Archive news
Fionn Mackillop: New Publication
Fionn Mackillop (2010). Towards a more ‘sustainable’ water management? The challenges of water and land use in the Los Angeles metropolis. Editions Universitaires Europeennes.
This book is based on the author’s PhD dissertation (2004-2007) at LATTS (Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires, Societes), Paris, and the UCLA Institute of the Environment. Drawing on previous work for the author’s Master’s degree on the links between urban fragmentation and the development of water and power networks in Los Angeles (MacKillop, F., Boudreau, JA, 2008 Water and power networks and urban fragmentation in Los Angeles: Rethinking assumed mechanisms, Geoforum, Volume 39, Issue 6, November 2008, Pages 1833-1842), the dissertation analyses claims and controversies around water supply ‘sustainability’ in major master-planned communities in the periphery of Los Angeles. Developers, water agencies and politicians claimed that these developments would herald a new age of water and land use stewardship in the region, through innovative practices and technologies ranging from novel landscaping to water demand management measures and water recycling. Despite this, local community groups, sometimes supported by national environmental organisations, were voicing their opposition on the grounds that these developments would make an already difficult situation even worse. The region would be exposed to more water shortages, especially in the context of climate change. To go beyond these sometimes passionate arguments, the author mobilised urban regime theory, urban political ecology and other approaches, to question the notion of ‘sustainability’ in this context by analysing what the word meant, for which group, and why, with the aim of producing an accurate picture of where this region is going in terms of managing its water and land use.
Posted 30 September 2010
Promotional video of Ralf Brand's project "The urban environment - Mirror and mediator of radicalisation?"
Jonathan Bennnett from the Faculty's Media Centre has produced a promotional video of Ralf Brand's project The urban environment - Mirror and mediator of radicalisation?
Posted 29 September 2010
Politics of Design workshop footage
Jonathan Bennnett from the Faculty's Media Centre has produced a promotional videos from the Politics of Design workshop (24-25 June 2010).
- Introduction and welcome (Simon Guy and Albena Yaneva)
- Andrew Barry (Oxford University) "Designing Politics"
- Alejandro Zaera-Polo (FOA, London and Princeton University) "The Politics of the Envelope"
Posted 28 September 2010
MARC Reception in Italy
MARC hosted a reception for attendees of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) in Trento, Italy, on 2 September 2010. This event doubled as a get-together for members of the mailing list BESTS (Built Environment - STS) which was established by Ralf Brand in 2007.
Posted 8 September 2010
MARC Autumn Lecture Series
The MARC Autumn lecture series will be held across October and November 2010 on Tuesdays, 4-5.30pm, in the Cordingley Lecture Theatre, Humanities Bridgeford Street. These lectures are open to the public.
Research coordinator of the lecture series: Dr. Albena Yaneva
Research administrator: Dr. Darien Rozentals
Autumn Lecture Series Poster (PDF, 1130KB)
Posted 20 August 2010
EcoCities Guest Lecture: Dr Hugh Ellis (TCPA)
16 September 2010, 5-6pm
Dr Hugh Ellis: Chief Planner, Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA)
Title: 'Localism or Vandalism?' Do the Government environmental reforms destroy the last chance we had for tackling climate change?
Venue: Cordingley Lecture Theatre, Humanities Bridgeford Street
The University of Manchester
The event is co-hosted with MARC and CURE and will be followed by a wine reception (6-7pm).
For more information see the EcoCities events page.Posted 4 August 2010
Call for Papers - City Weathers: Meteorology and Urban Design, 1950-2010
The ESRC-sponsored project Climate Science in Urban Design: A Historical and Comparative Study of Applied Urban Climatology have annouced their call for papers for the workshop City Weathers: Meteorology and Urban Design, 1950-2010.
The two project themes of this workshop are: research progress and knowledge transfer in urban climatology 1950-2010, and, current uses of urban climatology in city planning and urban design.
The event is organised by the Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC) and Centre for the History of Science Technology and Medicine (CHSTM).
