Martin Centre Research Seminar Series

Abstract The motivation behind the interdisciplinary research project "Collaborative Design Platform" (CDP) is to resolve the current discrepancy between analogue ways of working in the early urban design stages and the ever-increasing use of digital tools in office pratice. By directly linking familiar, analogue ways of working with digital computer aided design tools, the CDP represents a working environment that allows designers to work the way that they are used to, while making use of the potential of computers. The platform creates a direct connection between physical volumetric models and interactive digital content using a large-format multi-touch table as a work surface combined with real-time 3D scanning. Combining the 3D data from the scanned model with the 3D digital GIS environment model makes it possible to computer design relevant simulations and analyses. These are displayed in real-time on the working model to help architects assess and substantiate their design decisions. Biography Frank Petzold's research and teaching activities cover the entire spectrum of IT-supported architectural design and planning. He has contributed more than 50 papers and articles to conferences and professional journals. As part of the Collaborative Research Centre project, "Materials and constructions for the renovation of building structures", funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation), he examined architectural design in existing built contexts and the structured capture of data for building information modelling (BIM). In the DFG-funded "AR Cave - projection-based technology for on-site surveying, visualisation and simulation" research project, augmented reality methods were employed for working directly within existing built contexts. The "KREMLAS - Development of a creative evolutionary design method for layout problems in architecture and urban design" research project (also funded by the DFG) examines approaches for assessing solutions produced using evolutionary methods.

Abstract: The title of this lecture is explained by Richard Murphy Architects' location between two different points pf view. There is little in our work that might be called avant-garde. The office does not subscribe to the high-octane world of the international 'starchitects' depositing iconic buildings in different cultures around the world, which whilst having some superficial photo-journalistic value, rarely repay close inspection. The other position is represented by the society in which we work, Edinburgh in particular, but also elsewhere in the UK. This is a city in which many citizens wish that the modern era had never occurred. Modern architecture, it seems to be universally agreed, has spoilt the view. However it is essential for the health of our culture that we make buildings that are recognisably of today so that in the future there will be some history of this era to preserve. Rooting recognisably new buildings into old places or particular landscapes; contributing towards rather than damaging, their location; continuing rather than fossilising, the history of a place: these are our objectives. We call it architecture of its time and place. Biography: Richard Murphy was educated at Newcastle and Edinburgh Universities. Before founding Richard Murphy Architects he worked for MacCormac Jamieson and Pritchard Architects in London, and directed the edinburgh office of Alsop Lyall & Stormer Architects. He has taught at Edinburgh University, Robert Gordon University, Edinburgh College of Art, Strathclyde University, The Technical University of Braunschweig, the University of Virginia and Syracruse University, New York State. Richard's publications include Carlo Scarpa and the Castelvecchio (Butterworths Architecture, 1991), Querini Stampalia Foundation, Carlo Scarpa (Phaidon Press, 1983) and An Architects' Appreciation of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Bellew Publishing, 1990). He is an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Fellow of Napier University. His practice has won 21 RIBA and RIAI awards in as many years.

Abstract: Passive solar architecture, with some active assistance, will be viewed through the lens of James J Gibson’s theory of ‘affordances’, 1977, Jay Appleton’s ‘prospect-refuge’ theory, 1975, Aldo van Eyck’s ‘reciprocity’, 1961-62, and ‘in-between’, 1959, and Alvar Aalto’s ‘From Doorstep to Living Room’, 1926. All four theoretical strands will inform commentary on the use of sun-traps, sun-buffers, sun-diodes and sun- collectors in a range of domestic and non-domestic projects; this leading to a discussion of the key ‘comfort’ and ‘well-being’ issues for occupants of low-, zero-, and plus-energy buildings and their carbon footprints. Tensions between technology and human frailty will be raised, for example in relation to indoor air quality and sensory satisfaction. The presentation will conclude on the issue of emphasis regarding new-build and retrofit models and the alignment of, rather than competition between, ‘passive-solar’ and ‘passiv-haus’ solutions. Biography: Colin Porteous is an architect with an interest in energy-efficient design. He became a full-time academic in 1986, leading a community technical aid centre linking the problem of fuel poverty to passive solar solutions via the EU-funded Easthall Demonstration Project in the early 1990s. He initiated the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU) in 1993, and is author of The New Eco- Architecture (2002), Solar Architecture in Cool Climates (2005) and Sensing a Historic Low-CO2 Future (2011) – a holistic overview of indoor air quality (Chapter 8, Intech.org; free online book).

Abstract: This lecture will discuss alternative approaches to urban energy modelling, suggesting that the most powerful and flexible approach is one of micro-simulation in which individuals (agents) may be explicitly simulated. The discussion will include: emerging procedures for generating and attributing a synthetic population of agents’ how their presence may subsequently be simulated at a range of potential destinations’ their activities within these destinations and the range of activity-dependent behaviours; likewise their investments in energy-related technologies and behavioural changes. The lecture will also outline some remaining challenges to the achievement of a fully comprehensive urban energy micro-simulation platform. Biography: Professor Darren Robinson is Chair in Building and Urban Physics and Deputy Head of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham. For the past fifteen years his work has focused on the development of models of building occupants’ comfort and behaviour and of models of buildings’ energy use at the urban scale – these two interests now converging in the form of urban energy micro-simulation software. This is summarised in his most recent book “Computer Modelling for Sustainable Urban Design”. Darren has received the CIBSE Napier-Shaw Medal (2007), the Building and Environment journal Best Paper Award (2009 and 2010) and the JBPS Best Paper Prize (2010-2011).

