Naked3

Naked2

Here's number 2 out of 3! 

Naked1

New Years Resolutions:

1) Get back into Art and Drawing 

So here's a sneak preview of one of the pieces I have been working on. I've called it Naked1, for lack of imagination of anything wittier; it's a former pen drawing of a model I made during a life drawing class back in Sheffield last year, scanned and reinterpreted using photoshop. It's the first time I have tried out something like this, so let me know what you think!

The Importance of City Planning

Amanda Burden, one of New York's city planners who fought for the creation of now world famous High Line gives an inspiring TED talk on the importance of public spaces in cities and how they are what makes a city special. 

I have always been interested in Urban Planning, as I'm fascinated by the creation of the built environment on a scale that takes the whole city into consideration. As an architecture graduate who is investigating other career paths, the world of planning is something that I have been quite intrigued in. I always ask myself the questions of who actually makes the key decisions that relate to the future and well being of the city, and through being immersed in my architecture graduate job, I have realized that it's not the architects, or the developers, but the planners who make the city go round. Without Amanda Burden, there would be no high line, in fact the disused railway probably would have been torn down. Before the land is bought, before the designs are made, it seems like the city planners are the ones that are able to fight for our public spaces and turn our cities into visions of tomorrow. 

(I am also currently reading a book about urban planning called The Happy City by Charles Montgomery, which is a really great read!)

Sketch Model

An elevational concept model showing varying materiality across the scheme. The Dressing up Box project (Yr3, Semester1)

Thursday evening treat: Bodyscapes by Allan Teger

Allan Teger is one of my favourite photographers; influenced by the concepts of altered realities and mystical consciousness, he creates his images by using the body as backdrop on which he places toys and miniature people. The result is is an picture that can be interpreted as just a body or the body as a landscape ie perhaps a hill (image above), and a lot of people can enjoy the fact that both perceptions are correct at the same. I first came across Teger's series on a poster in one of my flatmates bedrooms at university and was instantly drawn to his work, the subtlety and humour of the compositions just make me smile!

The 'body' of Architecture

Being a vocal feminist and an architecture graduate, I have always been interested in our society's obsession with architecture that manifests itself in the form of human genitals. From the Gherkin to the Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers, phallic references never cease to be present and I have to come to the understanding that some of the fundamentals of our architectural influences must be derived from our awareness of ourselves and the body in which we occupy. The Ancient Greeks and Romans celebrated phallic festivals where they constructed penis-like shrines to Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, and many ancient cultures in the Far East also celebrated the phallus as a symbol of fertility. Thousands of years later in the present day, we celebrate the penis again through the erection of skyscrapers that dominate our cityscapes. In the voice of feminist theory, high rise towers embody the symbols of male authority, power and the extension of man's ego. Anthropomorphism, in terms of the phallic, is the evidence of a male dominated society. 

The relevance of this topic to me stems from the fact that having completed a 10000 word dissertation on the perception of the female architect and having established my thoughts on the patriarchal framing of architecture,  I have found myself a year later in an architecture practice, working on a skyscraper project, that looks exactly like a penis (balls and everything...!). Oh the irony..! The project having started out as a low rise proposal has gradually escalated in size through the developer's wishes of wanting more and more square metres; his eyes squealing in delight every time our sketch models increase in area. My female colleagues and I have been giggling about this, especially when I attempted to colour the shape in a light-orange-flesh like tone when producing a diagram (ended up having to change the colour to blue to minimise resemblance!).  

But in all seriousness, if skyscrapers are a reflection of masculine power, what buildings embody the symbols of female power? I didn't want to stereotype or mention Zaha Hadid's Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar -aka the 'Vagina,' but can we define buildings as being 'masculine' or 'feminine'? I read an interesting quote last year that said, 'cultures that revere the feminine principal and treat women as equals produces built forms related to the morphology of the female body' [J.Rendell in Gender, Space, Architecture], which seems to suggest and stereotype that buildings with curvaceous and womb like qualities are produced in more gender equal societies. However, looking at the fact that the vagina stadium is in Qatar and Middle Eastern countries are famous for their repression of women, presents this statement to be quite false. So, when will architecture stop being a man's world? Will it be when more women reach the top? When the balance between the genders is not 21% female to 79% Male (statistics for RIBA membership that is)? Or conversely, do we need to stop attributing the penis to the skyscraper and accept that in the modern world, where ground space is a becoming a problem for exploding cities, that towers are in fact an ideal form for the development and progression of our society? 

