The Aldgate Project, London (UK) 2012
The CASS / London Metropolitan University
The Aldgate Project was a cross-disciplinary project that saw students of art, architecture and design working on a series of live projects based in and in response to the area of Aldgate in East London. Students and tutors developed projects with local community groups, charities and stakeholders. All of the projects sought to engage with local groups, expanding beyond the confines of the studio space and better connecting the Faculty with the surrounding area of Aldgate and Whitechapel. It was organised and curated by CASS Projects (The Projects Office) – an RIBA registered practice that is academically located to procure ‘live projects’ that benefit from creative research.
In October 2011 we organized The Launch, a day-long event that introduced over 400 students and tutors to the project. Presentations were made by invited speakers and – in collaboration with the public realm consultants Publica – we organised a series of guided walks each exploring a specific theme.
To celebrate the project as it developed work produced by students of jewellery, interior design, media, spatial planning and urban design, architecture and textiles went on display in February in The Bank space in Central House. Students, staff and visitors were invited to view one another’s work, with an afternoon private view with tea and cake. The exhibition marked the half-way point for this year-long project.
All of the individual projects were developed for a specific client or user, and a series of installations and prototypes were developed by each of the student groups to test their ideas at 1:1.
Tutors:
Diana Cochrane (Year 1 Architecture, The Cass), Paul St George and Pia Jönsson (MA Digital Film and Animation Animated Street Art, The Cass), Sue Ginsburgh (Visual Communication, MA design, The Cass), Kayne Newman (Branding Concepts, The Cass), Pierre d’Avoine and Daniel Serafimovski (Architecture, Diploma, The Cass), Suzanne Smeeth-Poaros and Rentaro Nishimura (FdA Interior Design), Janette Harris, Jerome Picard and Kaye Newman (BA Interior Design, The Cass) in collaboration with Valerie de Caligon, Erwan Lebourdonnec, Bruno Rosenzweig, Roland Lemoine (Ecole Boulle), Heidi Yeo and Marianne Forrest (BA Jewellery and Silversmithing, The Cass), Aleks Catina (Architecture and Interior Design Extended degree, The Cass), Janette Harris (Interior Design and Technology) Lara Kinneir (MA Spatial Planning and Urban Design), Viktor Jak (Undergraduate Architecture, The Cass), Michelle Salamon, Adrian Beasley and Ricardo Eversley (BA Illustration, The Cass) Rosemarie McGoldrick (BA (Hons) Fine Art, The Cass), Torange Khonsari and Sandra Denicke-Polcher (Undergraduate Architecture, The Cass) Charlotte Gorse (3D Design and Craft MA, The Cass)
Co-curated and organised by: Zoe Berman – Part III architectural assistant, The Cass Projects Office.
Research Question:
How can creative and architectural projects be used as tools through which to
better connect ourselves with the our local community?
Link: aldgateproject.org
United Kingdom, Initiated by institution, Foundation, Architecture, Undergraduate, Self-funded, +, Postgraduate, Art & Design, Years, Temporary, Analytical, 101+, Propositional, Curricular, Students with tutor, London Metropolitan Univ.
