This is an event not to miss, for sure: on November, 17 join us for thought-provoking discussion led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alessandro Camiz, the Director of International Centre for Heritage Studies (ICHS), Mr Peter Newton, and Ms Melissa Kinnear – the honourable representatives of School of Architecture in Oxford Brookes University. The lectures and presentation will take place in Home for Cooperation, Nicosia.
Check the details as well as the biography about the speakers below…
Spatial Politics
Melissa and Peter both grew up during Apartheid South Africa and studied architecture in a period of hope and instability, alongside a search for, and attempted consolidation of, a new South African cultural identity.
Subsequently their understanding of the role that architects and architecture can play for, and with society, and therefore, the importance of academia in the creation of a generation of ‘activist architects’, has become their research focus for the past 10 years.
Through running a design studio, Unit D, at Oxford Brookes University in the undergraduate architecture course, they attempt to critique the orthodoxy of architectural education and form an alternative to that orthodoxy. Through the studio design briefs and supporting the students in the development of propositions, they attempt to engage them to create buildings which ‘transform and fabricate new capacities in those who pass through them.’1 We strive to discover what Lefebvre calls ‘urban society’, ‘a city in which urban inhabitants manage the space of the city for themselves’, where urban space should not be ‘controlled by property rights and exchange value but by inhabitants who appropriate space, make it their own, and use it to meet their needs’, developing their human potential rather than for ‘capitalist accumulation.’2
1 Yaneva, A, 2017. Five Ways to Make Architecture Political: An Introduction to the Politics of Design Practice, London: Bloomsbury, p.32.
2 Purcell, M, 2013. The Deep-Down Delight of Democracy, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, p.22-23.
Melissa Kinnear
Melissa studied architecture in Johannesburg, South Africa and completed her final degree in 1999. She has worked in a variety of architectural offices in both South Africa and the United Kingdom, mostly focusing on housing projects with a strong commitment to sustainable design.
In 2004, she co-founded Architecture Sans Frontières – UK (ASF-UK) where she is currently an Expert Affiliate. She has been tutoring at Oxford Brookes University in Unit D since 2006. The Unit focuses on encouraging students to investigate the impact of politics, resource choice, industrialised production, economic systems, discrimination, climate change, the ramifications of disasters on the urban context and heritage, and embark on the path of becoming a new type of architect.
She was awarded a Masters in Development and Emergency Practice from Oxford Brookes University in 2010. She is deeply committed to social and economic sustainability and justice, especially when applied to the built environment.
Peter Newton
Peter is a Director at Barton Willmore. Peter graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Architectural Studies degrees (with distinction) and completed his professional registration exams at Southbank University, London. He has worked at several architectural practices including Michael Hopkins and Partners and BGS Architects, and as an urban designer at the urban design specialist practice Studio|REAL.
Peter’s work is underpinned by a passion for environmentally and socially responsive design, and he is a founding member of Architecture Sans Frontiéres – UK.
Peter has a wide range of experience working from individual new build and renovation projects through to large scale masterplanning and regeneration projects. He has also worked for a range of clients in the commercial, residential, civic and education sectors.
by Cyprus Observer Team
Biographies and Event material are provided by:
ALESSANDRO CAMIZ
Headline picture from: http://www.ceelbas.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/events/contested-territories
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