Drawing a crowd

To celebrate its 175th anniversary, The Bartlett School of Architecture organised three landmark conferences last year: the 2016 association of architectural educators (aae) conference; Fabricate 2017; and Drawing Futures. 

Research-based education was the theme of the aae conference. “Research is now a measure of success in higher education,” notes Co-Chair Hannah Vowles of Birmingham City University, “and it was fitting that this year’s conference was held at the School of Architecture, widely regarded as a leading in this approach.”  

The first triennial Fabricate conference, co-founded by Professor Bob Sheil, Director of the School of Architecture, and Ruairi Glynn, Director of the school’s Interactive Architecture Lab, was held at UCL in 2011. The entire series has now received over 900 submissions from more than 40 institutions in 30 countries. 

Fabricate 2017 was held at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction in Stuttgart. Its theme was ‘Rethinking Design and Construction’ and the conference organisers described the chosen projects as reflecting the high-tech strategy in which design, engineering and production are leading to a fourth industrial revolution. The event was accompanied by a book, edited by Bob Sheil, Ruairi Glynn, Achim Menges and Marilena Skavara. To date, the ebook version has been downloaded 30,000 times from UCL Press. 

The peer-reviewed Drawing Futures conference explored the notion that, despite developments in technological manufacture and computational design, the act of drawing still plays a central role as a vehicle for speculation. Chaired by Professor Laura Allen and Luke Pearson, the conference inspired 400 submissions from 50 countries.