School of the Built Environment: Equality, diversity and inclusion

Authors:
Co-authored by Sudra Al-Sharaa, Tomi Falayajo, Marcelina Marszalek
Supported by Dr Amy Brookes

School Social Event
9th June 2023

Reading School of Architecture University of Reading End of Year show 2023 Praxis celebrated the students’ work from the BSc and Masters of Architecture. Having its opening on Friday 9th June, 6 pm- 8 pm in the Old Library on London Road campus, the evening was a perfect way to conclude the students undergraduate and masters architecture degrees.

During the opening night students were awarded numerous prizes including ones for best visualisations, highest overall average, best dissertation, collaboration and many more. The Head of the Architecture Department, Lorraine Farrelly, nominated several students for the RIBA Bronze, Silver and Dissertation Medal. The event proved to be a great success, drawing numerous visitors from various locations who came to appreciate the hard work students have put in during their studies at Reading.

As the EDI partners, we are delighted to have contributed to the building of the exhibition which took weeks of planning, technical design and collaboration. Everyone from the architecture department was welcome to contribute their skills. The curation and building process took place under the supervision of Sayan Skandarajah, with his attention to detail and creative approach the exhibition came to life in a captivating manner. The process started with constructing the structure on which the works of all graduating students were hanged. The building team consisted of one of our EDI partner and many other students from various years. The structure was a collaborative design of two teams that won this year’s competition in the Industry and Practice module.

During the building process curation of the content was in process, this consisted of editing and presenting the work in a cohesive manner which was later handed over to the printing team for final curation. From the initial concept development to the final installation, more than 20 students were involved in making the exhibition come to life.

Authors:
Sudra Al-Sharaa
Supported by Dr Amy Brookes

School Social Event
26th May 2023

EDI partners with the support of Dr Amy Butt have organised a multicultural picnic in
observance of Easter, Ramadan, and Passover. This event took part on Wednesday the 26th of May which was thoughtfully scheduled to coincide with a busy week of submissions for all year groups, presenting a perfect opportunity to afford the students a well-deserved respite. Students were urged to partake in this momentous occasion by bringing dishes that reflect the unique richness of their respective cultures. We are eager to encourage a spirit of inclusivity and cultural appreciation among the diverse student body, fostering a sense of community. We greatly appreciate those who participated in this event as we come together to celebrate the diversity of our traditions.

Authors:
Authored by Marcelina Marszalek
Supported by Dr Amy Brookes
School Social Event
20th June 2023

One of the most rewarding experiences during my time at Reading was being involved in the Refugee Week Workshops and Exhibitions that took place in June 2022. The Refuge Week focused on the problems that the refugees face as well as celebrating the positive impact that they have in our society. As a group under the supervision of Dr. Carolina Vasilikou in collaboration with Reading Refugee Support Group and the Reading City of Sanctuary we have organised workshops aiming at making a collective experience. At the end of the weed an exhibition was held in OpenHand OpenSpace (OHOS) Exhibition Centre in order to educate the visitors on the issues that the displaced individuals face as well as learn from those who were affected.

Monday 20th June Workshop

• 

  I am/I believe collage – Participants drew themselves or used elements from old paper, card, newspapers, etc in order to compile their story (where are they from, identity mapping, origins, communities, values and beliefs)

• The healing village activity – Four clay models of 10 and 15 minutes on spaces and emotions
  • • a space that makes you safe
    • a space that brings you comfort
    • a space that makes you happy
    • a space/object that makes you curious

Tuesday 21st June Workshop

• Happy memory postcards – Participants drew/wrote a message to themselves about their best/happiest memory from home. The messages were combined into a big sheet for the exhibition.

• Walking as healing – Walk from RISC to London Road Campus through South Street (South Street Arts Centre) and Sidmouth Street (Reading Islamic Centre, Reading Ukrainian community centre). The aim was to create a mental map of the journey.

Authors:
Authored by Tomi Falayajo
Supported by Dr Amy Brookes

School Social Event
Spring and Summer 2023

The Reading University Architecture Society (RUAS) hosted a lecture series over the spring and summer term titled In Experience of… where architects of different expertise were invited to give talks about what they do, how they started, and where they are now.

The first lecture, In Experience of Drawing, was given by Sayan Skandarajah who is a lecturer at the University of Reading. His lecture focused on his PHD Research on Rakuchu Rakugai zu series of paintings of Kyoto, Japan in the 16th and 17th century. Through studying these series of drawings, Sayan has been able to use distinctive drawing methods and styles to explore these paintings and further his research.

