Summer Flowers – Exhibition Opening: ‘On Space’ | UCL Urban Room

Urban Room opens Summer Flowers with a screening of Ilze Wolff’s documentary of the same name, followed by an in conversation between Ilze and Mpho Matispa (The Bartlett). This event brings together two architects whose creative and teaching practices are deeply intertwined with a sense of place and context. Their discussion will explore the critical role of sound in shaping spatial experiences and its capacity to evoke forms of liberation. This event will be followed by an informal drinks reception.  

Schedule 

18:30–18:45 Exhibition viewing 

18:45–19:10 Film screening: Summer Flowers 

19:15–20:15 In conversation: Ilze Wolff and Mpho Matsipa 

20:15–21:00 Drinks reception 

Plan your visit

The exhibition runs from 30 January – 26 May 2025.

Visit Monday – Saturday, 10:00 – 18:00, no need to book.

Wolff Architects

Wolff Architects is a design studio concerned with developing an architectural practice of consequence through the mediums of design, advocacy, research and documentation. In their Cape Town office, Ilze & Heinrich Wolff lead a team of highly skilled, committed and engaged architects, creative practitioners and administrators. Heinrich held visiting professorships at Harvard GSD (2021/22) and ETH Zurich (2014/5). Ilze was a Dean’s Visiting A. Professor at Columbia University GSAPP (2023/24) and is currently a Professor of Practice in Architecture at the School of Architecture at Liverpool University (2023 to present). Both principals lecture internationally in countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, Japan and India. The work of the practice has also been included at various international exhibitions including the Venice Architecture Biennale, Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Architecture Biennale, the São Paulo Art Biennale, and the South American Architecture Biennale. In 2023 the practice was awarded an honourable mention for their work 'Tectonic Shifts' at the 18th Venice Architectural Biennale, curated by Lesley Lokko.

Mpho Matsipa

Mpho Matsipa is an educator, researcher, and independent curator.  Mpho holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, pursued as a Fulbright Scholar. She has curated several exhibitions, discursive platforms and experimental architectural research including the Venice International Architecture Biennale (2008; 2021); African Mobilities at the Architecture Museum, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2018); and Studio-X Johannesburg, in South Africa (2014-2016). Her curatorial and research interests are at the intersection of urban studies, experimental architecture and visual art. Mpho was a Loeb Fellow 2022 (Harvard GSD), and an associate curator for the Lubumbashi Biennale, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2022). She has served on numerous design juries and international talks, and she has taught locally and internationally. Mpho is an Associate Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture and Co-Director of Spatial Justice. She is working on a publication in collaboration with Chimurenga, African Mobilities – a Library of Circulations, for which she divides her time between Johannesburg, London, Lagos and New York. 

About the UCL Urban Room

Located at One Pool Street, the public-facing UCL Urban Room hosts events, exhibitions, workshops and engagement with local stakeholders, professional audiences, and the wider public. Exploring the impact of industry, globalisation, regeneration and gentrification on the six Olympic Park boroughs and their people, UCL Urban Room is a partnership between UCL Urban Laboratory, The Bartlett, School for the Creative and Cultural Industries and UCL Library Services: Special Collections.

For more information email urbanroom@ucl.ac.uk.

Image: Still from Summer Flowers, directed by Ilze Wolff, 2021.