A special symposium investigating the Legacy of British architectural pioneers Alison & Peter Smithson

The Edge. University of Bath

The following notes are taken from the days talks are all relevant to my development. They are just a portion of the notes taken. Each note will outline the speaker who made the particular point. Images at the end of each Seminar section will illustrate the notes.

Seminar 1. Ideas

Simon Terril - (Artist making work for The Edge gallery based on the Smithsons). Ideas of process that inform the work. References in his exhibition come from the Smithsons. A facade from Robin Hood Gardens is one of them.

Ana Abalos Ramos - (Co-director at Abalosllopis Architects). The Smithson's Christmas exhibitions were experiments in real space. Plans & layers in space. Layers transform the space. ---> Inhabitant as protagonist. This reflects their installations, experimentations with people in spaces. The exhibitions were tools to experiment with the real.

Seminar 2. Architecture

Peter Salter - (Architect). In describing Climate Register. The Economist Building (A Smithson project in London). Because of the portlnd stone used it was not a compressed stone so it retained the soot of London. It then becomes altered by the rain. 

Jonathan Mosley - (Architect & Associate Professor). A monitor in the exhibition references the plan view, The architects View. 

Seminar 3. Impact

Gerard Maccreanor - (Architect). Smithsons architecture is not too functional in places. Users have to adapt. This is them taking ownership. Quirks & inconsistencies make a building richer. Form Follows Functio.

Stephen Bates - (Architect). Modernist tact of concrete, of perfectness & repetition. Construction & Material remain at the heart of the work. 

In addition to the Symposium & exhibition I made a quick trip around the campus to take in the Modernist & Brutalist Architecture. These images will be used for social media & refrence.