“University of Greenwich Exhibits in Bahrain’s 2013 Spring Festival of Culture”

As part of the annual spring festival of culture in Bahrain, the Shaikh Ebrahim Centre presents “IMAGINE: Fictional Architecture And The Liberation of Ideas” an exhibition of experimental architectural drawings. With this show the centre continues its series of exhibitions focusing on the world of architecture and design which started with the 2010 exhibition of Zaha Hadid’s design objects and paintings in Bin Matar House – the first in the Gulf region.

Greenwich has a considerable presence in this year’s exhibition, focusing for the first time on architectural drawings on the verge of artistic self-expression. In these projects of final year graduate students at some of Europe’s leading architectural schools, these drawings and three dimensional objects find there greatest sense of personal expression and liberty to explore fictional domains. Prior to entering the world of real architecture, where illustrative and technical drawings dominate, architecture students are free to create utopian and imaginary projects.

Many of the works presented in this exhibition, brought together collectively for the first time, came from the distinctive design studios of Simon Herron and Susanne Isa and Neil Spiller with Phill Watson, including a graduate of AVATAR taught by Nic Clear with the earliest piece exhibited from Chris Leung 1994 [tutored by Herron& Isa].

Amongst those exhibited were Michael Dean, Mark Hatter, Tim Norman, who are part of the first year Architectural design teaching team at the University of Greenwich. The exhibition also featured a recent graduate from Greenwich, Adis Dobardzic Unit16, 2012, presenting his project for an alternative United Nations, in Stratford City.

General View: “IMAGINE: Fictional Architecture And The Liberation of Ideas” Bin Matar House, Muharraq, Bahrain, 07 April – 30 June 2013.