Issue 01

Community 

Q&A. Lets Show it Better pg. 32 

A chat with Steven Rubio, founder of 

successful platform Let’s Show it Better 

What’s Next? pg. 45 

What does a post-pandemic world look like 

from the eyes of the people designing it? 

ISSUE 1 

AUGUST 2020 

toscaleblog.co.uk

:scale mag / community 

to.scale 

toscaleblog.co.uk 

:scale © 2020 all rights reserved 

Acknowledgements 

:scale mag has been possible without 

any sponsors or profitable additions. 

We take this opportunity to thank 

all people who have given their time 

to contribute to this project. 

Shawn Adams (POoR Collective), Bennett 

Oh (Archi Hacks), Steven Rubio (Let’s 

Show It Better), Benni Allan (EBBA), 

Alvin Zhu (PBP), Thomas Rowntree, 

Guillermo Flores, Architecture Social, 

TWD Podcast, Urban Manifestos, Diana 

Terzieva and Parisa Shahnooshi. 

A special thanks to Issy, Dolunay, Tawqir 

and our community on Instagram for their 

invigorating advice and constant support. 

We also appreciate the students who have 

taken the time to send their works or 

take part in our Archi Capsule project. 

Editor-in-Chief: Sana Tabassum 

Cover: Luke Brozic 

2 

3


letter from the EDITOR 

Every detail in a city 

must reflect that 

human beings are 

sacred. Each detail! 

Sana Tabassum 

Editor-in-Chief 

Charles Montgomery, Author of Happy City: 

Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design 

We are very excited to bring you 

our first magazine issue! :scale 

is a small architecture platform 

that has expanded on it’s initial goal - giving 

members of our archi-community a space to 

share their passions and interests. Empowering 

architecture students has been a core motive 

that has translated to this new endeavour. 

Whilst planning this project, it was imperative to 

make sure that architecture students are able 

to collectively discuss topics and ideas for the 

built environment. Thus, when brainstorming 

ideas for our opening theme, Community was 

the obvious option. Together, we have given 

a voice to bold and complex themes that 

needed to be surfaced at this moment in time. 

We also invited professionals who strongly 

believe in community to share their initiatives. 

This issue manoeuvres around the current 

state of our world whilst still remaining true to 

architecture. Social distancing and quarantine 

have a huge impact on the architecture 

around us, making us question the spaces 

we have designed up until now as well as 

the ways in which we work as students and 

professionals. Social media has allowed us 

to realise that the core of architecture has 

and should always be community, something 

that has also been deeply affected by the 

events of the past year. What’s next? 

We wanted our first publication to explore 

the difficulties we as architects, students and 

designers have faced whilst also acknowledging 

virtual communities or perhaps questioning 

what makes community distinctive? 

Along the way, discussions emerged which 

allowed us to identify key links between 

architecture and community through which 

we - as the archi-community - can aim to 

re-think design strategies, communicate 

better and accept change by making use of 

our creativity and intellect so that we can 

make way for a united future as designers. 

4 

5


Creativity 


Contents 

Student Projects 

The Shared Platform 

The City as a Stage 

The CAMEL Collective 

Play With Me 

Studio Moon 

What we learned so far, together 

Ask Me Anything 

Parisa answers some 

community questions about 

architectural education 

Archi Capsule 

What does community mean to you? 

From Starchitects to 

Micro Influencers 

A shift in how students consume 

content and share experiences. 

An Unconventional Journey 

Grant Morris recounts his 

path into architecture and the 

lessons learnt along the way. 

Q&A (Archi Hacks) 

A conversation with Bennett 

Oh, creator of Archi Hacks 

Q&A (Let’s Show it Better) 

Steven Rubio from the platform 

Let’s Show it Better takes us 

through what it means to be 

a YouTuber in architecture. 

Meanwhile Architecture 

Polina Bouli takes a look at the 

rise in temporary architecture 

and its links to community. 

An Uneven Playing Field 

What kind of implications 

has the pandemic left on 

architectural education? 

Give a Hare instead of a Cat 

Should we be doing more than 

expected as architects in order 

to create a happy city? 

What’s Next? 

What does a post-pandemic world 

look like from the eyes of the people 

designing it? Chetan Aggarwal 

explores the macro and micro. 

Burning Man 

A look into a fantastical world. 

Built Form as Identity 

Three case studies exploring how 

a community acquires its identity. 

Community in the Age 

of Datascape 

Faisal U-K writes about the 

connection between datascapes 

and communities in today’s world 

Elemental 

A dive into some of Alejandro 

Aravena’s work and the social impact 

it has through diverse concepts 

A Phygital Future 

Speculating the future of the 

built environment in the age 

of online communities, a global 

pandemic, and virtual worlds. 

A White Gentleman’s Profession 

Aneliya Kavrakova presents the 

topic oppression within the industry 

amidst recent world events. 

A Letter To You 

Discovering, defining and reimagining 

what it means 

to be an architect. 

6 

7


The Power of 

Collaboration 

Collaboration 

POoR Collective 

A multidisciplinary collective which 

aims to bridge the gap between the 

privileged and the disadvantaged. 

EBBA Architects 

We speak with Benni Allan, 

founder of EBBA and AORA 

about the challenges ahead for 

students and professionals. 

Magazines to Read 

Team Members 

Whilst in the middle of a pandemic, we managed to connect and work 

with a fantastic team located in various parts of the world. 

8 

9

We’ve selected a range of projects from 

students all over the world to showcase 

in this issue. Community is at the core of 

these designs, a theme that is explored 

every year by students at all levels. 

Projects by: 

• Diana Dungyova (Athens) 

• Kitty Rainbird (Barcelona) 

• Lydia Giokari (Netherlands) 

• Diana Terzieva (London) 

11


The Shared Platform 

The City as a Stage 

Ambiguous Athens 

The proposal for the regenerative 

masterplan seeks to adapt the 

‘empty barrier’ that the site creates 

in its current state. The dull desert-land, 

dividing communities and their diverse 

neighbourhoods of culture and residential 

housing on both sides of it, is being 

transformed into a ‘collection of stages’ 

- a place where expressions and culture 

could grapple a dynamic, multi-use space 

serving as the focal point of the district. 

Diana Dungyova 

University of the West of England, Bristol 

Lydia Giokari 

@naive.architectural.narrations 

The Shared Platform is an initiative 

for the creation of a cohabitation 

community on the banks of the 

river Ij in Amsterdam in the year 2050, 

promoting shared resources and space. 

As the predictions of the future suggest, in 

the horizon of 2050 the model of the sharing 

economy will be extensively established. This 

model will not only affect the way we inhabit 

and use possessions but also space. The 

rapidly increasing phenomena such as Airbnb 

or WeWork pose the question whether the 

lifestyle of 2050 will lead to a new typology of 

the house: the house as a shared platform. 

In this platform-model people will live a 

community and they will use space as a 

resource, together with other possessions 

such as home equipment, bikes or boats -since 

water mobility on the Ij will be extensively 

used. Cohabitation will be the strategy to cope 

with the changing socio-economic conditions 

and be resilient; community and space as 

a resource and means of self-efficiency. 

The model of the shared platform will be an 

attraction for tourists who will travel there 

to experience this cohabitation community. 

They will get to know the habits and 

lifestyle of the real locals of the platform. 

The unique location on the banks of the Ij 

and the water mobility network of ferries and 

water-taxis will enhance the experience. The 

Shared Platform will be the prototype for the 

new sharing lifestyle aiming to contribute 

to a more circular and resilient future. 

Circularity embedded within the masterplan: 

the water retaining strategy; as well as 

reuse of ground in the creation of steps and 

stages, also for the creation of the sculpture 

park alongside the exhibition space. The 

route on the backbone of the promenade is 

accompanied by the sound of water flowing 

inside dikes. Rainwater is gathered in pits 

placed at the nodal areas of the pocket parks 

and stages. As a result, the nature defines 

the heart of the solution, showcasing the 

surrounding character of the hilly areas, while 

improving the entire areas micro climate. 

The concept is that the final building takes its 

visitors on a journey, connecting and unifying 

it with its surroundings. In this manner, the 

project is taking a diverse urban neighborhood 

where suburban life merges with the energy 

of a multicultural capital, and turning this into 

an inhabitable space with a recreational use. 

12 

13


The CAMEL Collective 

Kitty Rainbird 

University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury 

Chatarreros Artistas | Manteros El Ravel 

Live-Work Typology 

Diana Terzieva 

University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury 

Located in the south of 

Barcelona, El Raval district 

has historically been a 

melting pot of cultures and 

races, with the proximity to the 

port giving it a 

name as an area 

for migrants and 

foreigners. With 

an unemployment 

rate of 48%, it 

is no wonder 

that many young 

Senegalese 

men are looking 

to Spain for a 

better life. 

However, it is 

illegal in Spain to 

employ anyone 

whose asylum 

claim is yet to 

be accepted, 

or those who 

have entered the 

country illegally. 

This leads to many 

migrants working 

as ‘Chatarreros’, 

selling scrap 

metal, or 

‘Manteros’, selling 

counterfeit goods 

and souvenirs 

from blanket tops. 

This often leads to direct 

competition with genuine 

local traders which causes 

rifts between the locals 

and the migrants. 

The aim? To bring 

locals, tourists, 

and migrants 

together. The 

CAMEL Collective 

was designed to 

help both the 

migrants and the 

local community. The 

Chatarreros collect 

scrap metal and 

e-waste which they 

sell to the jewellers 

for a better price, 

as they cut out 

the middleman. 

The reduced rent 

of the workshops 

and a shop space 

to sell their wares 

makes the collective 

a lucrative spot for 

the local jeweller. 

Working together 

encourages 

social interaction, 

integration, and 

understanding 

between the 

migrants and the locals. 

Hackney Wick, London: a place 

of metamorphosis. Poorly built 

temporary housing for workers is 

replaced by warehouses but when industry 

moved out - the artists moved in. In fact 

so many, that this area of London has the 

highest density of artist studios in Europe. 

The Olympics in 2012 are followed by 

a price boost, so shared ownership 

becomes the only way to keep costs 

affordable. Warehouses are the ideal 

facility for such individuals and their 

activities. However, what happens 

to the long-term relationships? 

The proposal aims to encourage people 

to live & work at dedicated adaptable 

spaces. 10 live-work housing units are 

bringing together young families of artists 

and makers with children to create a 

community where child care is also shared. 

Being designed with children in mind so 

that the creatives can give away skills 

to the next generation: their own kids. 

Aims: 

• Kids and parents spend as much time 

together as possible (no commuting) 

• Parents can supervise their own and 

neighbours’ kids while working 

• Indoor-outdoor workshop/ 

studio for each house, able to suit 

various needs, ages and sizes 

• Kids are integrated in the work 

process giving first-hand experience 

• Kids are learning through 

discovery and socializing 

• Kids are mentally and physically active. 

In return, kids bring fresh ideas to their 

parents and fill them with excitement 

14 

15


Studio Moon: 

What We Learned So Far, Together 

Creating a community through shared 

endeavours encouraged us both to look 

beyond our individual understanding of 

architecture and ways of expressing it. 

Collaborative approach is vital to thoughtful 

design; sharing and exchanging ideas as well 

as skills breaks through our own boundaries 

within which we are all confined, especially 

after leaving education. Our work is a result 

of two independent minds in conversation 

through drawing; never fully conceived 

until it’s at the stage of “completion”. 

“Architecture depends on its 

time. It is the crystallisation 

of its inner structure, the slow 

unfolding of its form.” (Rohe, 2006) 

Our way of working is transdisciplinary, 

and therefore out of this world (moon 

seemed appropriate). We aim to express 

the ethereal, atmospheric and sublime 

aspects of our otherwise very human 

existence and experience in space. 

We use our projects as methodologies to 

discover new ways of making, investigating and 

discovering possibilities of architecture, space 

and storytelling. The trick is to not intend 

to complete a project, but to have a glance 

at its potential through means of various 

representations. We learn through everything 

we do and find delight in not knowing. 

Sarah A. Brooke | Eglé Packauskaite 

Psychogeography 

Our attention is drawn by the poetics and 

language of space and sites of choice, 

which provide us with a narrative that we 

then follow intuitively. 

Psychogeography is something we value 

particularly; with architecture being part 

of the landscape it belongs to, it already 

possesses the intelligence of the place 

before being imagined and drawn. 

“The poetic 

drawing rejoices 

in its ambiguous 

nature and teaches 

us the notion 

of ‘betweeness’: 

between 

architecture and art, 

between reality and 

fiction.” 

(Brodsky & Utkin, 2003) 

The things and spaces found 

in drawings are discovered at 

multiple distances and only 

arrive slowly; it is slowness 

and gentleness that allow new 

images to emerge while you 

are drawing. You stare, you see 

something, you draw to isolate 

or clarify that thing, but the 

very act of drawing immediately 

changes what there is to be 

seen. 

The horizon you seek to clarify 

advances somewhere else by 

virtue of your attempts at 

clarification. The drawing is 

not finished because the act 

of drawing stops, leaving the 

effect of one’s actions as an 

emergent and unexpected 

‘fact’. 

atmospheric quality that feels 

‘...uncannily familiar, somehow 

long forgotten, but just on 

the verge of remembrance.’ 

(Brodsky & Utkin, 2003) 

A single drawing is a collage 

of fleeting moments, thoughts 

and observations; all collated 

carefully and refined until they 

speak for themselves in a form 

of a single piece of work. 

‘The drawings offer a unique 

insight into the constructive 

possibilities on the boundaries 

of actual and imaginary space 

- in other words, an insight into 

the representative power of our 

imagination, challenged by the 

conceptual power of invention.’ 

(Rohe, 2006) 

We value interpretation as a 

means of reading a space; no 

glance is the same and each 

time one looks at the image, a 

new meaning is made. 

Architecture is fundamentally 

an expression of emotion as 

it embodies presence of the 

occupant, it’s a performance 

and we aim to capture the 

dynamics of every speculative 

performance that we envision. 

We often aim to evoke a certain 

feeling through representations 

of space and to tell a story 

told in plan, section, elevation, 

perspective.. and few words. 

We therefore bonded over cartography 

and were always drawn by the history 

and mythology of our sites. 

Our most recent work conveys 

our fascination with an 

16 

17


Ask me 

Anything 

Parisa Shahnooshi 

Parisa is an architectural 

assistant working at Formation 

Architects. She has completed 

her Part II at the University of 

Greenwich and since being put 

on furlough, Parisa has begun 

to expand her own skills as well 

as help other students in her 

spare time. 

We asked Parisa to answer 

some questions put forward by 

our community on Instagram. 

What would be a skill that is deemed as 

underrated that has potential to be in large 

demand in the future? 

From my own experience I have realised 

architectural softwares are underrated in 

undergrad. They don’t teach you the programmes. 

It is up to you to choose which software you’d 

like to use and learn. So I think it is important 

to ask and see what programmes are being 

used the most in practice so you can learn it. 

Personally I think it would have been a huge 

advantage if they taught us Revit in undergrad. 

For example, I spent my undergraduate years 

learning 3DS Max but when it came to applying 

for jobs, majority of practices needed Revit. 

Do you think Masters is an essential part of the 

education timeline, is it really needed? If so, 

are you able to go straight from Undergrad to 

Postgrad? 

If you want to qualify as an architect in the end, 

then yes, it is needed. But for me that was not 

the reason I studied the master’s degree. I wanted 

to do my masters because after working in a 

practice for a year I was tired of the mundane 

designs. I wanted a challenge and needed to 

challenge my own design skills beyond what 

the architectural practice was offering me. 

You can 100% go from Undergrad to Postgrad, 

but I do not recommend that at all. Because if 

you do that then you will struggle, and you will 

not appreciate the master’s degree. You can 

also use what you have learnt in practice in 

your degree which I think is very important. 

What do you think about the step up from 

Undergrad to Postgrad study? Do you have 

any advice on how to select the correct 

program? 

Again, this will be different for every person. It 

depends on where you have studied and what 

you are interested in. I studied my undergrad at 

Greenwich university and decided to go back 

to Greenwich for my master’s because I was 

familiar with the system and the tutors. I knew 

their style of work and what they expected 

from their students. I knew 

the master’s programme 

very well and it was exactly 

what I needed at the time. 

Greenwich University challenges 

your theory in architecture as 

well as your design skills and 

I think that is an important 

skill to develop on during 

your masters because in the 

end it is the last opportunity 

you will get to be creative 

without having to listen to the 

councils or follow any rules. 

The only advice I give is 

to follow what you are 

interested in. Some students 

are interested in technical 

design more and if that is the 

case, then see if that is what 

the university is focusing 

on. I would also suggest 

you look at the previous 

students work and go to 

their exhibitions if you can. 

Is there a difference between 

preparing a portfolio for 

Masters and preparing a work 

related Portfolio? 

I think there is a difference 

between the two. When you 

prepare a portfolio for your 

masters, you are showing all the 

different skills and interests you 

have and learnt during your year 

out. This can be photography, 

sketching, painting etc. 

However, when you’re 

preparing a work portfolio, it 

should match the practice 

you are applying for as well 

as showing your other skills. 

Tips for getting jobs; when 

you have applied to the 

practice don’t just wait for 

them to get back to you. 

