2022/23 Design Think Tank Module Launches

This week the Design Think Tank module began for our First Year students. 

Design Think Tanks are a 14-week module in the First Year. Each year different practices from the Practice Network set a series of briefs for sites in one London borough, which focus on issues they think are facing the Built Environment. Students choose which Design Think Tank they would like to join based on their own interests, ahead of the module starting towards the end of the first term.

This year the First Years are working on nine different sites in Hackney. Six groups are working directly in collaboration with London Borough of Hackney, with staff from the council acting in a consultation role, while other groups are working with Building Centre. Student groups are guided by these consultants, a member of their host practice, a member of the LSA faculty and individual practitioners that are relevant to the brief.

The combination of exposure to practice knowledge, working with real sites and potential clients, means that the Design Think Tanks give students fantastic real-world architectural experience.

The Design Think Tanks groups for 2022/23 are as follows:

LSA AS CIVIC AGENCY
DSDHA with Alicia Pivaro

How could the London School of Architecture become a truly civic and meaningfully municipal institution, partnering with communities, local government, associations and civil society to effect real change in its neighbourhood? This Think Tank will set out a vision for the LSA’s distributed presence in Hackney, building on work focusing on spatial justice and research into strategies and tactics to empower communities.

RETROFIT AS REPARATION
Arup Access and Inclusive Environments team with Mei-Yee Man Oram, RAWE Project with Carly Dickson and DIS/Collective with Jordan Whitewood-Neal.

The way we maintain the city can become a way of giving back to local communities at risk — this is how we are currently defining reparation, as a social practice. From this, our Design Think Tank, Repair as Reparation, asks how we can create new understandings of the terms and methodologies of retrofit and reparation, in the context of making cultural and civic spaces accessible and inclusive?

HOMEMAKING REVOLUTION
Allies and Morrison

Homemaking Revolution seeks to reinstate industrial uses in Hackney as a viable typology that can co-exist with contemporary and future modes of living, working and leisure. The
Think Tank asks students to develop an inspiring and implementable industrial scheme that successfully knit into the fabric of urban life. The site will support the manufacturing of construction materials and prefabrication components for housing.

HACKNEY SITOPIA
Studio Egret West and Architecture & Food

The UK grows a little over half of the food it needs and our food system is reliant on imports which burden poorer countries with the related environmental impact. What might this mean for the future of food in our built environment in London? Throughout our DTT we will look to support innovative ideas which advocate for, develop and implement the growth of urban agriculture in our city through visionary architectural design.

MATERIAL CHANGE
Orms

How can Material Passports support material reuse of existing buildings? What infrastructure is required to support, promote, and embed the principals of circularity within the
construction industry and local communities.

NEIGHBOURHOOD CONSTRUCTION HUB
Material Cultures

This Design Think Tank (DTT) aims to establish the feasibility of a Community Construction Centre in Hackney produced by The Built Environment Trust (BET). With a focus on retrofitting existing underperforming housing stock with bio-based building materials and systems within a circular approach we will aim to identify the key stakeholders and speculate on the activities undertaken at the centre with reference to existing and historical precedents.

RESILIENT NEIGHBOURHOODS / COMMUNITY POWER
Buckley Gray Yeoman with ACAN

How do we create a space that can improve community climate resilience and empower Hackney people to decarbonise their homes, schools and places of work? We will select, analyse, conserve and transform an existing, under-used space within Hackney to become a ‘Neighbourhood Decarbonisation Hub.’ The Hub will be hyper-local, directly influenced by the immediate local context, community and groups.

MINDFUL CITY
Penoyre Prasad and Ash Sakula

In our post-Covid cities, health and wellness are becoming an increasingly important consideration in the way we design our built environment. This Think Tank will explore how slack spaces in the High Street can be harnessed to promote (mental) health and wellbeing. The premise is that people will use services in their immediate locality before their health needs become acute and therefore will help devise their own proactive care and be active in a social network offering resilience through & weak ties’ in the community.

NEVER NEVER LAND
PDP

Peter Pan does not exist in the real world, while increasing dependency and frailty are inevitable for every ageing one, whether they accept or not. How do we design a Never Never Land for those Peter Pans who want to enjoy their later lives? With the urgency of addressing a more suitable living environment for the elderly in mind, students are encouraged to explore comprehensive urban planning and architectural design strategies for a mixed development scheme, which takes all stakeholders’ interests into consideration.

Are you interested in joining the Design Think Tank module next year? Apply Now to join the LSA for 2023/24!