AIA UK members at Canterbury Cathedral
The AIA UK chapter’s calendar is reliably busy, with a variety of events held in person and online. You can learn more about our different activities in our latest Chapter Newsletter.
Here are just some of the exciting events which took place this autumn…
Canterbury Super Saturday - 23 September
AIA UK ‘Super Saturdays’ are back! More than 20 AIA UK members and guests visited Canterbury on 23 Sep 2023 for a day of lectures, explorations and socialising.
Former AIA UK President and resident of Canterbury, Brianne Hamilton, started planning for this year’s Super Saturday centred around Canterbury Cathedral in 2020, only to be thwarted by covid shutdowns. As it happened, this year’s Super Saturday proved the three year wait was worth it.
Participants were able to get an inside look at Canterbury Cathedral, with talks from Purcell Architects, and the opportunity to climb up and view the roof structure in person. Other talks and visits focused on Walters & Cohen Architects’ work at the King’s School and the Malthouse Theatre, a 2019 RIBA award winning project by Tim Ronalds Architects.
2023 AIA UK Student Charrette - 28 October
Now in its 28th edition, the AIA UK Student Charrette brings together teams of Part-1 students from around the country to compete in an entirely analogue event. This year, we were generously hosted by KPF at their Covent Garden gallery. This placed the students in the centre of the KPF masterplan that has seen the area transformed into a buzzing mixed-use neighbourhood.
The brief, entitled ‘Covent Gardens’ , challenged our teams to design a temporary installation responding to the theme of ‘Urban Garden.’ The site was Floral Court, a compact urban courtyard nearby recently completed by KPF. The students were asked to visit the site and think critically about the notion of an urban garden in the contemporary city.
Autumn Movie Nights 2023 - 31 October and 7 November
For many of our regular Movie Night attendees, cinema is a passion, and one they love intimately. On a dark cold day on the eve of All Hallows’ Day, the first of our Autumn screenings brightened up this Tuesday. It was off to the heart of the Indian Ocean we sailed, to learn about the life & architecture of Sri Lanka’s most acclaimed architect.
‘Geoffrey Bawa: The Genius of the Place’ was about a man widely regarded as one of South Asia’s most important architects of the 20th century - the equivalent of Frank Lloyd Wright in America, Luis Barragan in Mexico, or Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil.
A week later, we travelled to Thailand where our final screening of the year was set. ‘Big Ears Listen with Feet’ by acclaimed artist-filmmakers Bêka & Lemoine, took us to Bangkok on a one-day hectic journey through the chaotic concrete jungle of the Southeast-Asian megacity. Led by the moving personal story of Boonserm Premthada, one of today’s most important Thai architects, the film unfolds through a free wander, punctuated by stunning encounters, events and places, which have contributed to shape Premthada’s unique identity and sensibility.