Chase them up and show 

them how interested you are. 

What is your methodology 

process for a project and how 

are you able to keep yourself 

organised? 

Research helps me get an 

idea of what the project 

is about, the history, the 

purpose, audience, and the 

potential. Then I start with 

just sketching or writing down 

ideas. Everything else just 

flows and if I do get stuck 

on something, I always go 

back to the beginning of the 

project and try look at it from 

a different perspective. 

I write lists. That always helps 

me stay organised. I like to 

cross out the things I have 

completed. But I make sure the 

lists are reasonable, so I start 

with small things I can do in 

a reasonable amount of time. 

That way I can keep track of 

my time and have a balance. 

How does an average salary 

compare through the stages 

of study in your experience? 

Personally, I think the salary 

is low compared to the hours 

and years it is expected. 

There is a jump from Part 1 

to Part 2. But I do not agree 

with how much over time 

the practices expect of 

you without paying you. 

“When I 

get a new 

project, I 

always like 

to research 

the brief 

first, very 

thoroughly.” 

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19

ARCHI HACKS #CHALLENGE2020JULY 

MONTHLY CHALLENGE 

FLOYD MEMORIAL WINNERS 

First place: EQUALITY ISN’T A BREATH AWAY 

Understanding Spaces @understandingspaces 

Runner ups 

Yuun Fann @ yuunfann 

Vishakha @1cazyflamingo 

Juan Ramirez @juanrmrzrarq 

Zainab Abbadi @ za.arch.a 

A+C Design 

@abrahamcatilo.design 

Nikhil @nikonthehil 

The fundamental idea of this George Floyd Memorial is to express the stain of racism in history. 

Historically, architecture has been a medium of projecting symbols of oppression and wealth. From 

the Egyptian pyramids to modern skyscrapers, architecture possess a role of signifying possession 

of wealth and hence, becomes symbols of oppression. Therefore this design for George Floyd 

Memorial yearns to educate guests on the systematic racism of modern society and searches its 

root back in history. (Read full description at www.archihacks.com) 

Jury comments 

Overall the thoughtful and respectful approach of the entry made it the winner. Viewing 

architecture as the antagonist to equity suggested an interesting shift in paradigm. The design 

conveys its concept passively through subtle architectonic elements such as change in elevation, 

light and material. 

The collages successfully convey the idea and space of the Memorial - a journey about systematic 

racism. Representing the journey into three parts - The fall, fight and rise - helped make the 

concept very clear and easy to understand. The three parts are also perfectly integrated with each 

other a comprehensive work of art. 

Next Challenge: FUTURE OF WORK 

COVID-19 has uprooted almost every aspect of our lives in the first half of 2020. With our 

collective efforts, are beginning to adapt to this new reality of post pandemic economy. 

One may dare say that this kind of upheaval in society has never happened since the World Wars. 

During the period, the combination of post war housing demand and industrial manufacturing 

process influenced the Modernism, which came to dominate the present world. Of course, much 

has changed since then, and perhaps the old ways are ill-suited to respond to the current events. 

Entrants are asked to propose a innovative working condition for a profession of their choosing (ei. 

painter, dancer, potter). The design should not only enable but also enhance the professional activity, while 

allowing occupants to parallel regular daily routines (ei. eat, sleep, relax). The jury looks favorably upon 

experimental and unconventional designs. 

Prize 

All the awarded proposals (winners and honorable mentions) will be published on architectural 

magazines and websites for international exhibitions. In addition, the top 3 winners will each 

receive a copy of the Competition Yearbook. 

For more information, visit the website: www.archihacks.com/challenges


community 

means where 

you belong, 

community 

is ‘home’ 

in a more 

ambiguous 

context 

Nuhu Abdullahi 

When some "sharing 

attributes" or "strong 

emotional beliefs" sailing on 

the same boat, And the boat 

is sailing in one direction 

under the blue sky and 

above the blue ocean. That 

describes what the word 

"community" means to me. 

Nishchal Mishra 

It is the intangible fabric 

that holds us together. 

Arman Sayeed 

We have reached out to a range of people 

to understand what community means to 

them in partnership with ProjectsByPeople, 

a social network that aims to connect 

architecture students from around 

the world through their projects. 

www.projectsbypeople.org 

Community has been 

integral for this issue 

and as a constant 

within our blog. But what does 

community actually mean to 

us and others? Although we 

belong to a mutual community, 

we are also part of other ones, 

physical and now virtual. 

The archi-capsule project 

aims to collect responses 

from architecture students, 

designers and professionals 

at all stages in their careers 

and from various corners 

of the world to understand 

what community means 

to them right now, during 

this global pandemic. 

The purpose of the Archi- 

Capsule is to store these 

entries till a later date or 

future issue so that we can 

look back on how the current 

circumstances may have 

altered or changed the idea 

of community as we know it. 

Perhaps it may reveal that 

we need a sense of unity 

and strong connections 

now more than ever and for 

students or architects this 

can be through virtual means, 

largely based on social media. 

We picked out our favourite 

responses from a number of 

entries to share in this issue. 

An advantage we have, as 

millennials or via current 

technology is the ability to 

be able to share our progress, 

learn better and connect with 

like-minded individuals from 

the comfort of our homes. 

Regardless of an individual's 

personal goals, I would 

define community as 

a support system built 

around mutual trust. The 

possibility for people with 

differing opinions to come 

together and grow, is 

one of the most powerful 

aspects of a community. 

Alvin Zhu (Founder of Projects by People) 

Communication 

Odengarch 

22 

23

FROM STARCHITECTS 

TO MICRO INFLUENCERS 

A step closer to collaboration 

Sana Tabassum 

Are Starchitects relevant to this generation’s 

students and designers who thrive on social 

media? This niche group is composed of 

students, architects, practices, and general 

enthusiasts who are looking for inspiration, 

value, or a level of relatability. 

Starchitects may be able to be a 

source of influence for exceptional 

projects and design methods 

however they are essentially the ‘celebrities 

of architecture’ - a bit out of reach. 

Since most Starchitects tend to treat their 

social profiles as a professional page, there 

isn’t much interaction on a smaller level. 

Enter micro influencers. Over the last decade 

there has been a rise in the number of 

architecture schools, firms and students 

who showcase their work and network 

via the likes of Instagram, YouTube, or 

Twitter. These individuals or groups offer 

up insight or relatable content that is 

aimed directly at the archi-community. 

Whether it’s taking a look into a typical 

day of an architecture student or mini 

tutorials for a certain software, microinfluencers 

can reach a wide audience. 

Collaborative learning has taken shape 

through online lectures, webinars and blogs 

or YouTube channels especially over the past 

few months in the wake of social distancing. 

Architectural education as a whole has shifted 

online which means a need for social media 

creators and contributors has also increased. 

Eventually, there may also be a surge in student 

projects that address social restrictions 

or combat climate issues which aren’t 

usually the focus of the designs created by 

Starchitects who often aim to make a bold 

statement or create a striking appearance. 

Instead, by sharing ideas and techniques from 

students all over the world, we can develop new 

strategies and solutions to design projects and 

work in a collaborative way that can help us 

build on existing skills as well as learn new ones. 

After all, the current generation of students 

will go on to become the architects of 

the future so design needs to move past 

simply adding a Starchitect label and gear 

towards creating spaces that function 

well in the present and beyond. 

Thomas Rowntree is one of the more popular 

influencers, specifically on YouTube within 

the architecture space. We spoke to Thomas 

about how his journey as a social media 

influencer began as well as his thoughts on 

the ways in which architecture is shifting. 

What prompted you to start your YouTube 

channel? 

I began YouTube with no idea what I was 

doing or where I wanted to go with it. 

Interestingly, to begin with, my YouTube channel 

predominantly showcased my fitness lifestyle, 

but aspects of my architecture lifestyle 

started to creep into my vlogs and content. 

What are your thoughts on starchitecture? 

I believe that for architecture students, a 

lot of starchitects become role models and 

inspiration for people finding their feet within 

the industry. They may know very little or 

nothing about the architecture but know 

the names and work of a starchitect. 

Though some works of starchitects are 

questionable and raise debates within 

the industry, they play an important role 

in inspiring young students to become 

architects. Within such a competitive course, 

having a starchitect as an inspiration can 

give you that competitive edge and extra 

motivation to achieve greater goals. 

Do you think you might be classified as a 

micro influencer? 

Yes, I believe that helping people and giving 

students a platform they can relate to is the 

core to my content. Something that I felt 

was missing in the world of social media and 

architecture is the ‘behind the scenes’ aspects. 

You could argue that there are biographies 

24 

25

Thomas Rowntree | YouTuber & Host of The Student Podcast 

and documentaries on Starchitects that 

describe their life and journey, but I feel there 

is a lack of relatability from a student level. 

I therefore felt that creating content that 

would help people understand the processes 

of studying architecture and the hard work, 

stress and joy that comes along with that, 

would be something I could pursue. 

Essentially, the more you 

engage with one another the 

more ideas can be explored, 

techniques can be passed on 

thus more experience can be 

shared. 

This direction of content has also allowed me 

to showcase my life outside of architecture 

to help people understand that there can be 

a balance to your studies and work life. 

Do you think we’re moving to a stage 

of collaboration within the architecture 

community? 

Yes, to a certain extent and this is where social 

media is so powerful. I feel this has come to light 

especially since the lockdown. Though we are 

heading in the right direction, I still feel that a 

lot of studio values struggle to get translated 

over social platforms and architect firms. 

26 

You could also argue that with the current lack 

of interaction within working environments 

due to the pandemic, we have taken a step 

back in sharing techniques and workflows. 

The content we consume online through 

videos, articles or podcasts are in some 

way relatable to us and this kind of reach 

is only achieved by someone who has been 

in our position not long ago or by someone 

who understands the kind of topics that 

need to be talked about and addressed. 

Therefore, we are moving towards an 

environment where current micro-influencers 

are taking over from Starchitects albeit with 

a smaller sense of fame and status. These 

influencers don’t necessarily need to be 

emerging designers or academic professionals 

but simply students who are willing to share 

their own techniques, knowledge, and opinions. 

That’s not to say that Starchitects should 

be forgotten about but instead the celebrity 

culture and the production of aestheticdriven 

projects needs to be limited going 

forward. Architecture needs to draw away 

from the emphasis on cosmetic appearance. 

Clearly we have a lot to learn from one another 

and although it has been a result of a global 

pandemic, we can now use this to create a 

productive and knowledgeable environment 

for future students who will be able to access 

these resources and events virtually and freely. 

Grant Morris 

Grant explains his various career paths and decisions made along the way which 

led him to study architecture at Birmingham City University. He touches on what 

it’s like to have experience in practice as a student. 

Hello, my name is Grant Morris, I am 

23 years old and have finished my 

first year of BA (Hons) Architecture. 

Slightly late to the whole university 

situation if you bothered to calculate but 

that’s what I am going to talk about. 

As cliche as it might sound, the concept of 

architecture had always resonated with me 

growing up, and it was only instilled in me 

stronger when I began working on-site as a 

12 year old with my father who was actually 

a general builder. Whilst in secondary school, 

the usual work experience we have in year 9 

was omitted so I ended up working through 

my summer holidays at a local architecture 

practice - and absolutely loved it! 

Slowly, I came to the realisation that the 

traditional route of becoming an architect was 

aimed at more academically minded individuals 

so I decided to set my eyes on becoming a 

personal trainer - quite the change I know! 

I eventually really enjoyed it, don’t get me 

wrong, but after a few years, the money 

dictated that I needed a career as opposed 

to a job. But it’s not as easy as saying ‘I’ll 

just go and become an architect instead!’. 

I realised I needed to get into the construction 

industry and I did this via working in 

a large multi-disciplinary construction 

company working within the shopfitting 

branch in the CAD department.


This gave me a baseline understanding of how 

the construction practice worked, not to mention 

a brief introduction to the practices of CAD. 18 

months in, I finally decided that I wanted to pursue 

architecture, by any means possible. 

4 weeks later (and after every practice within a 

25-mile radius turned me down) I was attending 

an interview at Quattro Design Architects with a 

portfolio of very very basic AutoCAD drawings of 

1:1 door jambs and the very 

next day I was offered the 

role. 

Fast forward 3 years, and I 

have now been in practice 3 

years and have finished my 

first year of my part 1 at 

Birmingham City University. To 

say that university academia 

and the way practice works 

is different would be the 

understatement of the 

century because of course, 

most undergraduates have 

no experience of practice 

when they graduate so I 

would imagine it would be 

quite the challenge. 

However, I am facing an opposite challenge in 

that I have only known practice and the mantra 

‘time costs money’. In architectural education, 

there is such an emphasis on presentation, arts, 

history and theory, which in practice (commercial 

practices at least) tend to not be at the forefront 

of what we do. 

It has definitely been a welcomed change and 

something that I have fallen in love with and am 

embracing more and more with each day that 

goes by. 

The relationship between university and practice 

has been made different by the whole COVID-19 

situation, for better or for worse as there are both 

pros and cons. 

“one click and 

you’ve got 

somebody on 

your screen 

to walk things 

though with.” 

From a practice perspective, I think that as we 

are pretty in tune with technology since we have 

managed to cope with the lockdown parameters 

with relative ease where tools such as Skype and 

Microsoft teams have helped us to continue to 

communicate as we would in the office. 

In terms of the success of the business, I am in a 

fortunate position as I work within the education 

team so our clients are primarily going to be local 

councils, and schools tend to 

be on the higher end of the 

agenda for county councils. I 

am sure that the story would 

be quite different for a lone 

residential practitioner. 

From the student perspective, 

I think it has been a hindrance 

to be completely honest – I 

feel that the value I get from 

taking trace and sketches 

and physical models, and 

talking over them and 

bouncing ideas around the 

studio has much more value 

than my tutor marking up 

a .pdf online followed by 

me racing to make notes in the 30 minute slot 

allocated. 

On the plus side though, I have recently been 

furloughed for 3 weeks which has helped me to 

collate all of the work I have done and create my 

final submission, so the two have really balanced 

themselves out. 

A community of professionals, students 

& employers within the Architecture and 

Design Industry. 

28 

Independent design from home 

architecturesocial.com 

community.architecturesocial.com


Life Hacks for Architects 

Q&A with Founder Bennett Oh 

There are a handful 

number of interesting 

and active channels 

on YouTube that cater to 

architecture students. Archi 

Hacks is most definitely 

one of them. They not only 

provide a range of tutorials 

and lessons but also have 

their own resource store. 

Archi Hacks has managed 

to create a community of 

over 9000 subscribers. So 

we asked the founder to 

tell us a bit more about his 

journey and new ventures. 

Tell us a bit about yourself, 

your background and what 

you currently do 

My name is Bennett Oh, I’m 

a young professional from 

Canada! I had the privilege to 

travel and work at 6 different 

offices around the world 

including BIG and OMA. 

Now, I’m catering to private 

clients working on small 

to mid scale residential 

projects, and on the side 

I’m also running Archi Hacks 

to share my best kept tips 

and tricks and help young 

professionals achieve similar 

success with their career. 

What prompted you to start 

Archi Hacks? 

Archi Hacks just became a way 

to reach a broader audience. 

I love answering questions 

and helping others out, and 

I realized many people have 

much of the same questions. 

I also got a lot of reactions 

from classmates and coworkers 

saying ‘whoa how did you 

do that?’ and I realized I had 

something unique to offer. 

What kinds of things do you 

aim to achieve with your 

YouTube channel? 

I’m just hoping to fill in the gap 

between theory and practice. 

Formal education is excellent 

at conveying certain kinds 

of information, but the rest 

of essential life hacks have 

Bennett Oh is the creator of 

Archi Hacks and Archhhive. His 

platform contains tutorials, 

advice videos and Q&A’s as well 

as other types of content. 

We asked Bennett about how it 

all started and his future goals 

for the channel. 

to be acquired by means of 

experience or peer support. 

I’m hoping to provide general 

advice to aspiring young 

architects and help them 

find their own success in 

their respective places. 

Were there any skills you 

learnt while interning at BIG 

/ OMA that you think would 

be valuable for others? 

There are lots! There’s so much 

to learn from those fast-paced 

companies that you normally 

won’t in other places. That 

includes skills like critical 

thinking, efficient iteration 

process, fast production and 

finding balance between work 

and life. I’m hoping to unpack 

them one by one in our content. 

At the moment, a lot of 

graduates are worried about 

finding employment and 

possibly not getting enough 

help with their applications. 

Is there anything you would 

advise them from your own 

experience? 

First job is always the hardest, 

and it is mostly a numbers 

game. The more you apply, 

the better chance you have. 

I hope that more schools 

will provide more support 

in this area, but thankfully 

there are a lot of great 

online resources out there. 

For those who are interested 

in landing a job at a very 

competitive office, I gathered 

some of the most important 

techniques I discovered over 

the years in our new program 

Starchitects Bootcamp. 

What does the process behind 

creating a tutorial video look 

like? 

I’m still looking for optimal 

ways to produce contents, 

so it varies from time to 

time. Currently I have a list of 

video ideas, and during my 

spare times, especially during 

weekends, I try to film, edit, 

and publish. Thankfully I had 

some experience creating 

videos from my previous 

devotion to cinematography 

so that helped out a lot. 

