The Degree Show

So at the end of every year, like all Arts and Architecture courses around the country, Brighton hosts it's annual degree show. A menagerie of paintings, photographs, instillations, sculptures and many more. Oh and of course, Architecture projects.

The show takes place down at Brighton's Grand Parade campus, the one thing about this place is that the Architecture department is not actually in it, which poses a number of problems. It means the work has to be transported from our building in a different part of town, it's a bit more difficult to curate, oh and we don't actually have a room to display the work in. This means we build our own pavilion in the Quad on the site. This is on one hand pretty cool, we can make a completely unique space with almost no limitations, however it is a pain in the a**e, fraught with problems and not to mention the massive amount of leaking. You would think the Architecture departmenet would have no problems in building a small pavilion, well, apparently they do. In all fairness I actually quite liked the whole thing, the roof just didn't go to plan. And I helped to build it! (a little bit anyway).

The show is for third years to show case their work, and as a second year I was asked to display a taster of my work, very good for me really, a kind of conformation that I am not half bad at this, although I won't let my ego get too big!

Architecturally I was loving the plywood that the pavilion was built from. There's something about untreated plywood that I really like, it's a kind of mix of natural and engineered, with a surface that is smooth to touch but textured to the eye, but due to the material itself rather than a print or facade. Would of loved to of seen engineered timber roof beams with an acrylic top but instead we got de-barked wood with a soft plastic top.

I had a private view ticket to the opening night, naturally, but I got struck down with Tonsillitis and had to give is a miss, although the show was open for another week, just without the booze. I took Francois to see the show with me the following we, shame to say he wasn't too impressed, glad he was honest as I think it's easier for me to appreciate it coming from an art background, but being an Architect you're not just working for people from an art or architecture background. I definitely think there's a lesson in that.

I just wait for next year when it's my show, lets just hope I don't turn into a control freak.
Over and out!

Looking at the pavilion, a great shot by my amazing Czech friend Eva Horokova 

From show night, once again thanks for Eva Horokova