New York City : (found on http://dlwallhd.com/)

Dreaming of the Sea

It's that time in winter, where the days have got noticeably shorter and the bitterness of the cold has begun to kick in. The longing for the warmth, sun and sea is almost a daily thought. Here are 2 pictures from my travels around South East Asia 2 summers ago. The first is me in meditation on a beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia and the second is of a colourful boat in Koh Phangan, Thailand. Enjoy :)

Our futures are still in the making

Last night, I was fortunate enough to be able to get a last minute invite from my friend to an Architecture Foundation event which consisted of a discussion surrounding the future of Architectural Education, in conjunction with it's current Futures in the Making Exhibition. Having just started my first graduate job and currently being in a debate with myself about whether to study the part 2 or not, I was very excited to hear about how the profession will soon be changing for the good. Hosted at Feilden Clegg Bradley's lovely studios in Goodge Street, the night featured a lively talk with panelists Peter Clegg (Senior Partner at FCBS & Professor of Architecture the University of Bath), Gemma Barton (editor of the Edge Condition & Interior Architecture lecturer at Brighton) and Neil Spiller (Dean of Architecture at the University of Greenwich), all chaired by Professor Robert Mull (Director of Architecture at The Cass).

Sat down with our complementary glasses of wine, my friends and I (also recent architecture graduates) found ourselves nodding in agreement to Robert Mull's engaging introduction. With a note to the long awaited reforms of education, he was spot on with all the concerns that us students are constantly battling with and habits that are so hard for such a well-established profession to drop. The debate between the necessity of both ARB and RIBA, the length of the courses, which 'hold us hostage for so long', the 24 hour studio culture which leads to the institutional exploitation of graduates in practice, the competitive environment which bring forth a lack of collectiveness in the job, which then leads itself to low starting salaries and etc... All of which are vital questions that need to be solved before the current educational system can be readjusted. Though, as Mull was about to finish his speech, he hastily mentioned that during the discussion the panelists should not mention the dreaded words of Part 1 and Part 2 and any of the above... to which my friends and I looked to each other with slightly concerned expressions on our faces.

The rest of the evening was divided into a speech by the panelists followed by further questions from Robert Mull. Despite the fact that the speakers did not actually contribute any valid answers or solutions to the pressing concerns that we are facing, the discussions were relatively interesting and dwelled into the unique perceptions of each speaker. Peter Clegg spoke of bringing the freedom of architecture school into the professional world, calling for more disciplined research to be part of practice. Clegg reflected on how architecture these days has a wider philosophical approach than when he was at school, stating that in the present moment we have a lot more to offer the world and a stronger chance to make a political statement using our work, with architects able to be a catalyst for social change.

Gemma Barton questioned the point of architectural education and commented that these days students are refreshingly not conditioned to a certain way of thinking, as otherwise they would turn into miniature versions of ourselves. This seemed like a fair point, yet I have been lead to believe that certain architecture schools with strong social or political agendas do instill a certain way of thinking about the world upon their students; its how we are able to say in a colloquial way , 'oh that's such a Bartlett drawing' or 'that's such a Sheffield concept' etc. However, Barton rounded off with a very valid point that 'before we attempt to reroute education, we need to decide where we are going'. As we a profession we need to figure out what we actually to achieve before we start making any changes, and called for students to join up in a super symposium to be part of the decision process.

Neil Spiller, last of the panelists discussed the positives of what architectural education does do and mentioned the 'great tsunami of technology' and something about how universities are agile...? I think at this point I started feeling a bit sleepy from the wine I had drunk, my concentration started dwindling and I was confused as to why the discussion was going so off topic.

All in all, the debate were engaging and thoughtful, there was a lot of talk about 'radicalism' (definitely the word of the evening), Can you teach radicalism? How are architecture schools radical? With the panelists stumbling for cohesive answers on such a pensive question, I was reminded by all those 90s TV shows I watched as a kid where they would all say, 'that's so radical, dude', to each other.

Nevertheless, another event down, another discussion later, we are still no closer to solving the most important questions of why is our education so long? Do we really need to have all of Parts 1, 2 &3? How do we change the obsessive late night culture of the profession and how do we value ourselves more in the real world in order to raise our starting (and continuing) salaries? Our futures are definitely still uncertain and definitely still in the making.

