New cohort of Young Architects join AF/AHMM residency programme

Ten architects have been awarded a six month residency at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris's offices at the White Collar Factory in Old Street.  They are the second cohort to be awarded desk space through the residency progrmme, which is operated by AHMM in partnership with the Architecture Foundation.  The new cohort comprises the directors of four practices: Studio naama, Studio NYALI, Entropic Group and Studio KA.  It also includes the directors of the campaign group Black Females in Architecture.  Details of the previous cohort of residents are available here.

Mark Rist & Natalie Savva, Studio naama

Studio naama is an international and interdisciplinary Architects’ design studio based in London. Underlying our work is an interest in architecture as an extension of its social and physical environments, and through our exploration of this concept, we seek to derive new spatial qualities that enable people to occupy their environments in creative, rich and meaningful ways. Our experience spans across a variety of scales and sectors in the UK, Cyprus, New York and Japan; ranging from homes, to playgrounds, to civic spaces; and collaborating with private clients, artists, developers, schools and local councils.
 

Bushra Mohamed & Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Studio NYALI

Studio NYALI is a London based architecture practice founded by Nana Biamah-Ofosu and Bushra Mohamed. Our work aims to center peripheral identities, cultures and people by examining, challenging and shifting architectural critiques and narratives towards a more inclusive, holistic understanding of the built environment. The practice is focused on identity, shared histories and spaces with a strong belief that architecture must be understood as the embodiment and artefact of the human experience. Studio NYALI has been named as one of ArchDaily’s Best New Practices of 2021. Teaching & Research is an integral part of our practice. Together, Nana & Bushra lead Diploma 2 at the Architectural Association & Studio 3.2 at the Department of Architecture and Landscape at Kingston School of Art. We are carrying out a research project titled The Course of Empire: A Compound House Typology.

 Lorenzo Iandelli & Jamie Irving, Entropic group

Our practice is based on research, design and interpretation, (re)discovering old and new ideas concerning efficiency and energy consumption and applying them to the built environment. Within our conversations we often discuss how sustainability within architectural practice often overlooks the complex social, material and spatial systems that make our world - narrowing down solutions to mere applied technology. We reframe these oversights through the lens of entropy, seen as the dispersal of energy in a closed system which is not re-purposed for functional use. By identifying such ‘entropic losses’ in projects, our approach looks to reimagine the dormant potential within found systems. Projects include a pavilion, constructed out of untouched building materials with the intent for them to be repurposed upon deconstruction, offering unspoiled timber to a more permanent use; a greenhouse and shed built with students for a charity allotment site, where the shed enhances the environment of the greenhouse; and a case study for retrofit, aiming to bring awareness of the heat dispersal within the existing UK housing stock.

Alex Butterworth & Katherine Nolan, Studio KA

Alex worked at Herzog & de Meuron in Basel and then joined 6a architects in 2013, where she has undertaken a range of projects addressing re-use and landscape.  She has previously been a unit master of an undergraduate and a diploma unit at the AA School of Architecture. Katherine previously worked at David Chipperfield Architects on the adaptive re-use of several existing buildings including the American embassy in London and a seaside hotel in Belgium. Katherine has taught a Diploma unit with Tony Fretton at London Metropolitan University. The directors jointly teach a second year design studio at the University of Cambridge.

Akua Danso & Selasie Setufe, Black Females in Architecture

Black Females in Architecture (BFA) is a network and enterprise founded to increase the visibility of black and black mixed heritage women within architectural industry and other built environment fields. In so doing, BFA actively addresses issues of inequality and diversity within the industry. BFA supports its growing membership through the provision of a support network within which members benefit from shared knowledge, advice, guidance, access to the personal networks of fellow members, job opportunities and much more. Our women come from numerous backgrounds that industry comprises of several disciplines: Planning, Construction, Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape, Architectural Engineering, Urbanism and Environmental Design. Additionally, BFA provides a communal digital & physical space where black women can elevate and empower each other through skilled creative workshops, talks and design projects.

All photographs by Matthew Blunderfield