Design Yearbook 2017

Architecture: Creative Practice Symposium
The School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape at Newcastle University
25-26 th April 2017
Architecture: Creative Practice Symposium led by Professor Prue Chiles
was conceived as an in-house event with the addition of notable external
contributors, and the aim was to create a dynamic and informal forum in
which to present, debate and create our sense of the breadth of creative
practice within the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, and in
architecture more widely. This small scale and intimate symposium consisted
of workshops, round tables, exhibitions, and discussions creating fruitful
exchanges in a positive and generous atmosphere.
We were delighted to have as opening keynote Professor Jane Rendell from
the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Rendell shared insights into how
architectural design, creative practice, and material experimentation can be
more fully presented as research, followed by an introduction to her work and
the field of terms - critical spatial practice and site-writing - for which she is
renowned.
The evening continued with presentations by: Prof Prue Chiles – Social Ends
And Means; Catrin Huber - Creative Practice; Prof Adam Sharr - Architectural
Design; Prof Rachel Armstrong - Experimental Architecture; Prof Graham
Farmer - Live Build Projects; Ian Wiblin and Dr Chris Müller – Photography;
and a round table discussion led by Prof Katie Lloyd-Thomas. Dinner was then
served in the newly opened Building Sciences Lab. The next day began with
the workshop presentations by Elizabeth Baldwin Gray, Kati Blom, Andrew
Campbell, James A Craig, Claire Harper, Dr Christos Kakalis, Daniel Mallo,
Mags Margetts, Matt Ozga-Lawn, and Dr Ed Wainwright, each followed by
crit-style feedback.
After lunch landscape architect and artist Catherine Dee, and artists Penny
McCarthy, Dr Becky Shaw, (SHU), Dr Polly Gould (APL) framed their
projects, so to explore whether Fine Art offers a model of an emergent academic
system that is useful in Architecture. Reports on visits to other practice research
discussions elsewhere were presented by Dr Anna Holder - Researching
Making/Making Research, Aarhus; Dr Martyn Dade-Robertson - Research
through Design Conference, Edinburgh; James A Craig and Prof Katie Lloyd-
Thomas - PhD By Design Conference, Sheffield; Nikoletta Karastani - RIBA
North East: Dr Emma Cheatle on her practice and Newcastle University
Humanities Research Institute (NUHRI); and Julia Heslop on Protohome.
The coffee breaks were illustrated by landscape architect Dr Ian Thompson’s
photographic work and Dr Peter Kellett’s recent exhibition on everyday objects
in Addis Ababa. Our visiting Professor, Prof Julieanna Preston, Professor of
Spatial Practice at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington,
New Zealand, gave the closing keynote; a performative presentation with
voice, image and narrative, that brought the event to a moving close. We then
enjoyed a guided walk with Dr Ed Wainwright past the architectural sites of
note in Newcastle on the way to the sixteenth century building, Alderman
Fenwick’s House, Pilgrim Street where Ian Wiblin presented his exhibition
of black and white photographic prints and video work, with closing drinks.
Image:
Polly Gould
Alpine Architecture: Piz Roseg, 2017
Watercolour on paper
34.5 x 54 cm
New York, VOLTA2017
Improbable architectures for mountain tops after the work of Bruno Taut
(1880-1938)
At points over the two days it was argued that different definitions of
research might be needed in order to accommodate both the distinctive
multidisciplinary nature of architecture, and its knowledge production
through practice. The Symposium provided the opportunity to recognize the
wide range of practice that is occurring at APL and to open questions for
future inquiry.
Text by Polly Gould
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