Architecture Off-Centre

"I started to design things that might catch passersby or the weather, the things that aren't normally remembered..."

The act of building a counter-monument is an oxymoron in itself. Artists and architects around the world have used voids to create these counter-monuments while challenging the notion of physically building spaces to retain public memory. Elliot Nash's project 'Forgetting Whitehall; Casting Blackhall' subverts traditional methods of physical and non-physical preservation while navigating through the themes of redaction and transience.

Elliot is a recent MArch graduate from The Bartlett, UCL. His work there focuses on alternative definitions of heritage in London, and poetic methods of construction. His latest project 'Blackhall' proposes a counter-monument for London through various material histories. Elliot also teaches at The Bartlett, and leads Open City's Accelerate programme, which aims to diversify the built environment industry.

Check out his project: https://summer2021.bartlettarchucl.com/pg12/year5-elliot-nash

After a few weeks of restructuring and lots of planning, Season 2 of Architecture Off-Centre is ready to go live! On this season, we are focusing our attention on the ideas of preservation, restoration and conservation in the built environment by posing a simple question: what does it mean to conserve, restore and preserve something in the contemporary context?

"Let's make it so intriguing, so curious that people have to come into these ideas of their own volition."

Have you ever seen a storefront opening up as a theatre? Or a dilapidated house becoming a community event space? Or ever dined on an unfolding table that serves food from plants on the verge of extinction? What about a lamp post that is lit by converting dog poop into electricity? If you know any of these projects, you are probably familiar with Matthew Mazzotta's work.

Matthew Mazzotta is an internationally renowned artist who works at the intersection of art, activism and urbanism. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, and a TED Fellow.

Matthew's work: https://www.matthewmazzotta.com/

And his TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMYvWg7JF3I

"I was told that you go to the US to learn the more innovative and technologically driven ways of practicing. But that was simply not the case."

If you have ever worked on a construction project and had a hard time searching for and specifying building products, you will be relieved to know that Acelab co-founders Vardhan Mehta and Dries Carmeliet are trying to ease the workflow and make your life easier. They are also leading by example on how to branch out into the business world as architects – all while still being in graduate school.

Acelab's mission is to make construction easy and efficient, from design to execution. Acelab is building the world's first vertically integrated platform where architects meet building products. The platform does the busy work, so architects can focus on meaningful work.

Sign up for free at: https://acelabusa.com/

Follow Acelab at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acelab

"Projects such as the Central Vista underscore the agency of architecture for 'those that govern us'—and how, misleading or not, design itself can construe the image of the nation."

The juxtaposition of New Delhi's Central Vista project over the ongoing public health crisis in India has raised several questions regarding the relationship between political power and architecture. In this episode, Architecture Off-Centre host Vaissnavi Shukl reads an excerpt from her graduate thesis titled Lotus Blooms and Fighter Jets: New Delhi's Central Vista Project and the Architecture of National Identity.

Check out Vaissnavi's presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF-JGIaBZLw if you want to learn more about her thesis or write to her at [email protected].

"What is the camera? It's a surrogate for the human eye."

If you've ever watched a Hollywood super-hero film and wondered what goes on in the making of it or thought about who designs the submarines and the palaces and the spacecrafts or even questioned what it takes to design spaces for a camera, set designer Tim Croshaw will answer all of it as he takes us through his world of film-making in Hollywood.

Tim Croshaw is a Specialist Set Designer who has collaborated in art departments on numerous movies for major film studios. He has also designed for many television series and live events in Los Angeles, California. Tim's great collaborations, passion for technology and design skills are key to what make him a highly successful designer.

To have a look at Tim's portfolio: https://www.timcroshaw.com/

"Virtual worlds in a game enable certain things which are harder to make in the physical space, but they also, in many ways, continue the heuristics of physical space like navigation."

Video games today touch upon discourses on virtual economies, the metaverse and the social element in online games. Alina Nazmeeva's work investigates the relationship between cities and digital games, interfaces and public, CGI and politics.

Alina Nazmeeva graduated from the Master of Science in Urbanism program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was fellow of the New Normal program at Strelka Institute of Media Architecture and Design. She is a research associate at future urban collectives lab at MIT and a research analyst at MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab where she focuses her research on understanding the economy and design of virtual worlds and online games.

To learn more about Alina's research: https://www.n-a.space/

"Understand that your mission was the building… That at the end of the day, your politics or your own sense of values, might never meet the middle point, I sat down to negotiate the existence of our building, [otherwise] they will blow the whole thing up."

In its efforts to build new infrastructure with foreign aid, Afghanistan, as a post-conflict nation, welcomed international organizations and assistance from other countries. Francisco Brown worked in Kabul for half a decade, designing and building schools, hospitals, police training academies and counter narcotics centres.

Francisco "Pancho" Brown is an architect, a creative consultant, and a journalist, with a background in humanitarian and commercial architecture and research. He was recently selected as the 2020 New Museum Ideas City Fellow and as a Fellow by the Latin Leadership Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. Pancho has worked as an International Architect for the United Nations International Organization for Migration in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he still consults independently.

To check out Francisco's work: https://www.panchobrown.com/

And his practice: https://micropolitanstudio.com/work

"It really has to do with designing services around women and women's lives… For us as women, we live our lives inside our bodies…"

Cristina Alonso is a midwife, who believes that all women can make informed choices about their bodies and lives. She advocates for the design of a healthcare system that serves women where they are and in a way that makes sense to them.

Cristina Alonso is a midwife specializing in out of hospital care. She founded the Luna Maya Midwifery Centers in Mexico to bridge safe and evidence-based health care, to respectful midwifery care than puts women´s values and choices at the center. Cristina is currently finishing her Doctorate in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

For more information on Luna Maya: http://lunamaya.org/

"The evolution of cities is barely ever linear and gradual. It follows an almost cyclical pattern of development that is highly influenced by political and religious currents."

Karan Saharya recently co-taught a course called Reincarnating Cities with Vaissnavi Shukl, where he took a deep dive into the changing architectural articulations of heritage, nationalism and religiosity in the contemporary Indian urban space.

Karan Saharya graduated with a Masters in Design Studies from Harvard Graduate School of Design. He received the Gerald M. McCue Medal, the Best Thesis Prize as well as several research grants. Karan practises in New York and Delhi, and his current research lies at the intersection of urban conservation, place-making and cultural mapping.

If you are interested in Karan's research, have a look at a snippet of his graduate thesis: https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/project/2020-design-studies-thesis-prize-karan-saharyas-in-the-name-of-heritage-conservation-as-an-agent-of-differential-development-spatial-cleansing-and-social-exclusion-in-mehrauli-delhi/