News
Adapting the City Conference
Around 150 decision makers from across the North West came together at the Climate Change event: Adapting the City at the Bridgwater Hall, Manchester on May 14th 2012. The event organisers: Bruntwood, The University of Manchester, Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), Drivers Jonas Deloitte, Arup (Manchester) reflected on the implications of climate change adaptation for Greater Manchester and its surrounding region. Interest from the conference led to a BBC news article.
Social and natural scientists connected with business, public and community sectors including representatives from Manchester City Football Club, United Utilities, The Red Rose Forest, Arcon Housing Association Limited, New Charter Housing Trust and The Oldham College. Headline messages from the EcoCities project were shared and discussed. Also released was Four Degrees of Preparation, an EcoCities internet resource designed to support decision making on climate change adaptation. The website is a unique and standard-setting climate change adaptation intelligence resource that will inform policies, strategies and action developed by stakeholders in Greater Manchester and beyond. By providing individuals and organisations with the opportunity to investigate climate change hazards and vulnerabilities locally, the website builds Greater Manchester’s capacity to adapt to unavoidable climate change.
Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, positively opened the event by noting that “Greater Manchester is leading the way on such an important issue, and one that has the potential to impact hugely on people’s everyday lives, our public services, our businesses’ productivity and our city’s infrastructure.” The plenary sessions heard from Mike Oglesby, Chairman of Bruntwood, followed by Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice Chancellor of The University of Manchester, who both hoped that the partnerships forged during EcoCities could be sustained.
Delegates heard the headline climate change messages from Professors John Handley of EcoCities and Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre Manchester about the imperative of adapting to a 4°C world. These presentations took the audience through the global to local climate change projections, looking at their potential implications for Greater Manchester. Supporting the plenaries were three targeted workshops that explored three key issues that will be priorities for Greater Manchester in its efforts to adapt to future climate change.
On Safeguarding Communities, Dr. Gina Cavan shared EcoCities findings on climate change risks and vulnerability. After hearing from Richard Sharland, Head of Environmental Strategy at Manchester City Council, speakers gave insights into their work in areas such as flood management, food security and supply, health and wellbeing. Showing what can be achieved, Dave Morgan gave an overview of Broughton Community Trust’s existing activities and plans for the next five years with initiatives such as Community Green Champions, a Co-op for food growing and amenity management and co-funding partnership projects.
Following an introduction from Martyn Hulme, Deputy Chair of AGMA’s Environment Commission and Managing Director of Co-operative Estates, Dr. Jeremy Carter provided and overview of EcoCities research findings linked to the Buildings and Infrastructure workshop. Mike Kay of Electricity North West spoke of how his organisation is defending its critical infrastructure by innovating for the future through its Capacity to Customers (C2C) programme. David Hytch of Transport for Greater Manchester indicated the measures taken to mitigate for and adapt to the changing climate across Greater Manchester’s transport networks. Showing images of cases in action, presenters from Bruntwood, Manchester City Council and Arup stated a strong case for incorporating adaptation into building retrofit schemes in both the public and private sector.
Charlie Parker, Lead Chief Executive of AGMA’s Environment Commission, began the Finance and Investment stream by observing the pressing need to think about the economic challenges and opportunities that climate change adaptation poses. Helen Seagrave (Envirolink) and Becca Heron (New Economy) drew out potential job creation strategies. Caroline McGill, Corporate Finance Director at Deloitte’s outlined the principles of climate finance and “investability” in Greater Manchester that incorporated risk and uncertainty. Finally, Sara Todd, Assistant Chief Executive Regeneration at Manchester City Council, and Mark Atherton, Director of AGMA’s Environment for Greater Manchester, set out the Greater Manchester scene in greater depth. Sara covered the latest Greater Manchester enabling funds and emergent governance structures. Mark gave a candid talk on progress on Low Carbon Investment including the Green Deal, the Deal for Cities and other resilience projects that will progress the adaptation agenda across the conurbation.
Reflecting on the days events, Jon Lovell of Drivers Jonas Deloitte, chaired a review from the workshop leaders who came back with statements of ‘what we should do next’ before questions from the floor and a final summing up of the days activities from Sir Richard Leese.
