 

Mollie Claypool | BSc Programme Leader | Unit 19 

Dr Nick Dunn | Professor of Urban Design | Imagination Lancaster

Kate Davies |  Liquid Factory | Unit 23 | AA Diploma Unit 6 

Dr Guan Lee | Grymsdyke Farm | Unit ADS6 RCA | 

Luis Fernandez | Chris Matthews | Atelier One Engineers

Bob Sheil | Head of Dept | Professor in Architecture and Design Through Production

Ensamble Studio's Concrete Cavity Accommodation

This project involves a technique of casting called lost-mould casting. It involves casting around an object and then removing the object to achieve an internal space within solid casting material.

The beauty of this project is that the objects to be lost in this cast are hay-bales and the method of removing such hay is to allow a single cow (over the span of it's lifetime) to eat away at them it is satisfied to move on.

This video documents the process and the resulting accommodation that they were able to produce from the resulting spacial cavity. They cut two flat openings in the casted boulder-like form and fully furnished it with a bed, running water, a fire place and large window glazing.

Adrian Forty wrote that: "Concrete is not a material, it is a process. As well as the ingredients of water, cement, reinforcement and sand, it contains the essential ingredient of human labour". Ensamble Studio have used the ingredient of a cow's appetite as a construction solution.

The process of lost-mould casting isn't limited to concrete, it can be a solution for any material use which requires the shaping of one material upon and around another that is to be removed. 

U7 Group Site Model

U7 have been trialling the CNC milling of phenolic faced plywood in the making of the group site model. The 1:500 model aims to explore individually selected Bowery sites and local street networks to test emergent design strategies.

Image D. Brown

Image D. Brown

Giant Inflatable Balloons Temporarily Transform Spaces

Barcelona-based Penique Productions is an artist collective founded in 2007 that creates transformative installations in public spaces. To do this the group utilizes massive plastic balloons that are inflated inside buildings and other interior areas. Coupled with exterior lighting that illuminates the colored plastic, the results can be beautifully dramatic, making the new environment almost unrecognizable from the actual space.






This technique can be used to define spaces from the parameters around them as well as create temporary barrier during events.

Their unrealized project 'Clouds #2028' is a set of plastic inflatables hosting the 2013 New York Storefront for Art and Architecture Street Fest. The proposal has been addressed from immediacy criteria and a high-speed assemblage concept. 

U7 at Atelier One Engineers

Thanks to Chris Matthews and Luis Fernandez at Atelier One for introducing some of their recent innovative structural engineering projects with U7.

Look out for the Sochi Winter Olympic opening ceremony on the 7th Feb 14.

Chris Matthews presenting AT1 for London Olympics 2013 

U7 at David Miller Architects

Thanks to David Miller Architects for hosting the U7 visit to their innovative design practice.
An interesting introduction to the use BIM technology for the design and construction of cross laminated timber for a new build school project.

Check out the DMA blog for news of the visit and practice updates.

A+U Magazine: Urban Innovation, New York

 The current issue of A+U magazine available in the Bartlett library is featuring New York City.
It contains essays and analysis of the current social problems, ongoing architecture projects and vision of NYC. It may be very helpful to your project. You can borrow it overnight or for the weekends.

 

There features the project My Micro NY by nARCHITECTS. It is the first multi-unit Manhattan building developed using modular construction. Check out the magazine for more details!