Posted 17 July 2010
Public Lecture: Harriet Bulkeley and Vanesa Castán Broto (Durham University)
'Experimenting with climate change? Global cities and low carbon transitions'
Harriet Bulkeley and Vanesa Castán Broto ( Durham University)
30 June 2010, 4-5pm
University Place 5.207
The University of Manchester
This event is co-sponsored by the Manchester Architecture Research Centre, EcoCities, and SERG.
Posted 16 June 2010
Albena Yaneva's books: shortlisted for the President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research
Albena Yaneva's project An Ethnography of Architecture, which resulted in two monographs: Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. An Ethnography of Design, Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2009 and The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture, Oxford: Peter Lang AG, 2009, has been shortlisted for the President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research of the Royal Institute of British Architects. For more information about Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. An Ethnography of Design please see the New Book by Albena Yaneva news item.
Press Release of RIBA (10 June 2010)
Posted 16 June 2010
MARC Research Project: shortlisted for the President's Award for Outstanding Univeristy-located Research
Ralf Brand's ESRC funded project The Urban Environment - Mirror and Mediator of Radicalisation? has been shortlisted for the President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research of the Royal Institute of British Architects. A final decision about the winner is expected in the 2nd half of June 2010.
Posted 2 June 2010
Launch of "The Urban Environment - Mirror and Mediator of Raicalisation?" Exhibition
This exhibition presents the results of Dr Ralf Brand's ESRC research project The Urban Environment - Mirror and Mediator of Raicalisation? that explored the complicated but fascinating relationship between the urban environment and socio-political conditions in cities with different types of conflict: Belfast, Beirut, Berlin and Amsterdam.
This touring exhibition will be on display in Manchester at ARCHITRUCK, Albert Square and Piccadilly Gaderns:
Launch: ARCHITRUCK
19 April, 4pm
Open at ARCHITRUCK
19 April 12am-5pm
20 April 9am-5pm
Open at Piccadilly Gardens
21-22 April 9am-5pm
For more information about the project and exhibition please visit Urban Polarisation.
Posted 12 April 2010
MARC Grant Success: Conditioning Demand - Older People, Diversity and Thermal Experience
Professor Simon Guy, Dr Ralf Brand and Dr Andy Karvonen have received ESPRC funding for the project Conditioning Demand: Older People, Diversity and Thermal Experience for the panel "People, Energy and Buildings".
The goal of this project is to understand the diversity and dynamics of thermal experiences in an ageing society and their implications for current and future energy consumption. The project team will investigate the issue of energy consumption as a socio-technical phenomenon by unpacking the social and material dimensions of energy and carbon challenges related to 'thermal experience' in domestic settings in the UK and France. The empirical research follows two key forms of future change: the demographic trend of an ageing society and the development of energy-efficient technologies. The aim is not only to understand the implications of these two key dimensions of social and technological change, but also to detect potential synergies, gaps, and mismatches between them as they relate to residential thermal experience.
The project commences on 1 September 2010 and is funded with close to £650,000.
Posted 6 April 2010
NEW BOOK by Albena Yaneva - Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. An Ethnography of Design, Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2009
The book presents an ethnographic account of the design rhythm in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Written as a collection of short stories it draws on the mundane trajectories of models and architects at the OMA and shows how innovation permeates design practice, how everyday techniques and workaday choices set new standards for buildings and urban phenomena. In these stories of invention the “Eureka!” moments are missing. They are replaced by routine gestures of model making, recycling, assembling, recollecting, rescaling. This enquiry on architecture-in-the-making is based on participant observation in the office of Rem Koolhaas, extensive interviews with architects, and photo documentation on various projects: the Seattle Public Library, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), la Casa da Musica in Porto, and others. By tracking concrete details of the architectural practice, the book provides an understanding of design not as construction, creation or realization of a plan, but as a tentative process of vertiginous hesitation, reuse and miscalculated gestures.
Publisher: 010 Publishers
Featured and reviewed by:
- RIBA journal
- Blueprint magazine
- ARQ
- Archined
- Archis
- World Architecture News
- very small kitchen
- OMAPosted 22 March 2010
SED Researchers Awarded £500,000 to Study Climate Change in Bangladesh
Researchers at the School of Environment and Development have been awarded £500,000 to study poverty and climate change in Bangladesh.
