CHRISTMAS SOCIAL @ BarCosa

This Thursday the 13th of December, MA&DE invite you and your friends to join us in celebrating the end of term at BarCosa.

There will be live music, and of course, the giving of prestigious snowflake award for the best decoration that you have 'MA&DE' for the Christmas tree. So, after Graham Haworth's lecture, make your way down the road and join your fellow students in saying goodbye to the Autumn term, and hello to the Christmas holidays!

A fun little competition

As you may have noticed, we at MA&DE decided to bring a bit of festive fun into your stressful lives at uni, and have put up a pretty Christmas Tree opposite the yellow board. The uni seems to have brought one in too - decorated in a vulgar array of gold and purple - we we know you can do better...

So, all you "creatives" get creative... get your scalpels and glues and papers and cards (for it 'tis the season to be jolly) and make something lovely. There'll be a fun prize for the most delightful, most ephemeral, most Nordic paper snowflake. So be sure to put your name on your decoration somewhere.

Announcements and prize-giving on Thursday at the social. Details coming soon... !

Coming soon...

... we have an especially tasty 'freshly MA&DE' lecture taking place at Spring House, which will be followed by the Christmas social.

Graham Haworth lecture

The Architecture of Engagement - Working in the Margins
Thursday, 13 December, 6.30pm

The architect’s role in the development of the sustainable city is often ambiguous. Traditional concerns of architectural style, taste and composition pre-occupy most good architects. The resulting designs whilst visually provocative, are often problematic, unable to survive the closer scrutiny of wider socio-economic, environmental and cultural imperatives.

Equally, a simple commitment to social well-being through technology, is prescribed by orthodox modernism, avoids those situations where architecture has to engage with less precise areas of reality. Architecture, as taught and published often deals only with abstract certainties and this ‘retreat’ is becoming increasingly unsustainable. The potential benefit of good architecture is denied to the wider population, and the product that we all get excited about in the media, actually probably influences less than 5% of all global construction leaving the question of who is responsible for the remaining 95% unanswered.

To be truly sustainable, architecture should be able to meet more objectives, satisfy more needs, be more appropriate, and achieve more relevance. If it is to contribute to meaningful improvements in the urban environment it must engage with the ‘junk’ of everyday reality and establish key values; values that are often generated as much by economics, social goals and politics as they are by design.

Upcoming events...

We have a number of lectures coming up in the next couple of weeks which we hope you will enjoy.

As part of the main Thursday lecture series, members of the Office for Subversive Architecture will be presenting their work and ideas tomorrow, Thursday November 15th. As usual, this will be at 6.30 in the Forum.

Following this, we have two very different Monday evening lectures on the 19th and 26th of November. These will be in Spring House, again at 6.30. The room is to be confirmed.

On the 19th, artist Christian Nold will be discussing his Biomapping projects (www.softhook.com) and on the 26th, Graham Bizley, who produces the regular "Solutions" page in Building Design magazine, discusses detailing in architecture

More details of these lectures can be found below.

And remember, if you haven't yet joined, please do send the e-mail detailed below - the more members we have, the more money we get from the Students Union, and the more we can do for you!!!

Graham Bizley

Why one thing, not another?
Monday, 26th November, 6.30pm

Graham Bizley is a partner of Prewett Bizley Architects and produces a regular feature in Building Design explaining the construction of a recent building. A book, Architecture In Detail collating 40 of these articles and will be published by the Architectural Press in November 2007.

Detailing is the process by which materials are brought into relation with one another. The choice of materials and the way they are assembled are not arbitrary. The designer is required to exercise value judgements, to give hierarchy to the issues of the project, identifying what is most appropriate in a given situation and weighing up the likely effects of different choices.

So how do we make these choices? Why do we choose one thing over another? Using projects from the book, historical examples and the work of Prewett Bizley the lecture will explore the relationship between the concept and realisation of a project, examining how an appropriate balance is found between technical issues, environmental concerns, economic constraints and the desires of the users.

Christian Nold

Emotion Mapping - recapturing the sensory commons
Monday, 19th November, 6.30pm

Bio Mapping is a research project exploring new ways in which we as individuals can make use of the information we are able to gather about our own bodies. In place of security technologies designed to control our behaviour, this project envisages new tools allowing people to selectively share and interpret their own bio data. By sharing this data we can construct maps visualising where we as a community feel stressed and excited. How will our perceptions of our community and environment change when we become aware of our own and each others intimate body states?

Office for Subversive Architecture

Thursday, November 15th, 6.30pm

The Office for Subversive Architecture is a network of eight architects based in five cities across three countries. osa’s work sits somewhere between art and architecture and recent projects have explored the way people use and interact with public spaces and are well known for addressing issues relating to urban regeneration.

osa also often collaborates with other professionals from visual art, music, film, photography and sculpture. In London, osa recently worked with Hoegaarden to create a living urban oasis replete with grassed-over tables and for another project, created a temporary ‘roof’ of 250 umbrellas over Trafalgar Square.

“These projects are influenced by our ambition to push the boundaries of common practice in architecture by using untraditional and diverse approaches.”

http://www.osa-online.net/

Roll up, roll up - membership is now open.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS - PLEASE JOIN

So, we finally have the information you've all been waiting for - how to join.

Remember, we get money from the Union for every member we have, and it's totally FREE for you and so easy to do.....

Send the following e-mail

I, [Full Name and student ID number], wish to join Metropolitan Architecture & Design Exchange (MA&DE) society (architectural society).

Thank you.

[Full Name]

to

studentactivities@londonmet.ac.uk

and don't forget to CC us in at

made.in.spring@gmail.com

You can collect your membership cards on Mondays and Tuesdays at from 1 - 2, on the 4th Floor, by the computers

Don't forget that with your memberhip this year, there will be discounts and free stuff - so make sure you get that e-mail sent!

We hope you all enjoyed the lecture and social last week....We'll have full details of our upcoming lectures soon.

As usual, all will be posted here, on our blog & calendar, and also on our yellow notice board.

And once again - Any bright ideas or suggestions - please do get in touch!

The new year is upon us...

Well, the temperature has dropped, and the awful rain is pounding down, so yes, it's definitely the start of the new academic year.

And we have a great year planned for you all....

First up, don't forget that with your memberhip this year, there will be discounts and free stuff - so make sure you get that e-mail to the Students Union (and don't forget to copy us in!!!)

So, to start the year off, we have a lecture by a surprise guest on Thursday the 11th, followed by our first social of the year... a great opportunity to get to know students from all years and courses through the school.

More details on both events will be posted here very shortly, and also on our yellow notice board.

Good luck with everything the year may bring... and see you soon!