(found on tumblr)

Weekend at Longleat, Wiltshire

Pictures from my girlies reunion weekend with my housemates. Longleat is an English stately home, the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. It is located near the town of Warminster in Wiltshire, and has a safari adventure park right next to it. Longleat currently features a brilliant light display as shown in the pictures above with all the funky models, which all contain colourful lights that look beautiful at night time.

Extract from my dissertation: The Perception of the Female Architect

I have been meaning to write about my dissertation for a while now. I spent a large and rather enjoyable part of the last year researching into the debates, histories and experiences of the female architect. I undertook first hand research to understand the current perception of awareness of many themes regarding women in architecture through the methods of focus groups and structured interviews with both men and women. The research project aspired to ask, not the heated question of why women are disappearing from the architectural profession, but what factors within the profession need to be highlighted to tune in with the recognized feminist concerns? Through focusing on the perceptions of individuals within the broad time range of the profession, the thesis hoped to provide a starting point in which to examine where women stand in the pulse of the architectural world today.  

From the book: Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture, [Lori A Brown] 

A extract from the Introduction:

The progression of women in the architectural world has been a relatively slow ordeal, as the ideals and basis of the architectural career are deeply embedded in historical traits that are difficult to evolve. The story of women in architecture in the UK starts in the late 19th century, along the trajectory of the campaigns regarding women’s rights. Architecture has historically always been a man’s world, and in the last century women have been running to keep up with the patriarchal hierarchy of the profession. Over the last few decades, the same anxieties regarding women have been reiterated with no overriding shifts in attitudes. This can be seen as a reflection of the society that we live in; the concern of the unhealthy lifestyle, competitive environment, sexism, the suppression of femininity in the workplace and most importantly the question of why do so many women leave the architectural world? 

In the last 20 years, literature such as ‘Desiring Practices’ (McCorquodale, Ruedi, Wigglesworth 1996) and  ‘Gender, Space, Architecture’, (Borden, Penner, Rendell, 2000) have gathered and reprinted influential essays from the 70s, 80s, 90s concerning the role of gender in architecture and most importantly taking the position of looking at the profession through a feminist framework. ”It is surprising that after two decades of feminist movement in this country, so little energy and enthusiasm has been translated into hard research about the role of women in architectural practice. More work is needed if the matters discussed here are to be truly debated within the entire profession ”. It is interesting to consider that, though recently, the Architect’s Journal (10/01/14) has helped to highlight the important issues that women face in the job as well as lead studies into the reasons as to why women leave, the role that feminism plays has not been a primary focus. It is important to apply the feminist principals within the agendas of the architectural profession as Professor Sarah Wigglesworth argues that, ‘Feminism offers a philosophical method of making sense of the world by pointing out where gender biases operate, and posits a world based on equality’. This is beneficial as we can use it as a device to analyze and understand the world around us. 

It is interesting to reflect on whether the profession has been asking the right questions in order to facilitate change. We now need to deliberate on what the profession needs to do to start considering women’s life experiences as the norm, rather than as a ‘problem’? By cross-examining the masculine norms of the profession, and by also understanding that many of the issues are in fact not exclusively women’s problems, we are able to surely state that the perceptions of the female architect are a fundamental concern which involves the debate of both genders. This is supported by the ideals of the feminist standpoint theory brought through by the second wave of feminism. Sarah Harding (1993) argues that, ‘starting off research from women’s lives will generate less partial and distorted accounts, not only of women’s lives but also of men’s lives and of the whole social order’. We also need to consider breaking the cyclical debates of why do women leave architecture, and start considering the possibilities of forming alternative questions such as why do men stay? This attitude of thinking would be beneficial to both genders and positions feminism as a potential force of change. 

The Liverpool Docks 'Herb Store'

Here's a snippet of my portfolio for my final project of third year.....

‘ T  H  E    H  E  R  B   S  T O R  E ’

An educational building for the research and conservation of medicinal and food herbs, situated on the Northern Liverpool Docks. 

The building aims to start the regeneration of a disused post industrial landscape with the cultivation and conservation of wild herbs. It will fuel the global demand for herbal medicine as a new holistic approach for living. The seed archive tower relates metaphorically to the historical context of the docks; apothecary towers were used as signals to passing vessels that there was medicine in the vicinity. This also refers to a theme of the project, which is the difference of scale between the herb, the human and the industrial context.

