Dec 24

PART 0 IS AN INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS (IFG) AWARDS FINALIST

Dec 24

WINTER EXHIBITION – WED 11 & THU 12 DEC: CURATED OPEN HOUSE, EXHIBITION AND OPEN EVENING FOR PART 1s

Nov 24

NEW ROLE: RESEARCH ASSOCIATE – FUTURE SKILLS THINK TANK

Sep 24

JOB OPPORTUNITY: MARKETING MANAGER

Sep 24

ATTEND THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION SYMPOSIUM 2024

Jul 24

SEE OUR GRADUATING STUDENTS’ WORK

Jul 24

JOB OPPORTUNITY: CRITICAL PRACTICE TUTOR

Jul 24

JOB OPPORTUNITY: DESIGN HISTORY TUTOR

Jun 24

PlanBEE: Matching young people with work in the Capital

May 24

The Dalston Pavilion

May 24

LSA Graduate Exhibition 2024

May 24

British Empire Exhibition: Call for Participation

May 24

LEAD OUR BRAND-NEW PRACTICE SUPPORT PROGRAMME

May 24

HELP DEFINE THE FUTURE OF EQUITABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION

Mar 24

LSA and Black Females in Architecture (BFA) Announce new partnership

Feb 24

24/25 Admissions Open Evening – 6 March

Dec 23

2023 LSA GRADUATES WIN RIBA SILVER MEDAL AND COMMENDATION

Nov 23

STEFAN BOLLINGER APPOINTED AS CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Nov 23

STEPHEN LAWRENCE DAY FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP

Nov 23

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR OUR PART 2 MARCH FOR 2024/25

Nov 23

Open Evening – 7 December 2023

Oct 23

BOOK PART 4 NOW: SHORT COURSES – MODULAR LIFELONG LEARNING – FUTURE PRACTICE

Aug 23

IN MEMORIAM – PETER BUCHANAN

Jul 23

The LSA is Moving

Jun 23

Become a Critical Practice Tutor at the LSA for 2023/24

Jun 23

Become a Design Tutor at the LSA for 2023/24

Jun 23

Pathways: Exhibiting Forms

Jun 23

City as Campus: The Furniture Practice

Jun 23

Summer Show 2023: FLAARE Futures Workshop

Jun 23

Summer Show 2023: Meet Your Future Employer

Jun 23

Summer Show 2023: Close to Home

May 23

WE ARE SEEKING A NEW FINANCE MANAGER

Mar 23

Nigel Coates: Liberating the Plan

Mar 23

AN INTERVIEW WITH ELLIOTT WANG, SECOND YEAR REP

Feb 23

PART 4 LAUNCH

Feb 23

IN MEMORIAM – CLIVE SALL

Feb 23

Our Design Charrettes – an insight into life at the LSA

Feb 23

BOOK NOW – OPEN EVENING WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH

Feb 23

An Interview with Emily Dew-Fribbance: LSA Alumna and First Year Design Tutor

Feb 23

Pathways: Optic Translations

Jan 23

Thursday Talks: Questioning How we Embed Sustainable Design in Practice

Jan 23

An Interview with LSA alumna Betty Owoo

Jan 23

Interview with Marianne Krogh – Rethinking water as a planetary and design element in the making of the Danish Pavilion at Venice Biennale

Dec 22

What do our students think of studying at the LSA? We spoke to Second Year student Semi Han

Dec 22

Hear from our Alumni – An Interview with Calven Lee

Dec 22

National Saturday Club Programme

Nov 22

LSA Alumnus Jack Banting published in FRAME

Nov 22

2022/23 Design Think Tank Module Launches

Nov 22

Mentoring can transform the architecture profession – for good

Nov 22

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR 2023/24

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Our Design Charrettes – an insight into life at the LSA

At the LSA we combine ambitious, world-challenging design ideology with practical skill development for our students. One way we do this is through our termly Design Charrettes. These all-school events encourage students to think creatively about real-world issues, while developing core skills that will be essential in their future careers.

In January we held our second Design Charrette of the academic year. Led by Lara Kinneir, LSA faculty and Associate Professor at The London Interdisciplinary School, this year’s series of Charrettes are entitled ‘Drawing Life’ and they aim to address critical urban challenges and produce rapid spatial solutions to improve life with design. The second Charrette was entitled ‘Exchange’ and asked students to investigate and propose a set of urban interventions at the scale of the street, in the form of public furniture.

If you want to develop core design skills in formats like this Design Charrette, you can apply to join the LSA here.

The Brief

For the second Charrette we will investigate and propose another set urban interventions but at the scale of the street, and in the form of public furniture. It is here where moments of encounter can become moments of exchange – if the furniture is fit for purpose and people. From Roman amphitheatres to town band stands to high street park benches, urban furniture plays a fundamental role in how we engage and exchange with one another.

If we were to consider the essential pieces of furniture in our homes and consider the equivalent for our cities – what would it include? What would a street furniture catalogue contain? Who would create and manage its application? How could it be procured and maintained? What do other cities have that enable places of exchange? Italian piazzas, Spanish courtyards, American baseball bleachers and Parisian chess tables enable the manifestation of everyday life and culture to play out. What should be part of our culture in London?

Another consideration for this Charrette is that of implementation and maintenance as so many good ideas and great designs are limited by inefficient processes of installation and maintenance. Addressing the lifespan, responsibility and desire to care will only strengthen the impact that you design can have. Can your furniture be ‘resourceful’ and connect with existing infrastructure or can new installation requirements create opportunities for further growth and diversity of use? Can you devise creative ways to enable ownership and maintenance beyond the local authority?

Site
You will be allocated a group of around seven people, consisting of students across Year 1 and 2, and asked to choose a site from those studied by the Year 2 students in their DTT projects. In the coming days you should begin sharing this knowledge across the group, adding to it and discussing potential lines of enquiry.

Outputs
You are asked to design a kit of parts for street furniture that will allow for moments of exchange within the specific context and spatial conditions drawn on (1) one A0 axonometric drawing that records a number of you street furniture pieces, (2) a 1:10 drawing of two of the street furniture pieces and (3) a 1:5 model of one street furniture piece made from white model making card which will be supplied to you.