The UK’s Loughborough University has accepted Thomas Heatherwick's challenge to ‘humanize’ and create ‘joyful’ architecture with a new academic offering: A master's degree aiming to give students the opportunity to take part in a burgeoning movement created to solve a global “urban crisis” over the next decade. The 115-year-old university will become the first to affiliate itself with the Humanise campaign academically with new supplementary course content exclusive to its new Master of Architecture & Design program.
Courses will leverage research into architecture, neuroscience, and human psychology in accord with Heatherwick’s philosophy of design, which was recently the subject of a new treatise of the same title. The program's official launch is slated for the fall of 2025 and includes a series of lectures and workshops exploring the idea of emotion as a function of design, an announcement from the university read Tuesday.
Dr Robert Schmidt III of the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, said: “Our history as a university has long explored the fusion of design and making, rooted in the Arts & Crafts movement. Some of our earliest pedagogical philosophies were all about 'training on production' and 'learning through doing'. This shared belief in making, and collaborating with creatives, builds on LU-Arc’s established ethos of ‘architect-maker’. Together with our research expertise at the intersection of architecture and psychology, it perfectly complements the Humanise agenda. I think this initiative will benefit our students tremendously, opening up access to broader approaches and practical opportunities.”
Abigail Scott Paul, Global Head of the Humanise Campaign, added: “Loughborough has always been a pioneer, and this new course is symbolic of a sea change in architectural education. It will challenge the rigidity and over-specialisation of so much teaching in the past and nurture a new generation of architects. It has the potential to be a game-changer in our quest to create buildings that better serve people and the planet, and we’re thrilled to welcome Loughborough as a partner of the campaign.”
Heatherwick says more than 6,000 copies of the Humanise manifesto, which calls for an end to “soulless and boring buildings,” have been sold since being published last October.
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"We sing about beauty and we sing about truth, at $10,000 a show."
- Dr. Hook
The question would be, who pays ?
. . .. to ‘humanize’ and create ‘joyful’ architecture with a new academic offering: A master's degree aiming to give students the opportunity to take part in a burgeoning movement created to solve a global “urban crisis” over the next decade.
The Fluff King rides again.
The Lantern House, linked above. But those don't look like lanterns, they look like—I feel a song coming.
Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun
Roll out the barrel, we've got the blues on the run
Zing boom tararrel, ring out a song of good cheer
Now's the time to roll the barrel, for the gang's all here
You can hear Frank Yankovic and the Yanks play it here.
Wow, I feel better—and more joyful and more human!
Joyful architecture!
It is a rarely used jingle for architecture firms and schools.
I appreciate the goal of it but Heatherwick is probably one of the worst practitioners to lead the vanguard - he still operates at the scale of tabletop objects and consequently, his architecture comprises cute toys blown up to the scale of buildings. Mind you, his company employs some of the best minds in digital fabrication and design. But with the key man more of a toymaker than a designer, the firm's work is stymied by the dreams and limitations of its founder.
The first step in humanizing architecture is to understand and value the human scale. H is clueless.
Heatherwick's campaign is just the latest effort to tackle modernism's inhumanity without adressing the root of the problem which is how we train architects. You can't design buildings the public might find beautiful or 'joyful' if you don't try. Even with the latest neurological findings, modernist academia clings to the falacy that there is a legitimate style. Try that in any other creative discipline.
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