Posted 21 May 2012
MARC in the International Media
You may have caught a whiff of MARC in the news recently as the media have been reporting about on smellwalks and research activity carried out as part of our Smell and the City Project, led by Dr Victoria Henshaw, working in conjunction with Professor Dominic Medway, from the Manchester Business School, Chris Perkins, in Geography and smell artist Kate McLean. It all started with a smellwalk in Sheffield back in summer 2011 with the Urban Design Group, (the associated smellwalk map (jpeg image)). The walk was reported in January 2012 in the Edible Geography blog, and since then, worldwide interest has grown. Victoria has undertaken interviews for US based radio show The Splendid Table, and Atlantic Cities, and has appeared on The This Way Up show, Radio New Zealand National, and live on drive time ABC Radio Australia (Perth), where people phoned in with smell memories of Perth and its outlying areas . A short piece on the research has also featured in Belgium’s leading scientific monthly, Eos Magazine.
Closer to home, the project has been reported in British national newspaper The Independent, and Victoria was joined by broadcaster Peter White for a smellwalk which featured on Radio 4’s ‘You & Yours Show’. A profile piece also ran in the Royal Geographical Society’s national magazine ‘Geographical’ in April 2012.
Locally, the media has reported project activities in the Manchester Evening News, BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Sheffield, and the Yorkshire Post.
All related podcasts/online recordings and/or further information can be accessed by clicking on the links provided.
Posted 17 May 2012
New Publication: Mapping Controversies in Architecture
- Albena Yaneva, (2012) Mapping Controversies in Architecture, Ashgate Publishing.
- Book Launch event in Manchester, Friday May 18th 2012 at 5.30pm. (PDF 890KB)
The book places architecture at the intersection of the human and the nonhuman, the particular and the general. It allows its networks to be re-established and to run between local and global, social and technical. Mapping controversies can be extrapolated to a wide range of complex phenomena of hybrid nature.
Mapping controversies is a research method and teaching philosophy that allows divides to be crossed. It offers a new methodology for following debates surrounding contested urban knowledge. Engaging in explorations of on-going and recent controversies and re-visiting some well-known debates, the analysis foregrounds, traces and maps the changing sets of positions triggered by design: the 2012 Olympics stadium in London, the Welsh parliament in Cardiff, the Heathrow airport runway extension, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower. By mobilizing digital technologies and new computational design techniques we are able to visualize the variety of factors that impinge on design and track actors' trajectories, changing groupings, concerns and modalities of action.
Reviews include:
'Yaneva brilliantly proposes a new and robust ethnographic approach to built form: mapping the controversies in which they emerge and seeing them as "connectors" with unique properties – neither just reflections of society or constructors of it, nor as cold materials – but as dynamically tying together different media, materials, peoples and things in a distinctly architectural way. This represents a profound shift in the way we can think anthropologically about the analysis of buildings and what buildings "do" and how they emerge socially and materially in the widest possible sense.'
Victor Buchli, University College London, UK.
To read more or order your own copy, please see Ashgate Publishing's website.
Smelling of Roses… Or is it the City?
Dr Victoria Henshaw, Research Associate in MARC had a ‘sweet-smelling’ start to 2012 when an American-based blog ran a piece on her research on odour and the city, and she has since been inundated with enquiries from across the globe. The blog experienced over one thousand hits in the first hour of the story going live. See full article 'Edible Geography'. This draws from an interview with Victoria regarding the role of smell in urban experience, perception and identity. Victoria’s research also identifies design tools for architects, urban designers and planners, when designing with smell, and the wider senses, in mind.
For further details, please see Victoria's research information.
MARC Studio Field Trip: Fez 2011
Magda Sibley recently coordinated the BArch MARC Studio Field Trip to Fez, Morocco, from 23-27 October 2011. Twenty students participated in this field trip and were hosted by ALIF (the American Language Institute).