Is there anything new you're 

working on? 

One very interesting project 

that I have been lucky to be 

a part of includes Archhhive. 

com which aspires to become a 

community for young architects 

to show off their talents and 

share their work. The project 

is still at its infancy but I’m 

looking forward to seeing its 

development in the near future. 

30 

31


Steven Rubio is the mastermind 

behind the popular YouTube channel 

‘Show It Better’ where he shares his 

tips and techniques on all things 

architecture representation. 

Insight from Steven Rubio 

Created in 2016, Show It Better 

has featured content ranging from 

rendering tutorials to advice on postproduction, 

creating an audience of 

175k subscribers till date. 

Steven views architectural 

representation as a 

project alone, trying 

to represent beyond lines, 

text and the architecture 

itself. He believes that 

once an architect starts to 

represent their projects in a 

thoughtful manner, the design 

acquires more meaning. 

Show It Better has become 

a valuable asset to the 

architecture community, 

changing the way we perceive 

and present architecture 

one video at a time. 

Do you think YouTube will 

be the next studio space for 

students to learn to design? 

Certainly, this pandemic has 

questioned our traditional 

ways of learning. The newer 

generations were much 

more prepared given that 

they have been educating 

themselves on many subjects 

online for a few years now. 

As some of us have witnessed 

in the architectural YouTube 

space, there are many 

emerging figures that are 

in the best way possible, 

architecture teachers in fields 

of design (30X40 Design 

Workshop), and architectural 

representation (Upstairs). 

YouTube can definitely be 

an alternative to the studio 

space if used in conjunction 

with other social media spaces 

like Instagram, where the 

students and community can 

show what they've learned. 

Now with this said, there 

needs to be more professionals 

who love to educate and are 

willing to do it in a space like 

YouTube- teachers of history, 

theory, urban design, etc. 

There is space for everyone. 

How do you think we can 

embrace architectural 

techniques of the past when 

software skills are becoming 

increasingly important to 

employers? 

A while ago I saw an interview 

with Mats Andersen, founder 

of the worldwide architectural 

visualization firm, MIR. He talked 

on how there are no specialized 

software skills required to be a 

part of their team, the only big 

conditions were to understand 

the fundamentals of art, 

illustrating, and representing 

ideas (or to have a trained eye). 

Design firms always want to 

innovate and be bold, but dread 

the process of falling behind 

with the competition and 

losing certain types of clients. 

On the other hand, architects 

who want to work in design 

firms just limit themselves 

to learning programs (with 

no understanding of the 

fundamentals of why the 

program was made) so they can 

be accepted and have a stable 

job. It's a two-way street, both 

parties need to take more risks. 

How do you think 

architecture students can 

build their confidence in their 

academic projects? 

Weirdly, I think in order to 

be confident you need to 

develop two strong skills: 

being critical (or selfaware) 

and being humble. 

I think as architecture students 

we sometimes let our ego 

rise very easily and forget to 

ask ourselves the important 

questions: “Why are we doing 

this?” and “Who are we doing it 

for?” Let me talk about these 

two skills a bit more in-depth. 

In life, we all develop a certain 

set of skills that we become 

very good at, this applies 

to architecture as well. 

The more defined this skill 

set is, the clearer a career 

path will be. That way, you 

will limit the possibilities of 

getting highly discouraged 

or of quitting altogether. 

During your school years, 

if you develop a refined 

detector of what your skills 

are (architectural or nonarchitectural), 

then in the long 

run you will be more confident 

“After being very critical and 

confirming your strong skills 

you might end up with a bit of 

an oversized ego, and that is 

where it is key to be humble.” 

about every step you take 

forward, because you have 

been critical of it in the past. 

This is not just said in an 

ethereal value-based manner, 

but in a more methodical 

approach. In architecture, 

being humble can mean 

studying the past and 

recognizing the present. 

Any recent architecture 

graduate will say anything 

about Le Corbusier, Adolf Loos, 

or Alberti, but having a humble 

approach is to take the time 

to restudy, redraw, and have a 

conversation with this past. 

After doing this and 

understanding it, we can take 

all of the risks we want (with 

our strongest skill sets) and 

strive to be the best at our job. 

How do you go about being 

selective of work when 

building a portfolio? 

First, I question who the 

portfolio is for - either a 

32 

33


university or a design firm. I will 

then try to tailor it specifically 

to them. For example, I’d 

only refine and send in my 

housing projects if I am 

applying to a residential firm. 

Second, I am critical of my 

work many times and try to ask 

myself if these projects convey 

the image of how I want to 

be perceived as an architect. 

So this can mean refining, 

redesigning or touching up 

old projects in order for them 

to meet the standards. 

How did you develop your 

own architectural design/ 

drawing style up until this 

moment? 

I think we work more as 

sponges than anything else. 

If I have a certain style in 

architectural representation 

it is only because of all the 

education I have received 

(formal or informal) and all the 

things I´ve been influenced by. 

There are some direct and 

intentional influences, (for 

example, lately I have been 

obsessed with Paul Rudolph´s 

perspective sections), and 

other unintentional influences 

like my cultural background or 

the feelings that the music I 

currently listen to conveys. 

34 

I hope to refine my architectural 

decisions over the years as I 

curate my intentional influences 

and hopefully get surprised 

by unintentional and indirect 

influences much more often. 

If there was one software or 

skill you would encourage 

students and designers to get 

to grips with what it would be 

and why? 

If I went back to the 90s 

I would gladly go door by 

door and sell everyone the 

idea that Photoshop is the 

only thing you need to know 

and that it will open many 

doors in your imagination. 

Having said that, I think any 

new program is worth taking 

a look at if you become an 

expert at it. It is just about 

finding that special software 

that makes your heart beat a 

bit faster than the other and 

becoming an expert at it. This 

can also be a skill, like drawing, 

sculpture or photography. 

How do you manage your 

time to be a great architect 

both online and offline? 

At the moment I divide my time 

between Show it Better (40%), 

my master's thesis (40%), small 

design work and other projects 

Oscar Niemeyer said 

it best “Architecture 

is about life”. 

in the works (10%) and anything 

unrelated to architecture 

like family, exercising, 

mental health, (10%) etc. 

All of these feed off of each 

other simultaneously and 

have helped me be more 

disciplined and not obsess 

over anything too much, 

just the right amount. 

That way when I get tired of 

SIB, I happily procrastinate by 

creating art, or working on 

my thesis or whatever. I find 

myself having the best ideas 

and best energy to work in 

architecture, right after doing 

non architectural related 

things. So I would encourage 

everyone to have many passion 

projects, and not complicate 

yourself with architecture. 

Meanwhile Architecture 

Community projects as urban forms 

of resilience and adaptation 

Polina Bouli 

The process of intense 

privatisation in London puts 

open urban public spaces 

under threat. 

The Nomadic Community 

Garden in Shoreditch enables 

social activities and community 

formation through its 

architecture and the way in 

which it has evolved over time. 

What can this industry learn 

from this community project 

in regard to resilience and 

adaptation? 

What is a Meanwhile Space? 

The dialogue between 

the meanwhile and 

architecture has been 

discussed for quite a while 

now. The so-called “meanwhile 

spaces” and “meanwhile 

community projects” appears 

to be a topic that is relatively 

new and can contribute to 

the architectural discourse. 

We can spot more projects 

taking place on derelict 

lands or empty properties. 

These kinds of spaces range 

from the Blue House Yard 1 

in Wood Green, London 

which provides spaces for 

creatives and entrepreneurs 

with affordable rent spaces 

and socializing areas to 

a former Saint-Vincentde-Paul 

hospital in Paris 

transformation into a frenetic 

market and community hub. 

These spaces are referred to 

as “meanwhile” and as Laura 

Latham (The Guardian) puts it: 

“[meanwhile space] is a disused 

site temporarily leased or loaned 

by developers or the public 

sector to local community 

groups, arts organisations, 

start-ups and charities” 2 . 

Nomadic Community Garden 

‘The Land at Fleet Street Hill’ 3 

or more commonly known as 

the Nomadic Community Garden 

is located in Shoreditch, East 

35


London. The volunteers’ mission 

was to create a community 

space to resist alienation and 

isolation experienced by the 

individuals who reside there. 

In a city such as London, the 

increased transience of the 

people in and out of an area 

has changed the traditional 

sense of a community. 

My first visit to the garden 

happened in 2018 when I was 

still in University studying my 

Part 1 and this project was 

one of the case studies for my 

design project. I remember that 

it felt like I had discovered a 

whole new world; a world that 

comes in sharp contrast with 

the wider context. That made 

me wonder whether it was 

two different worlds that coexisted 

or opposed each other. 

Being in that space makes you 

feel something extraordinary; 

whether it is the colourful 

sculptures made out of 

scraps by various artists, the 

greenery and vivid colours 

everywhere or DIY pavilions 

and objects that serve certain 

functions. There are provisions 

for everything and everything 

is made out of unwanted 

thrown away materials. 

Its location creates an 

introverted space; the garden 

is “wrapped” by East London 

Overground, to the South and 

the National Rail lines serving 

East Anglia to the North. There 

are three site entrances and it 

seems that the arrangement 

of the pavilions and spaces 

made by the volunteers 

follow some core principles. 

For instance, the beds are 

located in the South Corner so 

that the growing vegetation 

can get optimum sunlight. 

The canteen is placed next to 

entrance accessed via Allan 

Gardens and the children’s 

playing area is arranged nearby 

so that the parents are able 

to supervise their children. 

The reminiscence of the former 

viaduct is utilised in a very 

unique manner. It has been 

turned into a large graffiti wall 

that serves as a backstage 

when performances happen. 

The existing wall that separates 

the garden from the National 

Rail inhabited by vegetation 

in an unpredictable manner. 

The wall’s appearance never 

remains the same. There is no 

boring wall and no repetition. 

Whichever way you look you 

can see something different. 

From hidden causey spaces 

covered amongst the bushes 

to more public/open areas for 

gathering this space suggests 

a frenetic communal hub, a 

place for social interaction. 

You don’t need to spend 

money to hang around there 

either. One of the visitors 

to be interviewed on the 

site has mentioned: “I am 

not a local, but I do come 

frequently to visit the garden. 

I love this place and I usually 

come to take pictures. It (the 

garden) has so many different 

elements. I always take pictures 

and none of them are the 

same. Each time is different 

although it is the same place” 4 . 

Without a doubt, it is a 

destination for creative people 

and is admired and shared 

by the artist community. All 

objects, pavilions, chairs, tables, 

artworks and beds are made 

from recycled materials. This 

gives to the garden a temporary 

character hence it is referred 

to as a ‘meanwhile’ project. 

So what does this precedent 

teach us about the meanwhile 

contribution within the 

architectural discourse? First 

of all, in the context of this 

discussion, the “meanwhile 

lease” is something that 

needs some clarification. 

According to a government 

page, “these leases have 

been prepared as part of the 

Department for Communities 

and Local Government’s (DCLG) 

Meanwhile Project which 

encourages the temporary 

occupation of empty town 

centre retail premises by noncommercial 

occupiers, who will 

be able to contribute to town 

centre vitality but who would 

otherwise be unable to afford 

normal commercial rents” 5 . 

Under this special agreement 

between the tenant and the 

temporary occupier, there is 

no hustle in paperwork and 

the project starts without 

demanding a long time. 

Thus, this legislation makes 

this project easier to be 

established, and in these 

terms, it is more successful. 

Each angle, each 

corner changes. 

More scraps, 

more creations. 

More waste, more 

inspirations. 

In spatial principles, it brings 

into the discussion the role 

of the meanwhile and the 

ephemeral. For instance, Dr 

Krystallia Kamvasinou and 

Marion Roberts in their essay 

“Interim Spaces - Vacant Land, 

Creativity, and Innovation in 

the Context of Uncertainty” 

6 

have developed an argument 

that the meanwhile community 

projects operating on previously 

vacant land have proved their 

contribution to urban resilience. 

The urban spatial voids (derlict 

land, unfinished construction 

projects, abandoned buildings) 

that were created due to 

the economic recession have 

been given a new life and 

utilised in a manner that 

benefits the communities. 

Specifically, the nomadic 

community garden provides 

social areas so artists and 

local residents have a chance 

of social gathering, a garden 

activity that enables a 

community formation. Fran 

Tonkiss develops another 

interesting argument stating 

that urban elements must 

have some sort of flexibility 

because “urban contexts 

tend to change more quickly 

than the urban forms” 7 . 

Thus, the meanwhile gives a 

flexible character that enables 

adaptation and therefore 

resilience in times of drastic 

changes. Even more, James 

Scott confronts modern urban 

planning by developing the 

argument that “Modernists 

design on the city, for rational, 

socially beneficial, clean 

environments, often produce 

the opposites in alienating 

housing environments or 

dysfunctional deteriorated 

and disconnected zones” 8 . 

In this sense, the meanwhile 

community is self-organised 

and to some extent has some 

autonomy that responds to 

the mission of the volunteers 

to establish the project - to 

36 

37


resist alienation and isolation 

experienced in the cities. 

There is an argument that 

such projects are referred 

to as Art-Washing which is 

a gentrification process by 

introducing art and artists to 

an area to make it more popular 

and therefore more expensive. 

The developers may take 

advantage of the “meanwhile 

lease” to exploit such 

community projects to keep 

the area “clean” and “safe” so 

the value of the land is raised. 

So what happens when the 

garden is gone? 

The community is meanwhile. 

When the landowner decides 

that the garden should be gone 

it will be gone. But what will 

happen to the local residents 

who used to gather and take 

care of their allotments? 

Indeed this project does provide 

an ephemeral landscape in the 

area of Shoreditch for local 

artists, residents and visitors 

to enjoy it. Public events as 

well as gardening activities, 

ideas exchange and socializing 

happen within this community. 

According to scholars, 

meanwhile projects provide 

an urban form with some sort 

of flexibility. It can be easily 

manipulated according to the 

needs dictated by economic 

and social circumstances. 

My inclination would be that we 

should implement such projects. 

Maybe it is hard to predict 

the answer whether it does 

benefit the community in the 

long term or it is a developers 

strategy to gentrify the area. I 

believe that such projects are 

delivered by people to people. 

They bring a certain identity 

to the area and in that sense 

makes it unique. Diversity is 

something that needs to be 

promoted and preserved. In this 

case, this meanwhile community 

garden does so. Maybe it is 

the only solution in such an 

expensive city to establish 

such projects and probably the 

“meanwhile lease” is something 

extremely beneficial for both, 

communities and the area. 

As Jane Jacobs has said “Cities 

have the capability of providing 

something for everybody, only 

because, and only when, they 

are created by everybody” 9 . 

We need more involvement in 

our environment. We need more 

engagement. We need to feel 

like we own the space so we 

do care about it. We can no 

longer be observers and we 

can no longer live in isolation. 

Even in a post-COVID world 

we will crave physical contact. 

Maybe our working and living 

habits will change and won’t 

demand frequent physical 

interaction in which case 

technology will fill this gap. 

But until then, no screen and 

no phone could replace a 

hug, a glimpse, the smell and 

the presence, the physical 

contact and a feeling that 

you belong to a group and 

you share a common ground 

with someone else. 

1 

https://www.bluehouseyard.com/ 

2 

The rise of the 'meanwhile space': how 

empty properties are finding second live 

3 

Making Wastelands Grow - HOMEPAGE 

4 

The Interview was conducted with 

a visitor on the site on 20.03.2018 

5 

https://www.gov.uk/government/ 

publications/meanwhile-uselease-and-guidance 

6 

Interim spaces: vacant land, 

creativity and innovation in the 

context of uncertainty 

7 

Tonkiss, F. (2013) Cities by Design: 

The Social Life of the Urban Form. 

Cambridge: Polity 2013 - Cities by 

Design: The Social Life of Urban Form 

8 

Ibid. p 15 

9 

Jacobs, J. (1961) The Death and 

Life of Great American Cities 

An Uneven Playing Field 

As the containment of isolation 

lessens, has the coronavirus 

cleared the smoke that masked 

the structural inequalities that 

those from non-traditional 

backgrounds have faced 

long before the lockdown 

commenced? 

Undoubtedly, the 

Coronavirus pandemic 

has had unprecedented 

implications on the education 

systems, locally and globally. 

With England now at the 

European epicentre of the 

pandemic, the question of 

how architectural education 

has been impacted and how 

it will adapt is at top priority 

for most institutions. 

The response to the pandemic 

has largely been medical 

with consistent coverage 

from doctors on the front 

line to neighbours making 

face masks from Pinterest. 

However, the architectural 

response to the pandemic 

has become an increasingly 

important retaliation to the 

virus and plays a fundamental 

role in our global recovery. 

Supermarket queues, one way 

shopping aisles and no-mask 

no-ride transport policies are 

some of the ideas that have 

been recently implemented. 

Working from home has 

been one of the earliest 

responses to the pandemic 

with many turning their living 

rooms into offices, in order to 

facetime their colleagues. 

The relatability of trouserless 

tutorials and puppy show and 

tell has become as ordinary as 

the morning commute; down 

the stairs. But despite the 

relaxation of clothing choices, 

many have struggled with the 

realisation of the limitedness 

of working from home. 

