After Maggie we moved from the developing world and its pollution issues, to the world-wide one of rising water levels, cities and other urban areas, and what floating buildings could contribute to this whole planet challenge. Richard Coutts, principal BACA Architects, leading UK specialist floating buildings studio, sped through a presentation of the many projects and research concepts he and BACA have been involved in, while illuminating for the audience how policy and Governmental change is opening up the possibilities for scaling floating building infrastructure in the soon to arrive future.
Tag Archives: Talks
Building With Water With Claire Whistler, Charlotte Still & Jane Trowell
By way of complete contrast the water performance by Clare Whistler and Charlotte Still, co-founders of Pevensey Marshes Water Week Festival and Jane Trowell from PLATFORM was a moment of in-breathing stillness in the busy afternoon of speakers, stories and information. The trio had made the upstairs quarters, the octagonal walkway of Fitzroy House, the site of their performance, letting water fall from a medieval monastic water carrier. They quietly sang as the water fell, a grieving psalm of loss for what humankind has wrought on the water world, before descending to the ground auditorium to be interviewed by one of their number, Jane Trowell asking questions of Whistler and Still, about their wider Pevensey Water Week Festival work.
Building With Water With Andri Snær Magnason
Andri Snaer Magnasson began in on his super-entertaining, very funny and completely serious tale of what brought him to the southern reaches of Britain. Magnasson began with his attempts to get published – eventually through local supermarket magnates Bonus, before gradually building to his central involvement in large scale public protests and attempts to stop a massive dam project of central Highlands Iceland – the largest in Europe – which provided electrical energy for an Alcoa aluminium plant on the island’s Eastern coast. Though ultimately unsuccessful, through his Dreamland book and film activism Snaer was influential in shifting public opinion against damming of Iceland’s rivers and the destruction of its wildlife wetlands. By the end of his riveting story Magnasson had brought the house down, with his off-centre humour, had the MLF audience in the palm of his hand, and had imparted with radical lightness of touch, one instance of the water wars on the small mid-Atlantic island.
Building With Water With Leon Radeljic & Leif Hinrichson
Our final speakers were from Berlin. But they were presenting at Building With Water because of the consequences of what is happening upriver from other massive highland river damming projects, this time on the Turkish and Kurdistani Iraq border. Leon Radeljic from ZRS Architects/Engineers and Leif Hinrichson from the Jiyan Foundation, shared their story of a remarkable project, theChamchamal Healing Garden for Victims of Torture and War Trauma, in the city of Chamchamal, Northern (Kurdistani) Iraq. The project includes buildings using traditional rammed earth techniques, once popular, now perceived to be old fashioned, amidst a well-cultivated garden and animal sanctuary. The garden, and other aspects of the project are only possible because of the integration of a decentralised water purification system, which ensures water for the garden’s plants to grow and be cultivated. This in the context of Iraq facing water starvation, drought and worse because of the Turkish Government’s control of the dam’s in the upland border region of the two ancient rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. Once again the naked powerplay of politics was uncovered and visible, though with the Chamchamal Healing Garden an inspirational counter-example had been placed in front of the audience, graphically proposing the reach of the possible and a sign of hope in the future
As the symposium’s closing speakers ended the afternoon we had travelled from the low lying delta of Bangladesh, through the pragmatic concerns of sanitation, the technological adaptation of floating architecture, and the symbolic loss of water world’s embodied in performance art, to the highlands and uplands of Iceland and the Middle East, all connected to each other by the flow motion world of Planet Water.
Ceramics Series 2019
Ceramics: public and personal change and regeneration
The first in an occasional series of talks about ceramics presented by Making Lewes.
Friday May 17th 7.00 -10.pm, Lewes Depot, Pinwell Lane, Lewes BN7 2JS (map)
Cost £5.00 or £3 student concession. Booking through Lewes Depot, tickets available HERE
Artistic director of the British Ceramics Biennial, Barney Hare Duke will talk about the aims and activities of the Biennial which takes place from September to November 2019 in Stoke on Trent.
Past Biennial award winner, Brighton based ceramicist Louisa Taylor will discuss her work and career as maker in porcelain, designer for industry, researcher, author and teacher.
