The Bartlett Research Conversations

Research summary

The architectural history of University College London, 1825–1939

Amy Smith

16:00 – 17:30

Supervisors: Peter Guillery, Harriet Richardson

Amy's research examines the architectural history of UCL in Bloomsbury, from its foundation to the outbreak of the Second World War. Her study draws on a wealth of archival records and field investigation to consider the historic and geographical core of UCL’s estate. She examines institutional identity in concert with practical influences on the architectural evolution of the campus, such as finances and functionality.

Predominantly, Amy's research addresses significant gaps in knowledge of the buildings, planning and development of the campus, while examining pertinent issues of identity, attribution and methodology in the study of architectural history.

Research summary

From O. M. Ungers’ to the radical students’ architectural and urban production at the Technische Universität Berlin (1963-1977)

Alessandro Toti

17:30 – 19:00

Supervisors: Professors Peg Rawes and Barbara Penner

Alessandro's research enquires into the relationship between architecture and society in West Berlin between 1963 and 1977, through the analysis of two groups of architectural production developed at the Berlin Technical University (TUB).
 
The first one is O. M. Ungers’ academic group who published a collection of 27 pamphlets illustrating architecture as a heterogeneous and collective discipline, committed to urban and social reflection, and oriented towards an external readership. The second is the activity of TUB Marxist architectural students who self-organised seminars and exhibitions, engaged with grassroots activism in depleted neighbourhoods and launched the publication of mainstream and niche magazines. 
 
Alessandro considers the two bodies of materials in a dialectical relationship, with the aim of better understanding both their historical development and their contemporary legacy for architectural debate.

About The Bartlett Research Conversations

The Bartlett School of Architecture’s Research Conversations seminars comprise work-in-progress and upgrade presentations by students undertaking the MPhil/PhD Architectural Design and MPhil/PhD Architectural and Urban History and Theory. All current UCL staff and students are welcome to attend.

Held regularly throughout the academic year, the seminars are attended by the programme directors, Professor Jonathan Hill and Professor Ben Campkin, PhD Coordinators, Dr. Nina Vollenbröker and Dr Sophie Read, and other PhD supervisors.

Images, from top:
1. UCL’s quadrangle in Gower Street, February 2009 (© UCL Media Services)
2. Volker Sayn, Beitrag zur Planetarisierung der Erde (Berlin: Veröffentlichungen zur Architektur, 1968), p. 9.