In Safe Hands: RIBA London Inter-School Summer Exhibition

RIBA London presents the Inter-School Summer Exhibition: In Safe Hands
About this Event

"In Safe Hands" acknowledges that our profession, our city and our planet is rapidly changing. The profession is at an impasse; from declining fees to broken procurement processes, architecture, and the wider built environment systems needsto be rebooted and renewed.

To ensure the longevity of the architecture profession, architects must be able to adapt to meet new challenges and act upon untapped opportunities to ensure the buildings and places we rely on are high quality, safe, inclusive, and sustainable both now and into the future. However, whilst this is our job to address immediately, there is much to be positive about the future -we have a more intuitive next generation of talent emerging with innovative design proposals which tackle the challenges we face. There should be optimism in the next generation of architects who will shape the future of our city and planet –we are “In Safe Hands”.
London schools offering Part 1 and Part 2 programmes have collectively submitted 200 student projects that fit with five pressing themes, mapped against the RIBA Education Framework and RIBA London content themes (climate; adaptive reuse and retrofit; ethical practice; health and life safety; emerging technology; housing).

Each theme is an invitation for students to position their project (design, thesis or research) as a genuine intervention in how the city could be different. We are interested in the quality of the idea, the rigour of the process and the ambition of the proposition.
RIBA London invites its vast London-based Chartered Practice and Chartered Member network based (1,500 Chartered Practices and 7,500 Chartered Members) to view the design proposals and in addition would also like to extend this invite to Local Authorities, private developers, secondary schools and professionals from the wider built environment and adjacent disciplines. The 4-day exhibition will be flanked by a range of events for RIBA Student Members focused on professional progress.
This event is kindly hosted by Eric Parry Architects.
Participating programmes and the Schools of Architecture:

• Architectural Association - Part 1
• Architectural Association - Part 2
• Bartlett School of Architecture - Part 1
• Bartlett School of Architecture - Part 2
• Central Saint Martins - Part 1
• Central Saint Martins - Part 2
• London Metropolitan University - Part 1
• London Metropolitan University - Part 2
• London School of Architecture - Part 2
• University of East London - Part 1
• University of East London - Part 2
• Ravensbourne - Part 1
• University of Greenwich - Part 1
• University of Greenwich - Part 2
• Kingston - Part 1
• Kingston University - Part 2
• London South Bank University - Part 1
• London South Bank University - Part 2
• University of Westminster - Part 1
• University of Westminster - Part 2
• Royal College of Art - Part 2
  

Themes:
01 -How Could We Live?

There are diverse pressures in the city that lead to inequalities in how we create our idea of home. This prompt does not just challenge where people live but what a home might make possible, how it can connect people to each other and the city beyond. We are trying to build more homes, yet the question of how people live together, grow, move, age is overshadowed. We are looking for projects that question what we are building and why, such as proposals rooted in community, in the craft of making and in the idea that buildings should be designed to last, to adapt and to be maintained. We are interested in projects that will not just make aspects of urban life more efficient but rather facilitate a better quality of life generally.

Projects explore housing, domesticity, community or collective living, particularly where students are questioning how architecture can support dignity, care, adaptability, affordability, social connection, or long term quality of life within the city.

02 -What is Worth Keeping?

The most sustainable building is the one already standing, however looking further than retrofit, we ask a more fundamental question: what does it mean to value what exists? Currently we are seeing a rethink and repurposing of a whole range of urban spaces and typologies such as the office, the high street or the light industrial yard. Each hold their own histories as well as culture and community identities. What happens next to them is a statement about whose history we think is worth carrying forward. We are looking for projects that find new life in forgotten urban fabric - that ask not just how to preserve, but how to reinvent without erasure. The projects that we hope to see are the ones that treat culture and history not as a constraint on the future, but as the richest material upon which to build.

Projects explore reuse, adaptation, preservation or reinvention of existing buildings, infrastructures or urban conditions, particularly where students are engaging with questions of heritage, identity, memory, sustainability or the future life of existing places and communities.

03 -Who Do We Design Spaces For?

Decisions regarding comfort, safety and movement across the built environment are made less and less by those most affected. By understanding 'who' we are designing for, we hope to see projects that showcase design that engages an understanding of the very different ways people live, combining dreams with needs. A dementia care home that connects its residents to the street. A space that draws musicians and artists into a neighbourhood rather than pricing them out. A public building that works as well for a teenager as it does for an eighty-year-old. The projects that work are the ones that embed equity into the design brief and prove if you design for all you can create belonging for everyone who lives in the city.

Projects explore how architecture can respond to different lived experiences, ages, abilities, cultures or communities, particularly where students are embedding equity, inclusion, accessibility or belonging into the design process, spatial experience or civic ambition of the project.

04 -What Does a Safe City Look Like?

Architects are being held more accountable as a result of the Grenfell disaster. Safety is as much about regulation as it is about what it means for an architect to take radical responsibility for human life. Meeting minimum standards is not enough as standards and responsibilities continue to evolve. Good design really does offer more and can be found in all kinds of ambitious responses such as the design of a new material system, a new way of procuring buildings, or a speculative typology that challenges traditional models.

Projects explore safety through design, regulation, material systems, procurement, maintenance, accessibility, public trust or long-term stewardship, particularly where students are rethinking the responsibilities of architects in shaping safe, equitable and resilient urban environments.

05 -How Could We Build?

Fifty years ago, the design and construction industry adopted CAD and look at how much our practices have changed! The next fifty years will move even faster with the integration of robotics and AI, increase in use of mass timber, earth construction and digital fabrication as well as the possibility of new materials that haven’t even been invented yet.The exhibition will include events and activities for the students of participating schools covering CV/portfolio reviews, the business of practice and careers in adjacent built environmnt disciplines. Find out more here.

We are at a crucial point where these tools and technologies are reshaping what architects know. We are looking for projects that speculate on the responsibilities of the architect regardless of what 'tools' can do, that demonstrate the method of construction is as considered as the idea itself; consider materiality not as an afterthought but a position and use new technologies to make a bold proposition possible. And what does the architect remain responsible for, regardless of what the 'tools' can do?

Projects explore construction methodology, fabrication, material systems or technology as central to the architectural proposition, particularly where students are critically engaging with emerging technologies, sustainability, AI, craft, digital fabrication or future modes of practice.

Pre Exhibition Online Session

Day 1: CV/Portfolios and Interviews Workshop (online only)

Exhibition Programme
Day 1: How Do You Present Yourself to Employers? CV/Portfolio 1:1s with practitioners

Day 2: How Do You Design a Practice? Starting Up A Business

Day 3: Where Can Architecture Take you? Adjacent Career Pathways

Day 4: Where Do We Go Next? Final Farewell

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DAY 1

🕑: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
CV/Portfolios and Interviews Workshop (online only)
🕑: 01:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Exhibition (Last entry: 20:00)
🕑: 01:15 PM - 07:45 PM
How Do You Present Yourself to Employers? CV/Portfolio 1:1s with practitioners
DAY 2

🕑: 01:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Exhibition (Last entry: 20:00)
🕑: 06:30 PM - 08:30 PM
How Do You Design a Practice? Starting Up A Business
DAY 3

🕑: 01:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Exhibition (Last entry: 20:00)
🕑: 06:30 PM - 08:30 PM
Where Can Architecture Take you? Adjacent Career Pathways
DAY 4

🕑: 01:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Exhibition (Last entry: 20:00)
🕑: 09:00 PM - 11:30 PM
Where Do We Go Next? Final Farewell