May 23

WE ARE SEEKING A NEW FINANCE MANAGER

Mar 23

Nigel Coates: Liberating the Plan

Mar 23

AN INTERVIEW WITH ELLIOTT WANG, SECOND YEAR REP

Feb 23

PART 4 LAUNCH

Feb 23

IN MEMORIAM – CLIVE SALL

Feb 23

Our Design Charrettes – an insight into life at the LSA

Feb 23

BOOK NOW – OPEN EVENING WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH

Feb 23

An Interview with Emily Dew-Fribbance: LSA Alumna and First Year Design Tutor

Feb 23

Pathways: Optic Translations

Jan 23

Thursday Talks: Questioning How we Embed Sustainable Design in Practice

Jan 23

An Interview with LSA alumna Betty Owoo

Jan 23

Interview with Marianne Krogh – Rethinking water as a planetary and design element in the making of the Danish Pavilion at Venice Biennale

Dec 22

What do our students think of studying at the LSA? We spoke to Second Year student Semi Han

Dec 22

Hear from our Alumni – An Interview with Calven Lee

Dec 22

National Saturday Club Programme

Nov 22

LSA Alumnus Jack Banting published in FRAME

Nov 22

2022/23 Design Think Tank Module Launches

Nov 22

Mentoring can transform the architecture profession – for good

Nov 22

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR 2023/24

Nov 22

Alternative Routes To Registration: An Evening with ARB (17/11/2022)

Nov 22

Circular architecture needs material passports

Nov 22

Apply To The LSA: Online Intro (23/11/2022)

Oct 22

LSA Registrar

Oct 22

London School of Architecture announces strategic collaboration with Black in Architecture

Aug 22

LSA Summer Design Charrette

Jul 22

How fire has shaped London – from 1666 to Grenfell

Jul 22

Voices on: Architecture and Fire Safety

Jun 22

JOB OPPORTUNITY:  DESIGN TECTONICS TUTOR

Jun 22

JOB OPPORTUNITY:  DESIGN DIRECTION MODULE LEADER

Jun 22

JOB OPPORTUNITY:  DESIGN HISTORY TUTORS

Jun 22

JOB OPPORTUNITY: DESIGN STUDIO TUTORS

Jun 22

JOB OPPORTUNITY:  DESIGN CITIES MODULE LEADER

Jun 22

Voices on: Architecture and Displacement

May 22

Job Opening: Design Think Tank (DTT) Module Co-Leader — Apply by 20.06.2022

May 22

You’re invited to the LSA Summer Show 2022

Mar 22

LSA students shortlisted for London Festival of Architecture design competition

Feb 22

ELEVEN DESIGN THINK TANKS AIMING TO TRANSFORM THE CITY

Feb 22

LSA launches new bursary scheme for students from low-income backgrounds Copy

Feb 22

LSA announces Thomas Aquilina as inaugural Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation Fellow

Feb 22

LSA Tuesday Talks

Feb 22

Meet students, faculty and alumni at our Open Evening — 24.02.2022

Jan 22

Why Apply to the LSA? Thoughts from our Academic Director

Jan 22

Job Opening: Professional Events Co-ordinator — Apply by 18.03.2022

Dec 21

Will Tooze & Daniel Wood — Plan for Chalk Bridge

Dec 21

Siân Wells — Feminist City

Dec 21

Peter Salman — The Deconstruction Institute

Dec 21

Jayden Luk — Grow The City

Dec 21

Jack Morgan — Freedom of Movement

Dec 21

Harriet Stride — The School with Roots

Dec 21

Freddie Hutchinson — Channelsea Tidal Gardens

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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.