There have been some 

challenges many students have 

faced throughout lockdown 

as well as inadequacies at 

an institutional level. 

One of the most prominent 

challenges presented to 

architecture students during 

this pandemic has been the 

Harrison Maddox 

limitation of the physical 

manifestation of their work. The 

spatiality and dimensionality of 

work has been restricted by the 

diminution of workshops and 

studio environments. Designers 

are limited to the parameters 

of their bedroom, beds have 

become additional storage 

space and posters have been 

plastered over with plans. 

The work-home divide has 

become more permeable than 

ever and creative exchange 

is stagnant. Many, myself 

included, have questioned 

if we will graduate as a 

generation of ill-equipped 

architects lacking in knowledge 

our competitors revel in. 

Despite the struggle, Instagram 

feeds have been inundated 

with surreal drawings 

and ethereal renders. 

“We've sometimes 

had guests from 

abroad come in 

which wouldn't 

have been possible 

if it wasn't online”. 

38 

39


In the face of the challenges 

presented by the Coronavirus, 

architecture and design students 

have overcome these dilemmas 

and seen the benefits of the 

situation. 

The creative perseverance 

that has emerged during this 

pandemic has been inspiring. 

One has to question whether 

this tumultuous period 

has in fact progressed 

architectural education 

towards a more culturally 

diverse discipline rather than 

an ethnocentric industry. 

Interestingly, a clear partition 

has been seen with the work 

produced by students during 

the pandemic: digital vs analog. 

By hand or by mouse has clearly 

been the two paths students 

have taken to execute their 

work during the lockdown. 

Although there is virtually 

no sign of a physical model 

or 1:1 fragments in sight, 

the work that has been 

produced, especially given the 

circumstances, is as impressive 

as any previous year. 

One negative however, is 

the unequal playing field for 

students. The industry has 

been very much selective, 

or as ZAPArchitecture put it: 

Playground of the rich (fig1 . 

2011). The relentlessness of 

architecture schools seem to 

lack empathy towards these 

students which inevitably leads 

to either struggling students or 

complete disregard as a career 

possibility. The architecture 

discipline, historically, has 

been an elitist practice. The 

lack of representation in 

the industry is improving 

but still extremely limited. 

Women account for only 28% 

of the UK’s architects 2 and the 

AJ100 Practises reported less 

that 11% of their employees 

are BAME architects 3 . With 

an already white male elitist 

industry, the impacts of 

the pandemic could easily 

reverse any progress that 

has been made thus far. 

Furthermore, architectural 

education has been an avenue 

limited to the upper classes. 

The costs of materials, 

equipment and portfolios create 

a divide between students of 

differing financial backgrounds. 

The expectations of these 

architectural institutions 

fig. 1 ‘Playground of the Rich’ 

have become standardised 

against the elite, leaving a vast 

gap between the financially 

equipped and students of 

‘Non-Traditional Backgrounds’. 

As a student from a working 

class family, I have found 

expansive differences between 

myself and my peers when it 

comes to resources. In what 

now seems like an almost 

entirely digital realm, production 

efficiency comes down to the 

price of your laptop and the 

speed of your wifi package. 

The measures taken by 

university’s IT departments 

have been proactive but in 

most cases late, leaving many 

students unable to access 

critical software such as Adobe 

Photoshop and Indesign. The 

limited email correspondence 

is anxiety inducing while 

computer glitches and crashes 

during tutorials is enough to 

make you pull your hair out. 

Despite the lack of 

communication and 

infuriating technical errors, 

this pandemic has been a 

learning curve for everyone. 

It is, however, paramount that 

the discussions and actions 

taken moving forward cover 

every student and act upon 

the disadvantages those from 

non-traditional backgrounds 

face. Let’s start from the top. 

The architectural system 

is ostracizing the working 

class from the top down. The 

lingering odour of the old men's 

club, that is RIBA, reinforces 

this pretentious allure of a 

members only clique with their 

£400 fee (per annum) to call 

yourself an architect, as though 

seven years of scrupulous, 

meticulous and extortionate 

education amounting to 

somewhere near £100,000 

isn't challenging enough. 

The cost to become an 

architect 4 has become 

strenuous for those whose 

parents can't support them 

as well as those who can. 

One can only speculate that 

an imminent recession will 

only erase the diversification 

of the architectural 

industry to its persnickety 

gentlemen's club past. 

Despite the challenges 

presented to architecture 

students during the 

pandemic, it has been an 

incredible opportunity to 

reassess the ways in which 

architecture is taught as 

well as communicated. 

Students have taken this 

opportunity to produce 

phenomenal work that 

continues to questions form 

making, building techniques 

and societal relationships. 

Now that many universities 

have announced that the first 

term will be online, including 

Cambridge, The Bartlett and 

Manchester, this is the time 

to demand restructuring 

the curriculum, promote 

interconnectivity with other 

subjects and to ultimately 

level the playing field so that 

the industry can progress to 

a more balanced dynamic. 

The pandemic has been an 

agonising time for so many 

and its magnitude of impacts 

on education is still unknown. 

As primary schools attempt 

to return to some sense of 

normality and architecture 

undergrads endeavour to 

find out new information, 

now is the time to reflect on 

the successes and failures 

of conventional degreelevel 

academia and voice 

what should be changed. 

The competitive nature of 

architecture school is outdated 

and inequitable when so much 

of the work produced depends 

on students resources at hand. 

In a time of absolute 

uncertainty and social 

remoteness, we should 

question the vying nature 

of design school and 

restructure such institutions 

to become synergetic. 

1 

NA, N., 2020. [online] Architectsjournal. 

co.uk. Available at: [Accessed 16 June 2020]. 

2 

Green, B., 2020. Grounds For Optimism 

In Improving Profession’S Diversity. 

[online] Ribaj.com. Available at: [Accessed 15 June 2020]. 

3 

Waite, R., Richard Waite and Ing, W., 

2020. AJ100 2020: Women Are Gaining 

Ground In The Profession, But Not 

BAME Architects. [online] Architects 

Journal. Available at: [Accessed 15 June 2020]. 

4 

NA, N., 2020. How To Become 

An Architect.Designingbuildings. 

co.uk. Available at: [Accessed 15 June 2020]. 

40 

41


A Hare Instead of a Cat 

Oscar Freitag 

introducing new spaces where 

new-era industries would like to 

situate their headquarters. The 

main counterpoint is, however, 

the effect this will have on 

the city and its inhabitants 

if not done thoughtfully. 

Everything has its own specific 

place: terraces are limited by 

fancy fences, street façades 

are populated with digital 

screens and the fair few 

open spaces will be taken 

over by international chains. 

But experiments such as the 

Happy City have shown us that 

people feel less connected to 

their community in secluded 

design and result in an eerie, 

empty neighbourhood. 

22@ urban district plan in blue 

Image by Barcelona City Hall 

The creation of new 

communities is related to 

the general layout of the 

new district, the usage of 

the buildings and the spaces 

generated in those edifices. 

It is our mission to take 

everything in consideration 

when planning a new 

neighbourhood, not only a few 

of the aspects involved in the 

project. 

Based on scientific studies, we 

could say community driven 

neighbourhoods live “happier” 

than those which are planned 

and built taking in mind only 

their uses and facilities. And 

that same statement can apply 

to a unique building and to 

a whole neighbourhood. But 

how can this be possible if 

the design principles we are 

taught in university revolve 

around “keeping it simple”? 

Charles Montgomery, an urban 

experimentalist explains how 

social connections are the key to 

living a happier life overall. Surely 

this can be achieved through 

architecture. He has repeatedly 

found that by implementing 

creative interventions in 

neighbourhoods all over the 

world, it has allowed for a 

happy community to emerge. 

22@ is an urban renewal 

project situated in Barcelona. 

The main intention is to bring a 

more technological, up-to-date 

industry into the city as well as 

I live in a little town 20 

minutes away from the big 

city. Barcelona has been to 

me, on many occasions, the 

place to meet my friends, 

the place where I have been 

able to create great memories 

and the place where, in the 

future, I want to settle down. 

However, I can only remember 

meeting my friends in the 22@ 

district only once or twice. We 

subconsciously avoid meeting 

in that area with big, modern, 

and glassed-faced buildings 

and prefer the old, chaotic, 

and less fancy neighbourhoods 

instead. The old district 

(which is composed of Born, 

Gothic, Gracia or even Raval) 

has something the 22@ does 

not have, at least not yet. 

The human scale. These old 

areas were built keeping its 

inhabitants in mind, prioritizing 

the social interactions between 

people which translates into 

a happier and more trusting 

community. This, as time 

A corner in Raval neighborhood 

Image: Unknown 

passes, has evolved into 

neighbourhoods with local 

commerce and small business, 

where the community today 

finds different places to 

interact and spend quality 

time with each other. 

One key factor of this evolution 

is time: something that has 

been possible only over 

several decades. However, we 

must keep growing the city 

and facilitating the creation 

of new communities. 

Our analysis must now look at 

the usage of a ground floor and 

the organization of the public 

space; in old districts with busy 

street life we are used to seeing 

people in front of restaurants 

and coffee shops surrounded 

by billboards on the streets. 

But when we look at the public 

space in this new 22@, there is 

nothing conquering the street. 

There is a popular proverb in 

Spain that says ‘give someone 

a cat instead of a hare’, 

meaning passing something 

off as more valuable. 

An excellent teacher, and 

personal mentor, once said ‘we, 

the architects, must give a hare 

instead of a cat’, referring to 

our duties as architects, going 

above and beyond in creating 

meaningful architecture. 

We cannot design having only 

the economy in mind, or the 

visual aspect of our building or 

the context by itself; we must 

take every input and be able 

to give a solution for every 

aspect in order to achieve 

success all around. For him, 

that was the main definition 

of ‘good architecture’: the one 

which was the exact answer 

to all the aspects related. 

Although the urban planner is 

guaranteeing a wider walkable 

street, creating more space to 

socialise, it is likely that there 

42 

43



A Square in Gracia neighborhood 


will not be the same sense 

of community. This strategy 

may work in cities without 

the historical background 

of most European cities but 

this way of planning lacks 

what we like the most about 

Spain; small, busy, and less 

planned social spaces which 

is how we have historically 

created communities. 

the people and, consequently, 

with the economy of the area. 

We have a duty to design cities 

that enable the creation of new 

relationships, that encourage 

the strengthen the existing 

ones and bring together the 

community, the economic 

factor and most important, the 

nature and places full of life. 

The pandemic has 

rocked the architecture 

industry of its decadeslong 

approach to spatial 

planning and design, 

driving citymakers to new 

strategies to curb the 

spread of the virus post 

lockdown. 

Chetan Aggarwal 

Blank walls and large glass 

facades simply discourage 

interactions. So, when 

designing social spaces, 

public or commercial 

buildings or aiming to create 

a community we have to bear 

in mind this cornerstone. 

If you can positively impact 

the existing community or 

give them social spaces where 

interact easily as you plan the 

functionalities of the edifice, 

you will not only increase the 

probabilities of making the 

developers, urban planners 

and mayors happy, but it will 

enhance social relationships and 

give the inhabitants places that 

provide a sense of community. 

Our goal as architects is to 

create connected, strong and 

functional communities in cities; 

and we can achieve that by 

orienting our projects towards 

The first part of the abstract 

presented here, bases its 

ideas in the TEDx talk titled: 

“The happy city experiment” 

by Charles Montgomery. 

Future project in 22@ District 

Image by Alejo Bagué 

Photo of one of the multiple “Super-illa” 


The Happy City 

Experiment 

As far as the eye can 

see, the world stands 

in an eerie silence. 

Mammoth industries have 

come to a halt, the so-called 

rapid development in the age 

of technology has slowed 

down, nocturnal cities are not 

even diurnal anymore, and 

the people of the cities are 

vaulted in their dwellings. 

History suggests that 

cities in large do not have 

a strong response to a 

pandemic, from the Black 

Death to Smallpox. The 21st 

century novel Coronavirus, 

has been no exception. 

From New York to London to 

Mumbai, the biggest machines 

of the economy have become 

"boilers of contagion" of this 

virus since its first outbreak. 

While countries and economies 

face a stubborn standstill, 

governments and policymakers 

are rethinking strategies to curb 

the effect of the virus, awaiting 

a vaccine that is still 12-18 

months away. On the other 

hand, major populations across 

the globe have shifted to nonpathological 

ways of dealing 

with the virus; social distancing, 

isolation and quarantine. 

The drivers of the economy, 

the manufacturing sector, 

have taken their own toll, with 

companies closing down on 

bankruptcy, or forcing their 

quarantined staff to work 

from home. The architecture 

and construction industry, 

one of the largest sectors 

of the capitalist economy, 

has also been affected. 

Homes have become the new 

office, and virtual communities 

the new public forum. 

Architecture thrives on a 

constant sharing of new ideas 

and designs, and while the 

world braces the pandemic, 

architects have been forced 

to a mere Zoom meeting to 

discuss their uncertain projects. 

This abrupt suppression 

has become the ‘new 

normal’ for every institution, 

ranging from governments 

to students, all in the hope 

of flattening the curve. 

In the wake of this pandemic, 

it therefore becomes 

44 

45


interrogative as to what ‘normal 

life’ will be post coronavirus. 

Synchronously, citymakers are 

questioning their own approach 

of building concrete-glass 

jungles, holding webinars and 

online discussions on what 

happens next. Now more than 

ever, it becomes vital to ask 

whether architects can design 

cities that heal? Cities that 

boast of unified communities? 

And most importantly, what 

is the role of architects in 

a post-pandemic world? 

There are also alterations 

ranging from micro to macro 

levels. In each of these 

levels, there is a certain 

commonality that needs special 

attention. Built environments. 

These lesser-talked-about 

forerunners are a critical part 

of pandemic solutions and 

emergency preparedness, not 

to mention the harbingers of 

public spaces of the cities. 

With every prime city holding 

scarce residential or healthcare 

infrastructure to hold its 

own people, architects and 

designers need to engage 

with built environments to 

develop future state solutions, 

so our current improvisational 

response is not repeated. 

The Aftermath 

‘Space, as it relates to 

infectious disease problems 

isn’t just about quarantine; 

it’s also a design problem.” 

- Curbed 

Understanding the value of 

creating resilient cities, coupled 

with an efficient and buoyant 

healthcare system as well as 

flexible residential buildings is 

crucial. Therefore, to ensure 

city well-being, architects or 

in fact specialized healthcare 

architects and engineers must 

come to the forefront to make 

way for rapid adjustments 

to current hospital and nonhospital 

infrastructures, 

proposing emergency 

preparedness considerations in 

building codes and guidelines. 

Apart from current hospitals, 

other built forms such as 

vacant buildings, parking lots, 

nursing homes and hotels can 

prove to be the 'extension 

of the body'. The current 

pandemic has certainly paved 

a way to design flexible 

spaces that shall be used 

in such grave times, and for 

the same, existing design 

standards need amendments. 

On the other hand, temporary 

structures are another 

important aspect to be 

considered while battling the 

pouring number of patients. 

Take, for example, China's ability 

to build a 1000-bed hospital in 

a matter of days. 

Such precedents 

required 

advanced 

planning and 

an efficient yet 

inexhaustible 

network of 

existing supply 

chains. 

Apart from architecture turning 

medical, the pandemic has also 

shaken what cities have always 

thrived on. From centuries, 

cities have evolved on the very 

basis of human interaction, 

both formal and informal, and 

a collective sense of identity. 

In turn, cities have proved 

themselves as a hub of 

capital and creativity. 

Further, these townships 

have consequently become 

a process of shared housing, 

community organizations and 

civic spaces, consequently 

inhabiting a highly dense 

population (beyond saturation). 

However, this very population 

serves as the basic user 

of all public spaces and 

neighborhoods, that give 

these cities their meaning. 

Pandemics, however, are anticity. 

They devour the backbone 

on which our urbanity stands; 

our impulse to muster. And 

the response that we have 

arrived at - social distancing 

- not only separates us from 

our notion of interaction, 

but also consequently 

fails our architects and 

designers' decades long goals 

of creating parks, plazas, 

subways and buildings that 

foster a shared collective. 

The new urbanism's core 

ultimatum resides in their 

animate life, and the pandemic 

has snatched this from us. 

Ezra Klein from Vox also raised 

concerns over social distancing 

consequently reaching 

towards a ‘social recession’ 

a kind of ‘collapse in social 

contact that is particularly 

As humanity 

continues to 

encroach on 

our planet’s 

natural spaces, 

we create new 

circumstances 

and encounter 

new dangers that 

we are seemingly 

unprepared for. 

This pattern 

needs to change. 

- Jonas Lencer, Architects' Journal. 

hard' on the populations most 

vulnerable - older adults and 

people with disabilities or preexisting 

health conditions. 

Advances Towards New 

Design 

Accordingly, outdoor spaces 

are getting new attention. Parks 

are becoming new habitats 

for refugees, and major cities 

are closing up their renowned 

streets to vehicles and opening 

up recreational spaces to 

serve a "social responsibility" 

for its own people. 

