January news: doing architecture differently

From decolonising design to building sustainable futures, Zetteler’s yearly ones-to-watch lowdown features a breadth of talent, vision and activism across all corners of the creative sector. 

The 24-strong list of artists, designers, change-makers, a gardener and all-round legends are sources of optimism and change, all of whom are on the verge of shaking up the industry.

On your radar

On a mission to fight corporate wrongdoing and stand up for human rights, RAID works at the intersection of law and activism. Measured, steady and focused on long-term systemic change, the brand was lawyer-ly to its core – accurate, forensic – yet this failed to fully capture the tenacious, challenging spirit that animates the organisation. 

A recent brand overhaul from cause-led studio TEMPLO sees the delivery of an identity that is punchy and powerful, enabling RAID to properly hold the powerful to account – for instance, revealing the explosion of human rights abuses in the cobalt mines that provide the raw materials for our electric vehicles, smartphones and windmills.

Join the cause

Since 2007, DisOrdinary Architecture has sought to have a conversation about disability and architecture that goes deeper than questions of representation and compliance. Rather than tweak the built environment for accessibility, the project believes the rich experiences of Disabled people can inspire radical new ways of living and thinking.

Headed by Jos Boys, founder member of the pioneering Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative, and contemporary artist and disability consultant Zoe Partington, the project has included interventions and design provocations at the Bartlett, Tate and London Design Festival. Freshly funded by the Supporting Act (see above), the DisOrdinary team have just launched their next attack on the status quo with Many More Parts Than M!, a prototype compendium of creative ways to ‘do’ disability beyond compliance, which celebrates its publication at RIBA on 8 February (tickets here).

We are delighted to welcome DisOrdinary as a client – if you’ve so much as a toe in the architecture or built-environment sector, their work should be on your radar. 

Question ‘normal’ on Instagram

Taking a unique approach to arts funding – grantees are given money to spend as they wish, no strings attached – The Supporting Act Foundation has announced its latest cohort of artists and non-profits. 

On the stellar roster of diverse people and projects using creativity for good is LegalAliens Theatre – a performance ensemble offering free weekly theatre classes for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, who will receive €50,000.

Interested to hear about an artist holding voice workshops for the trans community, or life drawing classes held by a collective of sex workers? Get in touch!

Meet the cohort

Driven by a desire to tackle London’s short supply of communal spaces, architectural studio Artefact and grassroots charity Clapton Commons have collaborated to create the Common Rooms – a blueprint for using design to foster community cohesion and collective wellbeing on a limited budget.

Comprising a series of rooms beneath St Thomas’ Church, a beautiful modernist listed building in the geographic heart of Stamford Hill, the council-backed and crowdfunded project transforms and revives an underused undercroft into a multi-faith community resource for everyone.

Visit the community

Running from 3 February 2024, the Royal Academy of Arts’ Entangled Pasts is an important, complex and soul-searching exhibition in which the institution uses its own collection and contemporary artist network to offer an open-ended interrogation of the relationship between art, slavery and colonialism – and its own role in forging it. 

Taking on the challenge of honestly and engagingly framing the wide-ranging, era-hopping exhibition is architectural studio JA Projects, founded by architect Jayden Ali. The team have transformed 11 of the RA’s main galleries into an immersive journey across painting, sculpture, installation, film and poetry. Sensitively deploying texture, light, reflection and scale to choreograph the experience, the design guides visitors through the exhibition, makes space for each artwork to speak, and encourages audiences and institutions to confront the complexities and injustices of the past.

The JA Project Team will be speaking at the exhibition on the event on 21 March –grab your tickets here.

Untangle the past

Uno
Architect Katy Marks launches lingerie for the post-mastectomy body

Katy Marks is an award-winning architect, the founder of Citizens Design Bureau, and a cancer survivor. Throughout her professional career, she has specialised in addressing real-life problems by designing intelligent, practical solutions that are infused with beauty and which give people joy. Now, she is bringing this approach to a very different sort of challenge: the lack of empowering women’s lingerie for the post-mastectomy body.

14,850 UK women undergo a mastectomy every year, yet the underwear available to them is almost exclusively designed to conceal the loss of a breast – to restore symmetry to the body in the service of societal beauty norms and standards. For the 69% who choose not to undergo reconstructive surgery afterwards – or are simply left waiting for a reconstruction – Uno is a comfortable and stylish solution.

Embrace asymmetry

As part of the Design Museum’s highly anticipated exhibition about Enzo Mari – the first in the UK, no less – 13 contemporary designers are exhibiting pieces that explore and expand upon the Italian design maestro’s legacy. Joining the likes of Andu Masebo, former Zetteler client Special Projects, and our mates at Sound Advice, you’ll see the work of Jasper Morrison, Martino Gamper, Industrial Facility and Michael Marriott, among others. We’re beyond excited to see the next iteration of Andu’s work make its way into the world (the response to his V&A LDF installation Part Exchange was mega), and all the more thrilled to see his practice contextualised alongside the greats of 20th-century design.

The free display opens at the Design Museum alongside the Mari exhibition on 29 March.

Until then, follow Andu.