Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources

Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources (ARCSR) is a teaching and research area linking architectural education, research and practice. In collaboration with charities, social enterprises and other civil society groups, ARCSR examines and extends knowledge of how the built environment is transformed, with an emphasis on pressing areas of policy demand where formal architectural and design processes tend to have little impact. These include the making of informal settlements, migration and relocation dynamics, humanitarian practice and social development. The focus is on situations where resources are scarce and where both culture and technology are in a state of rapid change.

The group, which has links with Architecture Sans Frontières -UK, the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales and international NGOs, has engaged in projects in India, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Nepal, Greece and Italy amongst others.

Live project in the settlement of Kachhpura in Agra, India

Website: www.arcsr.org

Research projects

Crossing Cultures

Lines through the City

Freetown School of Architecture by Joe Davis

Making Laboratory

Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), Wales

Delhi

Savda Ghevra- Julia KingPhD Architecture

Savda Ghewra in Delhi, India

Kosovo

Roma settlements in Pristina, Kosovo

Freetown

Navi Mumbai

Quarry worker settlements in Navi Mumbai, India

Agra

Kachhpura in Agra, India

ARCSR Publications

Student reports and publications

ARCSR is represented at all levels of study within the School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University: at undergraduate level (Studio 07) and at postgraduate level (Unit 06). Studio and research booklets are produced by researchers and students sampling investigative work in the research areas studied that year.

Civic Way Station: Transitional Home Making at the Edge of Europe (2018)

Civic Fit: Scoping migrant gateways and urban change in Athens, Calabria and Kathmandu (2017)

Civic Assembly: Re-inhabiting Cracked and Blighted Places in Kathmandu, Calabria and Athens (2017)

Finding Fit in Fractured Landscapes (2016)

Remaking Places: the Civic Estate and the Kathmandu Edgelands (2016)

Kathmandu Edgelands: Brickfields, Horticulture and Urban Hill Villages Post Earthquake (2015)

The March of the City (2015)

Scoping Kathmandu: Exploring Settlements, the City and the Valley (2014)

Architecture Exchange: London, Agra and Freetown (2014)

Agra and London (2013)

City Pockets: Secret Gardens and Railway Lands (2013)

Edgelands: Kosovo and India (2012)

Walking City: Agra Affinities, Mediations and Perambulations (2011)

Agra Beyond Taj (2010)

Freetown Construction Manual (2010)

Shifting Places (2009)

Namaste Delhi (2008)

East Yamuna Exchanges: Everyday Conversations in Space and Time (2007)

Agra Narratives: Everyday Conversations in Space and Time (2006)

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Organisers and speakers at the 'Working for what? architectural symposium

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Generosity and architecture

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The enigma of nature in the age of proto-globalisation

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Banner Image: Map of Kaningo, Aimee Thompson, Eno-Obong Akpan, Agnieszka Pyrdol, Adam Cheltsov and Joe Davis (2018)
Main Image: Wedding Tent Structure in Agra (2011)