The team, led by Dr Manoj Roy and Professor David Hulme of the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI), together with Professor Simon Guy of the Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC), will examine how the urban poor in Bangladesh are responding to the increasingly dire effects of global warming.
The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Department for International Development over three years, and will bring together a team of leading Bangladeshi and UK researchers and policy activists.
For more information visit the SED news page.
Posted 19 March 2010
Mapping Architectural Controversies
A team of researchers from MARC led by Dr. Albena Yaneva completed the work on the EU-funded project Mapping Controversies in Science for Politics (MACOSPOL) facilitated by Bruno Latour, Sciences Po, Paris.
An on-line platform Mapping Controversies was set to present the results of the project. The Manchester team has also set a research based teaching platform Mapping Architectural Controversies, which provides a variety of documental sources, visual methods and tutorials to explore urban controversies. The team has recently completed mapping the controversy surrounding the London 2012 Olympics Stadium Deisgn and produced novel visualizations of its dynamics in collaboration with the computational design specialists from Aeadas, London.
Posted 17 March 2010
Politics of Design International Workshop
24-25 June 2010
The Univesity of Manchester
Keynote speakers
Andrew Barry (Oxford University)
Alejandro Zaera-Polo (FOA, London and Princeton University)
In the last decade numerous STS trained scholars engaged in a venture of unpacking design practices. Yet, to study the practical course of design means to be simultaneously involved in the subject of politics and in the particular sort of politics that is centred on objects (Latour & Weibel, Making Things Public). Recent studies in political philosophy and STS have argued that politics is not limited anymore to citizens, elections, votes, petitions, ideologies and particular institutionalised conflicts (DeVries, What is Political in Sub-politics?), and have reformulated the question of politics into one of cosmopolitics (Stengers, Cosmopolitics; Latour, Politics of Nature) and ontological politics (Mol, Actor Network Theory and After). The “political” is not defined as a way of codifying particular forms of contestation but as opening up new sites and objects of contestation (Barry, Political Machines).
Please visit the Politics of Design website.
Posted 25 January 2010
Journal of Urban Technology, special issue edited by R. Brand
MARC member Ralf Brand has edited a special issue of the Journal of Urban Technology on "The architecture of war and peace". It contains a comprehensive review of the literature about Polarization as a Socio-Material Phenomenon by Sara Fregonese and Ralf Brand and a paper about Urban Artefacts and Social Practices in a Contested City by the guest editor. Other papers discuss the mutual relationship between urban artefacts and humans in seven other cities. This special issue is partly an outcome of Ralf Brand's ESRC funded project "The Urban Environment - Mirror and Mediator of Radicalisation?"
MARC Researchers participate at 4S Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Two MARC researchers presented papers at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) in Washington, D.C. Jan Fischer presented a paper titled "Regulating Carbon Emissions from Buildings: How Designers Implement Changing Environmental Policy Through Technology" and Andy Karvonen presented a paper titled "Relational Politics of Place: Finding Middle Ground between Founding and Preservation". Andy also co-organized four sessions on 'STS and Place' that included 21 papers on a variety of topics organized around the sub-themes of representations, politics, productions, and attachments.
Posted 03 November 09
Special issue of Urban Studies with MARC contributions
Three MARCers contributed to a special issue of Urban Studies (Vol. 46, No. 12) on Regulating Design: The Practices of Architecture, Governance and Control. The special issue, edited by Rob Imrie and Emma Street, contains the paper "Re-interpreting Regulations: Architects as Intermediaries for Low-carbon Buildings", co-authored by our PhD student Jan Fischer and MARC Director Simon Guy. Also Ralf Brand's article "Written and Unwritten Building Conventions in a Contested City: The Case of Belfast" is featured in this issue.
