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Sanderson, L., Aston, H., 2012.

Atelier[zero] Negotiated Dialogues

Output Type:Conference paper
Presented at:The Production of Place
Venue:University of East London

This paper is a conversation between Helen Aston and Laura Sanderson discussing the negotiation of place and space in the city through a specific collaboration between two Schools of Architecture, Office for Subversive Architecture and curator Jane Anderson, named Atelier[zero]. It is an enquiry, reflection and exploration, which questions the role of a collaboratively built student designed project, and the place of such a project both in architectural education and the city.

The idea of Atelier is to curate urban space, suggesting a critical engagement with the city. Atelier [zero] encompasses the spirit of play in the city for both the designer-makers of the intervention and its users, by questioning all forms of culture including architecture, design, visual art, installation art and sport.

The project brought together Manchester School of Architecture and École Spéciale d'Architecture [Paris] in order to design and realise a project that embraces the original aspirations of the Olympic Games in the heart of the Piccadilly Basin in Manchester. The project acts as a platform for social exchange and is an abstract interpretation of what the Olympic Games mean.

This conversation will be structured as follows:
Dialogue between temporal and permanent
Negotiations with the un-negotiable
Community engagement, brief development and context
Role of the meanwhile use
Live projects within architectural education
The interaction of temporary claims on the city

This conversation is a frank reflection on the collective dialogues of the wider participants and how the project has become an instrument to explore the meanwhile use of place.