In February the RSA and the Architecture Foundation issued an open call for ideas about the future uses of architecture. Responses to this call have raised intriguing questions about architects’ ingenuity, strategic thinking and social role in today’s climate of financial constraint and emphatic localism.
56 entries, including submissions from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, India and Greece, put forward innovative ways for architects to connect social need with spatial opportunity, re-structure conventional processes, increase the productiveness and resilience of communities and turn limitations of time, space and budget into creative advantage. Seven of these ideas were selected by a shortlisting panel chaired by Nabeel Hamdi. The panel were Jennifer Dixon, architect, Austin-Smith: Lord; Edwin Heathcote, architecture & design correspondent, FT; Christine Murray, Editor, Architects’ Journal; Lewis Biggs, Director, Liverpool Biennial; Sarah Ichioka, Director, Architecture Foundation; and Emily Campbell, Director of Design, RSA Projects.
The Resourceful Architect is sponsored by Austin-Smith: Lord and Land Securities.
The seven shortlisted ideas to be presented on 18 May are:
The Redundant Architect Recreation Association (RARA)
East London Design Bureau
A flexible and affordable shared workspace for out-of-work architects to experiment and fabricate.
72-hour Urban Action
Alison Killing, Killing Architects, Amsterdam
A real-time architecture competition defined by an extreme deadline, tight budget and limited space to resolve local needs.
Space for Exchange: A Sustainable Return to Srebrenica
Vernes Causevic, London Metropolitan University
A programme to renew and rebrand war-torn Srebrenica into a sustainable regional centre for vocational education.
School of Architecture for All (SCHARCHA)
Led by Maria Theodoru, Athens
A network of associates re-thinking the relation between architecture and economics by viewing the city as a pool of resources requiring administration.
Pavement for Las Lomas
Bara Safarova, London Metropolitan University
A DIY instruction manual for making and installing paving slabs for the deprived community of Colonias in Texas.
Mashup
Richard Brearley and Uli Kraeling, Sidell Gibson Architects, London
An electronic microsite connecting social and personal needs with derelict pockets of land and buildings in London.
The Architects Adhocracy
Mobile Studio and Yesomi Umolu, London
A competition investigating how much architectural and spatial agency can be achieved for a budget of £40 and within 40 minutes of ideation time.
