The Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources is an emergent area within the practice of architecture and a new research area within ASD focusing on issues within the broader paradigm of continuity and change in the built environment. It is linked to and supports the practical work carried out in the Projects Office within this field.

ARCSR aims to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to enable architects to facilitate individuals and communities in the transformation of the places and spaces they inhabit in situations where resources are scarce and where both culture and technology are in a state of rapid change. The research area includes extending understanding of the sustainable construction of domestic and community buildings using self-help techniques of construction, adaptation, repair and management.

In addition the area of enquiry aims to extend architectural insights concerning the spatial and temporal transformation of the physical environment within the green and humanitarian agendas by the occupiers themselves, whether as individuals or as members of a transitional community. Insights into the relationship of cultural change to space transformation are investigated alongside the effects on space of shifts in technology choice.