Open Series, or OS, is a progressive collection of lectures, never before seen south of the Thames and different in nature to those north of the river. It’s a freestyle soapbox upon which visiting lecturers can express, without constraints, their views, from the macro to the micro, the real and the imagined. It creates a flexible platform, where lecturers are individuals, interwoven and connected forming an intricate fabric reflecting today’s architectural design world. Academics, practising architects, technologists, environmentalists and artists are invited on one important proviso: that they have something interesting to say. The OS core principles are:
- It is open
- It is free
- It is all inclusive
- It must be interesting
- And, of course, it has to be continued in the bar
The OS platform nurtures and nourishes excellent lecturers and covers contemporary issues and emerging global and environmental concerns. It encourages lecturers to show competition entries before they are won, projects before they are exhibited, and books before they are published. It allows the audience to hear about emerging ideas and technologies, forms, patterns and spatial morphologies.
The Department of Architecture and Design of London South Bank University is located within the Keyworth Centre in the heart of an incredible learning environment. The gritty, regenerating urbanism of Elephant and Castle and the South Bank forms its background. The Open Series is an appeal to throw open the department doors and draw upon a unique and fascinating narrative landscape. The aim is to broaden the two-way street of discussion and experience, inviting people in, encouraging students to step out, generating permeability, defusing limits and boundaries.
“ The tradition of the maverick and the contrarian’s viewpoint are alive and well south of the river and the doors of the Department have truly been flung open. We have moved from the periphery to join the debate. ”
The OS book is an annual, full colour, printed record of the lectures; it contains a preface by Peter Cook, together with the essays and latest project images contributed by all the participating lecturers. It is sold in major architecture bookshops globally and offers an additional medium for the speakers to publish their thoughts, ideas and architectural agendas. It is a platform which extends the debate beyond the room and the speaker; it stands on its ‘own two feet’.
The LSBU A+D OS1 lectures created a platform to expose new and interesting designers from a diverse range of disciplines - architecture, design, technology, history and theory. Personalities ranged from architectural celebrities to talented newcomers giving their first public lectures. The transaction of knowledge, experiment and achievement was an architectural cocktail of interconnections from speakers focusing on experimental themes and topics, such as eco-tech urbanism, local-global phenomena, digital aesthetics, spatial theories, body and our cities. The series highlighted the reflexivity of the constantly evolving nature and culture in our society with the architectural world. The OS1 series hosted:
Lecture Series curated by Tobias Klein and Kenny Kinugasa Tsui
Techné and Poïesis - How Do You Design
Open Series’ second year is under the theme of techne and poïesis - the process of design. It explores the ontological question of design and allows reflection, criticism and exposure to relevant questions in design.
Techne is often translated as craftsmanship; it is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective and is quintessential to architecture. Poïesis, derived from the ancient Greek term ποιέω, meaning ‘to make’, describes a verb, an action, in its purest sense. Neither technical production nor creation in the romantic sense, poïetic work reconciles thought with matter, and time and man with the world. This pair of techne and poïesis are extremes in architecture but are essential and together create a tension field which is explored through the agenda of OS2.
The series invites and encourages inspiring architects, thinkers and designers to express and debate their views through this symbiotic relationship, reflecting their own practise as well as analysing the past, capturing today and projecting upon tomorrow. This creates a crossbreed between vision, utopia and the inspiring fields in-between.
We are very proud to have Peter Cook with us to kickstart this lecture series, telling us how he views the translation from his own critical utopian design of, for instance, the plug-in city to a building endeavor such as the Kunsthaus Graz.
Techné and Poïesis
How Do You Design – OS2 Autumn 2008
We boldly ask this complex question hoping to shed some light on the complex processes which lead to the final outcomes of great architects, designers and thinkers.
- 08 / 25th of September Peter Cook
- 08 / 2nd of October Paul Davies
- 08 / 9th of October Andrew Wai-Tat Yau (UFO)
- 08 / 16th of October Karsten Huneck & Bernd Truempler (OSA)
- 08 / 23rd of October Shrikant Sharma
- 08 / 30th of October David Garcia
- 09 / 5th of February Neil Spiller
- 09 / 12th of February FAT
- 09 / 19th of February Odile Decq
- 09 / 26th of February Achim Menges (OCEAN)
- 09 / 5th of March Anthony Dunne
- 09 / 12th of March Didier Faustino
