000off_SEMAPHONICITY

201mic_compact house

So how small is this house? (sqm)

072hin_WEAVING WORKSHOPS 2

197prs_AND THE WINNER IS: THE ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION

In the lead up to the announcement of key 2013 architectural awards – with the Mies van der Rohe Prize for European Architecture, RIBA Awards and the Pritzker all due to be handed out in Spring 2013 – The “And The Winner Is..?” events series moves on to investigate the purpose and impact of architectural awards, and their effect upon the profession and the built environment. Coverage of the Stirling Prize may have been dropped from live TV in 2012, following a 10-year run on the airwaves, but new awards keep arriving on the scene; from industrial accolades to international celebrations of new architecture, from self nominated web-platforms to juried conferring of trophies from on high. Awards are growing in number and size, with increasingly diverse parameters, sponsors and objectives. But is this glut of awards reducing the significance of the culture of prize giving? The AF has chosen this moment to critique and explore the culture of award giving, with an invited panel of key award representatives. Dinner networking extravaganzas, or important platforms for the celebration of architectural quality? Prizes that encourage clients to commission agenda-setting architecture, or cliquey back-slapping exercises? Vital aids for public discussion of the built environment and the visibility of the profession, or cultural camouflage for real-estate endeavours? Ultimately, awards and prizes should recognise and encourage quality in the built environment, but how does and can this best happen? An international panel of key representatives, critics and practitioners will present their positions, across a condensed evening symposium. Panel:

200min_MINECRAFTITECTURE

Thanks to Amine, or is that Aminecraft (?), we have a new child engagement platform: MINECRAFTITECTURE! Next step is to reverse the conventional process of making virtual worlds out of the real (Minecraft, SimCity etc) by making a real world out of the digital: “Minecraftitecture”. How can one translate a computer game into the built environment? What is point of doing this when the game itself has no objective: architectural engagement?

048PER_SKYPE SITE MEETING

127sho_National Geographic reveals LU

The history of the underground makes us think that the history of Shoreditch Underground Station is one of balancing mobility, housing and infrastructure. Could the architecture of the railway arches be used to support housing: sustainable conservation is in the balance. A re-think is always useful.

000off_WHAT_architecture vs RED BULL

Moving house? WHAT_architecture presents its preliminary design for the first Red Bull London Grand Prix…

000off_ROAM

ROAM: spotted by Dean Martyn Hook of the RMiT

106COC_ROTATING SERVICES