Design Yearbook 2017

PhD and PhD by Creative Practice Students
PRACTICEOPOLIS: Journeys in the architectural profession
Yasser Megahed
The contemporary architectural profession displays an on-going struggle for
economic and cultural capital between heterogeneous cultures of practice,
which together comprise what can be described as a state of dynamic
equilibrium. The contemporary profession is dominated by a technical-rational
culture of practice. The term refers to commercially-driven practices that are
often associated with the production of buildings by or for multinational
corporations and tend to echo their values. This research interrogates the
imperatives of this domination on the values of the architectural profession.
It builds upon two strategies: firstly, mapping the alternative cultures of the
present architectural profession; and secondly, identifying the dangers of the
increasing closeness in values between the profession and other actors in the
building industry. The research argues that these increasingly shared values
threaten the unique worth of the architectural profession and the dynamic
equilibrium which characterises it. By inventing Practiceopolis: an imaginary
city of architectural practice, the research aims to investigate the nature of the
profession and the particular values it contributes to the built environment.
Practiceopolis is a city built on diagrammatic relations between different
cultures of practice covering a wide spectrum of the contemporary profession.
The city became envisaged through a sequence of five iterative narratives
whose specific narrations set the foundation for the next. An initial diagram
becomes a map, which becomes the plan for a speculative city. These narratives
are accountable for mapping the contemporary profession by building
the complex metaphor of Practiceopolis. They explore the inhabitation of
Practiceopolis by narrating stories about the competition between prominent
cultures of practice in the city’s imaginary political scene represented through
a graphic novel. The research ends with propositions regarding the particular
values of the architectural profession, and highlights the necessity to explore
how these values could be defined, communicated, and marketed.
Life, Superceiling: A cultural history of the suspended ceiling
Kieran Connolly
Suspended ceilings are a ubiquitous element of contemporary architecture.
From the generic spaces of the shopping mall, corporate office and hospital
wing; to intimate spaces of domestic inhabitation, the suspended ceiling
prevails. Their pervasive presence can be attributed to their simplicity, ease of
construction and inherent repetitious quality. Organised on a regular grid of
600mm x 600mm, the suspended ceiling neatly resolves the problem of how
to conceal the plethora of technical and environmental services desired in the
design of modern buildings. The proliferation of suspended ceiling systems
globally testifies their status as the default ceiling solution for contractors,
designers and clients alike.
The ubiquity of suspended ceilings across our contemporary built
environments, implies that there widespread application is not only enabled by
technical efficiency but by active cultural, political and economic forces. The
research examines and develops an account of the history of technical, social,
cultural and economic factors which have contributed to the global production
and consumption of suspended ceiling systems. Borrowing techniques and
methods deployed by radical Italian design collective Superstudio; multiple
readings of the suspended ceiling are developed, drawing out wider questions
related to prevalent cultural attitudes toward standardisation, industrialisation,
organisation and management. These attitudes are read through the suspended
ceiling, contributing toward a critique of contemporary spatial production
and its relationship to architectural practice.
185