Mas-Piece / Body-Architecture: Collaboration between Tropical Isles Canrival Group and UEL BSc Architecture, Unit A

Carnival Mas-Piece is a live-build project and 1:1 construction of a 5 meter tall Mas-piece in collaboration between Tropical Isles canrival youth group and UEL students that won numerous prizes at Notting Hill and Hackney Carnivals 2019

Co-Design Practice

Can a collaborative approach to analysis and production of space promote knowledge transfer that enhance social and spatial capital for local communities? Over the last three years we have initiated, raised funds, managed and delivered a number of successful collaborative design- and research projects across Dalston, East London. As award winning and internationally practicing architects and urban designers, we embed relevant topics into the centre of the studio-based design teaching at UEL to create a ‘field of opportunity’ for overlaps between professional disciplines, institutions and local authorities, for mutual benefit. As a response to challenging urban contexts of conflict, deprivation and climate change, our designstudio approach to research aims to explore and develop alternative forms of collaborative design practice and co-design methodology

Relational States of Dalston: Research Project

This report documents the innovative method for a multi-phased collaborative research project with a Local Authority client, that originated from the research-led design studio teaching. Externally funded, graduates worked as co-researchers to produce a socio-spatial stakeholder analysis that formed part of Hackney Council’s public consultation process and evidence base for the implementation of Dalston Area Action Plan into local Planning Policy

Trigonal-bipyramidal vs. octahedral coordination in indium(III) complexes with potentially S,N,S‐tridentate thiosemicarbazones

Three bis‐chelates of indium(III) with (partially fluorinated) S,N,S‐tridentate thiosemicarbazones (H2L) were prepared and their structures were studied in solution and in the solid state by NMR, ESI MS and single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction. The three compounds are isostructural in solution with five‐coordinate InIII ions and two differently coordinated thiosemicarbazonato ligands, [In(L)(HL)]. A temperature‐dependent 1H NMR study reflects the presence of dynamic processes in the molecules such as the resolution of hindered rotation around CN bonds with partial double‐bond character and the pH‐triggered isomerization between 5‐ and 6‐coordinate species. The latter is confirmed by the isolation of compounds with different solid‐state structures, [In(L)(HL)] and [In(L)2]–, depending on fluorine‐substitutions in the periphery of the thiosemicarbazones

Semiautomatic generation of CORBA interfaces for databases in molecular biology

The amount and complexity of genome related data is growing quickly. This highly interrelated data is distributed at many different sites, stored in numerous different formats, and maintained by independent data providers. CORBA, the industry standard for distributed computing, offers the opportunity to make implementation differences and distribution transparent and thereby helps to combine disparate data sources and application programs. In this thesis, the different aspects of CORBA access to molecular biology data are examined in detail. The work is motivated by a concrete application for distributed genome maps. Then, the different design issues relevant to the implementation of CORBA access layers are surveyed and evaluated. The most important of these issues is the question of how to represent data in a CORBA environment using the interface definition language IDL. Different representations have different advantages and disadvantages and the best representation is highly application specific. It is therefore in general impossible to generate a CORBA wrapper automatically for a given database. On the other hand, coding a server for each application manually is tedious and error prone. Therefore, a method is presented for the semiautomatic generation of CORBA wrappers for relational databases. A declarative language is described, which is used to specify the mapping between relations and IDL constructs. Using a set of such mapping rules, a CORBA server can be generated automatically. Additionally, the declarative mapping language allows for the support of ad-hoc queries, which are based on the IDL definitions

Dalston Roof Park

How can new types of shared urban spaces support well-being wholeheartedly and attempt to "seed" ideas for innovative and adaptive use through collective appropriation? How to cultivate a new "breed" of community spaces in the city through bottom-up processes: a case-study in co-design

“DALSTON! WHO ASKED U?”: A Knowledge-Centred Perspective on the Mapping of Socio-Spatial Relations in East London