The talks will be preceded by a screening of the 1947 short documentary The Five Towns which shows the production techniques of the skilled workers of Stoke and addresses the challenges of post war reconstruction in the region; a challenge which has been picked up by the British Ceramics Biennial in the face of regional decline and the increasing globalisation of ceramics production.
Making with Sussex clay past and present
Wednesday 12th June 2019, 7pm upstairs at the Elephant and Castle,White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ
Cost £5.00 or £3 student concession. Pay on the door
Talks on the medieval potteries around Lewes will be followed by a presentation about contemporary pots made with local clay
David Gregory ‘The early medieval pottery kilns at Ringmer’
David has had a long interest in the medieval pottery industry in Ringmer and has helped dig a number of kilns in the area.
John Bleach ‘The Medieval Potters of Ringmer’.
John has researched many medieval matters and worked at the Museum of Sussex Archaeology for 35 years.
Susie Ramsay-Smith, a potter inspired by the environment of her lakeside Sussex farm will present a recent collection of pots made from clay dug on the farm in pursuit of her current Craft MA at University of Brighton. Susie is a member of Kent Potters and exhibits with Sussex Arts Collective.
Image credit: BCB general view by Joel Fildes
MAKE LEWES FESTIVAL 2018
This September sees the return of Make Lewes Festival with another series of inspiring and informative workshops, talks and Symposia exploring the relationship between making, architecture, design and sustainability.
21st – 30th September 2018
Highlights include:
Friday, September 21
Collaborative Conspiracies
18.30 -21.30 at Fitzroy House, Cliffe Precinct, Lewes BN7 2AD
Talks by Fred Baier and William Hardie, two leading woody designers, and sit-down supper.
Talks, vegetarian mezze, cake and a complimentary drink: £22.50.
Places limited. Book via eventbrite.co.uk.
Friday, September 21 to Sunday, September 23
Collaborative Collisions III
10.00 – 17.00 at Depot Cinema, Pinwell Rd, Lewes BN7 2JS
Improvisations with Lewes makers and crafts-people.
Free.
Friday, 28 September
Makers Talks Evening
19.30 at Studio Hardie, Unit 1, Lewes, BN7 2PE
With Jim Keeling, Oxford Anagama Project, Barbara Keal, Felt Maker and Elaine Bolt, Ceramicist.
Free (donations welcome)
Saturday, September 29
Pop-up Pottery & Kiln firing workshop
10.00 – 17.00 at Linklater Pavilion, Railway Land, Lewes, BN7 2FG
Family workshop with Martin Brockman making pots from local materials fired in a wheelbarrow with locally sourced wood.
Free (donations welcome)
Building with Water
13.30 – 18.00 at Fitzroy House, Cliffe Precinct, Lewes, BN7 2AD
Water, Building, Architecture, Material Sources and the Future – talks by international and national speakers
Talks and water tasting: £8.50 Concessions £6.50. Book via eventbrite.co.uk.
Sunday, September 30
FutureScoping
13.30 – 17.30 at Depot Cinema, Pinwell Rd, Lewes BN7 2JS
The future of Lewes’s cultural infrastructure provision: What do we want? What does Lewes need?
Tickets £6.50 Concessions £4.50. (available through Depot website here)
Further events to be anounced…
Any questions? Email: info@makinglewes.org
Image credit: S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, “Bengal Stream³ 2017/18, photo: Iwan Baan
MLF 2018 – Collaborative Conspiracies
MAKE LEWES FESTIVAL 2018 LAUNCH EVENT
Tongue and Groove and Algorithms – the Fred and Will Story
Sit-down vegetarian supper with special guest talks by designer makers Fred Baier and William Hardie.
Friday September 21st 18.30 prompt at Fitzroy House, Lewes BN7 2AD map
Tickets £22.50 (includes vegetarian mezze supper, cake and a complimentary drink) Pay bar available. Booking online through eventbrite.
Fred Baier is an internationally renowned furniture maker, who pioneered the use of computer aided design in furniture making in the 1980’s, and has been at the forefront of drawing together analogue and digital making in the decades since.