Abstract: This lecture explores the human dimension of new city-building that has emerged in East Europe. Utilizing firsthand research culled from more than 100 interviews conducted primarily in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia—a city whose public spaces have unravelled over the last two decades—this lecture will examine the ways people live and experience the new, post-socialist urbanism. Also addressed are what these new spaces tell us about their builders, users, and inhabitants. Embracing an explicitly cultural approach, this lecture will suggest that disappointment with socialist and post-socialist conditions has led to mass scepticism toward the public domain (further resulting in a radical de-construction of public spaces), and will offer provocative insights into the complex relationship between society and space during times of fundamental change. Biography: Sonia Hirt’s focus as a scholar and teacher is on exploring the complex social meanings of the urban built environment. She aspires to help enhance the quality of urban environments first by developing a richer understanding of the social processes and cultural values that influence their evolution, and second by provoking critical debates within the urban planning profession. She conducts research along three main themes: East European urbanism – resulting in two books: Iron Curtains: Gates, Suburbs and Privatization of Space in the Post-socialist city (2012) and Twenty Years of Transition: The Evolution of Urban Planning in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, 1989-2009 (with Kiril Stanilov, 2009); comparative urban planning and land-use regulation – she is currently writing a book on the subject tentatively entitled Zoned in the USA: Urban Planning and the American Dream; and urban planning theory and history – she is especially interested in the ideas of Jane Jacobs and has edited a forthcoming volume, The Urban Wisdom of Jane Jacobs (2012). Sonia Hirt holds a fellowship from the Institute of Society, Culture and the Environment. Last year she served as a visiting associate professor at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University.

Abstract: This lecture explores the steel, brick and ferro-concrete Cambridge built in the late 50s and 60s: the almost invisible ‘Other Cambridge’, that today is not part of the identity of the city. Cambridge as a city, indeed as a University, is commonly linked to a more reassuring model in the English tradition, compressed between the noble stereotype of King’s chapel and the view from The Backs. Arcadian visions that communicate calm in the name of the arts and scholarly pursuits. But what of innovation? The aim of this talk is to stimulate a debate regarding a controversial period of architecture that is undergoing a suppression of memory and to open up to the wider public the ‘other side’ of Cambridge, often unknown and misjudged. Apart from Stirling’s Faculty of History there are many interesting buildings unknown to the general public as well as to the international scholarly community. The cues for this task are contained in the splendid images preserved in the RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection that will be analysed during this seminar, which complements the exhibition Cambridge in Concrete. Biography: Marco Iuliano is a Senior Research Associate of DIGIS (Digital Studio for Research in Design, Visualisation and Communication) and a Marie Curie Fellow in the Department of Architecture at Cambridge. His research focuses on the intersections between architecture and the visual arts. He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including the Italian CNR Fellowship (2005), the J.B. Harley Fellowship (British Library, 2008) and the Paul Mellon Centre Grant for Studies in British Art (2012). His many publications include a contribution to the History of Cartography (University of Chicago Press) and he is UK correspondent for Il Giornale dell'Architettura. Dr Iuliano has co-authored three books: the most recent, Melchior Lorck, was selected as 2010 Book of the Year in the Times Literary Supplement. He has taught Contemporary Architectural History since 2005 and is curator of the 2012 exhibition Cambridge in Concrete.

Abstract: Rafael Moneo (born 1937) is one of the most thoughtful current architects, whose work has inspired a younger generation in Spain and internationally, since he has taught at Harvard for many years. His practice and writings challenge contemporary assumptions, which suggest that architecture’s role has somehow been superseded, and question the position of those who “wish to think of architecture only in relation to instantaneity and action”. Yet, unusually for an architect much concerned with theoretical issues, he insists that it is only in the construction of a project that architecture can actually be realised - “architecture needs the support of matter” – and this is one defence against the arbitrary. Another is an acute self-consciousness about the history of architecture, which is available for appropriation by the skilful architect. This lecture will discuss Moneo’s prolific architectural output, in an attempt to illustrate his theoretical position. Biography: Nicholas Ray is principal of NRAP Architects, Reader Emeritus in Architecture at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Jesus College. His most prominent local buildings are Quayside, opposite Magdalene College, and the renovations to the University’s Department of Chemistry. He is the author of Cambridge Architecture, a Concise Guide (CUP 1994), (Re)Sursele Formei Arhitecturale (Paideia 2000), Alvar Aalto, (YUP 2005), Architecture and its Ethical Dilemmas (Routledge 2005) and “Philosophy of Architecture”, a chapter with Christian Illies in Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sci2009). He is currently working on a monograph of Rafael Moneo, with Francisco Gonzalez.

Abstract: Jonathan Hendry Architects is an award winning, chartered practice based on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, with a reputation for making architecture that is well crafted, with simple forms that have a strong sense of materiality with subtle complexities. The work is developed through a rigorous process of investigating urban and historical context, economic and social history, landscape characteristics and geographical significance. The practice has designed a wide-ranging body of work covering many aspects of the built environment – focusing on creating buildings that relate to a ‘Place’ through a process of observation and the re-working of the existing site. Biography: Jonathan Hendry has worked for Allies and Morrison and Jamie Fobert Architects, before establishing Jonathan Hendry Architects in 2000. His award winning chartered practice prides itself on producing high quality architecture in a wide variety of genres including public buildings, private dwellings, commercial buildings and furniture design. Jonathan was a RIBA regional awards judge in 2008 and also wrote a regular column in the Architects Journal from 2007-08. In 2011 he won the annual Young Architect of the Year Award.

