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New Year: New Ideas
Many groups have recently visited the RIBA Library collections at 66 Portland Place and the Study Rooms at the V&A. As well as having an induction to the library, they have had access to some remarkable material, to stimulate their learning. These include: 

Le Corbusier: The Architecture of the Book

University of Greenwich, tutor Alan Powers

Architects build ideas. The book, therefore, has long been central to the realisation of their work. This is obvious when considering Le Corbusier: throughout his career, he was as much involved in architectural writing and publishing as designing and building. The RIBA Library is fortunate to possess first editions of nearly all of Le Corbusier's texts, diverse in format, media and colour. It also posseses seminal works analysing the Swiss architect's ideas, practice, and influence. In a series of workshops, Greenwich Level 2 students directly encountered these original texts, experiencing the intense energy of Le Corbusier, and questioning their power then and now.

 

Re-considering Concrete

University of Brighton, tutor Nicky Pipe

How do we write an architectural article? How can we access international scholarship, and find up-to-date information on a topic? In collaboration with the Concrete Centre, Level 2 architecture students from Brighton faced just this challenge. As a group, they researched at speed to help produce and reference an article for the Architectural Review. The best destination to achieve this was of course the CETLD Bene Education Room, a stone's throw away to Europe's finest architectural periodical collection.

 

Roaming Rome: A Grand Tour of the RIBA Drawings Collection

Manchester School of Architecture, tutor David Dernie

Since the Renaissance, a trip to Rome has proven the cornerstone for  many architects' education. This workshop introduced Level 2 students to how architects have surveyed and drawn the Eternal City, preparing them for their own artistic adventures. Using examples from across the history of architecture, students considered subject, method and approach. Inspiration was sought from the likes of Palladio, Cockerell, Gandy and Aitchinson, and these drawings were then revisited in Rome itself, leading to a flurry of sketching, and an exhibition in the CUBE gallery, Manchester.

Education in a Modern World: Modernism and its influence in Pre and Post-War school design

Oxford Brookes University, tutor Tonia Carless

Does Modernism matter today? A workshop for Level 2 architecture students questioned just this, surveying the influence of Modernism in educational architecture. Using superb examples, from Gropius, to Goldfinger to the Smithsons,  and combining photographs and drawings, students had the chance to closely examine approaches by some of the defintive architectural practices of the day  They then considered applying these lessons to their own work - redesigning of a former middle school -  a project they are now embarking on.

 

How to become a London flaneur

University of East London, tutor Bruce Irwin

London's architecture is iconic. But how exactly can you capture its essence? How have other architects sketched the city, its buildings and people, and how has this helped their design practice? Level 1 architecture students explored how architects over the last century have viewed the city, adapting media to respond to its ever-changing forms. Photographs as well as sketches featured, by the likes of Holden, Goldfinger, Wornum and Oppenheim, inspiring students to take to the streets of London, become flaneurs themselves, and engage with some of the most exciting and diverse architecture in the world, by day and night.

 

Interested?

To find out more about these workshops, and to discuss future collaborative projects, seminars, please contact Dr Paul Snell, Education Curator|