William Hardie, is well known in Lewes for Studio Hardie. Resolving seemingly impossible design challenges, William has become a familiar face on Amazing Space’s and other TV programmes. Less known is that years ago Fred and William worked together on a public art project leading to a long and creative friendship.
The pair will thread together their shared story during the course of the evening.
Collaborative Conspiracies is part of Make Lewes Festival 2018
Building with Water Symposium
Building with Water: Water, Building, Architecture, Material Sources and the Future Symposium
Saturday September 29th, 13.30 – 18.00 Fitzroy House, Lewes, BN7 2AD map
Tickets – £8.50 Concessions – £6.50
Tickets avaialble here on Eventbrite
Featuring:
Ruhul Abdin, Paraa (Dhaka-London architectural studio) & Niklaus Graber curator of the international Bengal Stream Bangladeshi architecture exhibition. Talking about how water defines building culture across sea level Bangladesh
Richard Coutts – principal BACA Architects – leading UK specialist floating buildings studio
Clare Whistler and Charlotte Still, co-founders of Pevensey Marshes Water Week Festival and Jane Trowell from PLATFORM
Andri Snaer Magnasson –Icelandic poet and environmentalist whose Dreamland book and film activism was instrumental in stopping the massive damming of central Highlands Iceland
Maggie Black – world water and sanitation authority and author of the Global Atlas of Water
Chamchamal Healing Garden for Victims of Torture and War Trauma, Northern (Kurdistani) Iraq with Leon Radeljic from ZRS Architects/Engineers and Leif Hinrichson from the Jiyan Foundation
Building with Water is part of Make Lewes Festival 2018 in association with Fourth Door
For more information email: info@makinglewes.org
Image credit: S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, “Bengal Stream³ 2017/18, photo: Iwan Baan
Buildng with Water is supported by
FutureScoping Symposium
FutureScoping – On the future of Lewes’s cultural infrastructure provision: What do we want? What does Lewes need?
Sunday September 30th, 13.30 – 17.30, Depot Cinema, Pinwell Rd, BN7 2JS map
Tickets – £6.50 Concessions – £4.50 Tickets available on the Depot website here
Lewes is changing. How does the town maintain its distinctive, individual identity, and how can cultural infrastructure, from the latest in live-work design to Maker Spaces, and alternative approaches to orthodox regeneration, be part of these changes?
Come and participate in an afternoon exploring the possible future of Lewes’s cultural infrastructure.
Featuring:
John Burrell, director BurrellFoleyFischer Architects, the architects of Lewes Depot
Alison Grant, founder and director of Fitzroy House – Lewes’s latest cultural hub
Frances Hollis – architect and director of the WorkHome research project, a new ‘beyond Live-Work’ approach to affordable housing
Jess Steele, director of Hastings based Jericho Road, – at the forefront of the ‘self-renovating neighbourhoods’ community approach to urban renewal
Jennie Lathbury from Eastbourne’s Devonshire Collective Maker Space & Eastbourne Studio Ceramics
FurureScoping is part of Make Lewes Festival 2018
For more information email: info@makinglewes.org
Cover Image – Depot Cinema by BurrellFoleyFischer Architects
Event sponsers:
MAKERS TALKS EVENING
Following on from previous festivals, our Makers talks evening again hosts locally and nationally recognised makers & crafts people.
Friday 28th 19.30 – 21.15 at Studio Hardie, Unit 4 Phoenix Works, North Street, Lewes BN7 2PE (map)
FREE (donations welcome)
Featuring:
Jim Keeling of Whichford Pottery and the Oxford Anagama Project, who set up the well known Whichford Pottery over thirty years ago, will be talking about making and building a version of the ancient Japanese Anagama kiln, in the heart of Oxfordshire’s Whytham Woods.
Barbara Keal Lewes based felt-maker, will talk about her felt-making approach and striking resulting work.
Ceramicist Elaine Bolt, part of the MakingLewes group visiting the Bornholm international Ceramics European Ceramics Context Biennale will report back about the experience of visiting the Danish ‘potters’ island, famous for its ceramics culture.
Makers Talks is part of the Make Lewes Festival 2018
For more information email: info@makinglewes.org
Making Lewes 