OSA Magazine is a platform for documenting, sharing and publicising the varied agendas of students at Oxford Brookes School of Architecture.
Here on our new weekly update, we will be recommending arts and culture events currently open in London and Oxford. We'll also be sharing articles from our limited edition print publications past, present and future, so you'll still be able to read contributions from the OSA writers, even if the magazines are sold out.
Project of the week:
Our featured student of the week is
Unit J
Architecture Undergraduate Second and Third Year
This brief of the Folkestone is developed by HOP Projects CIC, in conversations with Declan, Matt Rowe, Kevin and Andy. The starting point of the exploration will be Grit in the Oyster, a body of work that represents the often overlooked rituals and aesthetics of carnivaleque culture in the traditional British seaside resort. It reflects a cultural space where the conventions and boundaries of socially acceptable behaviour or reckless hedonism could become blurred. Working as a team, you will be asked to construct an elaborate and temporary stage-set ensemble, made out of mobile/wearable components, and carry out a one day performance on 18 November – capturing a seaside resort in ‘permanent offseason’...
OSA Field Trips:
Maria Mavrikou // Photographs by DS3 students
MArchD 2// DS3
Check out more photographs of DS3's trip on instagram @ds3oxfordbrookes or on #ds3georgia
Georgia | Tbilisi, Batumi, Anaklia | 09/11/2017- 16/11/2017
DS3 studio themes confront the imagination, ideology and narrative of the power that produce and are produced by architectural and territorial projects.
This year DS3 is looking into a triangle of cities in the transition-state (“nation” and “condition”) of Georgia. Georgia is country that is positioned between mountains and lakes that topographically divide ‘east’ from ‘west’, it is layered with the legacies and projections of a number of empires and vulnerable to the contemporary power of hyper-neoliberal investment, all of which have produced- and left behind- an archipelago of spectacular and infrastructural objects upon the landscape.
Tbilisi:
Our trip started in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi that was swooned-over for centuries by Thespian Conquerors. Throughout our three day visit in Tbilisi we walked through the city that consists of pre-soviet, soviet and post- soviet architecture. On our second day in Tbilisi we had the honour to have Nano Zazanashvili, an architectural historian as our tour guide around the different districts and explained the architectural history of Tbilisi and the difference between other cities of Georgia. Further explorations of the city were a Metro trip to the Microrayon Varketili and taxis to the Hualing Mall - a.k.a Spiritual and Economic Centre - next to wholesale warehouses, followed by Bounded Customs Zone and Customs-Approved Warehouses. We had the opportunity to talk to Zone Manager Irakli and walk around with Zviad, social anthropologist who works on informal markets and trade networks of import/export.
In an attempt to truly understand the culture of Tbilisi we hired the biggest room at the Sulphur Baths and “tried” to recreate the painting of “The school of Athens “by the painter Raphael.
Batumi:
After a six-hour bus trip, we continued to the Ancient Port-town-come-spectacular-tourist-resort of Batumi. Batumi is a force to be reckoned with, we arrived late at night, and so had the opportunity to experience a bit of the night life and to see the city lit up. The next morning before leaving for Anaklia (our third stop) we walked along the seafront from the older layer of the beach town to the new-town Pier, and had coffee at the Pier and had a briefing about our element study and portfolio submission (in the sun).
Zugdidi// Anaklia:
Next stop our site, the yet-to-be-realised Extrastate Zone of Anaklia.
Our first day in Anaklia we walked to the abandoned pavilions of GemFest (since 2015) for a lecture on Deadly Life of Logistics and its relationship to warfare, the state, capitalist development by Evelina Gambino. Followed by Tekla’s lecture on her film project and the specifics of Lazika and Anaklia’s development - its characters and tensions. Furthermore, we walked to Lazika Municipal building past one-month-old demolished houses as part of expropriation for Lazika development, past the tetrapod storage facility and Pioneer soviet-cum-neoliberal scouts camp to the abandoned Lazika Municipal Building that we did not climb on the roof of!
After being briefed, we started our mapping exercises for the last days in Anaklia.
Georgia was an experience of a lifetime, to further understand the culture we tried local food and tasted local wine that I must say was truly amazing. However, the amount of cheese that has been consumed is unreal. #nomorecheese
Events around Oxford and London:
John Pawson on Colour
Where: RIBA// 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD London, United Kingdom
Date: November 21/11/2017
Tickets: Link Here
Drawing Workshop: Architectural Aspirations
Where: RIBA// 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD London, United Kingdom
Date: Saturday, November 25/11/2017 at 11am- 4pm
More information about the event: Link Here
OxArch events of the week:
21// 11 // 2017- Cullinan Studio
To practice as architects, we need a methodology we can take from project to project that will act as a stable platform to develop each design. This is the foundation for the story-telling role of the designer, finding the resilient narrative that will help the whole team to make the thousands of decisions that must be made on every project, and bring them together into a convincing, cohesive whole. Using a set of design strategies, we must be able to secure the buy-in of clients, users and all the team members - based on challenging a brief, on consultation and on context. Ideas that are continually tested as the design progresses through a sort of ‘washing machine’ cycle of scrutiny for relevance, value, cost and delight. It’s an iterative process and we are looking for those ideas that are resilient under test.
More information on the event:
23// 11 // 2017- Pimp my Project
OxArch in collaboration with the RIBA have set up a one-off guest tutorial session with dozens of architects to run personal one to one tutorials with students. You will be free to discuss your project in an informal and relaxed setting, this should give you a fresh pair of eyes on your project and help you in your final push before the end of term! Each tutorial will be approximately 20 minutes each. Sign up via the Google Form link posted on our facebook page. Details of timeslots will be given nearer the time. Sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/obnMSRRiLN0CzatM2
More information on the event:
23// 11 // 2017- Pimp my Project
Have a fab week
- OSA team