Abstract: Heatwaves are associated with large impacts on human health and mortality, as well as having economic repercussions. The direct impacts of heatwaves can subsequently affect the flow of goods and services through extensive and complex linkages in the economic system, as well as indirectly affecting society, in the short to medium term. The propagation and amplification of direct impacts within cities can be large, with the potential for impacts to extend far beyond the temporal and spatial extent of the original event. Urban areas are especially at risk of negative impacts of climate change due to their high concentrations of people and assets. As part of the ARCADIA project (Adaptation and Resilience in Cities: Analysis and Decision Making using Integrated Assessment), an Urban Integrated Assessment Facility is being developed that enables exploration of a wide range of scenarios and their implications, focusing on Greater London and the surrounding region. This framework has been applied to heatwaves and a methodology has been developed to assess the direct impacts on society and on the economy as well as subsequent indirect impacts on supply and demand, and labour resources. Biography: Katie Jenkins is a researcher at the Environmental Change Institute, working within the major consortium project ARCADIA. Before working in Oxford, Katie was a PhD student at the University of Cambridge modelling the economic and social impacts of drought events under future projections of climate change. Prior to this Katie worked at the University of Cambridge at 4CMR (The Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research), as a Research Assistant and Deputy Centre Manager. Her main research interests include modelling direct and indirect economic impacts of climate change, with particular regard to extreme weather events, and assessing consequences for adaptation and mitigation strategies from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Abstract: RIBA Royal Gold Medallist and Cambridge architecture alumnus Ted Cullinan will give a talk discussing a range of projects, illustrated with drawings and images. The talk will start by describing small buildings in particular situations, and the language of their detailing. It will go on to describe larger ones in more urban situations, and finally the language of their detailing too. Biography: Ted Cullinan was educated at Cambridge, the Architectural Association and Berkeley. He trained with Denys Lasdun where he designed the student residences at the University of East Anglia before setting up his own practice in 1959. While teaching at Cambridge in 1965, he established Edward Cullinan Architects as a co-operative. Ted has taught and examined extensively in this country and abroad, being awarded five Professorships, as well as a number of honorary doctorates. He is also a main contributor for Scroope 22. He has received many awards in recognition of his longstanding work in the field of architecture and design, including a CBE in 1987, and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2008.

Abstract: Technical artefacts are a topic for moral philosophy as much as crimes and other misdemeanors. After all, their design and structure matter a lot for human wellbeing and dignity – for example, whether they function well, how they affect the environment, or whether they seduce people into committing abuses. Architectural artefacts are no exception in this respect; from the ethical perspective, we can distinguish moral and immoral buildings. But with architecture, things are particularly complicated: Often the criteria for good and for moral architecture seem to pull in different directions - many ‘green’ buildings are architecturally undistinguished, to say the least, and some of the finest buildings are morally questionable. Should, then, ethics be subordinated to aesthetic quality or vice versa? Existential riddles like these call for philosophy to solve all problems; or at least that is what philosophers like to believe. Biography: Christian Illies holds the chair of philosophy at the University of Bamberg (Bavaria/ Germany). He was educated at Konstanz (M.Sc. Biology), Oxford (DPhil) and Aachen (Habilitation Philosophy). Prior to joining Bamberg University in 2008, he was lecturer and professor for ‘Philosophy of Culture and Technology’ at the Technical Universities Eindhoven and Delft where he co-organized the Center of Excellence for Ethics in Technology of the three Dutch technical universities. His research focuses on ethics (Grounds of Ethical Judgement, 2003), philosophy of biology (Darwin 1999 (with V.Hösle), Philosophische Anthropologie 2006), and philosophy of culture and technology, in particular philosophy of architecture. He is currently dwelling on problems of an ethics of architecture in close cooperation with Nicholas Ray (Cambridge).

Abstract: Rudolf Wittkowerʼs Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1949) became a landmark work in proportional practices in the 15-16th centuries, particularly the writings and works of Alberti (1404-1472) and Palladio (1508-1580). Alberti was known for his mathematical abilities. It is odd that his most revealing comment on proportions appropriate for building tends to be ignored in favor of his rehearsal of music theory. In a significant section on proportion, he remarks on the appropriateness of geometric measures, especially the correspondentae innatae of the cube. Alberti encourages the use of radices et potentae such as square roots, cube roots, squares and cubes. Palladio, too, was cited by a contemporary as having “much inclination for mathematics”. An analysis of the Palazzo Della Torre shows that Palladio made masterly use of the cubeʼs correspondentae innatae. He invoked the classical Delian problem involving the cube root of two. Palladioʼs room proportions in length, breadth and height bear remarkable parallels with trends towards equal temperament in the music world at the time. Biography: Lionel March is a Visiting Scholar at the Martin Centre. He is Emeritus Professor of Design and Computation and Member, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. Most recently, he co-edited The Mathematical Works of Leon Battista Alberti, Birkhäuser, 2010, with Kim Williams and Stephen R. Wassell.