They participated in a workshop with local architecture students organised in collaboration with the School of Architecture in Fez. A three hour discussion took place between Manchester and Fez students about courtyard housing in the world heritage city of Fez as a versatile typology for affordable low rise high density and low energy housing. Students investigated a number of sites in the medina of Fez in order to develop a mixed use urban intervention re-interpreting the courtyard configuration as an urban catalyst for the 21st Century sustainable housing provision.
For further details, please see the blog about the workshop.
Posted 2 November 2011
Art on Stilts in Singapore
Professor Simon Guy has recently returned from a visit to Singapore where he has been working in collaboration with artist and sculptor Wolfgang Weileder on the art installation ‘Stilt House’.
The installation, which took the form of two stilt houses representative of the traditional local Malay Kelong housing, was made of timber and a new recycled plastic material, and supported on stainless steel scaffolding. Situated in a public green area, Stilt House was one of six installations in Singapore’s public spaces that contributed to the Hub-to-Hub symposium as part of Archifest2012.
For further details visit the symposium website.
Posted 21 October 2011
cities@manchester Seed Corn Funding Competition
Seed Corn Small Grant Funding Competition
October 2011 - Call for Applications
- cities@manchester Seedcorn Funding poster (PDF 41KB)
For further information on the initiative, please see the cities@manchester website.
Posted 20 October 2011
MARC Exhibition and Book Launch
MARC held its first exhibition of research photography and book launch on 5 October 2011.
The photographs included images from Simon Guy’s research on climate change responses in Bangladesh, Albena Yaneva’s Mapping Controversies project, Magda Sibley’s work on African Hammams, Ralf Brand’s investigation of Multi-Faith Spaces, and Leandro Minuchin’s research on Urban Imaginations in Argentina.
The book launch showcased recent MARC publications including:
- Andy Karvonen’s Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology, and the Sustainable City (2011)
- Isabelle Doucet (ed) Transdisciplinary Knowledge Production in Architecture and Urbanism. Towards Hybrid Modes of Inquiry (2011)
- Simon Guy (ed) Shaping Urban Infrastructures: Intermediaries and the Governance of Soci-Techincal Networks (2010)
- Eamonn Canniffe The Politics of the Piazza:The history and meaning of the Italian Square (2008)
- Magda Sibley (ed) Courtyard Housing: Past, Present and Future (2006)
- Albena Yaneva Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. An Ethnography of Design (2009)
- Albena Yaneva The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture (2009)
- Nick Dunn Urban Maps: Instruments of Narrative and Interpretation in the City (2011)
The exhibition was part of the first MARC/MSA Away Day and was an enjoyable and well attended event.
Posted 10 October 2011
Andrew Jamison Guest Lecture
Professor Andrew Jamison, Aalborg University, will be presenting the guest lecture "Turning Science and Technology Green: Sustainable Development and Engineering Education".
Thursday, 27 October 2011, 4:00 to 5:30 pm
University Place 2.219
The University of Manchester
- Jamison Guest Lecture Poster (PDF 328KB)
Posted 27 September 2011
New Publication: Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology, and the Sustainable City
Andy Karvonen, (2011) Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology, and the Sustainable City, London:MIT Press.
When rain falls on the city, it creates urban runoff that cause flooding, erosion, and water pollution. Municipal engineers manage a complex network of technical and natural systems to treat and remove these temporary water flows from cities as quickly as possible. Urban runoff is frequently discussed in terms of technical expertise and environmental management, but it encompasses a multitude of such nontechnical issues as land use, quality of life, governance, aesthetics, and community identity, and is central to the larger debates on creating more sustainable and livable cities. In this book, Andrew Karvonen uses urban runoff as a lens to view the relationships among nature, technology, and society. Offering theoretical insights from urban environmental history, human geography, landscape and ecological planning, and science and technology studies as well as empirical evidence from case studies, Karvonen proposes a new relational politics of urban nature.
After describing the evolution of urban runoff practices, Karvonen analyzes the urban runoff activities in Austin and Seattle--two cities known for their highly contested public debates over runoff issues and exemplary stormwater management practices. The Austin case study highlights the tensions among urban development, property rights, land use planning, and citizen activism; the Seattle case study explores the city's long-standing reputation for being in harmony with nature. Drawing on these accounts, Karvonen suggests a new relational politics of urban nature that is situated, inclusive, and action-oriented to address the tensions among nature, technology, and society.