The building facilitates the growing of herbs for distribution in it’s Medical Apothecary and Herb Garden and for research in the laboratories. There are also workshops that engage the community in the education of herbs, for food, medicine and fuel. The key space in the building is a large 6 storey ‘apothecary tower’, which is an atrium space which contains a large store of herb seeds, which are archived and processed in the adjacent laboratories. The seed bank contributes to the work of the ‘Plant Life Charity’, who focus on the conservation of wild herbs. The facility, through it form and orientation aims to maximise the views out to sea as well as to provide the right environment for the cultivation of herbs. 

Working Life

Finish Third Year: Done

Graduation: Done

Celebratory Summer Holiday: Done

Apply for Jobs: Done

Get first Job: Done

The above pretty much sums up my last year and the transition from Architecture School to a real job in the design world.  Moving back home to London after three years up north has been quite a big readjustment period and after a few months I have now settled in and am in the swing of things. Being at home with my family has actually been quite lovely and involves lots of bonuses, such as spending more time with my mum and sister, the fridge thats stocked full of tasty food and my ironing being occasionally done for me! However, the shift from university life to waking up at 7am every morning for work has been quite challenging, as well as working the full eight hour days, which it made it feel a bit like being back at school to start with. Nevertheless, I am feeling quite established now and am enjoying my job and so I'm very determined that I make the most of my free time. I don't want to be one of those people that only lives for the weekend.... so I have decided to put some of my energy back into this blog, where I want to reflect on architecture, design, photography, fashion and social and cultural agendas that are important to me. (yes, I realise thats a long list!).  So, please bear me while I get this going and thanks for reading! 

Kseniya

X

Here are some photos from my holiday to Greece:

oh and Graduation! (me on the left and my BF stellee on the right)

After almost a year long hiatus....

Final Outcome: The Dressing up Box

Here are some of the final drawings that I presented in my review last friday, for the brief of a storytelling centre in Hebden Bridge, Lancashire.

Storytelling through the act of dressing up.

The Dressing up Box is the heart of the building. 

SHOP

CREATE

EXPERIENCE

PLAY

The reclaimed/vintage clothes marketplace on the lower ground of the building reflects the idea that all items of clothing have their own history and story to tell. 

The sewing workshop uses donated clothes to remake into costumes for theatre productions and local school plays.

The library holds the catalogues of patterns and and the records and history of fashion, tailoring and costume design. The library can be adjusted into rooms that hold knitting circles and temporary exhibitions.

The small stage allows children and even adults to try on costumes from the dressing up box and perform mini plays, within the scenic backdrop of the Hebden Bridge Valley. 

The cafe at the top of the building is an explosion of the props that are made and used. Having a coffee overlooking the river with an array of puppets hanging nearby. 

The choice to exit the building through a door at the top of the building into the woodland, provokes the excitement of dressing up and entering into a new world.

Munching on biscuits and doing diagrams

I've taken a step back from designing my plans and have focused again on the programme of the building.  I feel like I need fatten up the information and make it more plausible and thought through. The above diagram describes the options a visitor has on arriving into the building. Starting at Foyer/Box Office, where you can find out what plays are going on at the theatre or the function rooms and what time the sewing classes run at the workshop. They can then proceed to the marketplace, library or the cafe, via the circulation space of the dressing up box. The diagram shows how all the spaces link up and rely on each for performance. For example, the market place helps to source the clothes for the dressing up box, which are then used for fabric at the workshop, which then get turned into costumes for the theatre productions. As lame as this sounds, it was actually quite exciting to write out this programme, as it helped me understand the spaces and what activities can take place in them.

This drawing shows the life cycle of an item of clothing, starting with the cotton being picked in the fields, its transportation across the world and into shops. I did this diagram to show the possibilities of reclaiming clothes after their initial use and how my building can provide solutions to the re-use of clothes. The options right now for clothes after they go into the skip, is either that they are sourced by vintage shops and sold at quite a high price, sent to charity shops where they are sold at a reasonable price or where they are sent across the world by charities to people that need them. My idea is that the marketplace in my building sets out to do all those things and more. As well as donating clothes that the market place doesn't sell to charity, some of it will feed into the 'dressing up box', where the workshop will pick them up, dismantle the fabric and turn them into something new and usable such as fancy dress items or costumes for the theatre. As well producing these items, people taking the classes at the workshop are learning new skills such a sewing which is a benefit to the community.