Automation has become crucial, 

and the coronavirus is causing 

an increase in development 

of all types of touchless 

technology; automated doors, 

voice-activated elevators, 

hands-free light switches as 

well as temperature controls. 

In addition to metal detectors, 

temperature screenings 

and UV disinfecting in 

performance venues, 

public transport, gathering 

spaces, as well as offices will 

become commonplace. 

Alongside this, material 

specifications will also change 

shape, with anti-bacterial 

fabrics and finishes gaining 

significant attention. Trends 

of sustainability had shifted 

to a necessity way before 

the pandemic, and a series of 

lockdowns converging with no 

commercial/industrial activity 

in the past few months have 

only provided new dimensions 

to apply this strategy. 

With national and international 

transportation nullified, 

material and supply chain 

delays have caused major 

setbacks in construction 

activities around the globe. 

This has, in turn, inclined 

architects and designers 

towards vernacular material 

and constructive sources, 

opening up new opportunities 

for local craftsmanship and 

material technology. 

Interior designers are also 

talking about new parameters 

to incorporate a work from 

home lifestyle. Balconies have 

become the new outdoors, 

as in the case of Italy, visually 

connecting people with the 

outside environment. Families 

are embracing greener, userfriendly 

living spaces combined 

46 

47


Modern man talks of a battle 

with nature, forgetting that, if 

he won the battle, he would find 

himself on the losing side. 

- E.F. Schumacher 

Guillermo Flores 

Burning Man 

A Radical 


with minimal furniture and 

essentials. Surface treatments 

will have new configurations, 

reducing flat surfaces where 

germs can sit, and are easier 

to maintain at the same time. 

Beyond Architecture 

Unprecedented times call 

for extraordinary actions. 

Beyond active measures that 

designers are discussing during 

this break, we also need to 

talk about certain unspoken 

passive measures that the 

pandemic has (undesirably) 

walked us through. 

Migrants, refugees and 

poor communities have 

been the hardest hit by 

the pandemic, and poor 

emergency infrastructure 

coupled with ignorance from 

powerful governments have 

only worsened their state. 

The builders of the cities have 

been left abandoned by the 

cities themselves. Affected 

populations have collectively 

lost a sense of belonging 

both in their urban dwellings 

and land, forcing them to 

travel to far-away lands in 

search of security, or home. 

We need each other, not 

just virtually. City makers 

are now actively engaging in 

community-driven approaches 

to tackle the issue. 

Neighborhoods have been 

the hub of micro-scale 

community interaction during 

the pandemic, implying for 

self-sufficient and sustainable 

future neighborhoods. 

Mixed use infrastructures 

that limit their users to a 

particular building or region 

along with providing essential 

services are a vital aspect of 

future architectural projects. 

The advent of such a stoppage 

to normal life at this scale has 

also stirred the way we build 

our cities. Major townships like 

London and New York have 

shifted their approach to city 

planning, reducing vehicular 

mobility and instead turning 

roads into walkable streets. 

Commercial space planning 

also needs a major reboot. 

Pre-corona period already 

showed a decline in co-working 

office spaces (contrary to 

some South-Asian countries), 

and implementing physical 

distancing shall certainly 

put these spaces to nearzero. 

Therefore, it becomes 

important for workplaces to 

be considerate in creating 

a balance of isolated 

concentration and productive 

meaningful collaborations 

within their spaces. 

On the other hand, it will be 

equally interesting to see 

how virtual communication 

technologies will advance, 

changing the theories of 

shared workspaces. 

Histories of pandemics 

suggest a collective revolution 

when it comes to modeling 

our cities and buildings, 

and humanity gears up for 

another one of those, in order 

to drive to a new normal. 

Consequently, mankind also 

needs to unitedly reach 

for feasible goals, to live 

together with nature instead 

of arriving at choices that will 

govern either of the two. 

What’s next? 

“Communities are not produced by sentiment or mere 

goodwill. They grow out of a shared struggle.” 

- Larry Harveyn: Co-founder of Burning Man 

48 

49


Roshni Gera 

Burning Man is a 

community, a temporary 

city, a global cultural 

movement woven by their 

principles. Contrary to short 

lived music festivals, Burning 

Man comprises of a community 

of ‘Burners’ that gather 

annually for a period of 9 days. 

Otherwise covered in white 

sand lying lifeless through the 

year, a temporary city blows 

life back into the Black Rock 

Desert, northwest of Nevada, 

for these 9 days each year. 

The Black Rock City is believed 

to be set in an arid desert, 

far from commercialization 

and urban life to give 

people an opportunity to 

experiment, connect, engage 

and reimagine the world and 

how we could live in it. 

Living in harsh desert 

conditions, without the 

pressures of a typically 

consumerist, status-driven 

society otherwise set in, the 

Burners are all made to be 

grounded in order to truly 

contribute, share, make and do. 

The radical beliefs and 

practices of the community 

have aided the exponential 

growth in the number of 

attendees each year. Nearly 

Utopian, these beliefs make 

them see the possibility of the 

world we dwell in being better 

and happier. Brief overviews 

of the ten principles are: 

- Radical Inclusion 

(no prerequisites for 

participation) 

- Gifting (unconditionally) 

- Decommodification 

(resisting substitution of 

consumption for participatory 

experience) 

- Radical Self-reliance 

(discover, exercise and rely 

on his or her inner resources) 

- Radical Self-expression 

(unique gifts of the individual 

offered as a gift to others) 

- Communal Effort (produce, 

promote and protect social 

networks, public spaces and 

works of art) 

- Civic Responsibility 

- Leaving No Trace (leave 

places in a better state than 

when we found them) 

- Participation 

- Immediacy 

Comprising of artists, builders, 

organizers, volunteers, local 

stakeholders, celebrities 

among many others; it is truly 

amazing to see how a diverse 

set of people, from varied 

backgrounds, professions 

and ethnicities, so distinct 

in a usual setting, brought 

together because of these 

common beliefs, making 

this community what it is! 

The temporary city has a 

typical layout which was initially 

created by Urban Designer Rod 

Garret, whose intent was to 

lay emphasis on creation of a 

community through his design. 

Architecturally, the horseshoe 

shaped layout when viewed 

from above almost resembles 

the ancient Greek Theatre. 

A typical Greek Theatre has 

three main features : Theatron 

(seating area), Orchestra 

(stage/performance area) and 

Skene (backstage/backdrop). 

It is quite interesting to view 

the layout of Black Rock 

City through the lens of 

architectural history wherein 

its visitors set up camp in the 

‘theatron’ or audience section, 

with the ‘Man’ sculpture that 

is set ablaze marking the end 

of the festival - at the centre 

of this as the ‘Orchestra’ or 

performance area and the Black 

Rock Desert serves as the 

‘Skene’ or backdrop symbolic 

of the harsh adversities. 

Also similar to the Greek 

theatre, which came into 

existence with the festivals to 

honour their gods, the Burning 

Man came into existence 

in honour of the radical 

beliefs for a better world. As 

mentioned earlier, the Black 

Rock City takes its shape 

only for 9 days each year. 

It comes together as a fully 

functional city with airports, 

hospitals, camps, theme camps 

and interactive installations. 

What’s truly amazing is how 

the city can come to life so 

quickly, sustain itself without 

trade or conventional retail 

with over 80,000 occupants 

and at the end of it disappears 

without leaving a single trace. 

Many designers and architects 

have tried to study this model 

as the speed and efficiency 

in the making of Burning 

Man has proved to be an 

important model for temporal 

developments. The makers 

of Burning Man have been 

consultants with the military 

in designing temporary cities. 

“When there are 

several thousand 

firefighters 

working on a 

large forest 

fire or wildfire, 

they have to 

build a small 

encampment, and 

they've drawn on 

some of the ideas 

that we've built in 

Black Rock City.” 

– Will Rogers, Co-founder 

of Burning Man. 

Similar to a conventional urban 

city and the concept of blocks, 

the Black Rock City’s settlement 

is broken up into several theme 

camps. These camps serve as 

vibrant neighbourhoods with 

no distinctive boundaries, 

creating cultural experiences 

to work together promoting 

well-being and betterment of 

everyone present on site. 

These theme camps contribute 

to the overall culture of the 

City through participation. 

Although the contrasting 

features of ‘Leave no 

Trace’, ‘Decommodification’ 

and ‘Radical Self-Reliance’ 

contradict the urban practices 

prevalent in urban settings. 

Each year Burning Man is 

based on a central theme 

that would influences the 

choice of costumes, art 

installations and colours on 

site. Out of all themes, the 

theme of 2019 has a particular 

relevance to the current 

situation the world is facing. 

Burning man 2019 Theme: “This 

year’s theme is a celebration 

of change, and an exploration 

of uncertainty. As such it 

invites a consideration of 

time; not its circular nature, 

or its attendant ritual, but 

in this case the relentless 

flight of time’s arrow, and an 

embrace of the elusive now. 

Memory is fickle, and the 

future is uncertain. None 

of us knows what they will 

become, but we can seek to 

understand where we are at 

this point in our transformative 

trajectory, this fleeting chord 

on the strings of existence.” 

Which brings us today to realise 

how truly uncertain the future 

is! With the commencement 

of the Virtual Era, Burning 

Man has not taken a step 

50 

51


back. The pandemic has 

forced a transition of the 

design world from the Physical 

realm to a Virtual one. 

Besides the enthusiasm of the 

Burning Man organizers and 

their determination to host this 

year’s event virtually, Architect 

Mamou Mani, designer of this 

year’s Burning Man Temple went 

one step ahead. As part of this 

year’s Virtual Design Festival, 

the designer collaborated 

with game developers to 

help realise his design in a 

virtual space as it cannot be 

physically built this year. 

The virtual model of the space 

replicates the desert in all 

aspects. With popular use of 

VR Headsets and AR models, 

experiencing these spaces 

virtually provides an experience 

close to real. Keeping with 

‘Multiverse’ - the theme of 

Burning Man 2020, a number 

of virtual parallel universes 

are formed where attendees 

experience the space through 

creation of a Virtual Avatar 

with real-time interactions 

within that ‘universe’. 

The transition into a Virtual 

world provides opportunity 

for a larger number of 

people to be part of this 

community and its practices. 

It also gives designers and 

architects an opportunity to 

realise their designs before 

actualisation. It opens up 

possibilities of keeping the 

creation alive endlessly and 

in multiple realms opening up 

a multitude of possibilities. 

We have much to take away 

from this resilient community. 

As radical as their beliefs and 

practices are, if practiced 

at large, the world could 

indeed be a better place. 

Coming from the background 

of architects/architecture, 

where much of our work 

comes to life physically, the 

impression of work in progress 

is satisfied by the cacophony 

of machines and labour at site. 

It is in times like this we must 

refrain from being bound by 

physical barriers. Design exists 

in us and must be explored 

beyond the boundaries of the 

physical. The virtual design of 

art installations, the temple 

to be burnt and the Black 

Rock City for the Burning Man 

opens up large numbers of 

possibilities of a virtual world. 

Moving beyond details and 

stringent design, envisioning 

a better, more sustainable 

and self-sufficient future, we 

as architects must explore 

all realms and means for 

better future spaces that are 

prepared for any adversity 

that might come our way. 

Built Form as 

Identity 

Bharani Sri Gujuluva 

Humans since time 

immemorial have been 

a species that crave 

society and all it has to offer. 

An act that was first practiced 

by the earliest humans to 

subject themselves to better 

protection, food and shelter 

has now evolved along with 

our species to become a part 

of the human condition that 

we all experience today. 

It is an aspect of the 

condition we cannot afford 

to ignore but only kinder to 

keep us safe and sound. 

The idea of a community 

stemmed from these 

characteristics of the 

human kind. The formation 

of groups of humans and 

development of such groups 

as a single entity, has always 

been marked as progression 

of society in history. 

It is natural for us humans 

to feel the need for selfidentification 

with this 

group, which pushes us to 

project ourselves onto the 

environments that we live in. 

This projection of self is highly 

based on the culture, belief, 

rituals and religion followed by 

the group which are permanent 

in nature and stick around long 

after a generation has passed. 

It further evolves to become a 

part of the built environment 

resulting in an architectural 

identity of a community. 

This phenomenon is rather 

transparent in cases of 

community architecture, 

where the members of the 

community are involved in 

the decision making and 

designing of their habitats 

right from the conceptual 

stage of the project. 

A community acquires its 

identification through human 

constructs which are based 

on culture and religion 

which are again human 

constructs. Communities 

are in essence, human. And 

just like humans they tend 

A community acquires its identity 

through it’s built environment which acts 

as a canvas for self-projection of the 

inhabitants. This is the core idea explored 

in this article through three compelling 

case studies. 

to be distinct compared 

to the rest of their kind. 

A community develops its 

architecture based on its 

needs and functions stipulated 

according to their culture. As 

a community grows large in 

number these rules of building 

that were formed will then 

be implemented in building 

similar structures to facilitate 

the livelihood of everyone 

belonging to the community. 

This process is continuously 

repeated, at times giving rise 

to a building typology that is 

quite unique to the community. 

Tietgen Dormitory 

The Tietgen Dormitory is 

an ambitious project by 

Danish architects Lungaard 

and Tranberg, completed 

in 2007 to accommodate 

students of the Copenhagen 

University. Standing amongst 

a locality largely made up 

of simple rectangular box 

shaped buildings, Tietgen 

52 

53


1 

Tietgen Dormitory: View 

from the Terraces 

is a monumental woodcoloured 

circular building. 

It seems to be made up of 

small living units stacked one 

on top of the other and each 

with projections on either 

side. The units are replicated 

on opposite sides, to create a 

circular structure looking into 

a common ground at its core. 

The structure being punctured 

at various points, facilitates 

entry and exit of students. 

The architects at Lungaard 

and Tranberg chose to go 

with the Tulou typology that 

is common for villages in 

the mountainous regions of 

southeastern part of China, 

most popular ones belonging 

to the Fujian province. 

Built between the 13th and 

20th century, these are 

earthen structures built as 

defense structures while 

fostering communal bonds, 

which seemed necessary 

in an otherwise hostile 

natural environment. 

Their monumentality speaks in 

terms of their capacity which 

proves that it can hold even 

a village of small size. They 

are fashioned to look into a 

common circular courtyard, 

acquiring a circular shape as a 

structure. They are accessed 

through only one entrance 

for security reasons. 

The circular shape subjects 

every inhabitant to a certain 

level of scrutiny by the other 

residents, which would define 

the communal bonds between 

them. The similarities between 

the Tulou and Tietgen start 

with a family being equated to 

students. The central courtyard 

featured in Tietgen is a grassed 

area circled by seating, acting 

as the primary gathering area. 

In the Tulou, the central 

space, called the ancestral 

hall, is used to house the 

shrine of the ancestors of the 

residents. The ground floor of 

the building accommodates 

services common to all 

residents, like administration, 

meeting and study rooms, 

workshops, laundry, post 

room and party room. The 

students are treated as a family 

that inhabits the Tulou. The 

evolution of the Tulou that 

Langaard and Tranberg were 

able to manifest in the form of 

Tietgen shows how efficient the 

idea of community displayed 

in the Tulou typology is. 

A dormitory as a typology 

is primarily characterized 

by shared living, cooking, 

laundry service, libraries/ 

work areas and communal 

recreational areas, that 

facilitate communal gatherings. 

This project was developed 

to house a community with 

the intention of transforming 

it into a typology that can 

be referenced for similar 

projects in the future. 

Borneo-Sporenberg 

On the North-Eastern end of 

Amsterdam exists two linear 

pieces of land extending into 

the ocean part of the former 

Eastern Harbor district. The 

cityscape of these lands looks 

like an abstracted version of 

the suburban, that is typical of 

the inner city. 

Built upon lands that were 

once used as docklands during 

the colonial time of Holland, 

after which it transitioned 

into a deep-water harbor with 

economic boom turning into 

a small industrial area during 

the 70s, resulting in being 

The architects say they wanted 

to transform “housing form 

and create a reference building 

at international level”. 

largely ignored by the public 

during which it served as 

the home to many squatters, 

artists and houseboat 

dwellers, is where Borneo and 

Sporenberg exists today. 

Studio West 8 was selected 

to plan the two peninsulas in 

the 90s, when urbanization 

took over much of Europe. 

The meticulous urban 

planning of this dockland has 

successfully turned it into a 

livable city. The planning has 

been directly derived from the 

older yet classic residential 

areas of Amsterdam. 

The linear arrangement gives 

rise to density in the buildings, 

and density is a known friend of 

safe and secure communities. 

Another aspect influenced by 

the older Amsterdam is the 

feature of storing and using 

boats as required to exploit 

water-related activities. 

It features 3 eye-catching 

landmarks which break 

the linearity, creating huge 

recreational spaces at 

those spots, all of which 

have been given visual 

connectivity to the ocean. 

The number of open spaces 

used for recreation in this 

neighborhood are limited which 

increases the chances of intermingling 

between the residents. 

The residential and recreational 

areas are given priority in terms 

of visual connection than the 

museums and public buildings 

while the government buildings 

are situated at the core. 

The circulation paths go 

around the land in the form 

of waterfronts. Every façade 

is unique with variations 

2 

Borneo-Sporenburg Amsterdam | West 8 

in materials used, height, 

number and size of openings 

among some aspects. This 

is characteristic of the 

older residential areas. 

