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Lecture and Meal with WS Atkins RSS
I am the first year rep for KASA, the Kent Architecture Students Society. It is a student run organisation that puts on events and competitions for the whole school in a bid to get all of the years to interact with and learn off one another. As part of their activities they organise several lecture series throughout the year and my duties include helping to run them.
We had a lecture by the managing director and several architects from the company Atkins. Atkins is a multi-national group of professionals including architects, engineers and planners and have worked on many key projects including the Burj Al Arab and nearby Jumeirah Beach Hotel as well as the extension of the Masjid al-Haram and the Bahrain World Trade Centre.
The lecture was really interesting focussing on the experiences of the newly graduated architects since they had joined the company and highlighted some of the huge projects they had already worked on.
After the lecture, KASA take the speakers for a meal to say thanks for coming to talk to us. This was the first meal I had attended through being a part of KASA and it was really interesting to speak to the architects one-on-one and to ask about their experiences at university and in the workplace. I asked them what their biggest frustrations were since going into practice and they said that having to detach yourself from designs and being willing to compromise when working as a team was the thing they disliked the most.
They also said I should email them to arrange an Easter or Summer placement in their London office so I am really excited at this prospect and will email them as soon as I can.
KASA Lecture: Haworth Tompkins RSS
We recently had a lecture by Will Mesher from Haworth Tompkins. He was highlighting some of the key design features in their renovation of the London Library. It was a really interesting lecture and I loved what they had done to the building which required a sensitive approach that would satisfy those that wanted change and those that wanted the library to stay the same.
I particularly liked the use of materials and the quality of finish, the use of multiple levels and soft modern lighting combined nicely with the old and historic books sitting on the shelves. I thought Will Mercer was a brilliant lecturer and delivered what he had to say in a clear and concise way.
In the end both sets of patrons were happy with their new library.
Life Drawing RSS
KASA organised a life drawing class today in the studio. It was a really good experience as drawing the human form is one of my weakest abilities. We were instructed to use different mediums (I used pencils and charcoal) as well as to take different approaches to drawing such as finishing off somebody elses drawing or drawing a time lapse of the model in different positions.
I could definitely see I was improving the more I did but I think I will need to practice a lot more to become better
The Best Thing About KASA RSS
One of the best things I have found with being in KASA is the connections I am making with the older years. It has been inspiring to see and speak to them about their work. Today these connections were really helpful as I was stuck with how to do a construction detail of my atrium for Caravanserai. The fifth years gave me web links to useful resources and some third years even sat down with me to discuss some routes I could take