Architecture of multiple authorship - teaching global citizenship

This short case study is about a teaching practice called "Crossing Cultures" and explains how the university can support intercultural learner relationships in Higher Education amongst students, community groups and refugees. It explains how by involving students in an international project which happens in a small town in South Italy, students can work with people from very diverse backgrounds and how this can lead to an enhanced student experience, integrating asylum seekers and helping to build more tolerant and integrated societies

Expanding the scope of architectural education: creating a culture of global citizenship for students

This paper describes an alternative model of community-engaged architecture teaching, bridging professional practice activities and speculative studio-based reflections by enabling experimentation within the context of the needs of communities. Our unique teaching framework uses a project entitled Crossing Cultures as its vehicle of investigation to experiment with forms of integration of refugees into depopulated Italian villages, whilst offering students to positively impact and become an integral part of this new community, thereby, ensuring its continuity long-term. Such pedagogical experiments provide an education beyond architecture, and shape society by teaching citizenship to students

Making masks for maternity staff

Despite self-isolation, social distancing and NHS work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sandra Denicke-Polcher and Anna Lawin-O’Brien found a way to make a joyous difference, connecting the community with healthcare providers on the shop floor. The article describes an initiative to provide face masks for NHS and key workers by connecting a community of home makers throughout the UK, with benefits to both, makers and receivers

Shelter for the sharks

This document takes the form of a newspaper and documents the work that Architecture Studio 3 at The Cass has done to explore the use of a shipping container to provide shelter for a canoeing club “The Sharks” in Hayes, West London. All projects illustrated in the newspaper aim to contribute to communities wider than canoeists and the canal, and to provide sites that can contribute to strategic urban development. The work shows how a shipping container can provide a flexible, low cost, robust and easy transportable module. Students continued working with the canoeing club to develop and deliver a shelter for The Sharks in Hayes. The work of the students and the dissemination to a wider audience has impacted on a housing development by the canal, and lead to the inclusion of a canoe club as a public amenity

Crossing cultures

The title suggests journeys and mixing of cultures. The project brings depopulated Italian villages in close proximity with a growing need to integrate refugees arriving on its southern coast. This is an on-going research project based in the small abandoned mountain village Belmonte Calabro in Southern Italy, which started in summer 2016. The region is currently a frontier for migrants and refugees from West Africa, attempting to gain access to Europe, as well as a frontier for Italians, attempting to sustain their towns against the magnetic influence of the growing cities. The project focuses on the development of public spaces and buildings which can enrich the everyday life of the town, steered through consultations with key players which include refugees and inhabitants. These dialogues address the challenging aspects of Belmonte’s future - currently a derelict town at the fulcrum of migration from the southern hemisphere. The problematic, but potentially fortunate coincidence of these two is the need to settle and (re)build local communities, which is fuelling the subject of inter-disciplinary cultural integration in a wider sense. The project was developed after a student led summer workshop, which casts its nets wider than the academic studio: This brought various government stakeholders in holistic dialogue with Cass students and tutors, seeing this collaboration as an innovative contribution to the ontology of practice. Our working method has involved discussions with refugees, town inhabitants, school children, local and regional government, asking how this inevitable crossing of cultures - induced by global politics - can continue to create the richness of architectural setting already enjoyed as part of Italian culture and at the same time develop the skills that empower both, brief encounters and settled stays. Resulting from investigative workshops earlier in the year, the projects developed during the past academic session have been speculative. This paper highlights participatory events based on our previous speculations, organised by La Rivoluzione di Seppiei- an active ensemble interested in exploring the boundaries of practice and education. Our endeavour is to surface Belmonte’s cultural memory through participatory practices and to re-imagine the village’s identity. Our interests have therefore explored both, theories on cultural memory and on participatory systems of governance. It is worth noting that the Calabrian virtue fortunately is hospitality, and as such Crossing Cultures have been practiced in their cuisine, customs and architectures for centuries. As a result, our group of architecture tutors and students have sensed little estrangement as curiously we are but another foreigner engaged in dialogue along a border of history, culture and human finitude

Architecture of multiple authorship

In the context of a research initiative entitled ‘Architecture of Multiple Authorship’ we describe a set of socially engaged Live Projects offering students to participate in real projects during their architectural studies developing a range of skills, from community outreach to hands-on construction of small structures. With the new EU directive and the current discussion of shortening the architectural education in the UK, our Live Projects studio proposes running projects over several academic years involving different student cohorts, each participating during different phases of a project, ultimately enabling an on-going live engagement with a place and community on a project. The result is a study model, which adds practical experience whilst shortening the time at university. The Live Projects are meant to challenge the definition of “architecture” and the profession of the architect: Projects are self-initiated with often limited funds which are often overcome through the use of locally found and discarded objects as construction materials. In this sense the Live Projects’ continuous involvement in a location establishes links, knowledge and a presence required for making a radical yet holistic development of public spaces. It teaches students to collaborate, a sense of non-hierarchical positioning and multidisciplinary practice

Building civic pride

Can we instigate public pride? This question was explored during 2013-14 in the Architecture Undergraduate Studio 3 at The Cass. The booklet discusses how civic pride has been constructed throughout history and how this is still crucial to positively build public space. It illustrates the case studies students studied in order to develop their own proposals for their sites in Hayes, West London. Students tested their proposals with "conversation kits" on the Austin Estate in Hayes, and finalised the year with architectural designs developed from these 1:1 kits

Time- and polarization resolved multi-photon microscopy: fluorescence lifetime imaging and two-color two-photon anisotropy measurements

