My illustration for Noora Almusallam’s article ‘Global Culture Collision – coping with the want of modern and identity of the past’, Khaleejesque Magazine, The Industrial Issue #18, Nov/Dec 2015.

Khaleejesque is a thriving lifestyle and culture magazine that revolves around everything new, exciting and beautiful in the Arabian Gulf countries when it comes to the continuously evolving cultural scene.

Ricardas Blazukas – Children of the Concrete Jungle

Recently, the company I am working for – Pace – sponsored an issue of T Square Architecture Magazine, which is run by architecture students from Kuwait University. This is already their 15th issue. They decided to look back at the past, hence the theme for this issue was ‘Nostalgia’. Pace architects, and myself amongst them, wrote a series of articles and essays based on Nostalgia theme.

My story is called ‘Children of the Concrete Jungle’, where I tell a story of what it was like growing up in Fabijoniskes social estate blocks in Vilnius, the capital city of post-communist Lithuania.

Images of the magazine and the spread can be seen below. In case the text is too small to read, please use ‘Ctrl and +’ or ‘Cmd and +’ to zoom in.

Ricardas Blazukas: Geometry of Colour interview is out in Kuwait’s Bazaar Magazine June 2015 issue and online on http://bazaar.town .

See attached photos or read online here.

Here’s a cover that I did back in Dec 2014 for a psychedelic trance album ‘Be Controlled’ by my brother Tom Noise (Thomas Blazukas). Original artwork by Matt Haslam.

The release was a success hitting 2k downloads in the first month and being selected by the ektoplazm.com founder as one of the best dark psychedelic trance releases of 2014!

Check it out on ektoplazm.com!

Also on Soundcloud!

Thom’s other work.

]]> http://whycgi.com/Ricardas/?feed=rss2&p=910 0 http://whycgi.com/Ricardas/?p=804&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=architecture-course-personal-statement-2012 http://whycgi.com/Ricardas/?p=804#comments Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:23:00 +0000 http://whycgi.com/Ricardas/?p=804 MArch Architecture (RIBA Part II)

University of Westminster Admission 2012

Memories
Growing up in a concrete jungle of social estate blocks in Vilnius (the capital city of post communist Lithuania) seemed natural back then. Being raised in a Lithuanian musical family, attending a Polish school and growing up amongst Russian friends has enabled me to adapt to living in multi-cultural society. I remember days at school as cold; snow was rushing into classrooms through blow holes in walls, students wearing coats and big scarfs around their necks to keep themselves warm. At music school – a teacher always complemented a piano piece with a tissue for a students’ running nose! In contrast, summers were hot in many ways; some of the neighborhood kids kept themselves busy earning money working at construction sites, and some looking for easy targets on the streets… I find these memories extraordinary; it is the reality of what architects should consider for better or for worse when designing spaces, places and cities…

Inspiration
My childhood experience has helped me to successfully design a Youth Centre for Art & Dance in Dalston, Hackney during my final year of architecture degree at University of East London. Coming from a multi-cultural community with similar issues has helped me to understand the needs of Dalston’s youth. When I visited a New Horizon Youth Centre in Camden I met young people from deprived backgrounds who have expressed their appreciation of being able to call the Centre their home. Theirs and my own childhood memories inspired me; I experimented with how those memories could possibly become translated into architectural language and have developed them into the main theme of the design featuring ‘hiding spaces’. At the end of year exhibition I was given the opportunity to produce a mural on 3m x 8m wall, which reflected another of my Youth Centre’s proposed spaces – a very uncommon mural studio. I spent a total of four great years at the University of East London. The challenge of combining independent life, work and studies has been a great motivation towards graduating with a first class degree.

Career
Today, I enjoy working at BDP, a multi-disciplinary practice that fosters socialist ethos of ‘places for people’. I have contributed to a winning submission for a Government Funded Grant for the City College Norwich Creative Arts Hub, which is due to be completed in early 2013. Designed in a new age of austerity, the hub will provide a rich mix of activities for young people in today’s culture of low expectations. In future, I see myself as an architect taking up challenging ideas perhaps through similarly inspiring educational briefs.

Interests 
In preparation for my studies in the UK I spent two years at an art school and a year taking private academic drawing classes of an amazing Lithuanian artist Gediminas Zuklys. At this point I started to think spatially while drawing. I am also a photography enthusiast; my photographs have been exhibited and won prizes! In my spare time I have helped BDP architect director Wayne Head to produce a book ‘Dictionary of Detail’ – a collection of remarkable architectural details to be published by Routledge.

This type of applying texture to ceramics is a great raku method involving a lot of chance and unexpected results.

The ceramic cone was initially bisque fired to cone 04 and then covered in a mixture of chemicals and fired again to 650°C. The firing process took around 60min + time for cooling.

 The glaze recipe used for this cone without any specific amounts is as follows:

ferric chloride
copper sulphate pentahydrate
salt
leaves / vegetation

Step by step explanation is given in the gallery under each photograph.

Continuing my experiments with various kilns, I built up a kiln in a downdraft concept and used propane to fire it. In theory it did not work very well, but in practice I managed to achieve an interesting result on one of the glazed sticks. Both ends of the stick were dipped in the same glaze, but due to exposure to different temperature inside the kiln – the glaze reacted differently achieving a transition of colours.

Shaws of Darwen, based in Lancashire, is a manufacturer and retailer of ceramic sinks, also specialising in design, manufacture and restoration of architectural terracotta. The majority of their architectural projects take place in the US, but they have also worked closely with a number of leading architectural practices in the UK. Some most recent projects include: Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, One Eagle Place, Picadilly (both Eric Parry Architects) or Fairytale Cottage in Essex by Grayson Perry and FAT.

I was very fortunate to be able to visit their factory in Darwen and observe closely the craftsmanship and traditional techniques they apply in production of bespoke architectural ceramics. The fascinating experience of the visit was captured through the photographs and I am very excited to be able to share those on my blog.

Wood fired downdraft kiln was only a quick experiment I did to see what temperature can be achieved. I did not fire any objects inside the kiln, because I did not have enough wood to keep the temperature at the maximum for at least a couple of hours.

Downdraft concept for the kiln is simple but effective. As the illustrations explain, the fire box is located at the bottom of the front, whilst the kiln space is above the fire box. The heat rises and travels down into the chimney providing a consistent heat inside the kiln.

The concept appeared to work great creating an extremely high draft on a calm sunny day and achieving up to 900C inside the kiln space.

A self made electric kiln experiment.

This experiment – research and explorations of clay firing techniques was done as part of my MArch Architecture second year architecture portfolio.

After making a couple of sawdust firings I used the same fire bricks to make an electric kiln heated by four 750W electric fire elements, which were inexpensively acquired from a spares shop. Due to limited amount of time available the firing was on for 6 hours and peaked at lower than expected 575 degrees celsius in the middle of the kiln, then left to cool overnight. Judging from the fired objects it can be assumed that the temperature closer to the sides of the kiln was much higher – possibility of +100-150 degrees, since each fire element was tested to reach up to 800 degres celsius. The performance of the kiln could be improved by better insulating the kiln.

The temperature rise was controlled by gradually switching on each of the fire elements.

Two pieces with low fire blue glaze started to gain rich blue colour, whilst a piece with red glaze (cone 04 glaze) did not react to the low heat of the kiln. Two of three pieces made from Scarva PF520 clay completely burst into pieces. The last piece was left unglazed and became a cone 022 bisque ware.

The risk assessment was done prior to constructing a kiln in order to ensure a successful operation of the kiln and safe environment.