Cityscapers-British Council Scholarship fo Engineering Students
Introduction
In 2008 the British Council created the Cityscapers Student Scholarships for design students to attend an international workshop in the UK. The scholarships are provided for a workshop in a UK city over three consecutive years (see below).
The first workshop held in Edinburgh in 2008 was attended by international students from artistic and architectural disciplines.
Following an approach by Partridge Partners Structural Engineers, the British Council has agreed to extend the scholarship scheme to two engineering students from Australian universities who will participate in the remaining two workshop (at Cardiff in 2009 and London in 2010).
Partridge Partners is delighted to be asked by the British Council to assist in assessing the engineering students who will take up the scholarships in 2009 and 2010.
Why is it important that engineering students attend these workshops?
"When engineers and quantity surveyors discuss aesthetics, and architects study what cranes do, we are on the right road." Ove Arup, 1980.
As anyone who’s involved in the construction industry can attest to, engineers and professionals within the artistic/architectural disciplines don’t always see eye to eye. Without necessarily resorting to stereotypes, it's that old chestnut of form versus function, and both parties obviously approach their design projects with very different agendas and from different backgrounds and perspectives.
Notwithstanding the stereotypes and the (mostly) good-natured ribbing that the different professions throw at one another, co-operation between the engineer and other design professionals is essential to any significant design project. The ultimate success of a project, which can be measured by many different criteria (e.g. end-user satisfaction, timely completion, avoiding construction cost blow-outs, and public perception) can often depend entirely on how effectively the engineer and the other professionals work together in their pursuit of both the common goal and achieving their respective individual objectives.
Despite this common alliance and the symbiotic nature of their relationship, it seems there is still a gulf between engineers and other design professionals and their mutual understanding of each others' requirements and philosophies. Forgive the pun, but it seems a bridge needs to be built.
Partridge Partners are confident that the engineering students who attend these workshops will gain an understanding and awareness of the creative process and will have an opportunity through their talent, creativity and engineering understanding to influence students in the artistic and architecture disciplines on how they view the engineering profession. Let the bridge building begin.
Creative Submission by Engineering Students
There will be no comparison made between the creative works submitted by the engineering students and those submitted by students in other disciplines. You will be competing with other engineering students only.
The purpose of the 'creative' submission is to identify those engineering students who, as well as having an excellent engineering ability, are open to the creative process. These students, we believe, will benefit the most from working with the other students attending the workshop; be open to how their approach to engineering design can be influenced by other design disciplines; and be best able to communicate with other design students to increase the awareness of these students of the contribution engineers bring to the creative design process.
You are required, as part of your submission, to include the result of something creative you have done - it may be any creative discipline (piece of prose, poetry, a painting or a photograph, a sculpture, furniture piece etc. - an idea or a concept). There are no rules here; nothing 'inside the box'; just an invitation to allow something free to be expressed in any form or style.
You will be required to supply a minimum of three images of your work on a CD or in JPEG format. If you are invited to interview, you will be asked to speak about these images to the panel.
British Council Scholarships - What's it all about?
The following is an extract from the British Council's website tailored to suit engineering student applicants.
The British Council and Porosity Studio (College of Fine Arts, UNSW) in collaboration with the University of Cardiff and the University of Glamorgan present Cityscapers
March 27 - April 9 2009
For two weeks in March/April 2009 more than sixty outstanding designers, planners, artists, architects and engineers from Australia, Japan, China, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Korea and Wales will work on a live design brief in an intensive two week studio in Cardiff. This is a partnership between the British Council and Professor Richard Goodwin’s Porosity Studio (College of Fine Arts UNSW) in collaboration with the University of Cardiff,and the University of Glamorgan, supported by the Welsh Assembly Government.
