The first workshop was held on 13-14 October 2023, across three sites in London, including: University College London (UCL), Convoys Wharf (Deptford), and the Royal College of Art (RCA). The workshop attracted over 250 applications, from which 50 participants joined in person and 50 joined online. Participants joined from 10 countries, 20 universities, and 15 independent practices. Through a combination of lectures, site visits, workshops, and panel discussions, participants explored three questions: firstly, how projects create equitable and meaningful engagements with communities; secondly, how data that is collected and generated can be made accessible to communities that are part of sites; and thirdly, how study and design of a site/project, such as Sayes Court, can be distributed across a wider area. Speakers included: Ed Wall (University of Greenwich), Roo Angell (Sayes Court), Rosie Martin (Sandwich Club), Tim Waterman (UCL Bartlett), Christina Geros (RCA), Elena Luciano Suastegui (AA), Larry Botchway (POoR Collective), and Alfredo Ramirez (AA). Guest included Jane Mah Hutton (University of Waterloo) and Lidia Gasperoni (TU Berlin).
Call for participants
The first workshop, designed for teams to attend both in-person and remotely online, will be on 13-14 October 2023 in Deptford, London (UK). It is a partnership with Sayes Court (CIC), a community organisation that has been developed through local resistance to a large ongoing urban regeneration project (Convoys Wharf). Sayes Court is a place that was historically the London home to John Evelyn, the author of ground-breaking books on urban forestry (Sylva) and air pollution (Fumifugium), and it is currently being developed as a public landscape and research centre.
With contributions from Akil Scafe-Smith (Resolve Collective), Elena Luciano Suastegui (Architectural Association/RCA), Jane Mah Hutton (University of Waterloo), Ken Worpole, and Roo Angell (Sayes Court), the first workshop will explore three questions: firstly, how projects create equitable and meaningful engagements with communities; secondly, how data that is collected and generated can be made accessible to communities that are part of sites; and thirdly, how study and design of a site/project, such as Sayes Court, can be distributed across a wider area. Participants will engage actively with these questions through site-specific research and design projects.
Participants will develop research and design materials from site-specific investigations. In addition to the workshop on 13-14 October 2023, a presentation by workshop participants will take place online in December.
Places are limited and will be allocated based on responses to questions in the application form here by 22 September 2023.
Materials for Workshop 01 will be uploaded here in advance of the workshops sessions.
Field Office Workshops 