|
School |
Resources |
Projects |
Tools |
Welcome to stage one!
BA (Hons) Architecture + BA (Hons) Interior Architecture & Design
Sem 01 2009/10 : design project 01
urban portrait glimpses of the infra-ordinary 
“How should we take account of, question, describe what happens every day and recurs every day: the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual? (...)
What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that, which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us. We live, true, we breathe, true; we walk, we open doors, we go down staircases, we sit at a table in order to eat, we lie down on a bed in order to sleep. How? Where? When? Why?”
Georges Perec: Approaches to What? (1973) In: Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. Penguin Classics 2008. p.210
The term ‘infra-ordinary’ was coined by the French writer Georges Perec (1936-1982). Perec pleads for the necessity to observe, contemplate and analyse the things we see around us every day; and he urges us to consider the significance of the actions, objects and experiences that we take for granted.
In the first project of their studies, students apply some of Perec’s notions and questions to the realm of urban space and its usage. Rather than emphasizing the exceptional, the sensational or the spectacular, the concept of the infra-ordinary guides their examination of the contemporary city: of the modes of how urban space is produced by the performed rituals of everyday life.
The area of investigation for this endeavour is the centre of Canterbury. Students explore, map and portray this territory as a particular spatial and socio-cultural setting at the beginning of the 21st century.
By what is urban space defined?
By buildings? Infrastructures? Functions? Protocols? By what else?
How is urban space inhabited? Who is doing what and where? Why there and not somewhere else?
What happens in the same place at different times of the day?
How do people interact with the built environment? How does the built environment interact with people?
Gabor Stark
Stage One Year Convenor
STEP O1 : RECEIVER
In the first phase of the project, students have designed, built and tested a wearable device manipulating their ordinary perception of space. This gadget modifies the senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch) in such a way that some of them are blocked (or at least dimmed) while others are amplified or directed in a specific manner.
By manipulating the faculties by which the body receives external stimuli the perception of the environment is reduced and enhanced at the same time. The obstruction of some senses, allows to focus on the remaining ones and to create a ‘hyper-responsiveness’ in order to receive the infra-ordinary signals of the everyday that otherwise would stay unnoticed.
STEP O2 : RECORDER
In this phase of the project, students undertook an urban drift through central Canterbury using their perception device in order to detect infra-ordinary phenomena of the contemporary city. By employing various techniques of recording (collecting, writing, drawing, filming, photography, etc.) students observed, registered and began to understand the mutual dependence between the urban fabric and the people using it, between space and programme, between places and the events occurring.
STEP O3 : AMPLIFIER + STEP O4 : DISPLAY
In the third design step, the students had to edit, refine and extend their accumulated research data in order to produce a set of spatial notations relating to the studied topics and the investigated places and events.
Finally, they curated the results of their analytical and descriptive research by designing and building a spatial exhibition device displaying the artefacts produced. The project ended with the collective exhibition urban portrait - glimpses of the infra-ordinary.
|
Design tutors: Carolin Hinne, Rob Nice, Gabor Stark, Sam Willis Photography: Toby Gray
To be continued...
staff 2009/10 media & communication 2008/09Stage One BA (Hons) Architecture / BA (Hons) Interior Architecture & Design
|
the vessel and the stage marlowe (con)temporary
|
|
The Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury is facing a £ 25 million redevelopment and will close its doors early this year with the renovated building expected to be ready in 2011. During the construction period, the theatre management plans to stage productions at other venues across the city. In their third design project, students were asked to design such an alternative venue by using Canterbury Castle as a vessel for a (con)temporary performance space. The project focussed on the configuration of the stage and the auditorium, redefining the spatial, visual and acoustic relationships between the performers and the audience. Gabor Stark
|
|
Design tutors: Pedro Castelo, Rob Nice, Sam Willis, Gorana Vucic-Shepherd, Gabor Stark
|
|
[2 in 1]2 public private furniture
|
|
The second project of the year focused on the design of a bi-functional piece of furniture and investigated the relationships between an artefact’s structure, material and usage. The students were asked to design and build a performative object combining two different functions. Each artefact was supposed to either create a symbiotic relationship between two different types of furniture (e.g. the combination of a reading chair and a bookshelf), or to emphasize the friction between two conflicting/ competing activities (e.g. a seesaw and an altar). Additionally the proposals had to work for the private and the public realm alike. On the one hand the invented types of furniture had to catalyse activities in the public realm and extend the repertoire of how exterior urban space is used. The students selected a particular site, or a specific type of urban space (e.g. a park, a sidewalk, a bus stop etc.) for the temporary installation of their object. On the other hand the designs had to work in the private realm. After the completion of the project, the artefacts became permanent components of the student’s domestic environments. Stage One Year Convenor |
|
Design tutors: Pedro Castelo, Rob Nice, Sam Willis, Gabor Stark
|
Sem 01 2008/09 : project 01 |
urban portrait glimpses of the infra-ordinary
|
|
“How should we take account of, question, describe what happens every day and recurs every day: the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual? (...) |
|
The term ‘infra-ordinary’ was coined by the French writer Georges Perec (1936-1982). Perec pleads for the necessity to observe, contemplate and analyse the things we see around us every day; and he urges us to consider the significance of the actions, objects and experiences that we take for granted.