Weekend in London

After quite an intense lead up the Interim review, I thought it would be nice to go home back to London for the weekend to take a breather, indulge in home comforts and catch up with the parents.

Having seen the posters for Sarah Lucas's exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery displayed all over the tube on my way home from St Pancras, I was quite desperate to go as I studied a lot of her work for A-Level art and really wanted to see her work up close. Here are some of the sneaky pictures that I took before I got told off by the lady on duty.

The Exhibition was excellent, it was genuinely sometimes funny, very crude and visually striking. At the same time there was a sense of seriousness about it all, Lucas takes a critical approach on the themes of gender and sexuality through her manipulation of form. In her work she often conveys social and political points, as well as referencing historical art traditions. The exhibition displayed two decades of her work and it still hasn't lost its ability to shock the viewer and captivate the viewers, my mum especially! Who went half heartedly, and ended up thoroughly enjoying her pieces and enjoyed amusingly recounting to my dad later on exactly what she had saw.

After the Whitechapel Gallery, we travelled along to London Bridge to visit the Architecture foundation who had an interesting one room exhibition called 'Futures in the Making'. They showcased recent Masters graduates work who had taken a stance on a current topical issue and designed for the future, with examples such as the housing crisis and flooding issues. It was a really nice exhibition and the work was all to an exceptionally high standard, which was a cool precedent for how to present work.

 

It was a really lovely day out, I had missed the crazy bustle and dynamics of London in comparison to Sheffield. We also ended up walking along the South Bank where my mum insisted of taking photos of me with the skyline of London in the background!

All pictures taken by me.

Storytelling: The Dressing up Box

Interim reviews have come and gone already, meaning we are half way through the project and there is only 5 weeks to go!

These are some of the pieces that I presented at Tuesday's interim.

The brief and programme of my project is centered around a market place of clothing exchange. This theme came from my initial studies of the Great Gatsby book, where I started drawing 1920s illustrations and playing with the varying textures of different fabrics to create a reading room.

The focal point of my building is essentially a large dressing up box, which links in with the theme of storytelling and fabric. This large dressing up box is also the circulation for the buildings. It's about 3 storeys high and just about pokes over the edge of the hill. There are lots of clothes and props stored inside. It drives the purpose of my building, because during the market place people come and exchange clothes, source reclaimed clothes and all unwanted and donated items go into the dressing up box.

There are also workshops in the building, which provide sewing classes to the community and school groups. This links the building back to the demolished warehouse that was on the site which belonged to the Hebden Bridge Cord Company, who sold high class tweed and cord clothing. It's interesting that these days sewing is not a skill that is taught anymore, it seems to be reserved just for those who want to become fashion designers, even though it is quite an ancient skill.

Nevertheless, the community and the in house seamstresses would take the unwanted clothes and fabric from the dressing up box and create costumes and props for plays and theatre productions that would take place. Theatre groups would come and perform as well as storytellers, who would use these clothes and props to aid them in their storytelling.

This diagram layered on my site model shows my site analysis and the circulation on the site. It is situated on the banks of a river and it is the first thing you see as you cross the Old Bridge coming in from town. There is a row of residential housing to the left and the site curves round to follow a path up to the village of Heptonstall. The site also rests against a 9m stone wall, where there is a hill and woodland on top. Across the river are a few commercial buildings and a car park. The site is predominately south facing with little shade, and has quite a busy pedestrian and car route alongside it.

This is one of my initial concept models, showing the massing of the different interior spaces, with the dressing up box circulation as the solid core of the building.

The entrance to the building is from the side of the curve on the site and the circulation on the ground floor is sort of a loop. The theatre is also designed to be quite an informal space so the market can flow into it during the day. The library and reading rooms are on the second floor, alongside the second floor of the workshop. On the last floor, as you enter through the dressing up box you walk into what is essentially an expansion of it, as there isn't enough space in the dressing up box itself. It becomes this crazy prop room that is also a cafe, and people can exit from the top into the woodland area without having to travel all the way back down the stairs.

This comes from the idea of a 1970s cartoon character called 'Mr Benn', who walked into a fancy dress shop and is told to put on a costume by the shopkeeper who then points him in the direction of a magical door, and when he comes out the other end, he finds himself in a very different world, one that belongs to the costume he is currently wearing. So in this way, I am contrasting the ordered marketplace on the ground floor, to the chaotic prop and costume cafe on the top floor.

Summer's Architecture Ball

Our end of year ball: June 2013