The urban planning aspects 

taken into consideration along 

with the façade treatment 

and waterfronts with 

provisions for boats tells us 

that the architects at West 

8 have created in essence an 

extension of Amsterdam on 

a small contemporary scale. 

The planning has probably 

been developed over years by 

the native Dutch population 

that inhabited the islands 

in the past and the boasts 

stand as testimonial to their 

native economy and the 

facades render a familiar 

architectural character. 

This project is a prime example 

of extending a community on a 

new piece of land, by deriving 

all the aspects from the parent 

community. This is what gives 

the extension an identity. 

Moriyama House 

In the midst of a special 

ward in Japan, called Ota-ku, 

exists a collective of simple 

looking housing units clustered 

together. This is the work 

of the well-known Japanese 

architect Ryue Nishizawa. 

This cluster of buildings is 

called Moriyama House, a 

single residential property 

belonging to one person, 

Mr.Moriyama. It consists of 10 

units with varying proportions, 

horizontally and vertically. They 

also vary in the size, position 

and connection of openings. 

Seemingly scattered around 

the units, they were planned 

meticulously with pathways 

acting as their only circulation 

space. This function of the 

pathways is only secondary 

to their use as a garden. 

It is open to use for the 

inhabitants as a space with 

temporary function, with the 

employ of movable furniture. 

There exists nothing physical 

separating the units from the 

garden, creating a continuous 

space to achieve the kind 

of transparency required 

between the inhabitants 

to foster a community. 

The project has been 

developed from the idea of 

“Roji”, a traditional Japanese 

architectural feature. The 

word “Roji” simply means 

54


dewy ground in Japanese. 

This refers to the pathways 

in between buildings, through 

gardens or just alleyways. 

The idea might first seem to be 

underplaying the functionality 

and privacy of the house, but 

puts the inhabitants in a state 

to discover a different usage 

of such transitional spaces, 

uses outside the norm. The 

aspect of privacy has been 

taken care of in the Moriyama 

house with the thoughtful 

placement of openings of units. 

Just 800 km away in the 

popular city of Stockholm, 

Sweden, our second girl 

was wide-eyed and welltravelled, 

but long before 

she ever stepped foot 

outside of Sweden, she 

was already part of multiple 

communities and was well 

informed about everything 

happening all over the world. 

Therefore, the inbetween 

acts as a 

transitional space 

for more than 

one user, the first 

stepping stones 

created to shape the 

communal bonds 

between the users. 

Since the space doesn’t serve 

a particular function, it can 

facilitate more activities than 

the communal arrangements 

we usually come across. 

Another interesting fact 

about the units are that 

they have been built 

to human proportions, 

playing a small but crucial 

psychological role to help 

foster a community. Naturally, 

this living arrangement 

also enforces the habit of 

sharing amongst the users. 

Even though this project is a 

contemporary one and is open 

for inhabitation to absolutely 

anyone, it takes a certain kind 

of person to live here. This 

just tells us that the mindset 

of the people in today's world 

is much more narrowed when 

it comes to communal living 

and sharing spaces, when 

compared to the people who 

lived a few thousand years ago. 

That is why it is crucial to 

look at traditional living 

arrangements to help build 

lasting communities. The 

urban planning done in Tokyo 

has implemented the “Roji” 

element in some of its streets. 

By exploring projects that 

have been designed around 

the idea of a community, we 

acquire the understanding of 

how architecture renders an 

identification to communities. 

This has been observed a lot 

often in the past than today. 

This exploration becomes most 

beneficial when the projects 

are referenced from an already 

existing community. It is 

evident that architecture is a 

useful tool in strengthening 

communities and it also enables 

a community to strive within 

its architectural-identity. 

3 

Moriyama House (Dezeen) 

1 

Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter. www. 

ltarkitekter.dk, https://www.ltarkitekter. 

dk/tietgen-da-0. Accessed 15 May 2020. 

2 

‘Moriyama House. Dezeen https://www. 

dezeen.com/2017/04/14/edmund-sumnerdecade-old-photographs-ryue-nishizawaseminal-moriyama-house-photographyarchitecture-residential-japanese-houses/. 

Accessed 15 May 2020 

‘Borneo-Sporenburg Amsterdam | West 

8’. Archello. archello.com, https://archello. 

com/project/borneo-sporenburgamsterdam. 

Accessed 16 May 2020. 

Living 800 km apart, two young 

girls grappled with adolescence 

as they struggled to have 

their voices heard by their 

communities. But this is not 

a story about young girls, or 

about adolescence; this is a 

story about community, space, 

and datascape. 

The fourth largest 

island of Denmark 

is called Lolland, and 

that is where our first 

specimen - I mean character 

- lived. She was a young girl 

who lived an average life for 

the most part, apart from her 

obsession with chewing gum. 

She would normally wake 

up very early, just after 

sunrise, in the small house 

she lived in with her parents 

and siblings. Every day she 

could see the traders loading 

up their cargo ready to set 

off on a journey, and she 

hoped she could join them. 

She had never left her small 

village so the only things she 

had ever heard about the 

outside world were folkloric 

tales and the bits of stories 

she’d hear from the traders 

while eavesdropping. This 

is all she knew, this was her 

community, but she was 

dying to see the world. 

She never felt restricted to 

her city, she always felt like a 

global citizen, so what exactly 

is this dichotomy between 

the two? What has allowed 

one girl to be a global citizen, 

while the other is restricted to 

her immediate community? 

It is this little thing called 

the Internet of Things. 

The first girl, from Denmark, is 

called Lola (named after the 

island of Lolland) and she lived 

about 5,700 years ago and 

was identified by scientists 

by a single piece of gum. 

Lola, like most Neolithic 

girls, had no access to the 

Internet and therefore her 

understanding and experience 

of community was restricted 

to her geographical expanse. 

The second girl is Greta 

Thunberg (known to some as 

‘the savior’), a teenage girl 

who is the daughter of an 

opera singer and an actor. 

She began challenging 

her parents about climate 

change after learning about 

its apparent danger, and 

after 2 years of trying, to no 

avail, she got inspired by the 

school-shooting protests in 

the US (March For Our Lives) 

to start her own strike. 

56 

57


Later that year, in August 2018, 

young Miss Thunberg decided 

not to return to school in the 

ninth grade until the Swedish 

general elections a couple of 

weeks later. Of course, she 

took to social media (Instagram 

and Twitter) to document this 

protest, which quickly gained 

steam, and the rest was history. 

Lola and Greta represent the 

quantum shift between old 

community and new community. 

Lola might have been just as 

altruistic, just as intelligent, and 

just as ambitious as Greta, but 

without this little technology 

we call the Internet, those 

became distant dreams. 

These two Scandinavian 

girls, close in space but 

distant in time, symbolize the 

psychosocial dynamic of what 

a society was and has become. 

Lola’s community was very 

specifically and explicitly 

defined by proximity; 

regardless of her interests 

or any other demographic 

markers, her community would 

have been unequivocally 

(geographically) local. 

Greta’s simple interest in climate 

change led her to creating 

understanding and continue 

to design spaces with Lola’s 

understanding of community. 

What I propose in the paper is 

a new, updated, outlook which 

incorporates 3 components; 

temporality, virtuality, and field 

theory. The term ‘datascape’ 

is a compound term I first 

coined in 2017; it combines the 

words ‘data’, which represents 

information to be absorbed, 

and ‘-scape’ which represents 

a scenery; physical or virtual. 

Image: Live Science 1 Image:New Scientist 2 This compounding of words 

results in one that innately 

defines an information-rich 

one of the world’s largest 

communities almost overnight. 

medium, an entity that is 

full, fluid, expansive, and 

‘timemore’ (no, not timeless, 

The stories of Lola and Greta 

can also help us understand 

the framing of space within 

architecture. In 2018, I wrote 

a paper titled ‘Datascape: 

timemore!). This new word is 

interchangeable with space 

but is unique to architecture 

and the design disciplines. I 

present to you, datascape. 

The 21st Century Concept of 

Space’ which studies how and 

why we view space the way 

we do, and proposes a new 

conception called datascape. 

In this paper I identified 

Isaac Newton, the genius 

who taught us about gravity, 

calculus, optics, motion, 

and mechanics (most of 

which he accomplished 

by the age of 25), as the 

culprit in my investigation. 

In order to formulate this new 

The current understanding 

that space is static, 

eternal, absolute, flat, 

empty, 3-dimensional, and 

sometimes even nonphysical 

and nonexistent, comes 

from Newton and his 

contemporaneous buddies 

Leibniz and Kant. 

outlook I studied theories 

from a myriad of disciplines 

including Minkowski’s 

spacetime, Einstein’s relativity, 

Penrose’s orch-or theory, 

Weinstein’s geometric unity, 

Hoffman’s interface theory, 

Harman’s speculative realism, 

Ghazali’s occasionalism, 

Bostrom’s simulation argument, 

And although the science 

and philosophy disciplines 

have moved on since, us 

architects seem to still 

hold on to this antiquated 

Boroditsky’s cognitive research, 

Lynn’s animate form, and 

Schumacher’s field theory 

and cyberspace research, 

among many others. 

But I will not bore you with the 

details or quiz you on them. 

What is important to note is 

that all of these fields, from 

quantum physics to philosophy, 

at the very frontiers are 

proposing a completely new 

framework of what we once 

understood as ‘space’, and I 

tried to synthesize, simplify, 

and contextualize those 

theories in a way that could 

advance architecture into the 

leading discipline it once was. 

Two years later, the COVID-19 

pandemic has put a spotlight 

on the second component 

of datascape – virtuality 

– the medium that Greta’s 

community was built on. And 

it has reminded the world 

of the communities that 

continue to exist regardless 

of the global lockdown. 

Schools continue to 

operate, offices continue to 

meet, friends continue to 

communicate, media platforms 

continue to broadcast, artists 

continue to perform live, 

and Jeff Bezos continues 

to amass billions. How? 

Because we have been living 

in the virtual world (which we 

thought was a distant future) 

for many years now. Virtuality 

is synonymous with VR goggles 

in many people’s minds, 

but in fact every morning 

when you wake up and open 

your Instagram app you are 

entering the virtual realm. 

Not too long ago community 

meant geography. Full stop. 

It represented a group of 

people that were defined in 

one way or another based 

on their physical location, 

and how close they were. 

Today, not only is it *not* 

geographical, but it has become 

virtual and more intersectional 

community noun, often attributive 

com·mu·ni·ty | plural communities 

1 : a unified body of individuals: such as 

a : the people with common interests living in a 

particular area 

broadly : the area itself 

// the problems of a large community 

b : a group of people with a common 

characteristic or interest living together within a 

larger society 

// a community of retired persons 

c : a body of persons of common and especially 

professional interests scattered through a larger 

society 

// the academic community 

d : a body of persons or nations having a common 

history or common social, economic, and political 

interests 

// the international community 

than ever. Meaning? Well the 

flat earth community (bear 

with me) isn’t particular to 

any one place/city/country/ 

continent, they are a tightknit 

community located all 

around the globe (ironically). 

People are also now part of 

several communities; politically, 

ideologically, religiously, 

culturally, racially, educationally, 

occupationally etc. 

There is a young Estonian 

programmer somewhere who is 

a Harvard alumni, an Orthodox 

Christian, a democratic socialist, 

a Weeknd fan, and part of 

the Asshole Army of the 

Flagrant 2 podcast – so he is 

part of several communities 

simultaneously, and these 

communities are not defined 

by physical/geographical 

borders, just like Greta’s. 

How is this possible? 

#BecauseTheInternet. Without 

these photons moving at 

~300,000 km/s in the form of 

what we call radio waves, none 

of this would be possible. 

The virtual world isn’t just 

what you get when you wear 

VR goggles or what you see 

in Ready Player One, it’s all of 

this – everything that hacks 

the traditional spacetime we 

know – and communities are 

being defined by it every day. 

So there’s more to space than 

we intuitively think, and that’s 

why I developed the concept 

of datascape, and why I am 

now part of a collaborative 

initiative between 6 avantgarde 

architecture platforms 

that are leading the transition 

from the physical to the virtual 

by creating the very first 

architecture-led virtual world. 

See you at ILLUSORR ! 

58 

59


Linda Tighlit 

Community is at the core of the design 

process for Chilean architectural firm 

Elemental, founded by Alejandro Aravena. 

As architecture students, we quickly realize the 

importance of the end result of our buildings 

has on people. We design with the needs of the 

client in mind and develop a hindsight of how 

our creations will affect communities of various 

scales impacted by our designs in the long-term. 

But to what extent can we say that we 

truly incorporate what our clients want, 

especially within projects of a larger scale? 

Taking on a problem-solving approach to the 

designing phase of his work, Aravena not 

only shows us how logical thinking can open 

up creative possibilities in our designs, but 

also how we can ensure that we incorporate 

the people affected by our architecture 

throughout the whole design process. 

One of the most frequent domains of 

architecture that Elemental are known for 

contributing to is that of social housing. The 

marginalisation of poorer communities in Chile 

and Mexico is a complex and prominent issue, 

constantly plastered with ineffective, shortterm 

solutions; the cycle of poverty for millions 

of people that form the overall community of 

displaced or impoverished families in these 

Social impact 

through concept 

and design. 

How does Alejandro Aravena’s approach to 

social housing change the way we look at 

certain issues, and what can we learn from 

his projects that we can apply to our own 

architectural designs? 

countries rarely sees an opportunity to break. 

“There are things that 

they know much better 

than us, and if somebody 

knows how to make the 

most efficient use of scarce 

resources it’s poor families” 

Traditional methods of dealing with social 

housing issues have consistently proven 

to further isolate people already living in 

difficult conditions. Rows of terraces are 

still insufficient to house the hundred or 

so families Elemental are often responsible 

for accommodating; high-rise buildings are 

restrictive and unwanted by residents. With 

the restrictions of tight budgets and limited 

resources, the market often finds itself resorting 

to its habits of reduction and displacement. 

The size of the houses is reduced, and families 

are often displaced in peripheries situated 

far from the cities to which they originally 

attempted to migrate, as the government 

attempts to find cheaper land to allocate for 

these residents. As a result, the quality of life 

of this community is compromised, as are the 

opportunities that arise from living in the city. 

The land itself is undesirable, yet more 

affordable, allowing more families to be 

housed than the budget would initially 

cover in more expensive areas. 

So, when it came to projects such as Quinta 

Monroy in Iquique, where 100 families 

needed to be accommodated; or the Renca 

housing development in Santiago, where 170 

families required a place to live, what did 

Elemental do differently in order to provide 

an adequate living environment for all these 

inhabitants? Rephrasing the issue was the 

first step to tackling this housing issue from 

a different, more tangible perspective. 

Typically, 80 square metres is considered 

substantial for a middle-class family to live 

comfortably, but the government subsidies 

that Elemental are provided with (around 

10,000USD per family) do not cover this. 

Whilst the subsidies could cover the cost of 

a 40 square metre dwelling for each family, it 

is not ideal to cram these families into such 

compact homes. The concept of a ‘family’ 

does not necessarily mean a nuclear unit; 

Image (ArchDaily, © Elemental) 

the social housing needs to accommodate 

the growing and extended family units who 

may all need to live under the same roof. 

However, rather than viewing the solution 

as a reduction of the scope of the design, 

Elemental decided to build half of a good 

home, and leave enough space for the families 

to expand across the housing development 

as and when their households grew. 

And when posed with the question of which 

half was best to build, Elemental opted 

for the complex, expensive and structural 

systems that the families would struggle 

to pay for themselves. This is known as the 

principle of Incremental Housing. Ultimately, 

the housing grows in increments, with the 

combined effort of the community and 

the architects as the families create the 

spaces specifically tailored to their needs. 

The other core principle behind their design 

was the participatory process, which 

involved directly communicating with the 

families that would live in the housing 

development. During this early stage, the 

needs of the community were established 

and Aravena was able to identify what these 

families really wanted from their homes. 

Whilst logic and efficiency of the design is 

Image (Architectuul, © Elemental) 

60 

61


important, the participatory process revealed the 

flaws of this approach. It does not necessarily 

serve every one the needs of the families that 

were to inhabit the housing developments. 

One example is that Aravena believed the 

families would prefer them to invest in a 

water heater in each housing unit, which is 

both difficult to source and expensive for 

the residents to fund themselves. However, 

discussions with the families revealed that 

a bathtub was more important for them 

to own rather than a water heater. 

And it was during these conversations that the 

idea of a high-rise building was immediately 

disregarded, for the possibility of expansion 

was absolutely key to the residents (who 

had even threatened to go on a hunger 

strike in response to the suggestion). 

Had it not been for the participatory process, 

the design would have been one-sided, 

valuing the opinions of the architect over 

the families’ preferences and needs. 

By tuning in to the voices of the community 

and integrating them into the design of the 

social housing developments, Elemental brought 

together these families so they could determine 

how their dwellings could best serve their needs. 

The array of the initial halves of the homes gave 

the residents something in common which united 

them. The shared courtyards offer a space for 

different households to interact as well as an 

outside space for the members of the same 

household themselves to spend time together. 

