Future Skills Think Tank
Festival of the Future
Sixty years on from the London County Council: legacy, impact, learning
Dr Neal Shasore stepping down as Head of School and Chief Executive of the London School of Architecture (LSA) in February 2025
PART 0 WINS INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS AWARD FOR FURTHER EDUCATION/HIGHER EDUCATION
LSA AND PURCELL ANNOUNCE NEW PARTNERSHIP
LUCY CARMICHAEL APPOINTED CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
PART 0 IS AN INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS (IFG) AWARDS FINALIST
WINTER EXHIBITION – WED 11 & THU 12 DEC: CURATED OPEN HOUSE, EXHIBITION AND OPEN EVENING FOR PART 1s
NEW ROLE: RESEARCH ASSOCIATE – FUTURE SKILLS THINK TANK
JOB OPPORTUNITY: MARKETING MANAGER
ATTEND THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION SYMPOSIUM 2024
SEE OUR GRADUATING STUDENTS’ WORK
JOB OPPORTUNITY: CRITICAL PRACTICE TUTOR
JOB OPPORTUNITY: DESIGN HISTORY TUTOR
PlanBEE: Matching young people with work in the Capital
The Dalston Pavilion
LSA Graduate Exhibition 2024
British Empire Exhibition: Call for Participation
LEAD OUR BRAND-NEW PRACTICE SUPPORT PROGRAMME
HELP DEFINE THE FUTURE OF EQUITABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION
LSA and Black Females in Architecture (BFA) Announce new partnership
24/25 Admissions Open Evening – 6 March
2023 LSA GRADUATES WIN RIBA SILVER MEDAL AND COMMENDATION
STEFAN BOLLINGER APPOINTED AS CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
STEPHEN LAWRENCE DAY FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR OUR PART 2 MARCH FOR 2024/25
Open Evening – 7 December 2023
BOOK PART 4 NOW: SHORT COURSES – MODULAR LIFELONG LEARNING – FUTURE PRACTICE
IN MEMORIAM – PETER BUCHANAN
The LSA is Moving
Become a Critical Practice Tutor at the LSA for 2023/24
Become a Design Tutor at the LSA for 2023/24
Pathways: Exhibiting Forms
City as Campus: The Furniture Practice
Summer Show 2023: FLAARE Futures Workshop
Summer Show 2023: Meet Your Future Employer
Summer Show 2023: Close to Home
WE ARE SEEKING A NEW FINANCE MANAGER
Nigel Coates: Liberating the Plan
AN INTERVIEW WITH ELLIOTT WANG, SECOND YEAR REP
PART 4 LAUNCH
IN MEMORIAM – CLIVE SALL
Our Design Charrettes – an insight into life at the LSA
BOOK NOW – OPEN EVENING WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH
An Interview with Emily Dew-Fribbance: LSA Alumna and First Year Design Tutor
Pathways: Optic Translations
Thursday Talks: Questioning How we Embed Sustainable Design in Practice
An Interview with LSA alumna Betty Owoo
Interview with Marianne Krogh – Rethinking water as a planetary and design element in the making of the Danish Pavilion at Venice Biennale
Our Design Charrettes – an insight into life at the LSA
At the LSA we combine ambitious, world-challenging design ideology with practical skill development for our students. One way we do this is through our termly Design Charrettes. These all-school events encourage students to think creatively about real-world issues, while developing core skills that will be essential in their future careers.
In January we held our second Design Charrette of the academic year. Led by Lara Kinneir, LSA faculty and Associate Professor at The London Interdisciplinary School, this year’s series of Charrettes are entitled ‘Drawing Life’ and they aim to address critical urban challenges and produce rapid spatial solutions to improve life with design. The second Charrette was entitled ‘Exchange’ and asked students to investigate and propose a set of urban interventions at the scale of the street, in the form of public furniture.
If you want to develop core design skills in formats like this Design Charrette, you can apply to join the LSA here.
The Brief
For the second Charrette we will investigate and propose another set urban interventions but at the scale of the street, and in the form of public furniture. It is here where moments of encounter can become moments of exchange – if the furniture is fit for purpose and people. From Roman amphitheatres to town band stands to high street park benches, urban furniture plays a fundamental role in how we engage and exchange with one another.
If we were to consider the essential pieces of furniture in our homes and consider the equivalent for our cities – what would it include? What would a street furniture catalogue contain? Who would create and manage its application? How could it be procured and maintained? What do other cities have that enable places of exchange? Italian piazzas, Spanish courtyards, American baseball bleachers and Parisian chess tables enable the manifestation of everyday life and culture to play out. What should be part of our culture in London?
Another consideration for this Charrette is that of implementation and maintenance as so many good ideas and great designs are limited by inefficient processes of installation and maintenance. Addressing the lifespan, responsibility and desire to care will only strengthen the impact that you design can have. Can your furniture be ‘resourceful’ and connect with existing infrastructure or can new installation requirements create opportunities for further growth and diversity of use? Can you devise creative ways to enable ownership and maintenance beyond the local authority?
Site
You will be allocated a group of around seven people, consisting of students across Year 1 and 2, and asked to choose a site from those studied by the Year 2 students in their DTT projects. In the coming days you should begin sharing this knowledge across the group, adding to it and discussing potential lines of enquiry.
Outputs
You are asked to design a kit of parts for street furniture that will allow for moments of exchange within the specific context and spatial conditions drawn on (1) one A0 axonometric drawing that records a number of you street furniture pieces, (2) a 1:10 drawing of two of the street furniture pieces and (3) a 1:5 model of one street furniture piece made from white model making card which will be supplied to you.