Thursday 15 September 2022 - ECA Main Building Lecture Theatre

Symposium 1.45- 5.15pm

Book launch and Drinks Reception 5.15-6.30pm

(NOTE: If you wish to attend only the book Launch and drinks reception please choose this option under tickets)

Join us for a mini-symposium to coincide with the publication of a new book by Professor Fiona McLachlan, which considers the contribution of embedded art in architecture with a focus on colour.

The symposium will be of interest to artists, architects, curators, commissioners, and students and aims to extend the discussion to a wider audience with three speakers from art and architecture. How does colour inform their practice? How does a collaboration with an artist, poet or musician inform architectural practice? How does colour affect our experience of architectural space? What are the opportunities and challenges in making artwork within an architectural setting?

The event includes an extended tea break and poster session with doctoral students from Edinburgh College of Art showcasing their current research.

Colour Beyond the Surface: Art in Architecture by Fiona McLachlan is based on over ten years' of research. In the book, contemporary studies are set alongside and compared with a rich range of historic precedents from Roman villas to C20th modernism. The book draws on interviews with contemporary architects and artists involved in the projects, which reveal invaluable insights into the challenges and opportunities of integrating art into architecture.

Symposium Schedule as follows:

ECA Main building Lecture Hall Lauriston (E22 First floor)

1.45 Welcome and introductions

2.00- 2.40 Professor Juan Cruz Tracing colour as a kind of vector through my practice

2.45- 3.25 Neil Gillespie Moments from a northern peregrination

3.30- 4.00 Tea break and poster session - Sculpture Hall balcony

4.00- 4.40 Professor Fiona McLachlan Colour Beyond the Surface: Art in Architecture

4.45- 5.15 Dialogue

5.15- 6.30 Drinks and book launch West Court (Ground floor)

Speaker biographies:

Juan Cruz is Professor of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and has been Principal of Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, since September 2019. Prior to this he was Dean of Arts and Humanities at the Royal College of Art in London. Juan is an artist, working between video, painting and writing. His work has been exhibited widely, including exhibitions at Matt’s Gallery, London; Camden Arts Centre, London; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Serralves Foundation, Porto; Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid; the Edinburgh International Festival; the Melbourne Festival and MUSAC, Spain.

Neil Gillespie studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. Neil is design director at Reiach and Hall Architects. Neil is a Visiting Professor at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture. Previous teaching positions have included, design tutor at Edinburgh College of Art, Department of Architecture, the International Laboratory for Architecture and Urban Design, ILAUD, Italy and Kinki University. Yamaguchi Japan. Neil is an external examiner at Kingston University, London. Neil is a member of the RIBA Awards Committee. Alan Johnston, Emeritus Professor Edinburgh College of Art and Neil instigated sleeper gallery, a space for art within the offices of Reiach and Hall Architects.

Fiona McLachlan is Professor of Architectural Practice at the University of Edinburgh and is an architect and educator. She teaches architectural design and professional practice and is a past Head of the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA). She is the author of Architectural Colour in the Professional Palette, (2012), which was stimulated by the work of her own architectural practice- E & F McLachlan Architects -over a thirty-year period, a co-author of Colour Strategies in Architecture, (2015) and Colour Beyond the Surface: Art in Architecture (2022).

Access  

A lift is available to those with access needs. The member of staff at our welcome desk will be happy to direct you.  

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The event is supported by the publisher, Lund Humphries and by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) Bookshop

Banner image:Antoni Malinowski / Haworth Tompkins, stair at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, London 2007. Photo: F. McLachlan

Book Cover :

Antoni Malinowski / Haworth Tompkins, stair at Donmar Warehouse, London 2014. Detail of a photograph by Valerie Bennett.