MArch STB: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Dinner before the Jubilee

31 May 2012: With the Queen's Jubilee weekend coming up soon, we decided to have a dinner with members of the Tall Building studio. It was rather short notice, so not all could attend. We usually go to Nosh, in High Rd, Beeston. Although the largest group were from India, we like the way that Chinese food is served, with several shared dishes, and savouring the experience with chopsticks. Janet (Jing Huang) organised the menu, so we had a good range of flavours.

There's still work to be done: the portfolios will be submitted after the Jubilee weekend. After that, there is a bit of a rest-time, before we have to finalise the exhibition in Mid June.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Tall Buildings Crit 24 May '12

24 May 2012: We had the final Crit of the year, in the Atrium of the Engineering Student Learning Centre. This was a bit risky, conducting crits in the middle of a public exhibition, with the public walking through. But the exhibition seemed interesting to the passers by, and we were able to conduct our crits, and invited a few guests from the faculty to sit down and listen.

Sabina and Lukasz, with Phil.

The four main crit-reviewers, Phil Oldfield (UoN), David N-Cole (UoN), John Prevc (Make) and Lukasz Platkowski (Gensler). Sabina Fazlic was with us most of the day, but left before we took the photo.

David NC, John and a guest from Civil Engineering look at the 'Migrant Tower'.

Alejandro and Veronica with their 'Green Core Tower'

Sayali, Nirav and Pelin with their 'always building, never finished' tower, using prefabricated components.

View of the exhibition from above. The day was relaxed, with only 10 schemes to see, because two of our designers were in Bratislava for the Isover competition world final.

Georgia showing her tower for South Bank university.

Even when not being critted, students were enjoying the chance to relax and listen after the stresses of the previous few weeks.

Friday, May 4, 2012

May Crits with Ken Shuttleworth and others

3 May 2012: We had an exceptionally good day with both architects Ivan Jovanovic (BDSP) and Ken Shuttleworth (Make) coming on the same day. To add to that, John Macdonald (Ecoworks) came in for a while to help the students with vertical greening.

Ken suggests ideas for the 'Green Core' group

Yan answers questions from Phil and Ken

John is advising Rongsi and Janet on their vertical greenery

Ivan with Nirav, Pelin and Sayali, the Flexiscraper group

Ken and Phil advising Deepika and Rishika, the Seekers group

Ivan with Janet and Rongsi

Janet, Noura and Rongsi with Ivan

Introduction

The Masters course in Sustainable Tall Buildings: (STB) introduces tall buildings as a strategy for urban sustainability and densification for the 21st C. It explores advanced concepts of urban and social living, smart structures and systems, vertical landscaping, construction, and bioclimatic design for super-tall skyscrapers.

The course is the first of its kind, and runs at the University of Nottingham, England, and is accredited by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The Faculty of Engineering decided to merge it with the all purpose MArch Design unfortunately (in 2015), but the taught modules continue.

In 2011, we took part in the Isover international student competition for the vertical Passivhaus skyscraper, New York, with three teams in the finals. In 2012, we had 2 groups of students as semi-finalists in the international CTBUH competition, one of which came 4th.

In the year 2013-2014, we were designing towers in Tianjin, Rotterdam, Singapore and London. Two of our designs won first and second prize in 2014, and we won first prize in 2015, with many teams in the semifinals.

In the years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, we are designing 'Pocket Towers' in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, in first semester, and High rise clusters in London in the second semester.

This blog is about the whole Tall Building design studio, not only the STB course.

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[Note for New Applicants: The course has now been merged with MArch Design. So you cannot enter as MArch STB, but if you complete all the credits required for the degree of MArch STB, you can graduate with STB degree.)

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