Since the turn of the millennium, Dalston in the London Borough of Hackney has experienced fundamental change through public and private investment in new infrastructure and processes of urban restructuring. This was paralleled by the reform of the national planning system, which aimed to devolve decision-making to the local level and increase the possibilities for residents and stakeholders to participate in planning processes. However, the difficulty of translating local needs and aspirations into policy goals and broadly accepted area action plans resulted in a crisis, which, in 2018, led to the introduction of the Dalston Conversation and subsequently the revision of planning goals. It is in this context that the Relational States of Dalston mapping project generated and assembled local knowledge about the web of socio-spatial relations between different local actors and in this way highlighted the significance and fragility of the communities’ networks and their spatial dimensions. The collection, ordering, integration, and production of knowledge can be seen as part of the core work in urban planning processes and policymaking. Which forms of knowledge are routinely used in planning contexts and define the relationship between planning action and urban transformation? To what extent could the mapping of local community relations add to this knowledge and help to improve decision-making processes in contested spaces of knowledge? In what ways could a relational understanding of space and architectural modes of research and representation contribute to the analysis, conceptualisation, and communication of local community relations? This article engages with these questions, using the mapping project in Dalston as a case study

[ReH3(PPh3)4] - A Key Compound in the Rhenium Hydride Chemistry

The chemistry of the rhenium trihydrido complex [ReH3(PPh3)4] (1) has been reinvestigated. An improved synthesis and the solid-state structure of the compound as well as several reactions are reported. The solid-state structure of 1 is similar to that of [TcH3(PPh3)4] having a capped-octahedral coordination sphere. The PPh3 ligands surround the Tc atom in a trigonal-pyramidal mode with a short apical Re-P bond (2.300(2) Å) and three longer basal bonds (2.429(2)-2.449(2) Å). Reactions of 1 with monodentate phosphines such as PMe3 or PBu3 give the mono-substituted complexes [ReH3(PPh3)3(PMe3)] (2) and [ReH3(PPh3)3(PBu3)] (3) under retention of the apical PPh3 ligand and substitution of one of the basal PPh3 ligands. The stability of the phosphine trihydride complexes decreases in the order PPh3>PMe3>PBu3. Treatment of [ReH3(PPh3)4] with trityl hexafluorophosphate in CH3CN does not result in a hydride abstraction, but gives the tetrahydrido cation [ReH4(NCCH3)(PPh3)3]+ (4), while reactions with nitriles give unstable azavinylidene complexes of the composition [ReH2(PPh3)3(NC(H)R)] (5). They are formed by an insertion of the nitrile into a Re-H bond. The solid-state structure of the methyl derivative [ReH2(PPh3)3­(NC(H)CH3)] (5a) was determined showing a linear Re-N-C unit with rhenium-nitrogen and nitrogen-carbon double bonds, while the N=CH-C bond is clearly bent with an angle of 124°. Two previously unknown polymorphs of [ReH5(PPh3)3] were isolated from reactions of 1 with HOC6H3(CH3)2 and thiourea after prolonged heating in toluene and characterized by IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction

"DALSTON! WHO ASKED U?": A Knowledge-Centred Perspective on the Mapping of Socio-Spatial Relations in East London

Since the turn of the millennium, Dalston in the London Borough of Hackney has experienced fundamental change through public and private investment in new infrastructure and processes of urban restructuring. This was paralleled by the reform of the national planning system, which aimed to devolve decision-making to the local level and increase the possibilities for residents and stakeholders to participate in planning processes. However, the difficulty of translating local needs and aspirations into policy goals and broadly accepted area action plans resulted in a crisis, which, in 2018, led to the introduction of the Dalston Conversation and subsequently the revision of planning goals. It is in this context that the Relational States of Dalston mapping project generated and assembled local knowledge about the web of socio-spatial relations between different local actors and in this way highlighted the significance and fragility of the communities’ networks and their spatial dimensions. The collection, ordering, integration, and production of knowledge can be seen as part of the core work in urban planning processes and policymaking. Which forms of knowledge are routinely used in planning contexts and define the relationship between planning action and urban transformation? To what extent could the mapping of local community relations add to this knowledge and help to improve decision-making processes in contested spaces of knowledge? In what ways could a relational understanding of space and architectural modes of research and representation contribute to the analysis, conceptualisation, and communication of local community relations? This article engages with these questions, using the mapping project in Dalston as a case study