Polyark returns. From Lima to Belfast to Rome and back

A group of Queen’s University Belfast year out students, led by Dr Agustina Martire, visited Rome during four days in the last week of October to participate in the much anticipated event Polyark III – Polyport.
Polyport is a collaborative project between 15 schools of architecture organised by RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) to bring back the spirit of Cedric Price’s Polyark. Price was convinced that architectural education needed to change, for which he published his National Plan for UK architecture schools in 1966. Five years later Price inaugurated the Polyark project, a double decker bus that travelled through the UK bringing students of architecture to work with each other in different parts of the country.

THE TEAM

The project was brought back by RIBA in 2009 and included a series of schools of architecture in the UK that exchanged briefs relating to railway networks, to work creatively in each other’s sites. Polyark continues, and in 2012 Queen’s University Belfast was invited to join an international group of schools of architecture, including ten schools in the UK and five international schools from Peru, Romania, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Singapore. The aim of this project was to challenge the way architecture is taught in universities and propose new ways of dealing with the education of architectural design. This time the theme was harbour regeneration, one that is topical but extremely diverse in each context and design strategy. Each school addressed the brief of another school and site, approaching the project with a fresh but informed perspective. Read More…