MAP 2018: Drawings from BA (Hons) Architecture

About

Lead Curator: Channa Vithana

Co-Curators: Amber Barnaby, Emmanuel Odong, Benjamin Palmer, Aleksandra Ryszkiewicz and Charlotte Woodland

25 June – 9 August 2018
Northwest Gallery, AUB

TheGallery presents MAP, an exhibition of work by BA (Hons) Architecture students, inspired by the local area of Poole.

This is the sixth year that this exhibition has been held since its first iteration in 2013. The show is curated by the BA (Hons) Architecture staff and students, first beginning as Music Architecture Poole (MAP) in 2011 and continuing as a showcase for professionally curated high-quality architectural student work that demonstrates ideals of ethical, socially conscious designs based in local environments, as championed by the course.

MAP is an architectural exhibition which embodies second year BA (Hons) Architecture student work and is curated by a selection of these students who have elected to work on the exhibition. During the summer and autumn after completion of second year these students work on two exhibitions, one at TheGallery, AUB and another at the Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts.

The drawings help students to create work inclusive of a Contemporary Dance School and Future Scenarios in architecture. They can be made from models and ideas or inspire design development. Drawings help with the practice of improving design skills through developing better use of hand-eye-coordination. These drawings range from freehand to technical-by-hand and computer-generated creative work. Selections from technical hand drawings and computer drawings are completed using architectural scale (i.e. at 1:5, 1:200, etc.). There are examples of life drawing, drawings from sketchbooks, observational detail drawings of existing buildings and computer drafted drawings of speculative schemes. Drawing in architecture is central to the expression of designing. Whilst computer generated work is important, freehand and technical drafting by hand is still valued by students because it is more tangible.

Combining precision and creativity, the projects featured integrate architectural theory and history into design exploration using models, images and drawing using the local area as a point of investigation. The work in this show is inspired primarily by Poole, a historic town with areas that date back several centuries to when it was it was a small shipping-port development surrounded by water and marshland. Poole has since developed through land reclamation, industry, housing and commerce and its rich history is still evident today. Designs include those for individual shops from a small-scale urban intervention project linking closely to Poole’s industrial past and the ethos of AUB’s ‘Maker Culture’.

Possible future scenarios in architecture are also explored through a large-scale hypothetical project based on the future of Poole by positioning architecture at the centre of a regeneration that can positively shape peoples of experience by provides comfort, shelter and hope so that people can cope with changing circumstances.