student as producer – Master of Architecture Part II (MArch)

March 15, 2019March 19, 2021

Research INDABA 3

Academics and an MArch student presented their current work at our school’s research INDABA (INDABA = gathering in Zulu) on Wednesday 13 March. Our INDABA was set up three years ago, initiated by Prof Glen Mills, head of school. As usual, the presentations this year were diverse: from [earthquakes, politics and reconstruction] in New Zealand to the effects of the built environment on pupil engagement and attainment.

Trevor Elvin talked about the GroundLab in Lincoln’s Sincil Bank which, since opening a few weeks ago, apart from being a satellite studio for 3rd and 5th year students, has become a catalyst for community engagement, attracting a lot of local interest and governmental financial support (image above).

Some topics covered aspects of work developed within the MArch, such as the ‘Question of life and architecture’ posed by the design and construction of the Orgone Accumulator presented by Marcin Kolakowski and Doina Carter.

One of the talks was given by Lewis Wake, 5th year MArch student, on his dissertation subject of STUDENT BURNOUT, which affects a lot of architecture students especially before important deadlines.

As in previous years, the event prompted interesting debates, some of which will continue long after the doors have closed on our third INDABA.

March 8, 2019March 19, 2021

Swan in

Over the last week, beautifully made origami swans surreptitiously invaded the MArch exhibition space on the 3rd floor. At first there was one and then a few, colourful, multiplying every day, getting bigger and bigger, in the beginning sitting on the table, in various formations, radial or spiral cavalcades led usually by the smallest one.

Eventually three took the initiative to move onto our models.

The rest are just accumulating orgone…

swans fabrication and mise en scene: Samantha Neal, 1st year BArch (Hons)

photographs: Doina Carter

January 5, 2019March 19, 2021

GROUNDLAB of Sincil Bank Lincoln

The Mayor of Lincoln Councillor Keith Weaver officially opened GROUNDLAB, a new community hub housed in an unmissable, bright orange, shipping container placed in Sincil Bank, Lincoln.

GROUNDLAB is an exciting new creative design studio, developed for the Sincil Bank community by the University of Lincoln in collaboration with the city of Lincoln Council. MArch and BArch studio groups have their studio sessions in the cosy container, which will act as a community drop-in design hub for residents. Academics will work with the local community and other stakeholders on a range of projects, to provide opportunities for residents to engage in creative activities, exchanges ideas and work towards the improvement of the public realm in Sincil Bank.

Trevor Elvin is the academic leading the project, which is already attracting a lot of interest and support. The activity of the GROUNDLAB can be followed on the hub’s website:

https://www.groundlab.co.uk/

April 30, 2018February 20, 2021

ORGONE accumulation in Lincoln

Our 4th year students designed and built an Orgone Accumulator which is a tribute to Wilhelm Reich’s work. This project came into being thanks to the cooperation between our Master of Architecture Course, the Library and the Centre of Experimental Ontology (CEO) run by Graham Freestone.

The 2018 UoL Orgone Accumulator could be perceived as a question, as a memorial to the work of Wilhelm Reich or as a highly successful student project in which the students met the brief of a real client with a budget and real expectations and visions.

The project was not easy to turn from those visions into reality but thanks to external funding from the CEO, the amazing creativity of our students and the dedication of our Architecture Workshop staff, a real Orgone Accumulator was designed, built and enjoyed at the UoL Library from where it began its journey to different locations on campus.

The notion of the Orgone accumulator and Wilhelm Reich, as a visionary, were propelled by American counterculture in the 1960s. Different versions of Orgone Accumulators have been built since then. They were a form of manifesto for people who were searching for other ways of explaining the world and the energy within. If it sounds esoteric, alternative and even anti-scientific – well, that is a product of the culture Reich came to represent –though it is worth remembering he thought orgone research was hard science. The stories of Wilhelm Reich as an alternative anti-establishment researcher who was imprisoned by the FBI, because he allegedly discovered some secrets, add an air of mystery to the legend of the Accumulator. In order to understand the pop-cultural resonance of this idea it is worth watching Kate Bush’s “Cloudbusting” video clip. The how-it-works of the Orgone Accumulator was specified in minute detail by Wilhelm Reich. Some say it is pure pseudo-science, whilst others claim to have had an actual experience that the Orgone Accumulator works, attracting the counter-argument that any effect a is only placebo. The problem that we don’t always like to admit is that we don’t really understand what placebo is.

The accumulator project raised a significant amount of attention locally and globally. The CEO twitter and blog received lots of traffic from all over the world at the release of the accumulator. Local media became interested and there were two radio programs about the device. Not surprisingly, the Orgone Accumulator has attracted believers in Orgone Energy from across Lincolnshire and beyond and has also provoked a series of discussions about the role of science today.

Doina Carter, the MArch course leader, and Dr Kołakowski, year 4 coordinator, who guided the students’ design and construction, can also see other benefits of this project. Of course not all (if any!) students believed in the energy generated by the Orgone Accumulator but the task itself was a valuable process. In the spirit of the Student as producer our University promotes, the efforts of the MAtch 4th year students, as a group and individually, brought to fruition an impressive built project. While working in practice, architects cannot always put their own convictions over a client’s wishes. Le Corbusier, who was an atheist, designed the Chapel Ronchamp – a celebrated Christian place of worship.

As for the all important question of how much energy can our accumulator absorb and release. the answer is here:

IMG_0818

NB: On 28 March 2018, BBC Radio Lincolnshire will broadcast a program featuring an interview with Graham Freestone and Dr Marcin Kolakowski about the Orgone Accumulator project. This is already the second radio broadcast about the Accumulator. The first was aired by the local Siren Radio. It seems that our Accumulator is getting famous in the media and, at the same time, among believers in the Orgone power, as they have started to visit the Accumulator, now open to the public until June in the University Library.

text: Marcin Kolakowski, Doina Carter

technical support for fabrication: Alan Gill, Kenny Cromar

photos: Nefeli Konstantina Alexaki, Doina Carter, film: Jill Zhao