The forest and the city: interpretative mapping as an aid to urban practice in sub-Saharan Africa

Many African cities remain predatory centres of consumption lacking the infrastructure that makes cities work elsewhere. Research in Freetown, Sierra Leone indicates that latent, local topographical and institutional resources can strengthen civic infrastructure in the process of place making and thereby build confidence in city scale institutions. The paper asks what part cultural memory, embedded in the forested topography, contributed to the foundation and resilience of three urban settlements and whether this contribution can be sustained in the face of urban infrastructure developments such as rapidly expanding road networks? It describes how place based resources are used by local residents to mediate the impact of city scale initiatives. They are, however, fragile, hidden from a wider view, and often ignored by city scale practitioners. It concludes that in order to provoke a more fine-grained debate about civic infrastructure provision, urban practitioners should employ local survey and interpretive drawing techniques to explore place based memory in support of a more inclusive and interconnected, non-predatory, African city

Live Projects as Research: Tools of Practice Research in Making Architecture

Hands-off or hands-on? Do architects ‘design’ buildings or do they ‘make’ them? This paper addresses the role of the architect as a maker, someone who has a foot in many camps in order to bring together and realise an intention in response to a setting. In a field where professional practice tends to take precedence over research, what is architectural research? How do we define it? Using examples from live projects carried out by students and researchers, this paper explores the different roles and tools adopted in three specific concrete settings: Navi Mumbai, Freetown and Agra. Mainstream architectural design works in a hands-off way. However architectural making is definitely hands-on. To the extent that architecture is about making rather than planning, a hands-off approach is untenable. It is impossible to produce good architecture without being involved with the setting because making is a creative act using the resources, both physical and cultural, available within that setting. In the practice of architectural making, researchers need to develop a discourse around a topic and take action, after due deliberation, in an ethical way. Research is a part of this process. This paper identifies the varied roles architects have played in each of the three live projects and explores the implications for the architecture profession and in academia

Transitional civic placemaking: dispersed initiatives in changing urban landscapes

Field trip publication on the theme of "Transitional Civic Placemaking: Dispersed Initiatives in Changing Urban Landscapes" in Athens, Calabria and Freetown (and Yakutsk). Produced by students from MArch/MA by Project Unit 6 and Degree Studios 3 & 7 at the Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University in 2018-19. Tutors: Maurice Mitchell, Bo Tang, Robert Barnes, Sandra Denicke-Poulcher and Jane McAllister. This booklet summarises the investigations, surveys and speculations of architecture students in Degree Studios 3 and 7, together with Diploma Unit 6 at the CASS. We started the year by immersing ourselves in an urban setting in South Bermondsey which was full of a diverse array of steel and concrete sheds. Exploratory design work focused on the assembly, conversion, adjustment, extension, and/ or re-assembly of existing buildings to better suit the concerns of the existing inhabitants. Students investigated closed boundaries and permeable borders (Sennett, 1998). Out of this investigation emerged speculations which included arcades, a re-purposed canal and high-ceilinged ground floor workshops under multi-storey apartments. Having practiced on-site research methods and following on from the previous summer scoping study, Civic Edgelands, students undertook field trips to Athens, Freetown, and Calabria in November 2018. All three locations are, or have been, migrant gateways, and transitional settlements for the uprooted and offer new opportunities for urban dwelling to their occupants: old, new and those just passing through

Urban agriculture in Kathmandu as a catalyst for the civic inclusion of migrants and the making of a greener city

This research explores the opportunities offered for green city-making on the recently secured Bagmati riverbanks in Kathmandu which is subject to rapid inward migration from landless rural farmers. It asks what the theory and practice of architecture can contribute in this setting to support the fit between emergent bottom-up initiatives and top-down city investment. To do this it deepens and extends loose fit theory, research methods and reflective practices to investigate latent possibilities, assemble a narrative of embedded change and create spatial imaginaries of topographical change on the Bagmati riverbanks. It argues that by making explicit the relationships between setting and occupant, stimulating and representing alternative imaginaries and framing a civic discourse, architectural theory and practice can play a significant role in both integrating migrants into civic institutions and at the same time helping to generate a greener city

Sodium Hydroxide as a Permian Clay-Gypsum Stabilizer

Civil Engineerin

Civic edgelands: transitional home making on the city's edge

A research study of three different contexts encountered by students and recent graduates from the Cass in July and August 2018. In this publication, we begin to explore the effects of migration on civic edgelands in Athens, Greece; Calabria, Italy; and Freetown, Sierra Leone. It also provides methodologies and guidance to students in Architecture Diploma Unit 6, and Degree Studios 3 and 7 on where and how students might engage with transitional communities in these settings in order to assemble a brief for their individual studio design projects for the 2018/19 academic year. Research publication produced by: Vanessa Barsan, Federica Ranalli, Alyzza Valid, Anita Zarzycka, Rita Elvira Adamo, Maya Shankla, Eno Akpan, Agnieszka Pyrdol, Aimee Thompson, Adam Cheltsov; coordinated and edited by Adam Cheltsov and Dr Bo Tang, at the Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University in 2018

Large scale experimentation workshop run by Maurice Mitchell [participation, research] Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth, Wales; 1-8 July 1999

Workshop run by Maurice Mitchell. Experimental large scale constructions: timber frame, earth balls construction, oven construction

Rethinking architectural education - the new EU directive and the role of live projects

The symposium was held as part of the 2nd Annual AAE Conference 2014 - Living and Learning - at the University of Sheffield and encouraged the participants to discuss the teaching method of Live Projects as part of the typical 5 year architectural education in the UK. Within the context of the new EU directive and the potential for a rethinking of the “3+2 years” (+ 2 years in practice) usual architectural education in the UK, Live Projects play an important role, adding practical experience to a shorter “5+0 years” model (without the year in practice). The information and knowledge delivered in the symposium could play a demonstrative and exemplary role in future architectural educational reform. At the Cass. School of Architecture, several studios at Undergraduate and Diploma level choose to work on Live Projects with their students as the year-long programme. These Live Projects play an important role within the students’ architectural education and increasingly will do so also in the future, as Live Projects add practical experience to a potentially reduced architectural education to 5 years without a year out. The studios at the Cass do not only teach students about the professional side of architectural practice (e.g. real clients), but also contribute to research in architecture. Three studios presented their work and methodologies as a base for discussion at the beginning of the Symposium, this was followed by a short Q+A session, involving the audience and other institutions to discuss: • What makes a project live? • What support is needed for Live Projects? • What is the role of the architect within the Live Project

RadTalks: What Could Be Possible if the Law Really Stood for Black Lives?

A Series of Talks Delivered at the Law for Black Lives Convening, Organized by the Bertha Justice Institute at the Center for Constitutional Right