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Slider Studio is preparing to move from its current office based at UEL Docklands Knowledge Dock Business Centre to new premises located in “Tech City”, in the Old Street area of London. This move comes at a time of growing activity, interest and inward investment in new digital start-ups clustering in this part of the city.

The move is planned to increase visibility with our clients and maximise the business and knowledge sharing opportunities this clustering can bring. We’ll post new contact details in due course.

We are of course extremely grateful to our neighbours, clients and friends at UEL Docklands, for all the help, support and enthusiasm that we have received for our work and projects over the last five years. We continue to work with academics and central UEL services on a variety of StickyWorld projects, including our YouCaretaker project with Knowledge Dock Business Centre management, which deploys StickyWorld for building occupant engagement and energy monitoring.

Slider Studio has been commissioned by Bloomsbury Association to create an online virtual tour of the area on StickyWorld to help inform their forthcoming Neighbourhood Plan.

As a result of a recent TSB funded feasibility study into how the web can enable Neighbourhood Planning, Slider Studio has been speaking to a number of community groups about gathering interest from residents and local businesses to inform their Neighbourhood Plan. As the launch of the new Localism Bill draws nearer, Bloomsbury Association in London has appointed Slider Studio to create an online virtual tour of their neighbourhood in order to gather interest and collect comments from the local community about what they would like to improve or change.

The Bloomsbury StickyRoom, which is now available online as a public room, contains a map of the area showing boundaries, a series of street-level 360-degree photographs of the area, and video interviews with local residents and business owners. The room has been built to provoke dialogue using StickyWorld’s simple virtual stickynote system. The photographs taken by Slider Studio’s in-house team provide a high-quality visual tool that is ideal for provoking conversation about places and spaces.

The StickyRoom focuses on the ‘village’ area of Bloomsbury in London which is populated by a community of residents and business owners including a large number of independent shops, cafes and galleries. There is also a high number of students, and the area is popular with tourists as it is situated between the British Museum and Covent Garden. Bloomsbury Association want to create a record of comments and dialogue about the area that could be easily accessed and represents the opinion of a broad cross-section of the local community.

Bloomsbury Association are now inviting the local community and members of the public to share their thoughts and ideas about the area. Comments will be collated through the StickyRoom and will help to inform Bloomsbury’s forthcoming Neighbourhood Plan. Already, the room has prompted comments about way-finding for tourists and the lack of clear signage, improvements needed to shopfronts on certain streets and the need for more planting and green areas.

Go to http://youcanplan.stickyworld.com to view the room and leave comments.

Slider Studio’s Senior Designer Monika Löve has graduated with distinction from Visual Cultures department, Goldsmiths College, University of London. In 2011 MA in Research Architecture, a practice-lead theory course, set out to investigate how the space of law is shaped and carved by material means of complex transformations in inhabited space.

Monika’s thesis investigated three instances in which all limits in society and/or space are temporarily removed, and as a consequence, the very structure is suspended. It was argued that suspension is not only common to crisis but also to emergencies that could potentially arise; thus suspended becomes a measure of global dominance and control, and requires alternative type of governance. The end of year show took the form of an exhibition entitled “24:05:00_Five Minutes Past Midnight” and as a result of her success, she has subsequently been awarded a new research project grant in JVE starting January 2012.

Slider Studio Director Renee Puusepp has been awarded a PhD in Architecture at University of East London representing 6 years of research in computational and generative design.

The title of Renee’s thesis was “Generating circulation diagrams for architecture and urban design using multi-agent systems”. He looked into advanced algorithms and bottom-up computational methods for modelling circulation at the conceptual stage. Renee completed two case studies where he used his own prototypes to generate solutions in the context of architectural competitions.

Renee’s Thesis can be downloaded from: http://sliderstudio.co.uk/phd_thesis/Thesis_ReneePuusepp.pdf

As part of OpenHouse London 2011, Slider Studio worked with Edward Cullinan Architects to create a virtual tour of their Stonebridge Community Centre in North West London. Visitors were invited to ‘walk’ around the building and interact with the architects by asking questions and leaving comments using virtual sticky notes.

Through the virtual tour, which can still be accessed via Edward Cullinan’s website, we were able to demonstrate the systems’s new user interface and presentation functions including improved panoramic navigation, hotspots, links and embedded YouTube videos.

As part of the Channel 4 Series ‘The Secret Life of Buildings’, Slider Studio Director Michael Kohn was invited to give his thoughts in response to the theme of ‘play’. In this, the final episode of the series (aired at 8pm on 15th August 2011), presenter Tom Dyckhoff asks whether architects have forgotten how to ‘play’ and if they are truly interested in bringing people together as a community.

Michael was interviewed by Tom and asked to give his views on how architects could more effectively involve the end-users in the design process. Michael specifically argues for a more democratised process in building design and demonstrates our very own StickyWorld as an innovative web tool to engage everyday people in the design of their built environment.

If you missed the programme you can catch up on this and earlier episodes in the series on 4OD.

We’re pleased to report that Slider Studio were highly commended in the prestigious Tech City UK Competition. Take a look at the video we produced for our application.

After six years at University of East London working in the role of professional studies adviser and employability coordinator for architectural students, practice director Michael Kohn has retired from teaching to concentrate on the development of Slider Studio and assist in the management of StickyWorld’s growth. Slider Studio remains committed to supporting young people at the outset of their careers, and Monika Love joins Michael this summer on the Get Creative mentoring scheme, run by UEL Employability team. Both Monika and Michael have been advising creative students from South Bank University through mentoring meetings, inviting them to our client meetings, and also reviewing their portfolios on StickyWorld.