The second lecture In Experience of the Virtual and the Real, was given by Jean-Françios C. Lemay who is an architect based in London. In his lecture, he argued that architecture is always virtual before it becomes real, and often remains virtual- that is, unbuilt. Jean-Françios began his career by having the opportunity to take part in a design competition that carried on for years but remained unbuilt. This then led him unto starting his own practice which now specialises in bespoke, artistic projects. In Experience of Scale and Scope saw Ignacio Larracoechea spoke about the scope of projects that range from working for a big practice to a small one, whilein In Experience of Flying Steve Melville and Philip Graham spoke about designing and building a flying machine. In Experience of Sensory Architecture was by Simon Astridge about sensory architecture being a purposeful choreography of the relationship between people, energy, materials, space, light and time. The final lecture In Experience of Community, saw CAUKIN studio spoke about using architecture as a vehicle to educate and upskill local communities.

In Experience of Architectural Workers was led by Charlie Edmonds, the co-founder of Future Architects Front who spoke about exploring the future of architectural labour, while In Experience of Overwork was led by United Voices of the World – Section of Architectural Workers (UVW-SAW) about overwork in the academia, the workplace and the wider architecture field, both of which were highly relevant talks when considering diversity and inclusion.

The 2023 lecture series were proven to be insightful, knowledgeable, and inspiring to many of the architecture students. It was helpful to see architects do different things that contribute to the industry and improve the lives of people around them.

Authors:
Authored by Marcelina Marszalek
Supported by Dr Amy Brookes

School Social Making Event
October 2022

How can we understand who are the people that make our School, where are we coming from and how aware we are of each other? There are ways to start discussing openly about our identity, our cultures and to create awareness of each other.

The aim of a diversity calendar is to recognize and celebrate the diversity of cultures, traditions, and identities within the department. We created it to serve as a tool to promote awareness, understanding, and inclusivity by highlighting significant events and holidays from various cultural, religious, and social backgrounds throughout the year, as well as meaningful event dates that have been organized for our school community.

During Welcome Week 2022 we launched our School Diversity Calendar and to co-create with us what our Architecture / CME Year Calendar will look like.

The big roll of paper in from of you contains important dates of awareness days (in yellow) and religious celebrations (in magenta) across the years. We have started to add events that we are aware of and resources (in green, with QR code where available) that can help our conversations about who we are and what our values are as a School.

The calendar will be placed in common areas in the main Architecture Building LO46 to ensure that it is easily accessible and visible to students, faculty, and staff. This will create opportunities for individuals to engage with the events and actively participate in learning about different cultures and traditions. The aim of the calendar is to serve as a starting point for conversations and activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Authors:
Co-authored by Sudra Al-Sharaa, Tomi Falayajo, Marcelina Marszalek
Supported by Dr Carolina Vasilikou, Senior Lecturer MSA 
(previously University of Reading SBE co-director of Equity Diversity & Inclusion)

School Social Making Event
13th February 2023

A social event organised by Reading University Architecture Society (RUAS), the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Student Partners and staff ally Dr Carolina Vasilikou (SBE co-director of EDI) took place on the 13th of February on the London Road Campus.  

The 1:1 scale-making event aimed to explore how we can celebrate diverse student voices in collaborative practices by creating experimental bamboo conversions that accentuated the architecture of the Old Library Building. Participants included students across the three years of the BSc Architecture programme.

More than 25 students showed up to discover the use of the bamboo material, collaborative practices and their creativity through the design-by-making process. The bamboo system and 3D-printed connectors used were based on an explorative design of the School’s AAMAT 2021-22 MArch students Torin Kenny and Luke Collison (with support from Dr John Harding).  

Students reused the modular system for the Social Making event. Materials included standardised bamboo strips (400mm) and 3D-printed plastic node connectors which allowed for flexible and unlimited options of shapes to be created. The event started with a demo by the RUAS and EDI Student Partners to the participants of how the system works and the possibilities of shapes that can be imagined.

In the first part, students worked in small groups or on their own to create structures that framed / highlighted / accentuated a certain architectural element of the Architecture building (windows, columns, staircases, sequential route). After short presentations of each explorative structure, participants self-organised to bring smaller structures together, collaborate across groups and expand their structures to create a sculpture greater than the sum of its parts.  

The final structures ranged from architectural to more playful subjects. By the end of the day, the student came as one group to connect all the pieces together and make a larger more intricate and more complex sculpture. Parts of the creations remain in the foyer of the architecture building to inspire other students to explore the model-making process.