Gabor Stark Design tutors: Pedro Castello, Rob Nice, Gabor Stark, Sam Willis
STEP O1 : RECEIVER In the first phase of the project, students have designed, built and tested a wearable device manipulating their ordinary perception of space. This gadget modifies the senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch) in such a way that some of them are blocked (or at least dimmed) while others are amplified or directed in a specific manner.
|
  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
|
photography above: Toby Gray |
|
STEP O2 : RECORDER In this phase of the project, students undertook an urban drift through central Canterbury using their perception device in order to detect infra-ordinary phenomena of the contemporary city.
|
 |
 |
 |
| project above: Elise Hudson : Henry Mole |
 |
| project above: Ramandeep Bains : Elisha Tagg |
 |
| project above: Siying Veronika Qiu : Paul Roberts |
 |
| project above: Kyveli Anastassiadi : Agnieszka Tarnowska : Laith Wallace |
|
|
|
STEP O3 : AMPLIFIER + STEP O4 : DISPLAY In the third design step, the students had to edit, refine and extend their accumulated research data in order to produce a set of spatial notations relating to the studied topics and the investigated places and events.
|
 |
 |
|
projects above: Elise Hudson : Henry Mole Karun Matharu : Adrian Perkins
|
 |
|
projects above: Alex Anderson : Renne Benjamin : Stefania Kallergis Radu Gidei : Dillan Gokhool : Heather Peddle
|
 |
| projects above: Siying Qiu : Paul Roberts Bakkade Kasujja : Sai Wentum |
 |
|
projects above: Wayne De Abreu : Georgios Kostoglou Michael Hollands : Matthew Reed
|
 |
| projects above: Anthony Gray : Hayley Taylor Leena Gajjar : Jonathan Parry : Amy Thompson |
 |
| projects above: Anastasia Bernard : James Rich Antonios Nikitaras : Evangelos Vachliotis |
 |
| projects above: Elizabeth Back : Lauren Fisher Gabriel Fayika : Sinan Sevlimlikurt |
|
Design tutors: Pedro Castello, Rob Nice, Gabor Stark, Sam Willis
|
people 07/08 |
staff stage one convenor Gabor Stark gstark(at)ucreative(dot)ac(dot)uk cultural context Nic Clear media & communication John Bell JJ Brophy Toby Gray Rob Nice technology & environment Benedict O’Looney design tutors Pedro Castelo Rob Nice Gabor Stark Gorana Vucic-Shepherd Sam Willis workshop supervisors Simon Mitchell Simon Nimmo Ben Fletcher study advisor Linda Griffiths administrator Jane Molyneux guests critics Allan Atlee Oliver Froome-Lewis Kristina Kotov Charles Neale Iain Rayner |
|
students BA (Hons) Architecture |
| David Abbott Arman Amirzadeh Kyveli Anastassiadi Alex George Anderson Ramandeep Bains Kasujja Bakadde Rodney Banya Sian Bedford Renne Benjamin Anastasia Bernard Tatiana Bickley Parton Stephen Brooks Andre Caines Stefania Chalakatevaki Christiana Choumpavli Craig Coates Wayne De Abreu Johnathan Denton Faadzilah Gapar Radu Gidei Dillan Gokhool James Gould Anthony Gray Michael Hollands Elise Hudson Jaroslaw Karpik Georgios Kostoglou Emilios Koutsoftides Karundeep Matharu Henry Mole Marshall Mupaya Antonios Nikitaras Tin Novakovic Sophia Papageorgiou Ji Park Jonathan Parry Heather Peddle Taibat Rahman Matthew Reed Paul Roberts Sinan Sevimlikurt Chiu Tai Agnieszka Tarnowska Panayiotis Tsaggaris Evangelos Vachliotis Laith Wallace Sai Wentum Nicholas Whiting Zohaib Zahid |
|
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture & Design |
| Khalifa Al-Shihab Elizabeth Back Christopher Bartlett Gracie Batchelor Hang-Wah Ching Stavroulla Epaminonda Gabriel Fayika Lauren Fisher Melissa Fourie Leena Gajjar Luke Gill James Gilley Louis Grice Caitriona Holdsworth Stefania Kallergis Meera Kantaria Ki-Ho Leung Yuening Li Rizwana Mahmood Mairi Nikolaou Luke O'Brien Cansu Pastirmacioglu Adrian Perkins Madeleine Pinder Siying Qiu James Rich Lucy Smith Marianna Spanos Elisha Tagg Santania Taylor Hayley Taylor Helen Thompson Ulku Sim Umut Alina Valeeva Xiao-Kun Zheng |
Stage One : Architecture / Interior Architecture & Design 2007/08 : Projects |
 |
|
>>> semester 01 : project 01 : enclosure |
 |
|
: Joe Best + Ioanna Nicolaou + Julian Seagars |
 |
|
: Helen Bonsall + George Hadjittofi |
 |
|
: Michelle Clarke + Laura-R. Nelson-Butler + Jamie Darby
>>> semester 01 : project 02 : re:devise |
 |
|
: Michelle Clarke
>>> semester 01 : project 03 : performative structures |
 |
|
: exhibtion in the CSA foyer |
 |
|
: Jori Lonseth + Alec Wilson |
 |
|
: Andre Caines + Mario Rodriguez Gama
>>> semester 02 : project 01 : pilgrim |
 |
|
: Andrew Dabomprez |
 |
|
: Andre Caines |
 |
|
: Jori Lonseth |
 |
|
: Joshua Hughes |
 |
| : Anamaria Voda |
 |
|
: Caroline Sjostrom |
 |
|
: Jordan Marsh
>>> semester 02 : project 02 : Wincheap interface |
 |
 |
|
: Urszula Witkowska |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
: Julian Seagars |
|
>>> semester 02 : technology & environment : We Love Detailing! |
 |
| People : 07/08 |
|
Students: BA (Hons) Architecture |
