Until 18 August 2024
The Farrell Centre presents BUILDING: an exhibition under construction which will transform the exhibition galleries into live making spaces in an exploration of the process of building.
Building sites are ever-present in our cities. Yet we are always separated from them, experiencing them at a distance and from behind hoardings. This separation has the effect of disconnecting us from the construction process that exists almost in a separate world, where questions about how buildings are made and who they are ultimately for can struggle to get heard.
This exhibition aims to help change this. It recasts building not as object, but as an action. Three installations will be created during the exhibition that will explore how the making process can influence and direct design. Making will be treated as a performance, focusing on the process rather than the end result. A programme of workshops and activities will look to include as many people as possible in making the exhibition, as a way of broadening the conversation about how we can re-imagine the built environment as something we can all positively shape.
Local artist/technician Peter Evans will realise the latest iteration of Stage Directions – a project by Andjeas Ejiksson and Joanna Zawieja. Architect Lee Ivett will work with Newcastle University architecture students to design and build a pop up maker space. Sunderland College Level 3 students and apprentices will present an installation demonstrating their carpentry, plumbing and electrical skills. The work of the exhibition’s graphic designers, Foundation Press, and 3D designers/makers, And+ Studios, will also be showcased through live working in the spaces and workshops during the exhibition.
Help us shape the exhibition, get involved in the full programme of events and activities that will build our display.
Date
Until 18 August 2024
Location
The Sir Terry Farrell Building
Eldon Place
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RD United Kingdom
Cost
Free
Live Build
Sunderland College Apprentice(ship) Piece
As part of the exhibition, staff and Level 2 and 3 Apprentices at Sunderland College have been working alongside local architecture practice MawsonKerr to create an installation exploring the potential of retrofitting existing buildings and the impact of modern construction on the environment. The installation is on display in the shop window on Eldon Place.
Stage Directions
Waiting Room by Peter J Evans
Gallery 2 has been transformed into a waiting room in a collaboration between Stage Directions and local artist and technician artist Peter J. Evans. The waiting room was built from a brief put forward by Ejiksson and Zawieja, the duo behind Stage Directions, who explore written instructions as an alternative architectural tool.
Lee Ivett
Live Build with MArch Students
Lee Ivett, founder of architecture and design studio Baxendale, will work with a group of MArch students from Newcastle University in a series of live build events. The project aims to establish a community design space within the Farrell Centre and then utilise it as a resource to conceive, develop and produce a new mobile community workshop that can be used to facilitate participatory making activity throughout the city.
Events for all ages
Exhibition Activities
Alongside our programme of bookable workshops, there are drop-in activities you can try anytime throughout the run of the Exhibition.
Build Challenges
Experiment with real materials and respond to our weekly challenges.
Respond to our weekly design challenges using our BUILDING tool kit. Create weird and wonderful constructions using concrete shapes, old piping, crates and much more.
Wallpaper Printing
Leave your mark on our exhibition and add a print to our community wallpaper.
This drop-in rubber stamp printing activity is open to all throughout the run of BUILDING. Come along and add your print to our gallery walls!
Collage Marquetry
Collage patterns using Foundation Press’ collection of printed samples.
Be inspired by the materials in our exhibition and create your own collage using Risograph prints from Foundation Press.
About TF/TK
The exhibition emerges from the major research project Translating Ferro / Transforming Knowledges of Architecture, Design and Labour for the New Field of Production Studies (TF/TK), work from which will also be on display in the Farrell Centre. Reflecting the ethos of that project, the exhibition has been conceived through a collaborative curatorial process involving Katie Lloyd Thomas, Professor of Architectural Theory and History (and Principal Investigator UK of TF/TK); Will Thomson, TF/TK Research Associate in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape; Lorna Burn, Assistant Curator, Farrell Centre; and Owen Hopkins, Director, Farrell Centre.