Abstract: Tremendous progress has been made in earthquake science and engineering in the past decades. However, fatalities and injuries due to earthquakes continue to dominate recent headlines. With each new event, we are reminded of the power of the forces of nature and are motivated to improve our efforts in mitigation. In this talk, Dr. So will present the work of USGS’s PAGER, an automated system issuing alerts on the impact of significant earthquakes around the world, informing emergency responders, government and aid agencies, and the media of the scope of a potential disaster. She will also talk about her work with the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) and how these ongoing efforts are making a difference in the field at large. Biography: Dr. Emily So is a chartered civil engineer and a Lecturer at the Department of Architecture. Before coming to Cambridge she worked at Arup as a senior geotechnical engineer and has most recently finished a two-year appointment at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as a Mendenhall Fellow. Her area of specialty is casualty estimation in earthquake loss modelling and her research has led to improved understanding of the relationship between death and injury following earthquakes. She has actively engaged with earthquake‐affected communities in different parts of the world, focusing on applying her work towards making real‐world improvements in seismic safety. She is the 2010 Shah Family Innovation Prize winner, an award given annually by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) to promising young practitioners or academics. She is a Director of Studies and Fellow in Architecture at Magdalene College and a Director of Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd.

Abstract: Cities account for approximately two-thirds of global primary energy demand and accordingly, there has been an increased focus on modelling urban energy supply and demand. In this talk, Dr. Keirstead will present some results from the BP Urban Energy Systems project at Imperial College London and look at what's been happening in the field at large. The emerging picture is one of hybrid methodologies, specifically combining optimization and simulation techniques to develop an understanding of urban energy use from initial master planning through to daily operations. Biography: Dr James Keirstead is a Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London. His research focuses on the integrated modelling of urban energy systems and the links between urban form, consumer behaviour, public policy, technical systems, and resource consumption. He is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Energy Institute, Board Member of the International Society for Industrial Ecology's Sustainable Urban Systems section, and a Member of the British Institute of Energy Economics.

Abstract: The Woodland Cemetery was designed and constructed over a period of 25 years, by Sigurd Lewerentz and Gunnar Asplund and in its completed form bears very little resemblance to the competition winning scheme. Recognised as one of the great “Modernist” landscapes, the history of its design shows that rather than the transcription of an idea, its form is the result of the repeated reconsideration and erasure of its earlier incarnations. By assembling the available fragments drawings, and placing them in the context of the architectural projects carried out by the authors over the same period, the struggle to overcome the memory of past architectures in order to produce a new synthesis is seen as analogous to the “Trauerarbeit” of mourning. Biography: Kevin Fellingham is principal of Kevin Fellingham Architecture + Urbanism. He worked at Rick Mather Architects and Arup Associates, and was a Design Fellow at Cambridge University. He is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and of MIT, where he won the Ralph Adams Cram Award for outstanding interdisciplinary research. His House J in South Africa won the World Architecture News House of the Year Award in 2007.

ABSTRACT: Disruptive technology relates to a technology that emerges from a non-traditional route that may evolve to supplant, challenge or ‘disrupt’ the original paradigm. Fabric formed concrete satisfies the criteria of DT, providing an entry to a technology that the conventional processes resist. Through a series of workshop studies and experiments the opportunities and the potential of the technology has been researched. Practical considerations such as such as repeatability, accuracy and precision are integral to the work. BIOGRAPHY: Remo Pedreschi holds the chair of Architectural Technology at the University of Edinburgh and is also Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange for the School of Arts, Culture Environment. He joined the University after a period in the construction industry. He is interested in the relationship between technology and design and was editor of the book series ‘The Engineer’s contribution to Contemporary Architecture’, to which he also contributed the monograph on the Uruguayan engineer, Eladio Dieste. He is currently working on novel systems for stone construction, steel and plywood composite systems and fabrics as formwork for concrete. The methodology often involves the interaction of formal research and student-led projects as a device for both detailed and exploratory study leading to full-scale prototype constructions.

ABSTRACT: This talk considers Hong Kongʼs contemporary vernacular through case studies, particularly on selected areas in Central and the historical fabric of adjacent precincts. The cityʼs urban image is often read as a seductive architecture of spectacle fuelled by a relentless neon- capitalism, an urbanscape of indeterminate anonymity proliferated via property speculation and infrastructural efficiency, or ones in which singular motifs such as verticality, density or ʻdisappearanceʼ dominate.In contrast, the talk focuses on how the cityʼs topography, urban settings and architectural types condition as well as evolve out of everyday living - the co- existence of disparate peoples and technologies within a culture of congestion and accelerated existence. BIOGRAPHY: Thomas Chung currently teaches in the School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was educated at Cambridge and has practiced in London prior to joining CUHK in 2006. His research interests include urban transformation and heritage in Hong Kong as well as the problem of commemorative space in Japan. He was co-curator for the 2007 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture, and has exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010.

ABSTRACT: The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is allowing a new approach to the study of the built environment. The way we describe and understand cities is being radically transformed – alongside the tools we use to design them and impact on their physical structure. BIOGRAPHY: Professor Carlo Ratti directs MIT Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, MA, and practices architecture in Turin, Italy. He has authored over 200 publications and holds several patents. His Digital Water Pavilion at the 2008 World Expo was hailed by Time Magazine as one of the Best Inventions of the Year. He has been included in Esquire Magazine's Best and Brightest list, in Blueprint Magazine's 25 People who will Change the World of Design and in Forbes Magazine's People you need to know in 2011. Ratti recently served as the inaugural Innovator in Residence in Queensland, Australia.

ABSTRACT: Theory · Research · Practice · Evaluation As a practice we have always been interested in blurring the distinctions between research and practice, and in learning from Post Occupancy Evaluations from our projects. This talk will focus on three recent projects, one of them completed 5 years ago, another 2 years ago and one that is currently under construction. This will investigate the way our research in low energy design and technology continues to shape the output of the practice. BIOGRAPHY: Peter Clegg is a Senior Partner with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, having established the practice with Richard Feilden in 1978. Widely regarded as a key pioneer in the field of environmental design, he has over 30 years' experience in low energy architecture and is actively involved in research, design and education. Peter was the primary author of "Feilden Clegg Bradley: The Environmental Handbook" published in 2007, a substantial account of the practice's sustainable design experience over the last 30 years and a primer on the implementation of environmental best practice.

