Carl Trenfield and Charles Holland, Professor at the School of Architecture and Design, UCA, Canterbury, jointly presented Making, Teaching and Architecture as Part of UCA’s Artschool programme.

‘In this joint talk, Charles and Carl explored their individual practice work – which includes houses, interiors and public buildings – as well as their recent teaching collaboration Punk Vernacular‘.

Carl’s talk-within-a-talk, titled ‘Maximum Friction’, wove the nature of his practise, Arendt’s position on plurality and friction, and more recent observations by Sennett and Ingold. Curiously, it was also inflected by Generation Z’s termed ‘Friction Maxxing’ — in a world where everything can be obtained with little time, effort, thought, and friction, there is an emergent thirst for analogue processes and the reacquisition of physical media.

Kanoko, part of the organising student team observed:

“Both lectures reminded me that architecture can be playful.

The way Charles and Carl approached decisions about what to keep and what to change felt like a kind of selective game, where assumptions are constantly challenged.

I want to design with that same curiosity.”

The talk took place on Tuesday 24th February between 13.00–14.00 and was also streamed online.