Simultaneously, they had the freedom of 

expansion which gave them a sense of pride 

and identity - ultimately, they had control 

over their living spaces. Where most social 

housing developments are mainly based on 

the decisions of the government and the 

designers, Aravena was able to give the residents 

more power over where they are residing. 

Elemental’s housing approach can teach us how 

to design effectively by not compromising client 

needs, but rather focusing on these as the 

central core of our designs. And the participatory 

process enhances the effectiveness of the 

design, proactively dealing with disagreements 

and issues that are more difficult to solve further 

down the line as a result of poor communication 

between the families and the architect. 

We learn to see the community as part 

of the solution, not the problem. 

Families of the Renca housing development in Santiago, Chile gathered together to make paper models of their future homes. 

Image (Arquitectura Viva, © Elemental) 

As the image-maker of our social environments, 

public space has played an appreciable role in 

forming communities, their identities, and the 

forces that hold them together. What does 

the future of public space look like in the age 

of online communities, a global pandemic, and 

virtual worlds? 

Communities are a powerful 

tool that keep cities alive 

and have always existed in 

tandem with “shared spaces”, 

a reciprocating relationship 

stably functioning between 

them. Architecture constructs 

a playground for cultures to 

develop in while being dictated 

by the norms and behaviors 

of the presiding community. 

Over the past few decades, 

the interesting development 

of digital shared spaces has 

predictably activated a hybrid 

prototype- online communities. 

Free from the limitations 

of physical spaces like 

distance, time, and growing 

heterogeneity, digital spaces 

provide a platform for separated 

individuals to connect based 

on a common self-image. 

A friendly host to a variety 

of ideologies, groups, and 

cultures, these virtual worlds 

have the potential to substitute 

physical shared spaces, and 

maybe even replace them. 

In a space where traditional 

construction materials are 

interpreted as algorithms 

and lines of code, almost 

anyone can play architect 

and create realities that may 

otherwise be impossible to 

experience in the real world. 

Virtual spaces and economies 

have notably altered our 

lifestyles- shopping and 

entertainment experiences 

have been computerized to 

fit onto our screens, shrinking 

interaction fields into mere 

gigabytes. The ancient agoras 

of Athens have evolved into 

eBay and the Roman theatres 

are now known as YouTube. 

Developing technologies like 

virtual and augmented reality 

generate imaginative realms 

and can serve as a vehicle 

for emerging prospects 

of architectural space. 

Architecture builds 

communities in real life, but 

virtual communities seem 

to be built on their own. 

Still from DOORS by Theoriz 

Creative Directors: David-Alexandre 

CHANEL, Romain CONSTANT 

Ankitha Gattupalli 

On most days we live in a 

dynamic state between physical 

and digital environments, 

switching on and off between 

them, never inhabiting both 

places simultaneously. However, 

during a worldwide lockdown 

of the physical environment, 

our innate need to socialize 

has increased our attention 

towards digital communities. 

Familiar routines have been 

rattled out of their rigid 

shells, owing to the COVID-19 

pandemic and the ensuing 

lockdown and restriction in 

movement. Public spaces are 

being avoided in hopes of 

bringing down the impact of 

the virus, building a chasm 

between local communities who 

no longer meet face-to-face. 

The public realm - designed to 

62 

63


Interview 

with Urban 

Manifestos 

of the city use walking as 

their primary mode of transit, 

however the largest investment 

in the last decade has been 

a sea link that serves less 

than 0.1% of the city’s elite. 

Is our democracy undemocratic 

by default? The road to 

recovery needs to reconsider 

these historic blunders and 

move towards inclusive 

and healthy cities. 

The desirable scenario for 

making street space as a whole 

much more open and adaptable 

for social interaction, free of its 

usual domination by parking, is 

exemplified by the first rate. 

The ‘green lungs’ of London’s 

parks became a veritable 

‘life saver’, underlining 

how fundamental the 

holistic role of nature and 

biodiversity is in a city. 

Digital Water Lillies by Miguel Chevalier 

ensure safety, unity, comfort, 

and gathering - has ironically 

turned into a place of fear 

and seclusion. This period of 

stand by and confusion has 

us reflecting on the qualities 

and significance of public 

space, looking at new ways of 

inhabiting shared locations, and 

questioning the potential of despatializing 

social interactions 

through virtual worlds. 

Plenty of architects have found 

this new territory challenging 

and inspiring, using digital tools 

to explore latent meanings 

of architectural space. Space 

Popular, a multidisciplinary 

design studio focused on 

fusion physical and virtual 

zones, has recently designed 

an immersive virtual art 

gallery for the Architecture 

Association’s Earth Day event. 

Several of their projects explore 

the role of architecture in the 

design of virtual worlds and 

suggest that existing public 

spaces could be transformed 

by digital evolutions. Equipped 

with the time, resources, and 

mechanisms to create virtual 

public spaces, what can 

stop us from realizing these 

possibilities? The pandemic 

has brought along a shift 

in the world as we know it, 

unveiling a virtual paradigm 

that offers new spatial 

scenarios and in turn leads 

to different patterns of life. 

Public Cyberspace 

The success of digital space 

has been phenomenal, often 

earning the critique that it is 

so attractive and engaging 

that online connectivity causes 

isolation in real-life. Public 

space seems to have a new, 

first-of-its-kind competitor, one 

that seems more accessible, 

inclusive, and self-paced. 

The real world almost becomes 

redundant with new rapidly 

developing technologies that 

may pose a threat to the 

quintessential essence of 

public space. The prevalence 

of digital space challenges the 

autonomy of local communities 

and weakens cultural networks. 

The reduction of chance 

encounters within it, its 

monoculture based on 

consumption, and its 

predictable nature make digital 

space very different, its poor 

design possibly causing the 

degradation of communities. 

In the future, it would be the 

architect’s responsibility to use 

their expertise in the creation 

of meaningful digital spaces. 

Along with the conscious 

design of virtual spaces, 

architects continue to explore 

the interaction and overlap 

of digital and physical worlds. 

Given a fresh start to recreate 

public spaces, its current state 

should be carefully scrutinized 

to understand desirable 

qualities and avoid probable 

‘glitches’ in the future. 

These fundamental aspects 

of public space must drive 

this experimentation, keeping 

technological visions rooted 

in architectural precedents. 

The virtual and the real should 

be used to complement each 

other in imagining new spatial 

qualities. Social interactions will 

find new value and exist within 

intensely crafted experiences. 

A new democratized space will 

welcome beings of all natures 

who come together to further 

evolve community archetypes. 

The future of public space 

is phygital, a curated blend 

between physical realities and 

digital fantasies. The future of 

public space is phygital, only 

holding space of speculation. 

Curious about the future of 

public space, we reached out 

to Urban Manifestos - a duo 

of passionate urbanists Lucy 

Bullivant and Prathima Manohar 

- and asked them what they 

imagine the post-lockdown 

world to look like. 

What personal insights have 

you had while exploring the 

idea of public space of the 

post-lockdown future? 

PYuval Noah Harari, the 

renowned historian, 

philosopher and author 

recently said, “This storm will 

pass. But the choices we make 

now could change our lives for 

years to come“. Policy choices 

and designs made now during 

this time and right after will 

continue to impact our lives 

for the rest of the century. 

We should choose policies 

and ideas that deliver peoplecentric 

cities. For me this 

pandemic has highlighted the 

long-standing fractures in our 

cities. Most Indian cities have 

always had abysmally low open 

space per capita as compared 

to the recommendations of 

the UN. In Mumbai almost 55% 

LCity spaces look and 

feel really different when 

vehicles and people 

aren’t present, don’t they? 

It’s clear from my personal 

experiences that adaptation 

initiatives by the local 

government have been 

fundamentally important 

in opening up a safer 

public realm for cyclists. 

When it comes to pedestrians, 

they have still had to duck and 

dive in certain places to keep 

their distance, and it begs 

the question, why not make 

public spaces permanently 

more flexible with adjustable 

elements - more performative 

to respond to the complex 

needs of diverse activities? 

We need to make public 

streets far more inclusive and 

versatile for local communities, 

addressing cross-generational 

needs far more effectively, 

diversify the stakeholders to 

include mutual aid societies, 

genuinely affordable homes, 

and giving local managerrepresentatives 

more power 

and flexibility to support 

their viability as collaborative 

groups, safeguarding the 

communities’ interests. 

None of the virtual spaces 

that we have all currently 

been populating have been 

built by architects. What do 

you think this implies about 

the role of the architect in the 

future? 

64


PWell some of virtual 

reality environments in 

games have architects 

and designers creating the 

aesthetics and space. But 

I want to reemphasize that 

virtual reality can never 

compete with the beauty and 

mysticism of the real world. 

In terms of the role of 

architects, good design to 

me has to be about a social 

and community purpose. The 

time has come to make stars 

out of practices that address 

critical challenges of our 

society like innovating around 

toilets or water conservation. 

Urban Manifesto has 

been bringing important 

conversations to light, 

using digital platforms. 

What inspired you to start 

this series and what are its 

current goals? 

LWe created Urban 

Manifesto to introduce a 

new live streamed webinar 

series shaping a fresh manifesto 

for a happier, healthier and 

more liveable - and that means 

a more equitable - urban future. 

We involve multidisciplinary 

guest speakers from different 

continents, and enable them 

to present their personal 

three point manifesto, which 

we, as moderators, further 

question them about. 

We partnered with the 

Architecture Foundation 

which streams our events 

through its 100 Day Studio, 

and we’re reaching out to 

create a partnership with an 

organisation to further support 

the public profile of the series, 

so interested parties can watch 

the episodes on YouTube or 

Facebook, and get in touch. 

To conclude, we’d love to 

hear your personal Urban 

Manifesto for the world to 

come. 

LThe challenges lie in 

applying an integrated 

approach to removing 

barriers to positive change in 

society. A deregulated planning 

system will help to deliver an 

holistic approach to place 

applying integrated design 

strategies in neglected urban 

and rural areas, unlocking social 

opportunities for communities. 

Adaptive planning measures 

based on building resources; 

circular and green local 

economies; social, climatic 

and environmental resilience; 

and participatory placemaking 

strategies need to be applied. 

Consistency in embracing 

equality of opportunities and 

strengthening the identities 

and agency initiatives - by and 

with communities, rather than 

done for them in every case 

- in neighbourhoods, is vital. 

PUrbanization and the 

way we build cities is 

crucial for the future 

of human civilization. Already, 

cities occupy barely 2% of the 

world’s surface area and are 

responsible for 75% of global 

energy consumption and 80% 

of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Therefore, all of us need to take 

a moment and acknowledge 

that we are in many ways 

driving the future of humanity. 

A city that is walkable, compact 

with mass-transit and lots of 

access to nature will mean 

you are healthier, inclusive, 

happier and greener. So 

that’s the Urban Vision we 

should have for our future! 

Gate of Bright Lights by Space Popular, 

photographed by Kyung Roh 

Prathima Manohar is an entrepreneur with 

a focus on sustainable living and ecotourism, 

and chairs the think-do-tank 

on Livable Cities : The Urban Vision. 

http://theurbanvision.com/ 

@prathimamanohar 

Lucy Bullivant is a place strategist, 

curatorial director, award-winning 

author and the founder of Urbanista. 

org, her webzine on liveable urbanism. 

www.lucybullivantandassociates.net 

@urbanista_org @lucybullivant 

A White Gentleman’s Profession. 

The Crisis Behind the Looking Glass. 

Aneliya Kavrakova 

Community - people living in one particular area or people 

who are considered as a unit because of their common 

interests, social group, or nationality (Cambridge dictionary). 

Oppression - a situation in which people are governed 

in an unfair and cruel way and prevented from having 

opportunities and freedom (Cambridge dictionary). 

If asked to identify with a 

community, one can hardly 

escape the topic of oppression, 

one should not try to. To better 

understand one’s belonging 

within the architectural field, 

we are taught different ways 

to perceive it, to communicate 

it, thus creating different 

communities within it. 

Theoretical architecture. “The 

first great attempt of modern 

history to actualise historical 

values as a transformation 

of mythical time into present 

time, of archaic meanings 

into revolutionary messages, 

of ancient “words” into civil 

actions” 1 . In 1980 Tafuri 

describes the intellectual 

endeavours which led to 

what all socio-politically 

driven architectural proposals 

have since encompassed. 

Paper architecture. Community 

is often found and experienced 

within an architect’s paper 

education. It is a design 

drive, a programme topic, an 

environment where a young 

architect’s ideals question 

and thrive. As much as 

Corbusier or Tschumi’s Paris 

questions and thrives. And 

Cedric Price’s London. And 

Lebbeus Woods’ Berlin. 

Oppressed architecture. Late 

20 th century architects came 

to establish that perhaps the 

Vitruvian man is no longer 

relevant. Perhaps it is time to 

talk about the oppressed man. 

Deconstructing architecture 

has been attempted when 

trying to decode the binary and 

is perhaps a relevant starting 

point for the abolition of the 

systematic. On the (theoretical) 

hand, deconstruction in 

architecture provides many 

with a blank canvas, the 

opportunity to abandon 

any physical, social or even 

moral laws to often propose 

drastic and revolutionary 

architectural transgression. 

A turn to linguistics, philosophy, 

passivism, which was rightfully 

understood as a “a retreat into 

an imaginary space, in which 

bourgeois architects could 

find a temporary safe haven 

in the contemplation of their 

importance to affect reality” 2 . 

A contemplative community. 

On the other (physical) hand, 

a statement that has risen 

with the Black Lives Matter 

movement is: People are more 

important than buildings! But 

is it not the case that the 

buildings already belong to the 

people? Can we differentiate a 

building from its community? 

An oppressed community does 

not occupy free buildings. 

Can we talk about oppression? 

When tasked with the 

question “What does Black 

Architecture look like?” 

architect and professor Melvin 

L. Mitchell boldly states: 

“Everything that Frank 

Lloyd Wright and Le 

Corbusier designed.” 3 

66 

67

A Letter To You 

While stated when studying 

the crisis of the African- 

American Architect, a general 

lack of understanding 

regarding this relationship 

between architects and their 

insipirations is the answer to 

the crisis of Any Architect. 

The crisis of oppression. 

Architecture is still currently 

identified by the color, race and 

gender of those who designed 

it with their inspiration, 

resourcing and heritage blurred 

into an unidentifiable notion of 

community (an architectural 

school, academy, ideology, age), 

an oppressing community. 

This leads to another question 

posed in Virginia Woolf’s quietly 

architectural essay A Room of 

One’s Own (1929). She asks 

the reader, why (all obvious 

oppressions aside) do women 

writers struggle with writing 

a successful first sentence 

(when such are attempted 

and reach the public). 

Because, she answers herself, 

“women have served all these 

centuries as looking glasses 

possessing the magic and 

delicious power of reflecting 

the figure of man at twice its 

natural size.” 4 Are the oppressed 

merely this - a reflection, an 

inspiration, looking in, staying 

in? Is it not this precise 

notion of keeping in that we 

must strive to overcome? 

However, architecture is the 

solid product of the oppressor, 

the system which we strive 

to change, to abolish. And as 

such, is it looking in or out? 

Bernard Tschumi belongs to 

the system. The follies (we are 

taught) possibly not. Frank 

Lloyd Wright belongs to the 

system. The architecture (we 

are not taught) does not. 

Perhaps this is where the 

solution lies to my personal and 

professional question: Can I 

study/design an anti-oppressive 

architecture? Perhaps it is 

the understanding that the 

architecture that we see, study 

and critique does not belong 

to the architect hence it does 

not belong to the system. 

Perhaps it is here where I 

find the Black Architecture in 

Wright’s Chicago Prairie Houses 

of 1907 and here is where I 

recognise the follies as Feminist 

Architecture from 1968 Paris. 

Perhaps not. Perhaps this is a 

delusional attempt to reconcile 

the unjust treatment and 

oppression which surrounds 

the profession. But while the 

answer is not clear, I am set to 

seek out the non-whiteness, 

non-maleness, anti-oppressive 

behind any project that inspires, 

questions and resonates with 

the current turbulences. The 

transgressive architecture 

behind the looking glass. 

amend it when necessary: 

“Who will mastermind these 

exquisite spatial delights, 

these disturbing architectural 

tortures, these torturous 

paths of promenades through 

delirious landscapes and 

theatrical events where 

actors complement decor? 

Who..? 

(...for?) 

The Architect?” 4 

Fig. 1 Looking back. Inverted. 

(front) Atelier Populaire, On vous intoxique! 

(They intoxicate us!) Paris, 1968 

(back) Bernard Tschumi, Parc 

de la Villette, 1982-1998 

Fig. 2 Opression. 

(Or the Oppressed?) 

London Bridge, 2020 

1. Manfredo Tafuri, Theories and History 

of Architecture, 1980, pb14-15 

2. Amir Djalali, Eisenman beyond 

Eisenman, 2017, p.1289 

Everything has become digital, 

more or less. 

You find yourself worrying and questioning, 

how am I supposed to put all of this into 

practise? It almost feels like you’ve been 

forced into the deep end. You might not 

feel ready with any of the new software 

that is out there, you 

might have not even 

used much architectural 

software to begin with. 

You get told that you are 

supposed to be computer 

literate but you don’t 

feel like you're ready to 

completely dive into this 

new way of designing 

just yet. But now that 

really isn’t a choice. 

