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 Urbanism\Architecture, 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.