In parallel ScanLab present an extraordinary series of drawings which came out of 48 hours of scanning and the screation of a total of 64 scans of the entire exhibition space. These have been compiled to form a complete 3D replica of the temporary show which has been distilled into a navigable animation and a series of ‘standard’ architectural drawings.

What is such a three dimensional, sensual and temporary experience is abstracted into a series of precisely detailed snap shots in time. The work becomes a confused collage of hours of delicately created lines and forms set within a feature prefect representation of the exhibition space. Sometimes a model or image stands out as identifiable, more often a sketch merges into a model and an exhibition stand creating a blurred hybrid of designs and authors.
These drawings represent the closest record to an as built drawing set for the entire exhibition and an ‘as was’ representation of the Bartlett’s year.

Architecture and engineering have a history where research and practice go hand in hand, where many great practices have grown as a result of fundamental research and where many research projects arise from groundbreaking design. This is especially true during periods of economic inactivity when recent modes of working are called into question and new modes (sometimes based on rediscovered historical precedent) are established. This can lead to the formation of innovative practices and to the start of academic careers in research and teaching.

Constructing Realities showcases work from the new Postgraduate Certificate Course in Advanced Architectural Research, set up at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, to give students with Masters degrees the opportunity to take their work to a further stage development. The programme is supported by the Economic Challenge Investment Fund. This exhibition organised with the generous support of Arup’s Phase 2 Gallery shows how some of the best Masters portfolios and theses contain the seeds of serious design research proposals, and how these might be taken forward to create new types of place, novel interactive building elements and new façade and structural systems.

The ‘Digital Hinterlands‘ exhibition held at Arup Phase 2 Gallery in London 2009 featured a diverse range of work by some of the best recent architecture graduates from London’s Architectural Association, Bartlett, Royal College of Art, and University of Westminster. From built models, 1:1 fragments, material experiments and installations, to interactive devices, virtual worlds and robotics, this exhibition revealed how the latest computational design and rapid manufacturing processes are providing new ways of understanding and designing space.

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Photography by Sarah Gray