Posted 02 November 09
MARC involved in the Centre for Sustainable Behaviours
MARC researchers are involved in a new research consortium on sustainable behaviours. Simon Guy and Ralf Brand lead one project on "The practices of zero carbon habitation" in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Lancaster. The latter, in turn, lead a project on the cooling of residential and office buildings which also involves MARC researchers.
Posted 02 November 09
MARC bid shortlisted for People-Energy-Buildings programme
A bid led by Simon Guy and Ralf Brand to the joint EDF/EPSRC initiative "People, Energy, Buildings" was shortlisted and encouraged to develop their proposal around socio-technical issues of energy use in buildings. The consortium, with members from Cardiff University (Prof. Tweed), the University of Lancaster (Prof. Walker) and the University of Exeter (Prof. Devine-Wright), received £5000 to develop their bid in collaboration with researchers at EDF's research arm, the European energy efficiency research centre in Paris.
Posted 02 November 09
International workshop on Urban Laboratories
MARC and the Maastricht Virtual Knowledge Studio are jointly organising a workshop on 5th - 6th November 2009 in Maastricht on "Urban Laboratories: Towards a STS of the Built Environment". This event is largely sponsored by EASST, the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology and will revolve around 12 papers by some early career and some internationally leading scholars. For further information see the event website or contact Ralf Brand.
Posted 02 November 09
URBE on tour
Ralf Brand's ESRC funded project "The urban environment - Mirror and mediator of radicalisation?" will disseminate its result not only to the academic community but also intends to stimulate a debate among the general public through a travelling exhibition. It will be launched on November 5 2009 at the PLACE in Belfast and from there will travel to the other case study cities Berlin, Amsterdam, Beirut and - in mid 2010 - in Manchester.
- The exhibition website went live on October 20 2009.
- More information about the launch of the tour (PDF, 528KB)
Posted 28 September 09
Bidding success for project on Multi-Faith Spaces
A project designed by Ralf Brand and Andrew Crompton about “Multi-Faith Spaces as symptoms and agents of religious and social change” has received a positive funding decision from the AHRC/ESRC “Religion and Society” programme.
More and more attempts are being made to accommodate religious diversity through the provision of multi-faith spaces (MFS). They first emerged as mono-functional rooms in airports, universities, hospitals or shopping malls. More recently, this concept has been expanded to buildings in which different religions have their own sacred rooms with some shared facilities for secular purposes. And some multi-functional building complexes occupy the most ambitious end of the spectrum of MFS where members of different faiths can pray, shop, relax, learn and play.
Despite the hope that they may help shape a more integrated, inclusive and tolerant society, MFS have so far received very little attention as works of architecture and as symptoms and agents of religious and social change. This new project therefore aims to better understand such spaces (as an academic concern) and to help improve them (as a practical intention). Its outputs will therefore not only include peer-reviewed journal papers but also a travelling exhibition to engage the general public in a dialogue about related issues.
The project is funded with close to £500K and starts on December 1st 2009.
Posted 28 September 09
MARC Postgraduate Research Studentship
‘History, Politics and Agency of Multi-Faith Spaces’
Funded by the joint AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme
Start Date: 1st October 2009 (Subject to confirmation).
Closing Date for applications: 21st of September 2009 Late applications may be considered.
Information about the project
The purpose of the PhD is to uncover the history of multi-faith spaces, possibly identify the oldest examples, locate historical precedents in their socio-political context and to analyse their material implications and theological foundations.
The student may pursue the following research questions: In what circumstances did multi-faith spaces emerge? How, when and where did they spread? How did their design evolve over time and how do they relate to historic examples such as Simultankirchen and churches where two naves shared one tower?
This studentship complements a new interdisciplinary research programme at the Manchester Architecture Research Centre at the University of Manchester investigating multi-faith spaces found in airports, hospitals, and so forth from a social, religious and architectural point of view.
The project will involve independent archive and field work in the UK and abroad if necessary.
Desired Qualifications:
Applicants will have a good first degree and will be able to write about buildings from an historical point of view. An interest in architecture and religion as well as a background in art history or history is desirable.
