Campaign Season 1 She builds:she draws

shedrawsshebuilds for go fund me from discussions on film on Vimeo.

Adaptive Architects - Diversify Or Die

Earlier this year in response to a call for proposals for a conference, I wrote some thoughts about how the modern architect can survive at a time when it seems ever more difficult to thrive as a traditional practice.  My own experience as a small practitioner is that, particularly on smaller projects, it is almost to impossible to charge a sufficient fee to cover one's time. 

This started me thinking about how I could utilise and monetise the broad skill base I have gained through training and practicing as an architect in order to create a more versatile mode of practice.  This is a summary of what I wrote:

Creative models for structuring Architecture Practices 

The traditional modes of practice of architecture are outdated, many other professions encroach on what might have once been considered the terrain of The Architect. In addition the practice of the modern architect is too often marginalised to the merely commercial realm; the servant of the developer. 

In this climate how do architects find the balance between financial survival and fulfilling the ideals with which many of us started the first year of Part I? 

Architects have always needed to be adaptable, to turn their hand to other things when there is a dearth of work. Many of our most celebrated figures performed this difficult juggling act in their early days; Rogers, Zaha, Koolhaus, all supplemented their early practice by teaching and writing; widely accepted ways of sustaining one’s private practice and maintaining important links with academia. However what can one do beyond this? How can one create links with other sectors and individuals that may help broaden one’s own practice? 

Adaptive Architects would be a conference day focused on providing architects with tools and ideas that might help them build practices that can respond to the current climate by fully utilising their or growing their skill set to enable them to branch into areas that go beyond conventional architecture practice.  These satellite services could help support their core practice of architecture, or perhaps become their own thing. The day would draw on people from related sectors and those who have managed to create and sustain diverse companies, often by adopting unconventional modes of practice. 

My practice is based within the collective setting of Rara studios. The studios are home to creatives from a wide range of backgrounds, from jewellery design to carpentry and thus is a wonderful environment for the cross fertilisation of disciplines. During my time here I have had the opportunity to consider many ways of practicing as an architect and of drawing on the skills my rich training has given me. In addition my training was not that traditional route most architects I know have taken.  I studied Architectural Engineering at Part I and worked within engineering practices as a junior engineer before continuing on the architecture pathway at the Architectural Association. Several of my cohort choose to charter as engineer's rather than following this route and whilst my initial decision to study Architectural Engineering was driven by creative and intellectual interests, working with them has made me think once again about business potential of interdisciplinary practice.

I have also been influenced by my time at the  gigantic Foster and Partners; which couldn’t be more different to my current setting at RaRa. However they do share one thing – the adoption of diversity in practice. Fosters, offer services beyond those of architecture; furniture and product design, structural engineering. Internally they supply (often via individuals originally trained as architects) their architectural teams with filmmaking, visualisation and model-making services. It is my contention that the architect of the future needs to be equally diverse – Architecture need so to diversify or die as a profession. 

Going down in scale...

A week of Making...

...it is that time of year again - and what a year!  It is one that has seen me leave the world of corporate architecture in order to do an MA at Central St Martin's Drama Centre and set up my design studio.  I anticipate my first project being on site early in 2015.

I'm still based at Rara but now, at last, I have time to use the desk I first began renting during the 2008 recession.
This week, along with the other members of Rara, I have been preparing for our christmas shop in Camden.  It has been a busy, frustrating but ultimately rewarding week of making.

 

Merry Christmas From studio aki

dust from Sarah Akigbogun on Vimeo.

A little Austerity + A lot of CAD...

A double dip prompts a reapplication of CAD skills.  

This piece of architectural jewellery was the result of my current exposure to the world of the grid...I see lines in my sleep.

Theatre Of Protest

I've spent the last couple of weeks in preparation for 'Theatre of Protest', which was a response to the many different forms of protest which swept the world in 2011. The series of events held at Camden's Roundhouse and conceived by Kay Ashead,covered the uprisings of the Arab Spring through to the London Riots.

As part of the project I was commisioned to make a film, 'Stones', in collaboration with Simon McCabe and Kay Ashead.

'Stones' was made in the first two weeks of 2012, it comprises web sourced material about the uprisings and footage shot over two storm swept days in London. It draws a line from the Arab Spring to the London riots, linking them with a protester's journey.

The evening comprised, several mainly theatre pieces, presented in workshop form. The commentary on the Arab spring focussed on the treatment of women by the new regimes and culminated in a stunning solo piece written by Kay Ashead and performed by Sarah Niles.

The London student protests and summer riots were addressed by the students of Barking College. Their performances were intelligent, visceral and energetic, incredibly moving, a reminder of what an empowering tool theatre is. Here was a group of 'inner city' kids telling an audience how things are, from their perspective - how often does the adult world really listen? Yet in this space, they were captivated.

The evening at the Roundhouse sold out. It will hopefully be the first of many such Mamma Quilla projects which provide a platform for comment and response to the events shaping our world.

For more about Theatre of Protest the blog:

http://mmqcollective-diaries.blogspot.com/

Remembering Sam Potts 1978 - 2011

This evening I went along to RARA studios for a celebration of the life of Sam Potts. It was an evening of music, thoughtful words and beer, a fitting tribute to Sam, who died recently at home with family in Uganda. It was only two years ago that I met Sam for the first time. However it is not understating things to say the effect of that meeting on me was profound. In the midst of a tough year, in which we had both been made redundant along with many other architect's, Sam's optimism and vision were infectious. It wasn't long before I rented a desk space, in the studios which he co-founded.

I have maintained the space, despite having returned to the world of paid employment, which post banking crisis, is a very different place, filled with the fast moving far eastern projects, that fund much of the profession today...The space at RARA is a reminder of a vision of a very hands on way of practicing and architecture, one closely connected to the people one is creating it for. This was something Sam conveyed a passion for in that first meeting, when I arrived at RARA to interview him for this blog. I turned up, characteristically a little flustered after rushing; Sam was, characteristically, cool - he offered me a beer and we went and sat out by the railway line.

I left that day buoyed up by his sense of fun and positive vision...much needed in 2009.

RARA outlives Sam; this is also a fitting tribute to the spirit of the man.

Discussions On Film at RARA - 2011

So it's all go...Cinema See You Next Tuesday is up and running at RARA and Discussions will hold its first 'season' this July. We're kicking off with some Havana inspired journeys through cities, and then taking a political turn.

Details are now on the 'discussions' blog:

http://discussionsonfilm.blogspot.com/2011/05/postcard-from-havana.html

Look forward to seeing you there for a glass or two, some film and a chat.