MARC 2011 Autumn Guest Lecture Series
The speakers for the MARC 2011 Autumn Guest Lecture Series have been annouced.
- Autumn Guest Lecture Series Poster (PDF 1,156KB)
MSA Student Success
As part of Dr Albena Yaneva's Year 3 Humanities course, this years Mapping Controversy website was presented at the design festival in Paris: Futur en Seine Festival at a special event dedicated to controversy mapping. The presentation took place on 20 June 2011 at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.
The work carried out by the MSA students in Manchester impressed everyone and they included a short interview with one of our students in the publicity video.
The mapping of controversies from Sciences Po on Vimeo.
For those who are interested in having a look at the students' projects, here are the best:
TOP SIX (for excellent design and thorough research)
Group 18: The Dunes of Scotland Golf Resort
Group 5: BBC Headquarter
Group 10: Grand Zero
Group 16: Birmingham Library
Group 21: Chelsea Barracks
Group 12: Park 51 in Manhathan
COMMENDATION FOR RESEARCH
Group 3: Nu River Dam
COMMENDATION FOR DESIGN
Group Group 4: Arcelor Mittal, London
ALL the 35 websites are available on the MSA webpage for Mapping Architectural Controversies.
Posted 5 July 2011
Fifth Year Architecture Students study Trip to Fez November 2010
A group of twenty 5th year architecture students from Manchester University visited the world heritage city of Fez – Morocco as part of the programme of the BArch Design Unit Architecture as Urban Catalyst. Led by Dr. Magda Sibley and Dr. Darien Rozentals, the students investigated for the first time the typical Urban morphology and architecture typology of a North African Medina.
During their visit to Fez, students attended lectures by David Amster (Director of the American Language Centre) and the Moroccan Architect Rachid Haloui in charge of the rehabilitation of a number of key sites in the Medina of Fez. The students attended a guided tour by David Amster to a number of traditional houses under his restoration and were made aware of the challenges and the difficulties faced by the residential quarters in the historic core of Fez. The students also learnt about the courtyard houses of Fez by staying in different courtyard houses (converted into small hotels) and conducting interviews with the owners of the houses in order to investigate its history, architectural characteristics and the transformations made to it.
Students also engaged in measuring and drawing three key urban squares in the medina of Fez and conducting direct observations of the way these urban spaces are used at different times of the day. Visits to key traditional urban facilities such as a Medrassa, a fondouk (or Caravanserai), a hammam (public bath) were also organised.
Prior to their departure to Fez, the students had analysed the Victorian Turkish baths in Manchester with a particular focus on the Turkish bath section. They had also researched bathing traditions in different parts of the world. Once in Fez, all students had the opportunity to visit the historic hammam of Seffarine (under rehabilitation) and experience the traditional ritual of body washing in a contemporary Morrocan hammam. On their return to the UK, students developed innovative interventions in hammam Seffarine (Fez) and the Victorian Turkish baths (Manchester) under the theme of Light, Water and Fire.
The theme of this research led design studio has been developed from the research of Dr. Magda Sibley and her current engagement in the Hammamed project funded by the EU under the programme Euro-Med Heritage IV.
Posted 26 April 2011
Guest Lecture: Dr Francesco Mazzucchelli (University of Bologna)
Dr Francesco Mazzucchelli (University of Bologna) will be giving the guest lecture "Preservation and restoration: a semiotic perspective" on 14 March 2011, 3.30pm (HBS 1.69). This event is a MARC Guest Lecture.
Posted 22 February 2011
Funding Success: Dr Leandro Minuchin - cities@manchester seedcorn funding
Congratulations to Dr Leandro Minuchin (MARC) and Dr James Scorer (CLAS) who have been successful in the cities@manchester seedcorn funding competition. Leandro will be the PI for this research project titled “The Politics of Construction: Urban Imaginations in Argentina.”
