Too Many Ideas
Early stuff on research and first ideas on contingency. Others like this more than I do. Big in China.
Do mendacity, laziness and blackheartedness count as underlying health conditions? Asking for a friend.
Early stuff on research and first ideas on contingency. Others like this more than I do. Big in China.
On the basis of a pitch written on an iPhone on the top of a mountain in Ethiopia, I was invited to curate the UK Pavilion at the 2013 Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. The eventual pavilion was curated, designed and produced by students and staff from Central Saint Martins, and took the theme of Liquid Boundaries - arguing the need to find ways through the hardening of space as it is being increasingly controlled, regulated and divided. The pavilion presented four films, each 129 seconds long (the average time someone spends in a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale), which interpreted briefs provided by four UK architects and spatial agents. All in their own way open up ways in which boundaries might be negotiated with, and in so doing a more democratic form of space emerges. More information, including a downloadable pamphlet and 'user manual', can be found on the Liquid Boundaries website.
My first foray into the intersection of politics and architecture. Spiky.
A podcast with me being interviewed by two great CSM students from the MA Culture, Criticism and Curation course - discussing art education at Central Saint Martins in relation to the contemporary condition
Architecture Depends/Spatial Ethics. Video of the lecture is here.
The best essay on the building and meaning of our house, with stories.
An interview with the portuguese journal arqa. In portuguese, so translation below. On scarcity, politics and the need for alternatives. Done the day of Thatcher's funeral, so pretty gloomy.
This is my very short response to Paul Finch's comments on Extinction Rebellion that he made in the Architects Journal on 14th May and 21st May 2019
Working with colleagues at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture, most notably Prue Chiles and Carolyn Butterworth, we established the most developed live projects programme in the country, probably the world, with some truly wondrous results. For example, look at the final report (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) from a group of students that I supervised looking at the use of urine to make mud bricks in Darfur. It is remarkable what they achieved in six weeks - should be awarded a PhD for this alone IMHO.
My response as to why giving the official government website 2013 Design of the Year was not so cool.
Not my musing, but that of my brother Nick Till. Nails the issues around Margaret Thatcher's funeral rather beautifully in two paragraphs
Originally commissioned by the RIBA, a piece on what might or might not constitute architectural research. Big in Spain.
Retrofit under conditions of scarcity. Pdf of presentation is here. Background to day here
Rather a miserabilist piece, but gets in that fantastic Seneca quote: ‘Those were happy times before the days of architects.’
A short think piece on the 2011 Occupation movement and its relevance to architecture.
Musings on Biennales and architectural exhibitions. Good opening! Light follow through.
A research project funded AHRC and done with Tatjana Schneider at the University of Sheffield, looking at the history and contemporary possibilities of housing that is designed for future change and adaptation. The project resulted in a book, website and a number of articles, two of which are apparently the most cited of ARQ articles. Winner 2007 RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University-based Research.