About Cityscapers
The British Council and the Porosity Studio, College of Fine Arts, UNSW directed by Professor Richard Goodwin, will hold an international studio for students and practitioners from the visual arts, architecture, urban planning, design, and engineering in Cardiff, in collaboration with the University of Cardiff, School of City and Regional Planning/School of Architecture and the University of Glamorgan, Centre for Creative and Cultural Industries. This is the second Cityscapers studio in a series of three held in the UK and the first to include engineers. The previous Cityscapers studio was held at the University of Edinburgh in March 2008. Porosity studios have been held in Beijing at The Central Academy of Fine Art, Rotterdam at The Willem De Kooning Institute, Den Haag at Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, and Milan at the Milan Politecnico. This studio aims to build on their success in collaboration with the University of Cardiff, School of City and Regional Planning / School of Architecture, the University of Glamorgan, Centre for Creative and Cultural Industries and the British Council. This studio is generously supported by the International Relations Programme of the Welsh Assembly Government.
The Concept
The concept behind this multi-disciplinary design studio is to juxtapose a suite of strategies and visions for Cardiff as a city thinking as far ahead as the year 2020. In particular, the studio seeks new answers to fragments of Cardiff’s future, both in terms of physical and social construction. The central focus for this studio is small cities/big neighbourhoods. Talk about cities usually focuses on our larger metropolises as their problems remain so vast. However as cities around the world merge and spread with explosions of the suburban, solutions need to be sought which address the old island-like centres with their rich cultures and the rural landscapes they are progressively consuming. Smaller cities generally are growing faster than larger ones across Europe and are having to think carefully about appropriate urban forms, housing types, neighbourhood facilities, transport systems, green space and, of course, jobs.
Cardiff is the perfect model for this type of city. This studio will bring a diverse range of experience in relation to the urban and suburban condition. 'Neighbourhood' itself is a loaded term that means many different things to different societies, cultures and people and we will explore these different meanings and physical forms. But most societies accept that a mix of people, uses, facilities, opportunities, a sense of identity and a degree of self-sufficiency are necessary characteristics of a good place to live. The subtext of these discussions is the spectre of 2020. The studio is attempting to create solutions, at the scale of the small city, to many problems including those of climate, sea level fluctuations, displacement, energy and conflict. These solutions will address survival physically, socially and psychologically. Initially we will focus on Cardiff Bay, the southern part of the City of Cardiff, balancing this will be a discussion about the territory to the north of the city which reconciles Cardiff with the rural environment. Ultimately it will be the choice of individual students and collaborative groups to choose both the scale and location of their enquiry.
STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
The British Council is offering scholarships for this studio, giving 2 engineering students from Australia the opportunity to have travel, daily expenses and accommodation supported.
HOW TO APPLY
Application details for the 2009 studio have now opened. In Australia, we are holding an open competitive process. The application form is attached here. Completed applications should be sent to enquiries@britishcouncil.org.au The closing date for Australian applications is January 30 2009. The closing date for engineering students has been extended to February 13th 2009. Interviews will be held in mid-February. The studio will take place March 27 - April 9 2009.
PROFESSOR RICHARD GOODWIN'S VISION
"My vision for the city is bound up in the idea of architecture as a process of becoming rather than a grid of pedestal objects. I am interested in the parasitic structures of connection, between public and private zones, and how they might be theoretically framed and accelerated in production. I see the city as a landscape, a three–dimensional journey, and believe in the dissolution of architecture, as we know it. In 2000, I established the Porosity Studio at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW. This group of practitioners and students forms a think-tank to explore all ideas associated with public space and to establish a model for a future Research Centre within COFA UNSW. I received a 3-year Australian Research Council Discovery Grant in 2003 to test my own works in this field. The title of this research is Porosity: The revision of public space in the city using public art to test the functional boundaries of built form.
This research tested the functional boundaries ascribed to the physical dimensions of public space in the city. It did this via the device of public art and the procedure of comprehensive mapping of both internal and external spaces in Sydney. The term "porosity" describes the nature of the edge condition which exists between the skin of architecture and the public space of the city."
CONTACT
For general enquiries contact the East Asia Cityscapers project co-ordinator Grainne Brunsdon in Sydney on enquiries@britishcouncil.org.au . We'd be delighted to hear from you.
For enquiries regarding engineering entries, including the creative submission, contact Eamonn Madden at Partridge Partners Structural Engineers on eamonn@partridge.com.au