ABSTRACT: The presentation discusses methods of investigating urban growth patterns illustrated with a number of case studies from the UK, USA and Europe. These studies rely on detailed historical data to reconstruct the physical evolution of metropolitan areas over extended periods of time with unusually high level of spatial and temporal resolution. The objective of this research is to understand the main forces shaping the patterns of urban growth. The findings provide support for a hypothesis that the spatial relationships between land uses and the physical environment are remarkably consistent through time. This conclusion suggests the existence of an underlying "genetic code" of urban growth, which determines the spatial signature of land development regardless of the specifics of historical context. The idea outlines a promising path for improving the effectiveness of public policies aimed at managing urban development. BIOGRAPHY: Kiril Stanilov holds degrees in architecture, urban planning and urban design. Prior to joining the ReVISIONS team, he was an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and a Marie Curie fellow at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL. His research interests are centred on explorations of contemporary patterns of urban growth and change, and the evolution of urban form.

ABSTRACT: This presentation has two main parts. The first questions two of the underlying principles of conventional transport planning on travel as a derived demand and on travel cost minimisation. It suggests that the existing paradigm ought to be more flexible, particularly if the sustainable mobility agenda is to become a reality. The second part argues that policy measures are available to improve urban sustainability in transport terms but that the main challenges relate to the necessary conditions for change. These conditions are dependent upon high-quality implementation of innovative schemes, and the need to gain public confidence and acceptability to support these measures through active involvement and action. BIOGRAPHY: David Banister is Professor of Transport Studies at Oxford University and Director of the Transport Studies Unit. Until 2006, he was Professor of Transport Planning at University College London. He has also been Research Fellow at the Warren Centre in the University of Sydney (2001-2002) on the Sustainable Transport for a Sustainable City project, was Visiting VSB Professor at the Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam (1994-1997), and Visiting Professor at the University of Bodenkultur in Vienna in 2007. He was Acting Director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University (2009-2010). He has published 19 books, 150 papers in refereed journals and a further 250 papers on all topics related to transport, environment and cities.

ABSTRACT: Open spaces can play an important role in cooling our cities. By providing networks of clean air and helping us to escape the heat of the built environment, they can be viewed as effective climate regulators. Focusing on the concept of adaptation, this talk tries to explain how it influences outdoor comfort, enabling us to inhabit and get satisfaction from outdoor spaces. Understanding peopleʼs thermal experience in urban spaces can inform our vocabulary of independent physical interventions. Ultimately, such knowledge can enable us to use design constructively to improve environmental quality and increase our adaptive capacity under climate change. BIOGRAPHY: Marialena Nikolopoulou is Professor of Sustainable Architecture at the University of Kent. Prior to that she was Director of the EDEn research unit at the University of Bath and Research Associate at the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources, where she led the EU-funded project “Rediscovering the Urban Realm and Open Spaces”. Her work on outdoor thermal comfort has received international recognition, including the Human Biometeorology Scientific Award by the International Society of Biometeorology, and stimulated field surveys in open spaces across the world.

ABSTRACT: All buildings modify their sites, some radically. There will be other sites from which material came and to which it goes. Carbon and other costs now reward a strategy of incorporating all excavation into the design. The talk will explore the history of this practice, from work by Rem Koolhaas to ancient Indian temples, particularly tracing the connection between Rafael Moneo's Kursaal at San Sebastian, Jorn Utzon's Sydney Opera House and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. BIOGRAPHY: John Sergeant is an Architect, former Lecturer in the Dept. of Architecture and Emeritus Fellow of Robinson College. He was a Visiting Professor at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India in 2009-10 and led a Symposium on Wright at the University of Tokyo in December 2009. His research is best known for Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses and his local practice for recycling Adden-Brooke's Outpatients' Department into Brown's Restaurant. His orientation has always been toward organic, or sustainable, architecture. He is currently working on a book on recent Responsive Architecture.

ABSTRACT: This paper will examine how urban design might be defined, and how the current confusion of architectural and elemental approaches might be reformed as theorists develop the capacity to look directly at relationships between people and the city. Given that our relationships with built environments have a specific reality, the paper will explore how that reality might be understood in terms of configurations of urban space and fabric, and associated human functions relating to simple use, perception, and the conceptual responses through which we distil meaning. BIOGRAPHY: Patrick Malone holds degrees in Architecture (Architectural Association), Urban Studies (University of Sussex) and a Ph.D. from the Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin. He has worked as an architect, and as an academic in Architecture and Urban Design. He was director of a masters course in Urban Design at the University of Manchester, and currently runs Arcitalia, a company dedicated to the renovation of old and abandoned buildings, and the generation of investment in towns and hill villages in the hinterland behind Imperia, Italy.

ABSTRACT: When the eccentric and reclusive connoisseur William Beckford (1760-1844), having exhausted the largest inherited fortune in England, finally abandoned his doomed architectural extravaganza at Fonthill Abbey, he retired to Bath. His enthusiasm for tower-building soon revived, and with the help of his trusted gardener Vincent and an able young architect Henry Goodrich he set about making a linear landscape garden stretching from his home in Lansdown Crescent to the hilltop 100m above. Though the terminal buildings survive, everything in between is now lost beneath more recent development. Our project has been to recover the design and planting of "Beckford's Ride" from written accounts, contemporary drawings, and a few vestiges on the ground. This evidence we use to make an interactive computer reconstruction using the very latest video-game technology (from Crytek in Germany). It will eventually become a permanent installation at the Beckford's Tower museum. BIOGRAPHY: Paul Richens studied architecture at Cambridge, and then joined Applied Research of Cambridge, founded by Lionel March, Marcial Echenique and other members of the Department, where he developed some of the earliest architectural CAD software. He later returned to the Martin Centre, and was its Director from 1992 to 2002 and sometime Vice Master of Churchill College. He has been Professor of Architectural Computing at the University of Bath since 2005.

