Close
The Bartlett FIFTEEN Show 2024 Prizewinners
11 December 2024
Three graduates from Design for Manufacture MArch, Design for Performance and Interaction MArch, and Situated Practice MA were honoured with prizes at The Bartlett FIFTEEN Show 2024 launch party at UCL Here East.
The Bartlett FIFTEEN launch party took place on Thursday 05 December at UCL's Here East campus in Stratford, officially opening the week-long exhibition. FIFTEEN celebrates innovative work developed by graduating students on the school's fifteen-month Master's programmes. This year's show gathers work by 80 graduates, and for the first time, the show spans two sites, exhibiting at Here East and the school's central London campus at 22 Gordon Street.
Director of School Amy Kulper presented three graduates with prizes recognising their thought-provoking and boundary-pushing projects. The winners represent the three exhibiting programmes, Design for Manufacture MArch, Design for Performance and Interaction MArch, and Situated Practice MA.
The show is open until Wednesday 11 December. Explore all the work at our Bloomsbury and Stratford campuses, or browse the whole show online at bartlettarchucl.com.
Prizewinners
Design for Manufacture MArch
‘Arkhive: Design for Automated Robotic Assembly and Adaptable (Dis)Assembly’ by Matias Ramirez
The Bartlett School of Architecture Medal for Design for Manufacture MArch
As disassembly becomes vital in the end-of-life phase of buildings, the assembly process gains new significance. No longer just a construction step, assembly now plays a key role in enabling disassembly, reuse, and recycling. This shift demands an integrated approach to sustainability and functionality throughout design and construction.
Contemporary research explores how assembly and disassembly practices shape future built environments, focusing on robotic automated assembly’s potential to support ecological goals. Despite progress, challenges remain in fully integrating design, production, and disassembly of timber components for practical applications.
To address this, a 1:1 wooden prototype called Arkhive was built. Employing robotic assembly, it embodies design-for-disassembly strategies, prioritising adaptability and reuse. The manufacturing process, interconnected from design to reuse, ensures continuous feedback for sustainable outcomes. This project highlights the potential of integrated wood construction for real-world applications in the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (ACE) industry.
Design for Performance & Interaction MArch
‘The Artificial Mythical Menagerie’ by Zijun Wan
The Bartlett School of Architecture Medal for Design for Performance & Interaction MArch
Participants' hand drawn characters are transformed into mythical creatures. A camera captures each drawing, generating depth maps and contours. ChatGPT interprets these visual elements to craft prompts based on the character's features. This prompt, combined with contour data, guides an AI algorithm using TripoSR, SDXL, and ControlNet to create a high-fidelity digital model. The digital creature is then rigged, animated, and displayed holographically, allowing participants to see their creations as animated figures in a virtual menagerie.
Drawing on Richard Schechner's performance theory, the installation views transformation as a creative act of "becoming," where identity evolves through dynamic change. Performance, in Schechner's view, extends beyond formal stages to wherever people explore roles and expressions. Here, participants engage in co-creation with AI, blending human imagination with AI interpretation, raising questions about how much of the final creature reflects the participant's vision versus the AI's interpretation.
Situated Practice MA
‘Detours: Osterley Park’ by Tejesvini Saranga Ravi
The Bartlett School of Architecture Medal for Situated Practice MA
Detours is a pair of guided audio-walks that deconstructs the colonial legacies of Osterley Park, a National Trust estate located in Hounslow, London through its former owners, the Child-Villiers family, who were closely associated with the English East India Company for three generations.
The project emerges from the findings of the 2020 National Trust publication titled ‘Interim Report on the Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery’. Despite the Trust having co-produced literature on Osterley’s colonial connections in the past, the curation and historic interpretation of the house echo a resounding silence on the power, coloniality and violence that are embedded within and were influential to its form and origins.
To disrupt this silence, the project draws from peripatetic-art practices and the works of artists Janet Cardiff, Peter Cusack, Ingrid Pollard and Phil Smith. It traces the historical and maritime connections between Osterley Park in London and Fort St. George, a former British stronghold in Chennai (formerly Madras), India while guiding audiences around two sites: Osterley and the City of London.
More information
- Visit the Fifteen show
- Find out more about Design for Manufacture MArch
- Find out more about Design for Performance & Interaction MArch
- Find out more about Situated Practice MA
Lead image and slideshow images: Photos by Richard Stonehouse
Project images: 1. 'Arkhive: Design for Automated Robotic Assembly and Adaptable (Dis)Assembly' by Matias Ramirez Muñoz, Design for Manufacture MArch, 2024
2. 'The Artificial Mythical Menagerie' by Zijun Wan, Design for Performance & Interaction MArch, 2024
3. ‘Detours: Osterley Park’ by Tejesvini Saranga Ravi, Situated Practice MA, 2024