PG Architecture Unit 06 Postgraduate Architecture – Units

Unit brief

The Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources (ARCSR) has long explored how architecture can emerge from the shared concerns, materials, and cultures of place. In 2025–26, Unit 6 turns its attention to the River Lea, London’s historic eastern waterway, as a site where ecological urgency, cultural exchange, and urban transformation converge.

Approaching the River Lea as a living laboratory, this year’s programme responds to the climate emergency, post-industrial change, and social fragmentation by asking: how can participatory architecture and cultural events create new forms of common ground?

Working with the Lea’s diverse communities - from boat dwellers to artists, market traders to ecologists - students will investigate how seasonal festivals, living labs, and collective making can help reimagine the river’s future. This is a place-based, participatory design studio, using ARCSR’s methodology of the architect as detective, author, and craftsman to map, narrate, and construct spatial interventions rooted in local histories and material flows.

The year is divided into two parts:

Preliminary Project (Weeks 1–7) – Students will act as urban detectives, mapping micro-sites along the Lea, crafting narrative briefs from lived experiences, and designing small-scale spatial prototypes for temporary events.

Major Project (Weeks 8–27) - As architect-craftsmen, students will integrate individual designs into a collective Festival Framework along the river. Proposals may be permanent or seasonal, fixed or floating, but all must address climate resilience, circular construction, and the integration of diverse ecologies. Technical resolution, detail development, and participatory engagement will culminate in a final public festival and exhibition staged along the river itself.

In place of a field trip, students will be encouraged to take part as volunteers in a series of hands-on workshops, working with sustainable materials and low-impact construction techniques. Hosted by grassroots and charitable organisations along the Lea, these learning sessions aim to combine practical skill-building with community volunteering and exchange.

In 2025–26, the River Lea will be our living lab - and our common ground. There will also be an opportunity to join a fully funded two-week live project residency in Athens in summer 2026, supported by The Water Trust (ARCSR) and The Turing Scheme, contributing to Refugee Week Greece 2026.