London Design + Engineering, Day 6

Sunday, March 10th 2019

Morning at the British Museum, Some Shopping & Reflection

The last full day began earlier for those members of the group who opted to embark on an early morning walk to photograph Hyde Park and the area surrounding our hotel. The rest of the group slept in, then met at the café where we had a group breakfast and reflection on the trip thus far. After pastries, coffee, and discussion, the group boarded the Tube and ventured to the British Museum, home to world renowned artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone. The building had been renovated in the early 2000’s, and was designed by Foster + Partners, an architecture firm that the group toured earlier in the week. The museum was packed with artifacts from several different eras, some that permanently resided in the British Museum, and some that were on exhibit. The main attraction, of course, was the Rosetta Stone, as well as the incredible collection of Egyptian art, architecture, and artifacts. Ancient pots lined the walls by the thousands, and statues stood guarding the caskets and mummies of Egyptian Kings. The museum featured Middle Eastern, Roman, Greek, and Medieval European artifacts as well. One item of particular interest was a 15th century handheld cannon; and another was an incredible statue from Ancient Rome. The group stayed in the British Museum for around three hours, and met at 1:00 on the front patio to leave for lunch at a nearby marketplace.

After lunch, the group headed to a shopping district which was four stops away on the Tube. We spent nearly two hours there, exploring various stores and café’s. The district had not been as built up as we had hoped, so we took the Tube back to the hotel at around 5:45. A dinner reservation had been made for 6:30, as opposed to 8:00, to allow everyone to get a good night’s sleep before the travel day that would follow. We left the hotel at 6:15, and walked to a nearby French restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious, but failed to rival the meal we had at the Italian restaurant the night before. Common dishes included garlic fried calamari, as well as grilled sirloin steak. As the night came to a close, the group headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime. A couple members stayed out a little later for another photo session which took them to the heart of London. Tomorrow we will get a little sleep in, then head to the airport for a 3:20 flight back to Boston. This trip has been a once-in-a lifetime experience, and we are all excited to get home to our families to tell stories and share pictures, but most importantly, to be on spring break!

Exploring the streets around Hyde Park

Exploring the streets around Hyde Park

Great Court at the British Museum

One of the artifacts in the Egyptian Exhibit at the British Museum

St Pauls Cathedral at night

Tower Bridge at night

Buckingham Palace at night

Little Ben at night

London Design + Engineering, Day 5

Saturday, March 9th 2019

Exploring London's Architecture and having some fun!

The weather was brilliant by London standards as the group took off to visit the Olympic Park. As we got off from Stratford Station and walked through the Westfield mall, the London Stadium, home to West Ham United, presented itself over the bridge and marked our entrance to where London held the 2012 summer Olympics. While making our way to the London Aquatics Center designed by Pritzker winning architect Zaha Hadid, a huge red tower structure caught the group’s eye with the potential slide ride marked 114.5m tall. During the visit to the London Acquatics Center, part of the group visited the interior pools and studies the design while the rest enjoyed their game of the trip – Uno. Moving on, the group decided to check out the Arcelormittal Orbit, or the red tower with slides. Unfortunately, the slide was sold out, but as the skies of London cleared out the group enjoyed a windy view from the very top and was entertained by huge mirrors installed to walls at a curve. Coming down from the tower, our project leader Christopher Fridlington introduced a brief architecture overview on the park before getting back on the Tube to central London.
br> Reaching central London, the group pushed through the bustling London Bridge and made it across to the London eye. After a quick break for lunch, the group waited in line to board the London Eye, the 135m tall observation wheel. At this time, London has cleared up through strong winds leaving clouds dotting the blue sky. The group over looked the entire city of London, including the Palace of Westminster, the Big Ben under construction, the Shard and other land marks of London. Having taken the 30 minute ride on the wheel, we walked back to West London for a boat ride on the Thames River while the other part of the group resided to a peaceful park while also toured the area walking.

With the group reunited roughly an hour later, we took the tube once again and visited the Design Museum which held two exhibitions. One of them revolved around future furniture where it exhibited furniture that took cutting edge designs and showcased futuristic imagination of furniture by designers in the past. The other exhibition presented architectural models where the rooms elaborated on the process and concept behind the buildings. We then returned to the hotel for two hours before dinning at a legit Italian restaurant across from the Design Museum. Unable to spell or pronounce any of the dishes, all I have to say was it was absolutely amazing. As for what happened at the end of the day, London rained like any evening.

West Ham United Stadium

London Aquatics Center

London Eye

London Eye Capsule

Christopher & Ben on the Jetboat!