Funding:
Full fees and maintenance
Contacts for further information:
Andrew Crompton
0161 275 6919
a.crompton@manchester.ac.uk
Ralf Brand
0161 275 0317
ralf.brand@manchester.ac.uk
How to apply
Applicants will be interviewed as soon as is practical after the closing date of 21st of September with a view to enrolling immediately.
All applications should be submitted through the University's online Postgraduate application system.
Posted 01 September 09
MARC PhD student presents ‘Models as Mediators of Design’
Liam Sharratt is in Darmstadt, Germany on 7-9 October as he has been invited to speak at the Modelling Spaces, Modifying Society International Conference organised by the TU Darmstadt. Liam will present a paper titled "Models as Mediators of Design : The Case of BREEAM".
Posted 20 August 09
Official launch of EcoCities
23rd July saw the launch of SED led research initiative Eco Cities: The Bruntwood Initiative for Sustainable Cities at the University of Manchester. Eco Cities is a joint initiative between the University of Manchester and office provider Bruntwood, which draws on the expertise from across the University, including Manchester Architecture Research Centre, Centre for Urban Regional Ecology and Brooks World Poverty Institute. The project seeks to provide a climate change adaptation blueprint for the Manchester city region by the end of 2011.
The launch event was hosted by Manchester City Council who are a key partner in the delivery of the project. Keynote speeches, outlining a shared vision for Manchester and the Eco Cities initiative, were given by Professor Alan Gilbert (President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester), Dr Michael Oglesby (Chairman of Bruntwood) and Sir Richard Leese (Leader of Manchester City Council).
These presentations were followed by the official signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University and the City Council, demonstrating the commitment of both organisations to work together to develop a robust response to the impacts of climate change in Manchester. Eco Cities is one of the key projects detailed in the Memorandum, and has contributed to (and is already benefiting from) strengthened links with the City Council.
Following the launch, a stakeholder workshop took place to begin the process of developing the adaptation blueprint for Manchester. Participants included representatives from the public and private sectors in the North West region, who debated the key challenges and opportunities of adapting the city region to climate change.
- For more information please visit the: EcoCities website.
Posted 20 August 09
New book from MARC
The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture
ISBN 978-3-03911-952-3, Order book online.
SFR 50.00 / €* 34.20 / €** 35.20 / € 32.00 / £ 32.00 / US-$ 49.95
How do architects learn about a building-to-be? How does a building emerge and gain reality in the model shop, in scaling, in option making, in architects' - and engineers' - discussions, in public presentations? What does it mean to design? What does it mean to add a building to the city? Drawing on rare ethnographical material of architects at work at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) of Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam in the period 2001-4, this book offers a novel account of the social and cognitive complexity of architecture in the making.
The author dismisses both stylistic periodization and socio-political constructivist methods as being inadequate to the task of understanding the dynamic process of how architects generate design through space and materiality, instead showcasing the potentials of the pragmatist approach as a research tool in the field of architecture. Offering a new way of understanding architecture as practice that takes place within the interactive networks of human and non-human actors, the book also tells the intriguing story of the extensions of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
The Author: Albena Yaneva is a Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. In her research she draws extensively on the Actor-Network Theory to explore fieldworks in architecture, industrial design, contemporary art, and museum studies.
Posted 20 August 09
URBE end-of-project workshop May 21/22 2009
A workshop on the project "The urban environment - Mirror and mediator of radicalisation?" will take place in Manchester on May 21/22 2009 with representatives of all four case study cities (Belfast, Beirut, Amsterdam, Berlin).
Posted 23 April 09
Funding success for workshop on Urban Laboratories
Ralf Brand, together with his Dutch colleague Bas van Heur from the Virtual Knowledge Studio in Maastricht, succeeded with a funding application to the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology for a workshop on Urban Laboratories which will be held on November 5/6 2009 in Maastricht.
Posted 23 April 09
Appointment for Albena Yaneva
Albena Yaneva was appointed member of the AHRC's Peer Review College for the period of 2009-2012.