I know how intimidating this 

can feel, to realise how little 

you really know whilst you 

are studying architecture. It 

is very different especially 

when your existing 

experience or skills don’t fall 

into typical categories such 

as computer aided design 

(CAD), hand-sketching or model making, 

but you must be willing to give it a try. 

If you are already studying architecture 

you know how important your skills are for 

executing all your design ideas. This is where 

your ability to adapt will be challenged, 

however, the idea that you know very little 

shouldn’t stop you. You were designing 

before and you will continue to design, 

after all isn’t that what you signed up for? 

Design might be changing, but you are 

becoming part of that change when you 

decide that it is opportunity. It is almost as 

if the bare bones of what architecture is 

really about is starting to become apparent. 

It was and will continue to be about change, 

your ideas are part of it now - if you 

choose to see it that way. 

You will make mistakes, it 

is bound to happen. The 

sooner you realise that 

those mistakes will get 

you to a better creative 

outcome, that is where 

growth will happen. 

You will start to realise how 

much of an impact good 

and thoughtful design will 

be when you have seen it 

in real time for yourselves. 

You are seeing what 

effective and ineffective 

design is doing to the 

world on a global scale, not 

just in your households. 

Sooner or later you’ll 

start to realise great 

design is what society needs now. 

This may feel like too big of a responsibility, 

you know that already. Architecture wasn’t 

meant to be the easy road into a career 

that you would breeze through. How you 

define talent is still subjective, as there isn’t 

a straight forward answer or correct idea 

that you or anyone else may come up with. 

The field needs to recognise 

who is looking back when a 

white gentleman is looking in. 

And while doing so, I keep 

asking this question posed 

by Giovanni Damiani and 

3. Melvin L. Mitchell, The Crisis of the 

African American Architect, 2002, p.xii 

4. Virginia Woolf, A Room of 

One’s Own, 1929, p.30 

68 

69


Real work, hard work will come with 

sacrifices, especially at the beginning 

but somewhere down the line when your 

tool kit of all the things you’ve learnt 

becomes heavy you’ll be grateful to have 

given yourself the solid foundation for 

all the ideas you want to execute. 

So many of us, designers, architects, 

creatives within the built environment will 

be experiencing something challenging for 

some it will be the first time. I hope this 

is where you realise that the competitive 

nature of design becomes useless when 

you realise we are really all in this together. 

When you build a community of various 

expertise, skills and experience you 

give yourself the chance to learn what 

true collaboration is, the exchange that 

everyone not just yourself benefits from. 

So don’t be shy to ask for help, network 

with others with an expertise you’d like 

to know more about, be bold enough 

to say you are not there yet, especially 

if you have a tendency to compare 

yourself to others. Learn from them, now 

is not the time to seek validation from 

your peers or tutors, it is time for you 

to seek real knowledge that sometimes 

the studio space cannot give you. 

No, in fact it won’t. You have to think 

bigger and better since there is no 

longer room for mediocre design in all 

aspects of life, because we need it 

now more than ever. We need design 

that matters. And it starts with you. 

With your not so perfect design language 

and a story that you have the courage 

to tell. That is your superpower, even 

though you don’t see it like that, you are 

going to change the world one idea at 

a time, when you realise all you need is 

not the right story – but your story. 

There is no right combination of skills – 

just one that is true to how you speak to 

the world. You’ll find a way to tell it, you 

just have to start – one foot in front of 

the other, one blank page at a time. You 

are only limited by what you believe you 

can’t do. There isn’t a handbook for all of 

this, only the matters that you decide are 

worth listening to and designing for. 

Unchain yourself from all the beliefs you’ve 

had about being a designer – architectural 

or otherwise, this isn’t the place for that, 

human nature is just as complicated as the 

architecture that it is designed for. There 

is strength in finding your voice and it isn’t 

as straightforward as it is made out to be. 

You are a patchwork of all your ideas and 

skills, the ones you build during the early 

hours of the day or late hours of the 

night – the books you read, the things 

you watch and listen to. Be ruthless in 

your pursuit for better – not more in all 

of this chaos. There is so much out there, 

to learn from if only you choose to open 

yourself up to what matters to you. 

And you might surprise yourself in all of this 

– maybe not in riches or fame, but in impact, 

in change that makes the world a place to 

be in. You’ve got some work to do and a 

great team around to support you along 

the way, a community quite like no other. 

Nylda Hamchaoui 

Power Out of Restriction is 

a new, energetic, designinfused 

collective which 

focuses on the development 

of communities through the 

elevation of young people. 

The multidisciplinary practice 

aims to provide the younger 

generation with the necessary 

tools to make a positive impact 

in their local community. 

Having experienced firsthand 

the struggles that 

working-class youth face in 

modern society, the members 

of POoR aim to bridge the 

gap between the privileged 

and disadvantaged. 

In terms of architecture, young 

people are usually absent in 

the development of their cities 

and even fewer think they 

have the power to change 

this. Furthermore, with the 

slashing of youth facilities 

coupled with the high price 

of entry for further education 

in the UK, young people often 

feel as if they are set to fail. 

“This frustration 

is what gave 

birth to POoR.” 

The five-member team hope to 

instil a positive mindset into the 

younger generation and help 

them reach their full potential. 

In their ten-point manifesto, 

the collective states 

that it wants to create a 

framework to nurture and 

Breaking barriers in 

modern society. 

Shawn Adams 

mentor young people and 

to break down barriers in 

professional industries. “It’s 

our mission to connect with 

young people and guide 

them to make choices which 

benefit their own success” 

The collective consists of 

three Royal College of Art 

Graduates, a videographer and 

a junior finance accountant. 

Shawn Adams is the editor 

and heads the marketing for 

the collective. He is a member 

of the New Architecture 

Writers and recent graduate 

of the Royal College of Art. 

Shawn and fellow co-founder 

Larry Botchway previously 

taught architecture lessons 

at a local secondary school 

while studying at the 

University of Portsmouth. 

Larry is the head of graphics at 

POoR and often finds himself 

designing brightly coloured 

content for the collective’s 

social media pages. He is 

greatly interested in creating 

a voice for marginalised 

communities and believes 

that architecture can be used 

as a tool to bring a diverse 

range of people together. 

Matt Harvey heads the 

70 

71


finance and operations of the 

organisation. After working for 

a high-end fashion brand, Matt 

built his skills in forecasting 

and cash flow management. “It 

is important for any emerging 

collective to have their finances 

in check and have a solid 

business plan” states Matt. 

Currently, he is involved 

in the budgeting and 

overseas purchases for 

major corporations such as 

the Financial Times. “Having 

someone with a finance 

background in the team has 

allowed us to make precise 

decisions about the services 

we provide and how we 

go about pricing them.” 

Alpha Barrie is the team’s 

videographer and runs his own 

video production company. He 

has filmed various music videos, 

web series and live events. 

His most notable film work 

in the architecture industry 

is his short film for the RIBA 

Architects Underground event. 

Alpha brings a completely new 

perspective to the way we 

work says Ben. Co-founder and 

head of engagement, Ben Spry, 

has a wealth of experience 

working on regeneration 

schemes and currently 

works at the award winning 

Karakusevic Carson Architects. 

“We strive to help 

and educate the 

younger generation 

in order to break 

down barriers.” 

Alpha Barrie 

Since the founding 

of the collective in 

October 2019, POoR 

has worked alongside 

organisations such 

as Beyond the Box 

Consultants, Grey 

Lemon and the 

Dalgarno Trust. Earlier 

this year the collective was 

invited to sit on the panel for 

Scale Rules’ Next Generation 

Pavilion Competition at 

Grimshaw Architects to judge 

the designs of school students. 

The winning proposal was to be 

built during the London Festival 

of Architecture; however, due 

to the current circumstances 

this has been postponed. 

Since the lockdown started, 

the collective has had two 

internal meetings a week. 

Matt believes that this has 

helped the group solidify what 

services POoR provides. 

“Before lockdown 

we all had different 

ideas of what 

POoR actually 

meant to us.” 

Sitting on Zoom for around 

five hours a week has allowed 

the collective to create a 

clear mission, vision and 

series of goals. “We have 

been able to critically assess; 

reflect and evaluate the 

way we work and intend on 

working in the future.” 

However, due to the pandemic 

many of the collective’s 

projects have been put on hold. 

According to Larry, they were 

hoping to have exhibited work 

with a group of young people 

for the Great Exhibition Road 

Festival but may have to wait 

another year for this to come 

into fruition. Despite these 

setbacks, Matt made it clear 

that they are still continuing 

to develop and work with 

communities for when social 

distancing measures are lifted. 

With everything that is 

currently happening in the 

world, now is the right time 

to try out new things states 

Shawn. As things slowly improve 

outside, jobs in architecture 

offices may become more 

and more scarce. With this is 

mind, students should start 

to think of ways in which 

they can work and practice 

in non-traditional ways. 

The architecture industry 

is broad and varied, there 

are opportunities lying 

around every corner. 

Acting as a platform, POoR 

aims to push the boundaries 

in architecture to help the 

younger generation navigate 

the built environment. By 

engaging young people, 

hosting workshops and 

creating publications, 

POoR aims to shake up the 

industry and get the voices 

of young people heard. 

A Conversation with 

Benni Allan 

of EBBA Architects 

I’m an architect, designer 

and teacher, with a strong 

interest in making. I was 

born and brought up in 

Spain, which I think has 

given me an unintentional 

fascination with material 

things, nature and buildings. 

I have different roles alongside 

running a studio called EBBA 

ARCHITECTS, including lecturer 

in Architecture at the University 

of Greenwich, RIBA Ambassador 

for schools in East London, 

chair of the Architecture 

Foundation’s young trustees 

and Co-Founder of a new 

virtual platform, AORA. 

Prior to establishing the studio, 

I worked on projects spanning 

the cultural, education 

and housing sectors with 

architectural practices in 

China and London, including 

Niall McLaughlin Architects. 

Since graduating from the 

Bartlett School of Architecture, 

I have been selected as ‘One 

to Watch’ by the British Design 

Council in 2015 and awarded the 

RIBA-J Rising Stars Award 2019. 

What is EBBA Architects, 

where did it come from and 

what do you aim to do? 

EBBA ARCHITECTS is an 

inquisitive architecture and 

design practice. We create 

buildings, places and objects 

through investigative and hands 

on approaches to design and 

making. Our work sits at the 

juncture of architecture, design 

and fashion, with experience of 

delivering projects at different 

scales for public and private 

in the UK and internationally. 

The practice was established 

from a series of temporary 

commissions in fashion 

and set design, which 

later grew organically into 

other types of projects. 

At the forefront of the studio’s 

work is a focus on making 

spaces that reflect a particular 

poetic and material ambition 

that can carry meaning and 

have a direct emotional effect 

on the users. The studio is 

fascinated by an open-ended 

architecture that enables 

flexibility and a freedom of use 

for contemporary ways of living. 

We are interested in 

constructing high quality and 

socially engaged architecture, 

whether through physical 

structures, strategic design, 

drawings or making places 

that are led by communities. 

Housing around a courtyard Model, EBBA 

We had the pleasure of 

speaking with Benni Allan, a 

RIBA-J Rising Star, lecturer 

and Founding Director of EBBA 

Architects. Benni tells us about 

his journey so far and what he 

has planned for the future. 

72 

73


Our belief is that good design 

should be available to everyone. 

Our collaborative research-led 

way of working encompasses 

a network of artists, makers 

and fabrication specialists 

who support projects in a 

continual search for particular 

spatial and material qualities. 

This collective form of practice 

extends to teaching and 

making - at both a physical 

and theoretical level - which 

has become an important 

aspect of the work of the 

studio, able to test and explore 

ideas while allowing on-going 

investigations into the role 

of architecture in society. 

Model making is something 

at the core of your practice 

and a part of your teaching, 

why do you think it is so 

important? 

I have always been interested in 

things that are handmade and 

the benefits you get from being 

able to pick something up, pull 

it apart and test a particular 

aspect or view. I truly believe 

that you should be testing 

every aspect of a project 

at different scales, whether 

it's the general massing or 

a detail around a window. 

Pre-school, Manchester - Credit: Lorenzo Zandri 

The physicality of a model 

is always much richer than 

looking at things on a screen. 

It is also much more direct and 

can mimic the experience of 

architecture much more closely. 

As a student I believe this is an 

important aspect of learning. 

You've worked on a nice 

range of projects, is this 

selective, personal preference 

or more driven by the core 

values that your practice aims 

to incorporate? 

As a studio we have been 

very keen to work on projects 

where we can add value and 

create something meaningful 

for a broader public. We work 

on a very diverse selection 

of projects out of choice, 

yet we are conscious of the 

kinds of projects we work on. 

There is an enjoyment from 

working at different scales 

as it forces you to continue 

learning and developing 

ideas which can later be 

applied to other projects. 

We have experience of working 

on temporary commissions in 

the arts and fashion sectors, 

which can then be explored 

in spaces for a residential 

or education project. 

We like to create spaces and 

places that are delightful, 

and this can take the form of 

something transient or a large 

building project. To us it doesn't 

matter the scale, we take every 

project and develop it with 

as much care and attention. 

We believe there is always the 

opportunity to make something 

great from all projects. 

I personally enjoy working on 

all things that involve design. 

Most recently, I co-founded 

a radical project to create a 

virtual gallery that incorporates 

different aspects as a 

meditative and heeling tool. 

This led to establishing AORA, 

a virtual platform bringing 

together art, architecture, 

music, food and movement 

in one place. The initiative 

is aimed at developing new 

ways to support wellbeing 

through these key themes. 

The gallery has been designed 

to bring people closer to art 

in an environment that can 

be inspiring and relaxing. 

Alongside the virtual gallery is 

a series of events that will be 

programmed weekly, bringing 

specialists, artists and others 

together to discuss new ideas 

around our key tenets. 

What is EBBA currently 

working on and how are 

you dealing with social 

restrictions? 

Like many, the new normal has 

presented some interesting 

challenges with sites closing 

and clients generally being 

more cautious. However, this 

time has allowed us to reflect 

on our work to date and to 

consider how we might develop 

the way the practice works. 

At the moment we are 

delivering some refurbishment 

Architectural Futures Exhibition, Royal Academy 

Credit: Agnese Sanvito 

projects, private residential 

schemes and a construction 

skills centre, as well as working 

on the design stages for 

housing and education projects. 

Most have slowed down but 

look to start up very soon. 

The construction skills centre 

is a very exciting project 

for us, and our first public 

scheme. The centre will help 

to support practical training, 

and the façade design we 

have created reflects this 

idea. We wanted to create 

something that responds to the 

activities in the skills school. 

Likewise, the multi-unit housing 

scheme we are designing 

is the largest project we 

have been commissioned to 

deliver. The project aims to 

create high quality houses 

on a corner site, making an 

interesting arrangement of 

blocks around a courtyard. 

We are excited about 

the potential this offers 

to explore new ways 

of living and designing 

homes at a larger scale. 

As a tutor, how do you think 

students may have to adapt in 

the next year or so? 

There are two types of 

students who will need to 

adapt, those continuing with 

education and those looking 

for their first placement. It 

is an uncertain time and I 

believe it will be hard for many 

students looking for jobs, 

given that social distancing 

is going to impact the way 

practices function. However, 

this is something that is 

being felt across the world 

and we all have to adjust to 

this new way of working. 

I would urge those looking for 

jobs to be patient and to reach 

out to practices they really 

enjoy the work of, applying with 

a tailored portfolio and personal 

cover letter. At the same time, 

as the job market will be on 

edge, I would suggest using 

the extra time to read and keep 

on learning about things that 

are not just about buildings. 

Architecture is a profession 

that requires an understanding 

of many things and right 

now there is a strong focus 

on people and place making. 

Photographers Studio, London 

Credit: Forbes Massie 

If they have the possibility, I 

would also recommend trying 

to find communities or charities 

that might benefit from their 

skills and advice. Start building 

networks with people both in 

and out of the construction 

industry. These people might 

eventually offer you a job 

or even a small project. 

In terms of students 

continuing with their studies, 

the course will demand 

much more self discipline 

and managing one's time. 

While it is more challenging 

to make and be productive 

at home, students can find 

creative ways to explore 

ideas through new means. 

Digital technology allows you 

to push the boundaries of 

what is possible and this can 

be done from home, but it is 

how you communicate these to 

others which offers the most 

interesting opportunities. 

Likewise, hand-drawing is 

something you can do as long 

as you have a desk to work 

from. I'm interested to see how 

students take on this challenge. 

74 

75

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Index 

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INVOLVED is an online and 

print magazine. It was born 

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is a bridge between education 

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Paperspace is the University 

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Currently in its 4th issue, 

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Real Review 

Real Review is a magazine 

with compelling themes 

designed as questions: “What 

it means to live today”. It is 

an effort by and published 

through the REAL foundation, 

an architectural practice 

and cultural institute. 

Afterparti 

Afterparti is a magazine 

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champions platforms for 

underrepresented voices 

in architecture and design. 

Born out of a diverse 

collective known as New 

Architecture Writers (N.A.W). 

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Editor-in-Chief 


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80 

81


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