Are you stuck in an architecture vacuum? Tired of the black-turtleneck echo-chamber? Life (Not Quite) Outside Architecture opens an escape hatch for anyone who loves design thinking but suspects the job title architect isn’t the only destination. Each edition invited practitioners who began in architecture and then carved out careers in fields as varied as public policy, development, curation, journalism, public art and academia. Together we traced the moment they paused the Part III marathon, asked “what if…?” and took their skills elsewhere.
The pilot season opened with Public-Sector Paths, where civil-service trailblazers Karen Jelenje (Hackney Council and Activate the City), Krish Nathaniel (Principal Urban Designer, Harrow) and Anna-Lisa Pollock (ex-Public Practice, now Penoyre & Prasad) compared council regeneration, national policy work and youth-led placemaking. We followed with Public Art, a Women’s History Month celebration in which Seyi Adelekun (Assemble), curator Leyla Fakhr (Art Square Projects) and Catherine Borowski (Skip Gallery) revealed how to negotiate funding, sites and community buy-in.
The Academia session brought architect-researcher Nana Biamah-Ofosu (Studio Nyali), colour-and-light specialist Helena Howard (Hawkins\Brown) and graphic-novelist Anna Mill to discuss research grants, studio teaching and storytelling. We then crossed to “the Dark Side” of Development with Remi Connolly-Taylor (REMI.C.T / Kit London), Guy Rochez (Brick by Brick), Yẹmí Aládérun (Paradigm Network) and Avital Wittenberg (Make Shift), probing how design training translates to feasibility models and meanwhile uses.
We also hosted a packed Curation night at Hackney’s Diddy’s Bar with Arman Nouri (Eyesore), Alice Power (V&A) and friends unpack exhibition-making, while a Public Engagement double-header at Allies & Morrison welcomed Matt & Fiona, Stephanie Edwards (Urban Symbiotics) and Siraaj Mitha (Open City Accelerate) to share tactics for co-design and youth outreach. Each event was hosted by Young Trustees who have asked the same questions about career direction, keeping the conversation frank and practical.
Recordings, reading lists, salary insights and job-hunt tips were posted after every session, building a free toolkit for anyone re-plotting their route through, or beyond, the profession. Whether you are a student weighing your Part III, a mid-career architect craving new horizons, or simply curious how design thinking travels, LoA hands you the map and the nerve to step outside.