In dieser Arbeit werden biologische Stoffwechselprozesse in vivo und physikalisch-chemische Eigenschaften von Molekülen mit zeit- und polarisationsaufgelöster Multiphotonenmikroskopie untersucht. Mit einem selbstkonstruierten Zweiphotonen-Laserscanningmikroskop wurden die relativen Konzentrationen der freien und enzymgebundenen Formen des wichtigen Koenzyms NAD(P)H in Pankreasinseln und einzelnen Beta-Zellen unter verschiedenen physiologischen Bedingungen durch simultane Intensitäts- und bildgebende Fluoreszenzlebensdauermessungen (FLIM) bestimmt. Zusätzlich wird eine Bestimmung der relativen Calciumionenkonzentration in Zellen durch FLIM-Messungen mit verschiedenen Fluorophoren durchgeführt. Weiterhin werden erstmals sogenannte „Komplette Polarisationsexperimente“ praktisch demonstriert. Sie werden als „komplett“ bezeichnet, da man mit ihnen die maximal ermittelbare Information über den Prozess der simultanen Absorption zweier Photonen und der induzierten Fluoreszenz von Molekülen in Lösung erhält. Die Experimente wurden mit einem selbstkonstruierten Zweifarben-Zweiphotonen-System realisiert, bei dem Femtosekundenpulse verschiedener Farbe (800 nm und 400 nm) und Polarisationen gleichzeitig absorbiert werden. Die Anisotropie der induzierten Fluoreszenz wird zeitaufgelöst mit einem zeitkorrelierten Einzelphotonen-Zähl-System (TCSPC) gemessen. Exemplarische Daten von Messungen an den UV-Fluorophoren para-terphenyl, 2,5-Diphenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol und Indol in Lösung werden gezeigt und Auswertemethoden präsentiert, mit denen man aus experimentellen Daten Rückschlüsse auf die involvierten intermediären Zustände, die Symmetrie der elektronisch angeregten Zustände und die relative Ausrichtung des Emissionsdipolmoments von Molekülen ziehen kann.In this thesis biological metabolism processes in vivo and physicochemical properties of molecules are investigated by time and polarization resolved multi-photon microscopy. The relative concentrations of free and protein-bound coenzyme NAD(P)H in pancreatic islets and single beta-cells are determined by simultaneous intensity and fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) measurements with a custom-built two-photon laser scanning microscope under various physiological conditions. Additionally, the relative concentration of calcium ions is examined in cells by FLIM using various fluorophores. Furthermore so-called ôcomplete polarization experimentsö are presented for the first time. They are called ôcompleteö because they provide the maximal information that can be obtained about the two-photon absorption process and the induced fluorescence of molecules in solution. The experiments were performed with a custom-built two-color two-photon-system where femtosecond pulses of different color (800 nm and 400 nm) and polarizations that are synchronized in time and space are absorbed simultaneously by molecules. The anisotropy of the induced fluorescence is measured with a time correlated single photon counting system (TCSPC). Exemplary experimental data for the UV-fluorophores para-terphenyl, 2,5-diphenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole and indole in solution is shown and a guideline is presented how to obtain complete information about the involved intermediate states, the symmetry of the excited states and the relative direction of the emission dipole moments from experimental data

Unevenness 2013-14, The Brazil Programme at the Cass

Visiting and working in São Paulo since 2011 the Brazil Programme has been exploring transformative processes for a fresh approach to the city. We are researching opportunities for how the city can be carefully adjusted to strengthen a sense of generosity. As a strategy for the city the search for generosity aims to identify ways for enhancing existing qualities of the city as well as radical change to make the most of investment into places in ways that strengthen a sense of ‘common ground’, city as public realm. 2013-14 was the third time that a group of Diploma Unit 3 students took a trip for two weeks to São Paulo – to immerse themselves into the complex city fabric and explore urban situations through observation and involvement with processes of urban change. Though we work each year with a different student cohort, our students contribute to a shared expertise and an overall body of work which accumulates over the years. Design projects are developed from this joint live experience, where our students take on a unique role, acting between residents of a city and professional architects and planners. The information, which is jointly gathered this way, is used as part of a briefmaking process for urban propositions. In 2013-14 our students explored the latent opportunities for ‘public-ness’ and generosity within São Paulo’s prevalent ‘tower-on-plinth’ urbanism, set in the context of the city’s currently underperforming centre. Collectively, the proposals shown in this book have strong potential for influencing future attitudes towards development within the centre of São Paulo, and the potential role of these districts within the wider city, as they are part of an ongoing programme of discussion with professionals, academics and city authorities. Every year, a series of lectures and exhibitions, both at the Cass and in São Paulo, further enhance the dissemination of these live projects beyond the Cass and our partner school in São Paulo, Escola da Cidade. In December 2011 a return visit by our partner school enabled a discussion of our work on regeneration projects identified with the Municipal Housing Secretariat in São Paulo (SEHAB). In May 2013 we discussed what the ‘tabula nonrasa’ approach to urbanism developed in London in recent years can offer São Paulo. In November 2013 we held a workshop with Cass and Escola da Cidade students in São Paulo and we showed Cass projects set in São Paulo in a well received exhibition at Escola da Cidade. In March 2014, this exhibition was shown at the Cass and accompanied by lectures by Ana Araujo, Tony Fretton, Heidi Svenningsen Kajita, and Paul Vermeulen. These encounters have been very encouraging and offer students a chance to connect their research to a wider frame and build upon the strong link between the two schools and cities. We are looking forward to the programme developing further and would like to thank staff and students from the Cass and Escola da Cidade, as well as all the supporters, who are making the ongoing Brazil Programme happen. This publication is organised to reflect the unit’s approach to working in the city; a process of careful looking as a basis for development of place specific ideas for the city across all scales, from strategy to detail. Sandra Denicke-Polcher, Deputy Head of School of Architecture Dann Jessen, East / Cass Diploma Unit