The Politics of Construction: Urban Imaginations in Argentina
Drawing on elements from architectural history, political theory and cultural studies, the research will investigate the way construction practices and the production of particular architectures serve to challenge and articulate distinct understandings of urban politics. Focusing on cases in Rosario and Buenos Aires, the project will examine and contrast the cultural and political imaginations underpinning the construction of iconic buildings with the material interventions promoted by different social movements seeking to secure and enact their right to the city.
Posted 22 February 2011
New Publication: Transdisciplinary Knowledge Production in Architecture and Urbanism
Edited by Isabelle Doucet (MARC) and Nel Janssens, Transdisciplinary Knowledge Production in Architecture and Urbanism. Towards Hybrid Modes of Inquiry (Springer 2011) is now available as a hard cover publication and an online text. The volume includes a chapter by MARC co-director, Albena Yaneva.
The volume addresses the hybridisation of knowledge production in space-related research. In contrast with interdisciplinary knowledge, which is primarily located in scholarly environments, transdisciplinary knowledge production entails a fusion of academic and non-academic knowledge, theory and practice, discipline and profession. Architecture (and urbanism), operating as both a discipline and a profession, seems to form a particularly receptive ground for transdisciplinary research. However, this specificity has not yet been developed into a full-fledged, unique mode of knowledge production. In order to dedicate specific attention to transdisciplinary knowledge production, this book aims to explore (new) hybrid modes of inquiry that allow many of architecture’s longstanding schisms to be overcome: such as between theory/history and practice, critical theory and projective design, the adoption of an external viewpoint and a view-from-within (often under the guise of bottom-up vs. top-down). It therefore offers the reader a mix of contributions that elaborate on knowledge production that is situated in the (architectural and urban) profession or practice, and on practice-based approaches in theory.
The volume includes contributions by Michael Biggs, Daniele Büchler, Carole Deprés, Halina Dunin-Woyseth, Andrée Fortin, Tony Fry, Rolf Hughes, Ronald Jones, Fredrik Nilsson, Tatjana Schneider, Geneviève Vachon, Albena Yaneva, and a foreword by Julie Thompson Klein.Posted 18 February 2011
MARC Guest Lecture: Dr Gavin Melles
Dr Gavin Melles (Faculty of Design, Swinburne University) will be giving the guest lecture "New Pragmatism in Architecture and Design: Zeitgeist not Method" on 14 February 2011, 3pm (HBS 1.69). This event is a MARC Guest Lecture.
Posted 2 February 2011
Video of Antoine Picon's (Harvard Graduate School of Design) Guest Lecture
Antoine Picon recently gave the MARC guest lecture "Digital Culture in Architecture: An Introduction for the Design Professions" (2 November 2010). A video of Antoine Picon's lecture can now be downloaded. This lecture was part of the MARC Guest Lecture series for 2010.
- Autumn Lecture Series Poster (PDF, 1130KB)
Posted 11 January 2011
Video of Sophie Houdart's (CNRS, Paris) Guest Lecture
Sophie Houdart recently gave the MARC guest lecture "The Architecture of Kengo Kuma: An Anthropological Perspective" (16 November 2010). A video of Sophie Houdart's lecture can now be downloaded. MARC Guest Lecture series for 2010.
- Autumn Lecture Series Poster (PDF, 1130KB)
Posted 29 November 2010
New Publication: Shaping Urban Infrastructures: Intermediaries and the Governance of Soci-Techincal Networks
Co-edited by MARC director Simon Guy (with Simon Marvin, Will Medd and Timothy Moss) Shaping Urban Infrastructures: Intermediaries and the Governance of Soci-Techincal Networks (Dec 2010) can now be pre-ordered through the publishers Earthscan.
About the publication:
Cities can only exist because of the highly developed systems which underlie them, ensuring that energy, clean water, etc. are moved efficiently from producer to user, and that waste is removed. The urgent need to make the way that these services are provided more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable means that these systems are in a state of transition; from centralized to decentralized energy; from passive to smart infrastructure; from toll-free to road pricing.
