AIA INTERNATIONAL REGION CONFERENCE, SHANGHAI

In mid-November I flew East, to represent the chapter at the AIA International Region conference in Shanghai. Titled "China: New Realities” - it was an exposition on the culmination of more than 20 years of extraordinary growth, which has brought China’s architecture to the forefront of architectural practice.

The opening reception was held at Shanghai’s classic art-deco landmark, the Fairmont Peace Hotel on the Bund, and welcomed over 200 delegates and speakers, on a mild Autumn evening. The views of the Financial District across the river were stunning!

For the next three mornings, we gathered at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Shanghai’s new Pudong District. Pudong is now home to the Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and many of Shanghai's best-known buildings, such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and the Shanghai Tower. The amount of development since 1993, that has taken place on this less developed land across from the Old City, is staggering! 

The conference mornings included lectures and presentations by top architects in China and East Asia – keynote speakers included Kris Yao, Hon. FAIA, Rocco Yim, Hon. FAIA, Li Xiaodong, FAIA, Moira Moser, FAIA, and Yungho Chang, FAIA. 

One especially interesting segment of the second morning, was the presentations by all the International Region chapters of their UN Sustainability Development Goals initiatives. I presented our chapter’s initiatives, starting with UN SDG No.13: Climate Action. I briefed the delegates on how our chapter recognised the Climate Emergency, and subsequently revised our mission statement to address this, and also covered the various efforts we have taken to address climate action. Finally, I briefed the delegates on how through our programmes and structure we have covered goal No. 5 (Gender Equality), No.7 (Affordable & Clean Energy), No.9 (Industry Innovation & Infrastructure) and No.11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities). It was interesting to see what other chapters were also doing to address the UN SDG’s, and each exchange ideas we could all incorporate for our chapters.

In the afternoons, we broke away from the conference room and visited different areas representative of Shanghai’s extraordinary development. We started with tours of the new art museums in the West Bund Arts District by talented Chinese firms Atelier Deshaus and OPEN Architecture, finishing along the expansive Riverwalk. 

In Pudong, we visited projects by KRIS YAO | ARTECH and Kengo Kuma Associates, as well as the famous super high rise towers of Lujiazui by SOM, KPF, and Gensler.

On the third afternoon we visited the historic residential streets of the Jingan District’s Former French Concession. I spent my last day back in the historic Jingang and Chenghuang Temple area, immersing myself in old Shanghai, and admiring how the old and new Shanghai blended together, with new developments being added to the ever growing skyline.

I was fascinated by all the growth and technological advancement in this vast financial hub of China. We were warmly received and taken care of, and all the talks & tours organised were very informative and exciting. I was able to meet and network with fellow architects and other professionals in attendance, who had come from all corners of the globe. The numbers in attendance was very impressive, and this conference has left a positive lasting impression on me. I am honoured to have represented the chapter, and express my gratitude and congratulations to the AIA IR & AIA Shanghai for hosting such a successful conference. We look forward to welcoming the AIA IR to London in 2021!

Written by: Chris Musangi AIA

Onerous terms must be resisted

This is another article in our legal series provided by AIA UK partner, Beale & Co.

In this month's edition of Construction Law, guest editors Will Buckby and Madeleine Kelly report that increasingly onerous conditions are being imposed on consultants, some which may not be covered by professional liability insurance. Consultants must be prepared to 'walk away' when conditions attempt to impose risks that cannot properly be managed, the urge. 

To read the full article, please click here.

Written by: Will Buckby & Madeleine Kelly of Beale & Co.

THE FILMS OF CHARLES & RAY EAMES

Just one week after our previous screening, we were back to the BFI for our final movie screening of Autumn 2019. Thanks to Dr. Mark Breeze for the loan from his home library, we screened some of the 'Films of Charles & Ray Eames.'

Most of us know the duo for their architecture and design work, but not many know that they also made over 125 films from 1-30 minutes in length. The two are ranked among the finest American designers of the 20th Century, renowned for their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, industrial design and the photographic arts. We started with the screening of Powers of Ten, and went on to screen a selection from the box-set, which ranged from the playful to the lyrical, exploring architecture and featuring their own designs.

These movies were a good ending piece to the 2019 Movie series, and generated a jovial debate. Many thanks to all those who joined us a week after the previous screening, and for all those who have attended throughout the year! We look forward to welcoming you all back to the BFI on Tuesday 11 February 2020, for the start of our 2020 Series.

Written by: Chris Musangi AIA

Call for Nominations for 2020 AIA UK Board of Directors

If you are interested in getting involved with the AIA UK Chapter, please consider nominating yourself for a position on the 2020 board of directors.