Posted 23 April 09
Politics of Design: Connections, Controversies and Crises, to be held in Manchester, 24-25 June 2010
The conference is convened by the Manchester Architecture Research Centre
Drawing on recent studies in political philosophy, the conference aims at exploring the multifarious connections of design and politics. It will tackle a variety of issues related to the politics of design, including:
- How is politics carried out today in sites often unrelated to the traditional loci of political action: in development companies, planning commissions, local communities, architectural offices, public debates?
- How is politics carried out through controversies in architecture, planning and urban development?
- How does design turn the ‘public’ into a problem? How does it trigger disagreements and generate issues of public concern?
- How do designers and planners make their activities accountable to citizens or their representatives?
- How does design seek to shape individual or collective behaviors? How is it used to solidify, reinforce, and prolong decisions achieved through political means?
- What is the role of crises in generating new politics of design?
Keynote speakers
- Professor Andrew Barry, Oxford University.
- Arch Alejandro Zaera-Polo. Foreign Office of Architecture/ Princeton University.
- Dr. Lynn Manzo, University of Washington.
Please hold the dates in your diary. Further information about the conference will be posted on this site in due course.
Posted 16 February 09
PGR Scholarship Success
The Portuguese Government has decided to award Carolina Cravo a full scholarship as a PGR student at the University of Manchester, supervised by MARC’s Dr. Patrick Devine-Wright and Dr. Ralf Brand. Carolina’s project is about Oxford Road, in particular how plans to ‘green’ the street will shape the sense of place of those who live, work and study there.
Posted 09 January 09
Albena Yaneva and Simon Guy - guest editors in Science Studies
The special issue “Understanding Architecture, Accounting Society” is the first attempt to connect Architectural Studies with the field of Science and Technology Studies.
A second special issue with the same guest editors is scheduled for Summer, 2009.
Posted 07 January 09
MACOSPOL Project meeting
A small-scale project meeting was organised on 4-5 December, 2008 by Dr. Albena Yaneva, lecturer at MARC and leader of the work package 5 of the EU-funded project MACOSPOL, with the participation of Dr. Katrine Lotz, architect from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Dr. Nick Dunn, architect from MMU and Liam Heaphy, research assistant. The workshop explored the questions of visualizing controversies and matters of concern with a focus on the timing and spacing of controversial issues on the web. It focused on how Actor-Network-Theory can be used for architectural education and discussed in particular the possible integration of a Mapping Controversies-inspired approach in design education in different architectural schools across Europe.
Posted 07 January 09
News from the URBE project (The Urban Environment: Mirror and Mediator of Radicalisation)
Dr Ralf Brand (MARC), Dr Sara Fregonese (MARC) and Dr Jon Coaffee (Planning)
- The URBE project has been extended until June 2010 within the ESRC programme ‘New Security Challenges / a critical reassessment – Radicalisation and Violence’.
- ‘Tolerant by design’ URBE project has been highlighted in the ESRC magazine ‘Britain in 2009 – the state of the nation’.
- After completing 3 fieldworks in Amsterdam, Berlin and Belfast in the second half of 2008, Ralf Brand and Sara Fregonese are preparing the Beirut fieldwork (26 Jan-6 Feb 2009), the last of the project. They employ a range of qualitative techniques (interviews, participatory photo documentation, etc.) to explore how urban environments and social polarisation trends shape each other.
Posted 05 January 09
Energy re-think needed to make homes and businesses greener
Professor Simon Guy and Dr Patrick Devine-Wright from MARC have contributed to a major new report published by Foresight, the Government’s futures think tank. The study ‘Powering our Lives: Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environment’ looks at how the country’s buildings and spaces will need to evolve to help cut carbon emissions.
Posted 05 January 09
Beyond nimbyism on the radio
Dr Patrick Devine-Wright has been interviewed on BBC Wales about the findings of his research on the Gwynt y Mor offshore wind farm. This research arose from the ‘Beyond Nimbyism’ project, which is part of a major national programme funded by the ESRC, examining a range of technologies that are expected to figure in the UK's renewable energy profile. The project will conclude next May. An electronic version of the interview will soon be available.
