{"id":3224,"date":"2023-07-05T12:44:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T12:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/?p=3224"},"modified":"2023-07-05T12:44:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T12:44:16","slug":"open-2023-westminster-meets-southend-on-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/open-2023-westminster-meets-southend-on-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"OPEN 2023: Westminster meets Southend-on-Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Westminster\u2019s annual end-of-year exhibition, OPEN <\/em>is a showcase and celebration of the talent, creativity and achievements of students from the School of Architecture and Cities. Students present their projects and showcase the skills and creative practices they have developed whilst on their courses. OPEN is a highly anticipated show amongst students, graduates, staff and industry guests every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with Pablo Pimentel and Axelle Sibierski, third-year Architecture BA students, as they prepare to showcase their projects at OPEN 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What are you most excited about for your end-of-year show?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pablo<\/strong>: I\u2019m most excited about the show being a culmination of all of our hard work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

not only this year but over the course of our degrees. Architecture is a very demanding course, where both staff and students put in an enormous amount of effort.  The end-of-year show is a merited celebration of all our skills, creativity and hard work! It is also a great opportunity for people from outside of the university to come and see what our courses are all about and learn about our projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axelle: <\/strong>I am most excited about being able to showcase my work alongside my peers and celebrate the hard work we have all accomplished over the years. I\u2019m also looking forward to being able to show my finished work to an audience and speak with people who are discovering my project for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Can you give us an overview of your final project and what inspired your creative thinking?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pablo:<\/strong> My project, Southend Stayport<\/em> seeks to reinvent the failing London Southend Airport. This project aims to give back this large piece of infrastructure from the hands of London holiday goers into the hands of the Southend-on-Sea community. The airport perimeter becomes a park, whilst the terminal building is reinvented into a new community-driven gateway to this new green area. The last remaining destinations of the airport, transform, alongside the needs of the community, into a new program which provides cultural spaces, community gardening and dining, community living and further leisure spaces for all of the Southend Community. This new program reinvents the vacation, giving way for the local staycation, open to all, in the heart of Southend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each project carries with it new sources of inspiration. It all depends on the site and on the community for which you are designing. For this project, which is based on an airport, aircraft elements and recycled materials from an airport terminal have inspired the design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n