Blank Media Collective

Unbuilt

Public Preview: Friday 7 May 2010, 6-9pm | Exhibition continues: Saturday 8 May - Saturday 15 May 2010, easaHQ, Manchester

Unbuilt is part of FutureEverything 2010 and Manchester Architecture & Design Festival.

EXHIBITION SYNOPSIS:
Almost a decade ago, undergraduates commenced architecture degrees amid a booming economic climate. Now, as these students graduate into a recession, and as architecture takes the biggest hit of any professional group, Blank Media Collective believe this is an exciting opportunity to showcase their work.

Unbuilt is an exhibition that fits with the stride of our times, recognising that emerging architectural talent is struggling to find a place within the industry. Each year produces a batch of recent graduates with fresh ideas and new portfolios. This exhibition champions a selection of these architects as they explore elements of their creativity and renew their passions.

Unbuilt is an exhibition highlighting the work of non-practicing architecture graduates and has been developed to utilise the significance of easaHQ (European Architecture Student Assembly) and promote the shared objectives of the respective organisations. The show has been curated by the Blank Media Collective exhibitions team from an open submission call and incorporates a diverse range of media.

Selected works from Unbuilt are available for purchase from BlankMarket, Blank Media Collective’s online store.

| Opening times:
Monday - Friday 2-8pm | Saturday 12-6pm | Sunday 12-4pm

For further information please contact . or 07739026504

WITH THANKS TO:

Participating Artists

Andrew Thomson: The University of the 3rd Age

Andrew Thomson’s architectural proposals are based on investigations into place, it’s character and identity and how people identify with it. They consider the organisation of space and circulation allowing them to form unique expression whilst contributing to a coherent whole. It is about creating spatial events to encourage and inspire human interaction.

Andrew’s designs aim to open a dialogue with both the immediate and adjacent surroundings, to try and introduce nature where there isn’t any or allow an extension to existing nature where there is; arranging nature on many levels throughout the building. The architecture becomes an engine for cultural renewal, allowing a platform for cultural manifestations; creating places that can take on the character of the happening.

Andrew Thomson graduated in Architecture and Environmental Design from Sheffield Hallam University in 2009. Since then he has volunteered in Borneo working on sustainable construction projects and has been working at One Thoresby Street, Nottingham in collaboration with an artist exploring ideas in the cross over of contemporary art and architecture.
Andrew_Cross: The Motel Project

Andrew Cross’ work revolves around architecture and the way in which it encapsulates and frames space. As an architect his work fights against the idea of the building as the defining moment of our environment. Using these two contradictory ideas as the starting point for his practice, this has led Andrew into a constant discussion that explores the boundary between art and architecture.

The benefit of viewing the world through the eyes of an architect but with the creative mind of an artist has led to a new and challenging dialogue, a dialogue that revolves around the idea of anti-architecture and the focusing of the built environment back upon the viewer.

Starting with the Motel Project Andrew Cross has begun to explore the ideas and narratives that can be drawn into and onto constructed space to create questions for the viewer. It is this questioning of space that he is carrying forward into future projects, using derelict and vandalized buildings to create site specific temporal installations over the coming months and years.
Eric_Kwan: The Millipede

Eric Kwan is originally from Hong Kong. Now living in Manchester after studying Architecture at the University of Huddersfield, Eric develops his designs through detailed sketch and model making.
Rob_Houmoller: Sugar House Lane Mental Health Centre and Flower Farm

Rob Houmoller studied at the University of Sheffield and the University of East London and is interested in the city and the urban scale as well as the process of making and representing architecture. He developed photo / acid etching as a way of representing his work at the University of East London and has built on these techniques since graduating in 2009. He regularly acts as guest critic / tutor / lecturer at University of East London.
Katy Beinart: Museum of Protest, Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire

Katy Beinart’s practice is interdisciplinary, combining art and architecture to examine themes of history, identity and place. Much of her work is research based and site-specific, and evolves through a participatory process, which has developed from several years working in youth arts and participatory development. Katy is interested in creating work in public places, which offer opportunities for participation and interaction for residents and users of spaces, creating dialogue and inviting users to collaborate in the process of place-making.

Katy Beinart trained as an architect at the Bartlett, University College, London and Oxford Brookes University, and her practice involves a research process often using architectural representations, including map-making and drawing, photography, and film. Outcomes vary from installations and interventions into the environment, public art works, and performance, to gallery based work documenting a process. Katy’s work seeks to offer views into the past, re-presents the present, and investigates the future.
Emma_Curtin: Homes and Workplaces in Hackney Wick

Emma Curtin studied at the University of Sheffield and London Metropolitan University and has worked in practice in Sheffield and Manchester. Her interest in architecture is focused around the human experience. This encompasses a practical approach, considering even the mundane, everyday elements of a design but it extends to an interest in architectural theory. She enjoys drawing and is interested in mixing manual and digital techniques. A desire to understand projects in their social and political context has been strengthened by recent experiences of unemployment and working outside of architecture. Having recently found work with Sheppard Robson she is studying towards RIBA Part 3 and hoping to qualify as an architect during the next 12 months.
Yaojen Chuang: Chronicles of a Cure

Yaojen Chuang is originally from Taipei, Taiwan. He studied his BSc and Diploma in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London under the tutorship of Professor CJ Lim, Dr. Marcos Cruz and Dr. Marjan Colletti.

In 2008, his Diploma work was featured and named “Stand Out Student of the Year” in Building Design, published in Blueprint Magazine and AD Architectural Design. In 2009, his works were selected to present at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. He has recently exhibited at “Spiritual Flesh” exhibition at the ETSAM, Madrid, “Transience” at London’s Dreamspace Gallery, and “Sublime Flesh” at Christ Church Spitalfield, London. Yaojen has worked in collaboration with British designer Tom Dixon, Plasma Studio Architects as well as Alison Brooks Architects.
eve: Building Types | Public Space | Block Layers

As a recently graduated Part 1 student previously studying at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, Eve Roberts’ passion lies within buildings that can provide sustainable living through every aspect; an architecture that compliments the earth’s existing landscape and natural cycle with appropriate choice of materials, placement and form.
Matthew_Pilling: Barrow Royale

Matthew Pilling is interested in the large scale possibilities of the built environment, exploring how whole communities and cities can be regenerated by intelligent design and changes to legislation.

Matthew’s most recent work aimed to create a new and sustainable modular construction process, allowing for an adaptive building type. This new process could be applied to a range of facilities where a quick change of function is required, resulting in a far less wasteful system. Work prior to this focused on the comparison between emerging virtual metaverses and reality, exploring how virtual interactions and communications affect and inform the physical world around us.

Future work will be concerned with exploring the possibility of creating an adaptable city, where areas can be reconfigured and rejuvenated, resulting in true sustainability. The first stage will be the introduction of fully adaptive, singular spaces capable of supporting numerous activities. As technology continues to evolve, entire buildings could become adaptive to every individuals needs. Further progression could lead to whole communities, or even cities, capable of re-configuring themselves to better suit economic and environmental changes. Whilst individual segments may become obsolete, the city itself would remain vital, if updated elements could be incorporated to replace them, and the old components recycled back into itself.