Posted 24 December 08
MARC presents the ADDRESS project
Hannah Devine-Wright will be in Madrid 27-28 November to present to academic and industrial partners within an EU Framework 7 project. The ADDRESS project aims to design and implement demand side management technologies such as smart meters for domestic electricity consumers. Hannah is investigating public engagement and public acceptance of these technologies. She is working closely with Francoise Bouffard of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Posted 26 November 08
MARC members are ‘lead experts’
Professor Simon Guy and Dr Patrick Devine-Wright of MARC will be participating in their role as ‘lead experts’ in the launch of the Government Office of Science Foresight report: ‘POWERING OUR LIVES: Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environment’ which explores how the UK built environment could evolve to help manage the transition over the next five decades to secure, sustainable, low carbon energy systems that meet the needs of society, the requirements of the economy, and the expectation of individuals. The report is formally launched on Wednesday 26th November.
Posted 25 ONovember 08
MARC member to be jury member for master class
MARC lecturer Albena Yaneva will be a jury member for the master class ‘The Politics of the Envelope’ on 28th November at the Berlage Institute Rotterdam.
Albena was also a member of the scientific board of the exhibition ‘Place des Controverses’ at the European City of Science event, which took place at the Grand Palais, Paris on 14-16 November. This included a talk at the Café des Sciences on 14th November.
Posted 24 ONovember 08
Sara Fregonese to present paper at the Decennial of Ca Foscari conference
Sara Fregonese is in Venice on 6-7 November for the Decennial of Ca Foscari conference "geography seminars: new perspectives in geography" at Auditorium S. Margherita. Sara will present a paper titled “Geopolitical discourse, political violence and the urban built environment: the case of Beirut".
Posted 28 October 08
MARC PhD success
Congratulations to Sara Fregonese whose PhD viva was held on September 26 at Newcastle University. Sara passed with a few minor corrections. Sara’s PhD, entitled “City, war and geopolitics: militia political violence and Beirut's built environment in the Lebanese civil war”, was supervised by Prof. Claudio Minca (Royal Holloway University of London) and Dr.Alex Jeffrey (University of Newcastle). Sara is research assistant in Ralf Brand's ESRC-funded project "The urban environment - Mirror and mediator of radicalisation".
Posted 28 October 08
MARC presents findings at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
On 17 September 2008, Dr. Ralf Brand, Dr. Jon Coaffee and Dr.Sara Fregonese presented the interim findings of the project "The Urban Built Environment: Mirror or Mediator of Radicalisation" to the 'ESRC - Radicalisation and Violence Programme' event at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. The project concerns the relationships between physical built environments and social processes of radicalisation. The interim report is now available at the The Urban Built Environment: Mirror or Mediator of Radicalisation project webpage.
Posted 28 October 08
Eco Cities: The Bruntwood Initiative for Sustainable Cities at the University of Manchester
The School of Environment and Development, in partnership with Bruntwood Estates, have begun work on the Eco Cities project, which will provide a blueprint for the first integrated climate change strategy for Greater Manchester. Eco Cities will also build a global network or researchers, policy makers and private sector practiioners, to enable the sharing of best practice on how cities are designed, built and managed.
The project is being led by Professor Simon Guy, Director of MARC, who was joined in July by Bethan Evans who will be the administrator for the project.
Research has begun with stakeholder mapping, a policy review and scenario development, led by Dr Jeremy Carter. Another early objective of the project is to identify the principal climate related instances that have occurred in Greater Manchester in the past, and investigate their impacts and consequences. To this end, Research Fellow Nigel Lawson will develop a Climate Impacts Profile for Greater Manchester.
The public announcement of the Eco Cities initiative will be made in October. Professor John Handley, who will be taking a lead role in the Manchester based strands of the Eco Cities project, will be speaking on ‘The Impact of Climate Change on Manchester’ at an M.E.N. evening debate on 14th October. A new Eco Cities website will also be launched at this time.
