Centre for Design and Creative Industries - Research Groups
Contact
Group Coordinator: Prof. Kathryn Moore
Members:
Sabine Coady Schaebitz, Mike Dring, Russell Good, Prof. Tom Jeffries, Dr Richard Coles, Lubo Jankovic
At BCU the Birmingham School of Architecture is in the unique position of being able to work at the interface of research, teaching and practice.
There are three broad and interconnected themes
Set within landscape architecture and applicable to architecture, urban design and education more generally, this group is developing the discourse based on the outcome of a major piece of research funded by the Leverhulme Trust and Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (Chicago), that culminated in the book Overlooking the Visual: Demystifying the Art of Design (publication date Autumn 2009). Crossing the boundaries between philosophy, aesthetics, design and art theory, this new body of work offers a pragmatic definition of perception. The group taking this work further to examine the consequences of this paradigm shift for theory, epistemology and practice in a number of different institutional and design contexts. Working with a range of research networks across the world and, the group is supported by a growing number of MPhil and PhD students and is working towards a funding application to AHRC with support from RSA and AHRA (tbc) which includes the analysis of a 10 year study of students attitudes towards the art of design.
In response to the urgent need to develop new approaches to spatial planning, the renewal of transport systems and climate adaptation, this group is developing knowledge of and expertise in a new kind of masterplanning in which the landscape, in its broadest sense, is taken to be the base layer against which decisions about all future development need to be made. Connecting aesthetics, tectonics and culture to the social and physical context of our lives, working with the spirit of the European Landscape Convention, it is concerned with exploring the importance of working with and expressing ideas at a strategic, policy and detailed level in order to achieve quality in the transformation of the city fabric. and investigates a way for conceptual, artistic practice to become a robust, fundamental part of strategic decision-making affecting the creation of quality places. It makes the aesthetics of place inseparable from pragmatic concerns and a crucial part of everyday debate.
Several important strategies are coming to fruition over the next two years.
The vehicle for this work is a comparative study of urban watersheds and regions such as the Potomac, the Black Country and Thames Gateway. The aim of the study is to explore the development of new approaches to strategic design, focusing on visual, aesthetic and artistic practice, based on contemporary topics such as sustainability and climate change. It will examine the possibilities of connecting of strategic visions to real places and will examine the potential of the European Landscape Convention as a means of championing this holistic approach.
The new sustainability: natural, cultural and physical systems
Seeing sustainability in a broader picture than purely technological concerns, this group is exploring the concept of sustainability in its broader cultural and social context, examining the interrelationships between concepts of well being, aesthetics and the materiality of place.
Research: BIADResearch@bcu.ac.uk
BIAD, Birmingham City University, Gosta Green, Birmingham B4 7DX