Ainsley Street Student Accommodation

Ainsley Street Student Accommodation, now known as The Village @ The Viaduct is really starting to take shape. The scaffold is now down on Block 3- here's some initial (unwashed) glimpses of the finished product.

DIY Streets for the Ouseburn

Today's xsite is Nita...

DIY Streets is an initiative by Sustrans that provides funding for communities who want to improve their local streets, with an emphasis on sustainable travel such as cycling, walking and public transport. xsite are helping facilitate DIY streets scheme for the Ouseburn Valley, alongside the Ouseburn Futures group. Newcastle City Council Highways department are also involved in the process, in order to ensure that any initiatives work in tandem with the Council’s own schemes for the valley. As a business based in the valley and general Ouseburn fans we’re delighted to be part of this process.

An initial workshop at Ernest and a survey of over 100 people and businesses in the area was conducted to determine what issues were most pressing and which streets most in need of improvement. From this there was a broad consensus that Lime Street, Stepney Bank, Stepney Road and Shieldfield Lane would be the most appropriate streets for a pilot DIY Streets scheme. Further open workshops to discuss these streets were advertised to local businesses via a flyer drop and social media.

xsite led 2 workshops with interested parties at the Ouseburn Farm on 19^th and 21^st of May this week, to establish a brief for the DIY Streets works. These consisted of a walk around the streets with the group followed by discussion in groups around plans of the streets with ideas and priorities noted.

There were loads of great ideas put forward at the workshops. xsite now have the task of distilling this into some design proposals for further consultation around mid June. For more information visit the Ouseburn Futures website at http://ouseburnfutures.org.uk/

Arborescent

Today's xsite is Neringa...

Last Saturday xsite were braving the wilderness.

The Arborescent project lead by the talented Ed Carter promised 3 unique musical performances in an extraordinary setting – Kielder forest. xsite were asked to compose one of the graphic scores – a visual piece of music that was yet to be invented by musicians playing glass percussion instruments, a tuba and a trumpet.

In our piece, we asked the audience to take part by wandering into the forest and reading the symbols left on trees to be deciphered according to one’s own reason. Such conscious meandering made for a strange exhibition of sound where music, sometimes resembling a distant sound of a wild predator, travelled closer and further as if trying to influence one’s reason.

The sound was moving and the venue was uncanny.

We couldn’t have asked for a more enjoyable cultural weekend out in nature and judging from great comments after the event – the participants felt the same.

We're recruiting again!

Today's xsite is Anna...

We are currently looking to recruit Architects, Architectural Assistants and Architectural Technologists for our Newcastle studio.

We have an excellent crop of work in prospect and we will need good, self motivated experience with sound technical skills, good organisation and a healthy dash of creative flair. 

Please email your CV to Tim Bailey tim@xsitearchitecture.co.uk explaining both what you can offer us and what we can offer you. There isn't a closing date so the sooner you contact us the better as we are looking for the right people to start as soon as possible.

Great North Passion

Today's xsite is Anna...

A few shots of the containers in place in the sunshine!

BBC Great North Passion takes shape

Today's xsite is Robin...

xsite have recently been involved as the Site Engineer for the setting out, levelling and installation of 64no shipping containers, arranged to form a giant (122m long) cruciform shaped outdoor concert for the BBC's Great North Passion. The event, due to take place on Good Friday, will play host to 7,000 people, with a 1,000 strong choir and a cornucopia of outreach art projects, mini stages and surrounding activities!

DATbar Newcastle

Today's xsite is Adrian...

Launched last month DATBAR is the latest in a series of projects xsite have completed for the De Giorgi family stretching back more than 10 years now and including some of the best loved venues in Newcastle. A craft beer / pizza / burger joint sat in the ground floor of the grade 1 listed Theatre Royal building, the interior is a collaboration with the super talented boys at Dirty Hands co  www.dirtyhandsco.com . Formerly Pasqualinos restaurant, the fit out set about providing a physical separation from the Theatre itself and a strong new identity focused on the food and beer and driven by Dirty Hands’ signature graphic work and illustration applied to a Vintage Industrial backdrop. Go get a beer, share a burger and take a look.      

Work starts at the Tyneside Cinema

Today's xsite is Anna...

Work has begun at the Tyneside Cinema on a new project to create an intimate 40-seater digital video art gallery and cinema, as well as a vibrant new bar café that fronts onto Pilgrim Street. The new bar will incorporate an area for customers to enjoy a drink and food in cabaret-style seating while watching films.

The bar currently on the third floor will no longer be needed, leaving room for a multi-function space that will be used to host film and video gallery installation pieces during the day, while offering a fourth screen at night.

Digital City _ Stockton

Today's xsite is Anna...

We've just had photos back from Jill Tate of our refurbishment of a former Quaker Meeting House in Stockton. The building now offers 620sqm of new networking and office space along with fold down hot desks and fold out slim offices. See more on our website.

To Make The Stone Stoney

Today's xsite is Anna...

‘To make the stone stoney’ is a series of interactive discussions events, based at our events venue Ouse Street Arts Club, related to the long-term research partnership between artist Nicola Singh and our own Tim Bailey, commissioned by Wunderbar.

Curated under a collection of themes by Nicola Singh, the events aim to generate discussion that reflects upon and challenges the archive of work created through this partnership and which also looks to future collaborations.

Each event will include an introduction to the work, group discussion and a short exercise that aims to further explore the value of thinking with and through movement and sound in relation to the built environment.

Wednesday 20 November
space; place; scale; negotiation; private; public; permission; protest; ownership; governance; structure; substance; signs; symbols;

Wednesday 27 November
performer; spectator; absence; non-participation; aesthetics; ethics; discomfort; the act of seeing; the experience of being seen;

Wednesday 4 December
improvisation; instruction; spectacle; collectivity; synchronicity; thought; posture; action; gesture; rhythm; labour; move; be moved;

Wednesday 11 December
head; shoulders; knees & toes; length; depth; breadth; height;

Documentation of previous work will also be exhibited as part of the events.

Each event will take place between 6pm – 8pm on the above dates, at Ouse Street Arts Club, Ouse Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PF. Tickets are £4 for each event or £12 for all four, price includes a limited edition print. Refreshments will be provided. Please note that the events have a very limited capacity.

Tickets available at: www.wegottickets.com/xsitearchitecture

For further information or if you have any queries please contact: info@xsitearchitecture.co.uk