Tower Bridge with the Shard and London City Hall in the Background

Owen, Jae Bin, and Max trying out a sofa in the IKEA Exhibit

Designer, Maker, User Exhibit was designed by Fixperts

London Design + Engineering, Day 4

Friday, March 8th 2019

Heen demonstrating the abilities of the Roli's modular block system.

Roli Products

Roli

Our group visited Roli today, a revolutionary music hardware and software company. While at Roli’s office in Dalston, their team explained to us their mission: to pave the way for a new field of music technology. They showed us their SeaBoard Block, Rise 49, and Light pad block, explaining how their technology allowed for a more authentic and dynamic electronic instrumental display of sound, in comparison to a simple Casio keyboard. Their keyboards (SeaBoards) utilize what they call “5D touch”, meaning that their keyboard can be played through changes of pressure, motion, speed, location, and, of course, key. Their process, playing and production ability, and manufacturing process were all very impressive and truly inspired many of us to pick up music once again and, for some of us, even for the first time.

Makerversity

To continue our day, we took the three designs that students had spent the week working on and created the physical prototypes. The local makerspace Makerversity was kind enough to host us and help us transfer the previously digital designs into a format in which they could be 3D printed or created with wood using a laser cutter. Through using the Makerversity space, students were finally able to see their ideas come to life. We finished the day with fantastic Indian meal at a local London restaurant that was conveniently located near the Shard. The students enjoyed having several deep conversations while enjoying excellent food. After a long but fun day, we all returned to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Michelle'20 & Will'19 assembling their prototype designs for chairs.

London Design + Engineering, Day 3

Thursday, March 7th 2019

Students meet with Arup

About Arup

Students working on their Architectural Designs with Arup's architecture team.

Arup

Our day began with a quick breakfast at a cafe in the Notting Hill neighborhood before riding the central line to Bond Street Station, from which we enjoyed a walk to the offices of Arup. Arup is an internationally recognized engineering firm, that specializes in all parts of building design from architecture, systems engineering, fire engineering, mechanical engineering, and structural engineering. Being an international firm, Arup has offices all over the world, however their headquarters and largest workforce remain in London, to follow the wishes of their founder Ove Arup. Ove Arup’s position as a philosopher and an engineer gave him a different perspective when compared with his contemporaries. Ove Arup wanted his firm not to just focus engineering but also on how it pertains to people. Arup’s slogan is “We shape a better world” and it is evident that the company has continued to hold onto the values of their late founder. Whilst at Arup, students met members of each of the three main facets of Arup: architects, mechanical engineers, and structural engineers. We began first with meeting a member of the structural design team. We disused the multitude of forces on buildings themselves, the classifications engineers use to represent them and then the equations used to design the core of a structure to suit the forces on a building. Next we met with two of their mechanical engineers to discuss how they design the mechanical system in a building to minimize their environmental impact. Lastly we met with Arup’s architectural division which gave us a design challenge to create a new mixed use structure a few blocks from their office. After presenting our solutions in the form of sketches they showed us what they had designed. We then enjoyed a lunch with Arup.

Foster + Partners

After visiting with Arup, everyone gathered in their design teams to work on the design projects that we will be making tomorrow at Makerversity. After those were finalized, we indulged in some shopping in the areas that surround Oxford Circus. After the shopping was complete we boarded the bus to go to the world renowned architecture firm, Foster + Partners. Once at the Foster + Partner’s campus we met with our tour guide, George, who showed us the main studio, the model making room, and their material libraries. While there, we saw the models for the Gherkin, Apple Park, and several for upcoming Foster + Partners Projects. We concluded our night by going to a traditional english pub, called the Prince Albert. After that we soaked in the night city scape before taking the tube back to our hotel. We then finalized everything for the Makerlab for the following day.

Apple Park Model

Apple Park Ventilation Model

London Design + Engineering, Day 1

March 4, 2019

Our journey to London began this morning at 1:00am. We boarded the bus and braved the elements to get to Boston to catch our departure flight. However once we arrived we soon learned that our flight had been delayed by several hours due to the build up of snow on the runways. To pass the time competitive games of Uno broke out, whilst others took advantage of the delay to regain much needed rest after the early morning wake up.

 

 

After about an hour of de-icing, we took to the skies. We had a great view of London’s skyline as we descended into Heathrow to land. We then stopped to get a quick meal before taking the Piccadilly Line and the Central Line to our hotel, where we arrived about 12:30 AM.   THAT was a full day!

Photo by JeaBin '20

London Design + Engineering, 3 Days Away

Next group meeting: 1:00 AM Monday morning!  Here we go!

Countdown to Monday!