ABSTRACT: This presentation will critically explore Israel’s past involvement (1956-1973) in Africa, with a special focus on the involvement of three architects in planning and design of public buildings, housing projects as well as master-plans in Africa. Through this discussion, the contradiction in the Israeli imagination of Africa will be exposed; unlike former colonial powers, Israel sees itself both aligned with Africa on ideological terms (i.e. a young de-colonised and developing nation), but at the same time in full contrast to Africa (i.e. Israel as a modern, Western society). BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Haim, Yacobi is a senior lecturer at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University and a Marie-Curie Fellow at Cambridge University. As an architect and planner who specialized in geography, his academic work focuses on the urban as a political, social and cultural entity. The main issues that stand in the centre of his research interests in relation to the urban space are social justice, the politics of identity, migration, globalisation and planning. His book, The Jewish-Arab City: Spatio-Politics in a Mixed Community was published recently (Routledge, London). In 1999 he formulated the idea of establishing “Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights” (NGO) and was its co-founder.

ABSTRACT: For forty years the Government has tried to cut energy use in UK homes. Energy efficiency in housing has always jockeyed with other priorities, but recent concerns about climate change have forced our homes' carbon emissions to centre stage. How successful have we been, though, in meeting climate change targets for housing? BIOGRAPHY: Jason Palmer has 11 years' experience as a consultant to building designers and government agencies. His doctorate focused on environmental management for smaller organisations, and he now works on sustainable construction and climate change. Dr Palmer joined CAR in 2002 and became a director in 2003. There are two main strands to his work. First, he works for the Department of Education analysing 'sustainable' schools. Second, he works for the DTI, the Energy Saving Trust, the Scottish Government and the Department for Energy and Climate Change on climate change policy.

ABSTRACT: Deriving the ethical justification of the architects actions in the resulting public welfare is a longstanding article of faith amongst architects in most democratic nations. But what is the nature of that good, and what on earth has happened to our concept of the public? As philosopher Jurgen Habermas observes: “Tendencies pointing to the collapse of the public sphere are unmistakable, for while its scope is expanding impressively, its function has become progressively insignificant." This lecture presents the interim results of my investigation into this subject over the last few years with the idea of inviting ideas and discussion of its emerging themes. BIOGRAPHY: Tom Spector, a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall this tern, is a licensed U.S. architect and professor who received his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley helping pioneer the subject of ethics and architecture. He is the author of the 2001 book, The Ethical Architect, a frequent contributor to Harvard Design Magazine on practice-related issues, and has published widely in both architectural and philosophical journals.

ABSTRACT: This presentation introduces a research project involving numerical and experimental studies carried out at the University of Reading, UK, which is funded by the UK Engineering Physical and Science Research Council (EPSRC). This includes 1) the introduction of a simplified urban microclimate simulation (UMCsim); 2) Experiment campaigns at Reading and London urban blocks; and 3) the testing of a simulation model. The simplified urban microclimate simulation tool can be used as a first-cut calculation by urban planners and architects in the context of sustainable urban design at the strategic design stage. The numerical method can be further used to identify urban heat island phenomenon. BIOGRAPHY: Dr Runming Yao is a Reader in Sustainable Built Environments at the School of Construction Management and engineering (SCME), an Associate of Walker Institution for Climate Change System Research, the University of Reading and a visiting professor at Chongqing University, China. She heads the group of Urban and Building Sustainability at the SCME. She has over twenty years' experience in building energy modelling, built environment microclimates simulation, energy efficiency design, management and assessment, and indoor environment quality assessment. She has published over 80 papers and 4 books in the field of sustainable built environment internationally.

ABSTRACT: We have reached a point where the whole of the built environment has been claimed as the historic environment and all development is subject to the standards of sustainability. At the same time, urban design has reached a plateau of institutionalisation. Karl Kropf delves into the body of urban morphological theory to explore the substance of urban design and find new points of reference for debate and new sources of energy and impetus for design. BIOGRAPHY: Karl Kropf is a Director of urban design at studio | REAL and a member of the Urban Morphology Research Group at the University of Birmingham. He also teaches a module at Oxford Brookes University on using the built environment as a design resource. His varied activities focus on the interplay between theory and practice and using one to inform the other. Kropf co-edited the book Theories and Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture and is currently working on a Handbook of Urban Morphology.

ABSTRACT: There are certain universal conditions of a city and of housing that, if codified, can help architects and planners achieve a successful outcome. 'Urbanity', by contrast, as Richard Sennett argues is the making use of differences in a city to help people achieve a balanced sense of identification as well as a view on risk taking. In mæ's work we consider how codes, patterns and computational methodologies or parametric modeling assist or hinder design opportunity and what are the implications for the people that we design for? BIOGRAPHY: Alex Ely is an Architect and founding partner at mæ LLP Architects. He is a CABE Enabler, Building for Life Assessor and former Senior Policy adviser at CABE. Alex leads the mæ's work on sustainable urbanism and housing, working with a wide range of local authorities, public agencies and Housing Associations on housing regeneration, masterplanning, and new build housing design. He has written a number of best practice publications including The London Mayor's Housing Design Guide, CABE's Building for Life Standard and accompanying publication 'Delivering Great Places to Live' and 'The Home Buyer"s Guide'. Alex lectures internationally on design and policy.