You are welcome to make nominations for the board of directors and the four officer positions. The officer positions are ideally held by US licensed architects, but we will accept foreign licensed architects for nominations as well.  

The only requirement for a board of director’s position is enthusiasm and a willingness to help with events and other chapter activities throughout the year.  Attendance at the monthly board meetings is required by teleconference or in person. For those living outside of London, funds are available to help with the cost of travel to board meetings.

If you would like to nominate yourself or find out more about the board, please contact Michael Lischer, FAIA at ml@sportconcepts.net

Nominations are due by 31st December.

Duties:

The "requirements" for AIA UK board membership are fairly relaxed. The AIA UK is run by volunteers and all of our events are organized by volunteers. Board members generally help with events and/or get involved in some aspect of chapter management. Positions include newsletter editor, continuing education coordinator, emerging professionals coordination, and events organization.  

We have a very active chapter and there are usually a couple of events each month that need to be organized. We have four "major" events each year that we organize. These are the Design Awards, Summer Gala, Student Design Charrette, and Keynote Speaker.

New board members would not be expected to run events on their own but to help out with various chapter activities and attend monthly board meetings.  

WORKFLOW: Parametric Design in Practice

On May 31st, 2019 the AIA UK hosted Workflow: Parametric Design in Practice at WilkinsonEyre Architects (WEA) The series of short lectures outlined WilkinsonEyre’s approach to using of parametric design in the pursuit and practical execution of their creative vision.

After short introductions by Matthew Heitel, Technical Lectures Coordinator for the AIA UK, and Yasmin Al-Ani Spence, Director at WEA, the lectures started off with Connor Worth, Associate at WEA, giving an overview of the company’s work relating to parametric design, specifically focusing on the “inhabited sculpture” of the One Barangaroo building in Sydney, Australia. His talk delved into the different typologies of panelization used to create the façade, and how building diagrams used to define and install the façade glass were generated for each design iteration using Grasshopper , visual programming plugin for Rhinoceros 3D. 

Next up was Kairo Baden-Powell, Architect at WEA, introducing the Lord’s Cricket Grounds redevelopment project. He outlined the different site restraints his team had to contend with, both historical and programmatic, explained part of the design process, and outlined the process the team used Grasshopper to calculate view and the design variations for the structure of the monocoque canopy vaulting the new Compton and Edrich stands.

Fabio Roberti, BIM Manager at WEA, gave an introduction to BIM and its implementation in the architectural design process, which segued into Alexandros Betzouanis, BIM Coordinator at WEA, discussing the interlinking of scripting and BIM. Bertzouanis started his talk by describing the Dynamo scripts he used to map view angles and obstacles at Lord’s Cricket Grounds by ray tracing. Afterward, he demonstrated how to visualize Revit view dependencies with the interactive interface Power BI . Bertzouanis finished his presentation with a panelization exercise where he took a free form shape produced in Rhino, then panelled the shape in Revit using Rhino Inside - the intermediary scripting to use Rhino natively within Revit that will come with Rhino 7.

Our final speaker was René Rammazzo, Associate at WEA, who exhibited how parametric tools were used in the design process, from sketch to final product, used in the fabrication of the of the branching marble tracery wrapping the podium of One Barangaroo.

Lively conversation, networking, drinks, and canapés closed out the night.

Please join us on November 21st from 6:30 to 9pm for our next technical lecture ‘Workflow: Automated Architecture’ hosted at AKT II, White Collar Factory, 1 Old Street Yard, London, EC1Y 8AF.

Written by: Matthew Heitel, Assoc. AIA 

UNFINISHED SPACES

As the darker Autumn evenings set in, our Autumn 2019 movie series kicked off with a documentary from sunny Havana. Titled ‘Unfinished Spaces,’ this is a documentary film about the revolutionary design of the National Art Schools (Cuba). The film tells the dramatic story of the art schools from their founding by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to their eventual abandonment and fall into ruin and recent efforts to restore them.

 The three visionary architects Ricardo Porro, Roberto Gottardi, and Vittorio Garatti are interviewed and talk about the intense atmosphere of revolutionary Cuba, and how they strove to create an entirely new language of architecture, one without precedent. They also speak about why their design fell into disfavour, and how the complex was mostly abandoned uncompleted.

As the film shows, parts of the schools are in ruins while other parts are used today by young dancers and artists. These schools are on the watch list of the World Monuments Fund, and efforts to restore the abandoned buildings are being explored.

The plight of the three architects resonated with those in attendance, with a lively discussion carrying on for a good half-hour after the screening. 

Many thanks to all those who attended this screening.

Written by: Chris Musangi AIA