Various architecture styles in the UK come from the diverse culture of this country. Recent years, great achievements have been made in the UK on improving city surroundings and public spaces through urban regeneration as well as development of new towns. Meanwhile, young designers and architects have emerged as a fresh and indispensible power with their brand new philosophy of urbanism, which brings new elements to the cities of the UK. British Council has been always committed to promote British and local young talents from different areas. In partnership with 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, we would like to introduce four young talented designers and architects from the UK to local industries and audiences.

Time: 15:00-18:00, Monday, 7th December 2009
Venue: VIP & Media Centre, the South Entrance of the Underground Exhibition Hall, Shenzhen Civic Square

Topics:

• Aberrant (David Chambers & Kevin Haley) - Infiltrating the city
• FAT (Sam Jacob) - Underfoot
• DRDH (Matthew Phillips) - The Model City

Chair: Beatrice Galilee, Curator, London

Beatrice Galilee was born in London and trained as an architect in Bath. She worked for two years as architecture editor of Icon, an influential architecture and design magazine where she interviewed some of the world’s most important figures, promoted the work of new young practices and won the Architecture Journalist of the Year award in 2008. She came to Beijing this year and became one of the curators of 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.

Introduction to Artists

* Aberrant (David Chambers & Kevin Haley)

Aberrant architecture is a think tank that was founded in 2007 by David Chambers and Kevin Haley. They formed out of a shared love for exploring a world full of contradiction, complication and a dislike for an architectural system that fails to include or empower the people that it is made for. Aberrant architecture examines the way people live and interact with one another, researching hidden desires and unforeseen dilemmas that change the world in some way. Aberrant are proposing an architectural hoax for this year’s SZHK Biennale: a fiction based on facts, entitled “‘Gordon Wu’ The man who turned the lights on.” They will create a fake exhibition stand within the biennale and sell goods, which highlight the changing relationship between living and working in the contemporary city.
www.abberant-architecture.co.uk  

* FAT (Sam Jacob)

Fashion Architecture Taste is an award winning architectural practice based in London founded by Sam Jacob, Charles Holland and Sean Griffiths. Recent projects include “The Blue House” in East London, “Islington Square”, a development of 24 houses in Manchester, and the Saint Lucas art academy in Boxtel, the Netherlands. Their project for this year’s SZHK Biennale, Graphic Interchange Devise, is an intense decorative floor covering that marries traditional decorative patterning of floors in tiling and carpets with the instructive graphic language of highways and sports markings.
www.fat.co.uk

* DRDH (Matthew Phillips)

DRDH is a young, London based architecture practice, established in 2000 by Daniel Rosbottom and David Howarth. In 2005 the practice was placed second in the UK Young Architect of the Year Award. DRDH are proposing an investigation into the identity of the landmarks that define the contemporary city. They propose to take landmarks from cities all over the world and move them around Shenzhen. Changing familiarity and comfort: Skyscrapers become seats, housing developments small pavilions alongside miniature churches. It’s a critique on the generic architectural language across the world and an opportunity to cast a multiplicity of forms and objects.
www.drdharchitects.co.uk