Such transitions are widely studied in the context of the influence of service providers, users, and regulators. Until now, however, relatively little attention has been given to the growing role of intermediaries in these systems. These consist of institutions and organizations acting in-between production and consumption, for example; NGOs who develop green energy labelling schemes in collaboration with producers and regulators to guide the user; consultants who advise businesses on how to save resources; and travel agents who match users with providers. Such intermediaries are in a position to shape the direction that technological transitions take, and ultimately the sustainability of urban networks.
This book presents the first authoritative collection of research and analysis of the intermediaries that underpin the transitions that are taking place within urban infrastructures, showing how intermediaries emerge, the role that they play in key sectors - including energy, water, waste and building - and what impact they have on the governance of urban socio-technical networks.
Posted 23 November 2010
MARC Guest Lecture: Eli Støa (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Eli Støa (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
"Towards Sustainable Residential Practices"
Tuesday 7 December 2010, 4pm
Venue: Humanities Bridgeford Street Building G7
This event is a MARC Guest Lecture.
Posted 23 November 2010
Presentation to the Minister of Science, Research and Culture of Baden-Wurttemberg
The PhD student Julie Crawshaw supervised by Dr. Albena Yaneva (MARC) and Dr. Joanne Tippett (Planning and Landscape) undertook a prestigious funded Fellowship at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Aug - Oct 2010). Julie was a resident Fellow as part of the Akademie’s inter-disciplinary ‘Art Science and Business Programme’, which promotes the dialogue between art, the humanities, science, business and other professional endeavours.
Julie was invited to give a presentation of her research to Professor Peter Frankenberg, Minister of Science, Research and Cultureof Baden-Wurttemberg, at a seminar on 27thOctober, with the Akademie Director, staff and cross disciplinary research Fellows.
Posted 3 November 2010
Video of Christian Derix's (Aedas, London) Guest Lecture
Christian Derix recently gave the MARC guest lecture "Synthetic Search: Mediating Analogue and Artificial Design Heuristics" (12 October 2010). A video of Christian Derix's lecture can now be downloaded. This lecture was part of the MARC Guest Lecture series for 2010.
- Autumn Lecture Series Poster (PDF, 1130KB)
Posted 25 October 2010
Video of Steven A. Moore's (University of Austin at Texas) Guest Lecture
Steven A. Moore recently gave the MARC guest lecture "Coding the Future" (5 October 2010). A video of Steven Moore's lecture can now be downloaded. This lecture was part of the MARC Guest Lecture series for 2010.
- Autumn Lecture Series Poster (PDF, 1130KB)
Posted 25 October 2010
RIBA President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research 2010
Dr Albena Yaneva has been awarded the RIBA President's Award for Outstanding University-located Research for her work An Ethnography of Architecture. The judges said: “This type of sociological and anthropological research into design practice is significant for architecture, adding a new perspective to the way we understand architectural processes. The two books are enjoyable to read, linking through hypertextual narratives an impressive quantity of historical information and technical data, stories and anecdotes, theoretical research and empirical observations.”
Dr Ralf Brand was also shortlisted for this award for his ESRC funded project The Urban Environment - Mirror and Mediator of Radicalisation?
Posted 20 October 2010
MARC Guest Lecture: Malcolm Shifrin
Malcolm Shifrin: The Victorian Turkish Bath: Victorian? Turkish? a bath?
Wednesday 13 October 2010, 11am-1pm
Venue Coupland 3 Theatre C (near the Manchester Museum)
This event has been organised by Dr Magda Sibley
Malcolm Shifrin
malcolm@victorianturkishbath.org
www.victorianturkishbath.org
Selected by the British Library for the UK Web Archive
Encyclopaedia Britannica Web's Best Sites Award 2009
Posted 8 October 2010
New trends in Postgraduate Studies in Architecture
Albena Yaneva took part in a round table on the new trends in Postgraduate Studies in Architecture as a representative of MARC at Rencontres Doctorales en Architecture, 9-11 September Nantes, France.
Rencontres Doctorales en Architecture programme.
Posted 30 September 2010