# SCHOOLS /// Conclusion

Jason De Marco / Leisurescape / tutored by Guy Zucker in UPenn

This is the end of the architecture schools' thematic and thus time for conclusion.

First, I have to say that I appology for choosing so many English and American schools when obviously some schools from South America, Asia and Africa would have present a lot of interesting various topics... Unfortunetely, these schools seem to be not so interested into external communication and I could not really get the chance to find anything on their websites. I do understand that, by doing that, I am cheering the western world's system, that is why as a conclusion, I would like to gently tackle some issues.

This month would have shown how inventive and bright are all these students who work to create what they develop in their minds. However, some schools seem to take advantage of this imagination to promote their system of education avoiding to put the emphasis on the student. As a good example, Zaha Hadid's studio in Angewandte is presenting some students' projects without showing their names, even whithout introducing the students working in this studio...
Zaha Hadid is also the head of another topic, as Hernan Diaz Alonzo or some other professors which seem to have decided that their studios would be a branch of their own offices and take advantage of their "aura" to influe so much students that they seem not to be even aware of being some starchitect's production machines.
Finaly, thanks to globalisation and the transporation of informations and professors, schools are loosing more and more their identities towards something I personnaly consider as very interesting but which could really gain from a variety of educationnal system.

As a conclusion as I would thus write that although, I am definetely amazed by all these schools' work and consider it as a very very important contribution to the architectural world, in order to avoid a fatal effect of uniformization, each school should praise it own identity and promote emulation more than envy, which tend to copism and than competition, which tend to an absolute priority for communication...

# Anemorphic Airship Docks by Adam Holloway

Anemorphic Airship Docks is a student project designed by Adam Holloway (Oxford Brookes University) which compeats for 2008 RIBA's President's medals...

The airship promotes ecology in travel. The autonomy of a lighter-than-air vehicle evokes a vision of a future free from the pollution of the industrial world.As a piece of responsive architecture the Anemorphic Airship Docks reflect the ethics and aesthetic of the airship. By creating an autonomous mechanism, moving yet stable, unpredictable yet controllable, the airship port offers passengers an in-between space, not as fully detached from the ground as the airship, but still apart from it. In becoming a literal engine of construction for the city around it the tower acts as an analogy for change and communication. The unpredictable nature of the wind powers the human narrative of the city.

# SCHOOLS /// TU (University of Technology) Delft

Hyperbody within TU Delft
location: Stevinweg 1, Delft (Netherlands)
website

illustrating projects:
- Studio 751 / 798 district / tutored by Kas Oosterhuis
- Robyn Bruins, Marcus Chaidez, Daiki Nakagawa / Interactive curtain / tutored by Kas Oosterhuis
- Hyperbody BSc6 + MSc3 course / Muscle facade / tutored by Kas Oosterhuis
- Koki Hirakawa, Agnes Lahaye, Guido Lammerink, Susan O'Driscoll, Thijs Welman, Antonio Pisona / Muscle body / tutored by Kas Oosterhuis
- Chris Fox, Roi Harari, Jaroslav Hulin, Klaas-Jan de Koning, Johannes Krohne, Sebastian Lippok, Simsa Mc Nally, Antonio Pisona / Muscle ReConfigured / tutored by Kas Oosterhuis

# Francis BACON @ the Tate Britain

Amazing exhibition of one the most interesting modern painter, Francis BACON at the TATE Britain (until 4 january 2009) .

This painter establishes a spacial dimension , in most of his artwork, and sometimes he's also dealing with the architectural space, giving some detail of a real scene, like doors or stairs.

His way to create a composition really amazing like the triptychs, thanks to a mix between painting and graphic design the composition is telling a story..

In his serie of self portrait he's depicting three sides of his own face almost in mouvement, the mix of colours create a real effect of motion, an the three pictures seems to be three dimensional object.

Go to the TATE and judge by yourself !

# SCHOOLS /// ESARQ (Escuela Superior de Arquitectura )

Escuela Superior de Arquitectura within the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
location: Immaculada 22, Barcelona (Spain)
website

illustrating projects:
- Julian Ardila, Andrea Bezerra / Arch biodigital beast
- Viviana Hernaiz / Station Mir
- Antonio Vacca, Alessio Erioli / (Attr)-action
- Marija Unter / Floral Shop
- Anna Hartofili / Canandese

# The Cabinet of Curiosities by Amandine Kastler

before RIBA's President's medals 2008, here is one of the two last year winners...

The Cabinet of Curiosities by Amandine Kastler, student in Architectural Association

Designed to store figurative marble sculptures and small sacred silver objects, the newly constructed architectural body shares the exuberance and sculptural qualities of the figurative pieces it contains. The ornamental language is developed from a material
investigation originating from the traditional craft methods employed to create the stored objects which are adapted into contemporary building processes, giving expression and new meaning to the 'Cabinet of Curiosities'.
The anthropomorphic container refers to John Ruskin's theory in 'The Lamp of Beauty'(1849),that out of all natural forms, imitating human form is the noblest. The visitor is invited to view the objects in a visceral and experiential atmosphere rethinking the legitimacy of the neutral white cube and the museum as a site of timeless preservation.

# SCHOOLS /// Manchester School of Architecture

Manchester School of Architecture
location: Oxford Road, Manchester (United Kingdom)
website

illustrating projects:
- Romulus Sim / Swarmcity
- Luke Petty / Manchester bio duct
- Sarah Gilby / The Belle Vue centre for Dementia Care
- Gary Owen / Edinburgh Festival Theatre
- Farooq Sabir / Hydroponic laboratory