Posted 26 September 08
MARC student success
Architecture PGR student Sarah Payne - supervised by Patrick Devine-Wright and Simon Guy - won two prestigious awards over the summer. The 'Young Researcher Award' was given by the board of the International Association of People-Environment Studies, Rome in July. The 'Best Paper Award', Noise category, was given at the conference of the Acoustical Society of America Conference, Paris. Sarah's project is an innovative analysis of the sonic environment of urban parks and its influence upon the psychological health of park users.
Edward Devey, an undergraduate MSA student, has been awarded a prestigious Environmental Psychology prize by Surrey University, the Johnathan Sime Award. Another MSA student, Rebecca Lee, was also shortlisted by the panel. Edward's project was entitled: An Analysis of Urban Splash¹s Vision for Park Hill, and the Likelihood of its Success.
Two PGR students have recently completed successful viva voce examinations: Fionnguala Sherry-Brennan (supervised by Hannah and Patrick Devine-Wright) and Anthony Ogbuokiri (supervised by Frank Brown and Greg Keefe).
Well done to all!
Posted 26 September 08
MARC research update: The Urban Environment - mirror and mediator of radicalisation
Following two completed fieldworks in Belfast (June 23 - July 3) and Berlin (September 1-12), Ralf Brand, Sara Fregonese (MARC) and Jon Coaffee will be in Amsterdam (Oct 27 - Nov 7) to conduct field research for their ESRC project "The urban environment - mirror and mediator of radicalisation". They employ a range of qualitative techniques (interviews, participatory photo documentation, etc.) to explore how the urban environment and social polarisation trends shape each other.
Posted 26 September 08
MARC to organize sessions at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science
MARC staff organizes and chairs 5 sessions at the upcoming joint meeting of the 4S and EASST Societies in Rotterdam, 20-23 August.
Two sessions "Understanding Architecture, Accounting Society I" and "Understanding Architecture, Accounting Society II" are organized by Albena Yaneva (MARC).
The Session "Contested and Constructed Spaces: Battles over Territory, Identity, and Resources" is organized by Ralf Brand (MARC) in collaboration with Azucena Cruz.
The sessions "Urban Practices" and "Urban Technologies" are organized by Simon Guy (MARC) in collaboration with Ola Söderström.
Posted 18 August 08
MARC launches new mailing list on STS and the built environment
At the recent 4S conference in Montreal, many colleagues responded very positively to the idea to better network people with an interest at the intersection of STS and the built environment. Thus encouraged, we decided to give this network a more convenient and manageable platform. Its spine is a new mailing list called BESTS (Built Environment and STS).
Its purpose is not narrowly defined but there is no dearth of ideas. It enables all subscribers to disseminate and receive information about new projects, publications, job adverts, events, guest lectures, conferences, workshops etc. to like-minded peers (currently some 50+ people). BESTS is currently moderated by Ralf Brand and Liam Sharratt at the Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC) at the University of Manchester, UK. There are three ways to subscribe to the BESTS mailing list:
- With a few clicks at www.jiscmail.ac.uk/bests
- With an email to LISTSERV@jiscmail.ac.uk, containing nothing but the following command in the email body: SUBSCRIBE BESTS forename surname
- With an informal email to ralf.brand@manchester.ac.uk
Once you have subscribed you can post a message to all subscribers by sending an email to bests@jiscmail.ac.uk.
We look forward to welcoming new members; and please feel encouraged to spread the word to any one else who might want to join us.
Posted 09 May 08
MARC launch & SED annual lecture 2007
MARC enjoyed a highly successful launch on Friday 5th October with a drinks reception in the mammals gallery at the Manchester Museum with a speech by the Dean of Humanities Alistair Ulph followed by the main event, a special lecture by Professor Bruno Latour of Sciences Po in Paris.
Simon Guy and Albena Yaneva have organised a session at the Annual Conference of the British Sociological Association “Social Connections: Identities, Technologies, Relationships”, University of East London, 12-14 April 2007.
The session gathered researchers from France, Belgium, Spain, USA and Britain around the topic “Connecting Sociology to Architecture: Learning from STS” and had as a discussant one of the conference keynote speakers, Professor Bruno Latour.
- For more information on the BSA Conference.