Monthly Archives: October 2019
This Is Not A Fake, Bartlett International Lecture Series
23.10.2019 18:30, Bartlett School of Architecture
In the context of a contemporary culture saturated with the virtual and the illusory, Alison Brooks delivered a lecture to the Bartlett on both the agency of the architect and the role of architecture as a critical grounding force. She described the ways in which memory, conscious and sub-conscious experiences of ‘real’ places contribute to instinctive creativity (a fundamental human characteristic and critical form of authorship in architecture).
In the context of a contemporary culture saturated with the virtual and the illusory, Alison Brooks delivered a lecture to the Bartlett on both the agency of the architect and the role of architecture as a critical grounding force. She described the ways in which memory, conscious and sub-conscious experiences of ‘real’ places contribute to instinctive creativity (a fundamental human characteristic and critical form of authorship in architecture).
Introduction to Lecture:
This Is Not A Fake
‘I thought I should start by explaining what I mean by this lecture title. I’m sure everyone in this room is aware of the number of crises we’re facing as a society, and as human culture in general.
There is the climate crisis. We’ve finally realised that the artificial division between “human culture” and “nature” carried down through centuries of so-called “human progress” must be reversed. This a huge project that should bring together all of humanity, and in which architecture must play a very big part.
There is the crisis of truth. Facts are manipulated by biases of many kinds, by political, religious, or commercial agendas. What is real? There is even a crisis in the overuse of the word crisis! We are simultaneously becoming immune and over-sensitised to transgressions of behaviour and language, to natural and man-made disasters, to image bombardment that digital communication has enabled.
So where does that leave architecture?
I’d like to put forward a declaration of optimism. That, although we are operating in a maelstrom of information and disinformation, the work of the architect is not a fake.
Problem solving, imagining, detailing, producing instructions for building: these acts although sometimes dream-like are commitments to the real, the solid, the permanent, the instrumental. We are tied to the fundamentals of being: we make places for people to spend time, share experiences, form memories and collectively flourish.
We hope projects and clients will offer us opportunities for poetic licence and, as a result, enrich others’ lives with meaning. We all know this is a privileged role that comes with huge responsibilities to current and future generations, institutions, corporate entities and the planet.
Maybe the most important role that being an architect allows us, within limits, is to express our individual conscience. Architects Declare, that I have signed up to, is fundamentally an expression of conscience. It is a catalyst for change in personal behavior and working practice. Therefore my position is that through our individual expertise, poetic instincts and collective conscience, architects are uniquely able to commit to, and act on, a better common future. We humans are part of the real and natural world and our project, as architects, is to prove it.’
This Is Not A Fake, BD Magazine
[less..]BASE – Big Architecture and Sustainability
7.10.2019—7.10.2019, The Venue, De Montfort University
More than 700 Architecture and Arts students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) gathered for the first week of the academic year to take part in BASE (Big Architecture and Sustainability Event) where the discussed their future impact on sustainable design and communities. Alison Brooks presented a lecture on Experimental Sustainable Archetypes.
More than 700 Architecture and Arts students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) gathered for the first week of the academic year to take part in BASE (Big Architecture and Sustainability Event) where the discussed their future impact on sustainable design and communities. Alison Brooks presented a lecture on Experimental Sustainable Archetypes.
As well as the lectures, which also featured presentations by Matthew Barnett Howland, Oliver Wilton and Louise Palomba, a series of workshops involved students getting together in groups to think and work creatively, such as dreaming up a perfect building for a celebrity and designing the structure in miniature out of paper straws, or coming up with ideas of how society can work in a more sustainable way.
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