Outside + On Site

Join our new student-led talk series, presenting ten independent projects by Bartlett students and alumni from around the world.

The architectural projects presented include participatory design, collaborative construction and educational workshops, providing a unique platform for discussion from the perspectives of academia and emerging practice.

Learning from these ‘on the ground’ experiences, students, practitioners and the public are invited to participate in the conversation during the events, exploring some of the key issues facing the profession.

Talks are presented consecutively as a pair and last 15-20 minutes each, followed by a discussion with the audience on wider related issues. All welcome. 

This event series is part of The Bartlett Architecture Student Forum, which promotes events, student ideas and publications.

Talk schedule

12 March – Egmontas Geras

01. A Small Minty Cabin – East Sussex, UK

Egmontas Geras shares their project, A small minty cabin, built for Brainchild Festival 2017. Thought of as a space of fragrance, it is built of wooden walls that hide and preserve a garden of mint and other plants. The interior accommodates seats for two. It should be a smelly place, but in a good way. During the design process it was reappropriated and rethought of as a stage for small performances.

Egmontas Geras is currently a fourth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett.

15 March – Yip Siu

02. Transcribe Summer Lab: Socio-Spatial Practices in Social Housing Neighbourhoods – Braga, Portugal

This talk will discuss a workshop organised by Space Transcribers as part of their work on the '(Re) Escrever o Nosso Bairro' initiative, part of Braga’s social inclusion programme for 2020. By reuniting an interdisciplinary and international team, the team reflected on the social housing neighbourhoods stigma, which is normally excluded from the political, social or even academic agenda.

This consequently created an opportunity to activate a participatory dialogue between the residents, local NGOs, public entities and Braga City Council.

Yip Siu graduated from Architecture BSc at The Bartlett and is currently working in a London architectural practice.

26 March – Robert Newcombe and Patch Dobson Perez

03. Play Stadium – Constitución, Chile

This talk discusses the participatory design and construction processes developed to create the 'Play Stadium', a multi-purpose intergenerational timber structure. Located within the Pritzker prize-winning Elemental's Villa Verde incremental housing scheme, the project aimed to translate learning on site and for residents to activate an existing under-appreciated area in the centre of the 484 houses.

This talk will explore the challenges and rewards of collaboration with a passionate neighbourhood organisation, residents, NGOs and the funder, the Council of Culture and the Arts of Chile.

Robert Newcombe is currently a fourth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett and Co-Director of the Aldea Foundation.

04. The Mexican approach – Mexico City, Mexico

This talk describes the process behind the production of a month-long concrete sculpture commission for Tezontle Studio in Mexico City. Patch lived on-site in an abandoned modernist mansion, which was repurposed as a workshop.

He will open a discussion about the informal approaches to relationships within the construction, art and architecture industries in Mexico.

Patch Dobson Perez is currently a fourth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett.

16 April – Klaudia Kepinska and Timmy Whitehouse

05. In the wings – Warsaw, Poland

Klaudia's teaching for the STORE’s 2016 Warsaw summer school focused on designing and building a space to host a barbecue and performance for the public at the Centrum Wspierania Rodzin 'Rodzinna Warszawa'.

Over two weeks, students were invited to critically examine the architecture of the theatre and its theatrical devices such as set changes, trap doors and the diorama.

From this research and early drawn iterations, the group then designed and built a semi-permanent outdoor structure that became the focal point for a public performance on the final weekend of the summer school, where the architecture became the performer.

Klaudia Kepinska is currently a fourth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett.

06. Designing and reacting to high stake surroundings – Athens, Greece

In 2016 the European Refugee Crisis was close to its peak. Timmy spent five weeks in Athens volunteering with Khora, a charity which was undertaking the renovation of a print factory into a refugee community centre.

Living in this extreme context amongst refugees and international volunteers and working with everyone from Christian-aid groups to fierce anarchists, he participated in the fabriaction of furniture and spatial elements. The talk will explore the evolving roles of an architect within this context of the organisation, politics and the migrant crisis.

Timmy Whitehouse is currently a fifth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett.

30 April – Stefania Tsigkouni and Paula Strunden

07. BABEL: One day school workshop – London, UK

STORE School aims to provide affordable art and architecture education in challenging urban environments. In this framework, Stefania and the team ran a one day workshop at Hornsey School for Girls as a way to introduce the students to a different approach to their view of architecture. By deconstructing the normative understanding of architecture solely associated with buildings, the team tried to open up its meaning and encourage participatory design. This was done through a one-day workshop 'BABEL'. Each student created an A1 artwork that was then assembled collectively into a tower. The day ended with a procession that carried the tower to its final place: the library.
 
Stefania Tsigkouni is currently a fifth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett and ia a member of STORE.

08: European Architecture Students Assembly – Slovenia, Bulgaria and Finland

Since 1981, up to 450 architects from all European countries have been meeting each other for two weeks to discuss the architectural and urban reality of an annually changing place within the framework of 30 self-organised workshops. The informal and temporary structures of the resulting network form an open, dynamic and simply enjoyable alternative to our institutional education.
 
Paula Strunden is currently a fifth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett and a member of STORE.

3 May – Alice Hardy

09. Blue House Yard – London, UK

Blue House Yard was a scheme by High Street Works for Haringey Council that re-invented a disused carpark into a lively, vibrant space for work, retail and public use. It consisted of converting an old office building into artist studios and office space and building nine timber frame worksheds in the carpark along with a double-decker bus converted into a cafe.

A unique approach was taken in its construction by self-building the nine worksheds with the help of volunteers and apprentices from the local construction college. The hope for this temporary project is that its uses on site will result in the nurturing of inter-dependencies between businesses, visitors and local residents and set a precedent for wider, large-scale regeneration plans in the area.

Organisations: Meanwhile Space, Jan Kattein Architects, Structure Mode, Harringey Council

Alice graduated from Architecture BSc at The Bartlett and is currently studying her Master's at the London School of Architecture while working in a London practice.

31 May – Florence Bassa and Annecy Attlee

10. Raumlabor's Shabby Apartment Exhibition – Munich, Germany

An ‘apartment-for-anyone’ built for a one-month arts program in Munich. The elevated ‘apartment’ was available to rent to members of the public for a month, to spark conversations about what constitutes living and working space, as well as affordability.

It also featured a public space of seating and planting which judges noted was the main reason for its selection, since it was one of the only submissions that included public space with an apartment woven into its context.

Florence Bassa is currently a fourth-year Architecture MArch student at The Bartlett.

11. The Kiosk – East Sussex, UK

The Kiosk was a shop, gallery, and seating space (later stage) for a music and arts festival. The building was designed to have a number of different functions, with different levels of transparency, and different ways of interacting with and approaching the structure. Since the first year, it has been rebuilt on the site for the festival, in a slightly different configuration, and used for intimate music performances.

Annecy Attlee graduated from Architecture BSc at The Bartlett and is currently studying her Master's at the London School of Architecture while working in a London practice.

Book your ticket for talks 10 and 11