ABSTRACT: The work looks at the long-term future of our coastal cities, and different strategies to react positively to the problem of rising sea-levels. We took three different approaches; to RETREAT from the rising waters, to DEFEND the existing coastal line, or to ATTACK the challenge head-on. Kingston-upon-Hull and Portsmouth were chosen as case studies. Using these two cities, the report provokes discussion by applying far-sighted, innovative and creative thinking. BIOGRAPHY: Charlie recently joined the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics. He continues to work within RIBA Policy to engage students and architects with sustainability in design. Over the past nine months Charlie has led RIBA's Sustainability Hub; a growing web resource focused on design strategies for sustainablilty. While previously working with Building Futures, RIBA's think-tank, he authored document "Facing Up to Rising Sea Levels".

ABSTRACT: Since early use of its documentary power (e.g. Mumford 1939), in the 1970s film has become a primary tool for observing and analyzing the real city (e.g. Banham 1972; Whyte, 1970s). This presentation will discuss two recent experiments of using cinema to examine complex urban space: the transforming Nanjing City under rapid urbanization and the declining Long Canal Town under the pressure of globalization. This study focuses on the relationship between observation and documentation and on the capacity of cinema as tool for the pre-study of design and research projects. BIOGRAPHY: Andong Lu received his PhD in Architecture from the University of Cambridge and is now a Research Fellow of Wolfson College. His research interests include narrative organization of space, cinematic aided design and contemporary Chinese urbanism. He taught modules at Nanjing University (M.Arch.) and Cambridge University (M.Phil. in Screen Media & Cultures). He has recently published in the Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes (Routledge) and arq: Architectural Research Quarterly (CUP). He is co-editing with François Penz the Urban Cinematics (Intellect Books, forthcoming 2011).

ABSTRACT: This talk considers the traditional architecture of Japan from the standpoint of sustainability. With its preference for renewable biodegradable timbernot masonryas its principal structural material, the ecological credentials of Japanʼs pre-modern building tradition already seem excellent. However, alongside choice of materials is another aspect, arguably of equal significance, which can succinctly be expressed as “lightness of footprint”. It is this, together with a related propensity for recycling, which I want to highlight, demonstrating through the example of traditional Japan its compatibility with a high material culture. BIOGRAPHY: Martin Morris was born in Cambridge in 1956 and studied architecture at Cambridge University (Dipl. Arch, 1982). Awarded a Monbusho Scholarship to study at the Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University in 1983, he took his doctorate there in 1995. Since 1996 he has taught architectural history at Chiba University, Japan, as lecturer, associate professor and, since 2007, Professor. Research areas include: The house types of pre-modern Japan, comparative study of the history of architecture, settlement and landscape in East and West (focused on Japan and England), architectural conservation.

ABSTRACT: The story of the redevelopment of London’s Isle of Dogs is one that has only partially been told. Most academic interest ceased following the property crash of the early 1990s when the demise of Olympia & York seemed to bear out many contemporary critiques. Yet the market bounced back, and so did Canary Wharf. The presentation will ask: What forms of planning have we seen on the Island; what role has design played in these; what outcomes have resulted from these processes; and as a result, have we yet seen an urban renaissance? BIOGRAPHY: Matthew Carmona is Professor of Planning & Urban Design and Head of the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL. His research has focused on the policy context for delivering better quality built environments. His background is as an architect and a planner and he has published widely in the areas of urban design, design policy and guidance, housing design and development, measuring quality and performance in planning, and on the management of public space.

ABSTRACT: Government policy in the UK and abroad is pushing hard the carbon agenda, with buildings as a main target. The current focus, to achieve zero carbon operating performance of new buildings, has generated a number of concerns; what is zero carbon? What about existing buildings? What about embodied energy? Can the construction industry be innovative? How much does it all cost? Who will deliver it? This talk will consider the possibility of a future zero carbon built environment. BIOGRAPHY: Phil Jones is Professor of Architectural Science and Head of School at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. He chairs the Wales Low Carbon Research Institute, a consortium of six Welsh universities with industry partners, set up with support from the Welsh Assembly Government to help it achieve its ambitious targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions in Wales. He recently chaired the EU COST Action C23, ‘Low Carbon Urban Built Environments’ which looked at how its 19 EU partner countries are addressing the low carbon agenda at building and urban scale.

ABSTRACT: The premise is that there is no one single best approach to achieving green design, but a number of ways to arrive at the same goal. The presentation presents five propositions. The first proposition regards green design as designing to weave four ecoinfrastructures: the ‘grey’, ‘blue’, ‘green’ and ‘red’ into a system. The second regards green design as the seamless and benign biointegration of the artificial (human made) with the natural at three levels: physically, systemically and temporally. The third proposition regards green design as ecomimesis: designing the human built environment as an artificial ecosystem that mimics natural ecosystem: their structure, functions, processes, features and their development. The fourth approach to ecodesign is one of the restoring of existent devastated natural environments and the rehabilitation of our existing built environments and cities. The fifth proposition is where ecodesign is regarded as the monitoring of ecosystems and built systems in the biosphere and the subsequent rectifying of any environmental imbalances and coordinated sets of environmental interactions. A theoretical model for green design is presented together with the attendant technical and design issues. The above propositions are illustrated by a series of design examples. Other unresolved areas of green design are also discussed. BIOGRAPHY: Ken Yeang (Dr.) is an architect-planner, ecologist and author who is best known for his signature and innovative green buildings and masterplans. He is regarded as one of the foremost designers and noted authority on ecologically- responsive architecture and planning. He has authored several books on ecological design and tall building design, one jointly authored with Professor Ivor Richards (partner of Sir Leslie Martin). He has received numerous awards for his work and designs. His key built works include the Menara Mesiniaga (IBM) Tower (Malaysia), the National Library (Singapore) Great Ormond Street Hospital Extension (UK). He is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and has served on the Royal Institute of Architects Council. He is the distinguished Plym Professor at the University of Illinois, and Adjunct Professors at Tongji University (Shanghai) and University of Malaya. He is Chairman of the UK architect and planning firm, Llewelyn Davies Yeang and principal of its sister company, Hamzah & Yeang (Malaysia). He received his doctorate in architecture from Cambridge University (Wolfson College). His dissertation is entitled, ʻA theoretical framework for the Incorporation of ecological considerations in the design and planning of the built environment.

ABSTRACT: Drawing on four decades of practical and teaching experience worldwide, Nabeel Hamdi offers fresh insight into the complexities faced by practitioners when working to improve the lives and livelihoods of people the world over. The presentation draws from Hamdiʼs upcoming book of the same title, showing how these complexities are a context for, rather than a barrier to, creative work. Hamdi critiques the ʻsingle visionʼ top down approach to design and planning. The presentation will demonstrate through examples and profiles of successful professional practice drawn from across Europe, the US, Africa, Latin America and post- tsunami Asia, how good policy can derive from good practices when ʻreasoned backwards,ʼ as well as how plans can emerge in practice without a preponderance of planning. Reasoning backwards is shown to be a more effective and inclusive way of planning forwards with significant improvements to the quality of process and place. BIOGRAPHY: Nabeel Hamdi qualified as an architect at the Architectural Association in London in 1968. He worked for the Grater London Council between 1969 and 1978, where his award-winning housing projects established his reputation in participatory design and planning. From 1981-1990 he was Associate Professor of Housing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was later awarded a Ford International Career Development Professorship. In 1997 Nabeel won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning, and the Masters course in Development Practice that he founded at Oxford Brookes University in 1992 was awarded the Queenʼs Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2001.

ABSTRACT: This seminar will examine four case studies that show the innovative ways in which contemporary architects throughout Latin American are responding to the challenge of building for the poor. The analysis of these four cases also highlights a significant shift in governmental policy. Instead of the large relocation schemes that were common in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, today there is an increasing tendency to tackle social housing via small-scale projects directed to specific communities. Small-scale projects help to reduce the cost of investment, shorten construction times, minimize effect on the rest of the city and, more importantly, allow architects to address the needs of particular groups. BIOGRAPHY: Felipe Hernández is an Architect and lecturer in architectural design, history and theory at the University of Cambridge. He has an MA in Architecture and Critical Theory and received his PhD from the University of Nottingham. Felipe taught previously in the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, and has also taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), the Universities of Nottingham, East London and Nottingham Trent. He is the author of Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary Architecture in Latin America (Birkhäuser 2009) and Bhabha for Architects (Routledge 2010). He is also co-editor of Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America (Berghahn 2009) and Transculturation: Cities, Space and Architecture in Latin America (Rodopi 2005).

ABSTRACT: Our understanding of how cities are planned and produced is being challenged by the expanding cities of Latin America. Here the majority of new construction is in the hands not of professionals, but large numbers of informal dwellers and grassroots organisations who create their own housing environments with only tangential links to official structures. Drawing on a long term ethnographic study of informal settlement growth in Colombia the lecture will explore aspects of these complex processes from the perspective of these ordinary ʻcity buildersʼ and discuss some of the implications for our understanding of city form and housing production. BIOGRAPHY: Peter Kellett is an architect and social anthropologist whose research focuses on the interrelationship between people and their dwelling environments. His doctoral research used ethnographic approaches to explore how the urban poor in Latin America create their own living places with minimal resources but considerable energy and ingenuity. He has worked on international research projects with a focus on informal settlements and livelihoods, and published extensively particularly on housing issues. His latest book is ‘Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America’ (with Felipe Hernandez, Berghahn, 2009).

ABSTRACT: Cities can be thought of as socio-technical systems. In contrast to previous theories, here I propose a more complex and, I believe, true-to-life model based on the definition of the physical sub-system of the city as a network of spaces – streets and roads - linking buildings, rather than as a system of discrete zones. I will outline a vertical and a lateral theory to account for generic aspects of the emergent complexity of cities. I will explore two key issues in the study of complexity in general: the levels problem. Firstly, how organised complexity at one level becomes elementary the next level up and secondly, the parallel problem: how systems with different internal dynamics interact with each other. I aim to show that cities are cognitive formations in an even more fundamental sense than they are socio-economic formations. BIOGRAPHY: Bill Hillier is Professor of Architecture and Urban Morphology in the University of London, Chairman of the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies and Director of the Space Syntax Laboratory in University College London. He specialises in the study of human and social space in buildings and urban environments of all kinds. He was the original pioneer of the methods for the analysis of spatial patterns known as ‘space syntax’. He is the author of The Social Logic of Space (Cambridge University Press, 1984, 1990) which presents a general theory of how people relate to space in built environments, ‘Space is the Machine’ (CUP, 1996), which reports a substantial body of research built on that theory, and a large number of articles concerned with different aspects of space and how it works.