Design Think Tanks 2024/25
As one of the London School of Architecture’s (LSA) most pioneering modules, Design Think Tank (DTT) fosters collaboration between students and practitioners to generate creative design propositions that address real-world challenges in London’s built environment. This year, students are focusing their work on the borough of Brent.
Each year, the LSA selects a shortlist of DTT topics to be studied from a long list of suggestions made by the LSA Practice Network. The study topics suggested are ones that require urgent consideration, innovative thinking and design proposals that will generate significant social and environmental progress and beneficial urban change.
Students elect to work on one of the shortlisted study topics in collaborative groups of between six and eight led by senior staff from the practice that suggested the DTT study topic. LSA Faculty work with the DTT leaders to guide students through the research and design process.
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS: HOUSING BEYOND THE FAMILY
By Crystal Grimshaw, Ella Marsden, Flynn Mcgee, Milo Nicholson, Ruby Lovatt, Sarah Stone, Wiam Mostefai
Extended Worlds: Home, Reinvented is a design think tank coordinated by Edit Collective which critically examines prevailing notions of family, home, and domesticity to determine their continued relevance in contemporary society. The project interrogates whether current housing models adequately reflect the diverse needs of modern communities and explores the potential for radical alternatives within existing policy frameworks. Situated on a disused garage site in Brent, the scheme proposes a replicable typology that challenges the inadequacies of the current housing stock and seeks to foster more inclusive, adaptable, and socially sustainable living environments.
This project is driven by a desire to explore new potentials and possibilities for housing design, challenging the dominance of the nuclear family model that has traditionally shaped residential architecture in Britain. Instead, it asks- what might a home look like if designed to meet the diverse needs of individuals and communities, rather than being constrained by blood ties and societal expectations? Through this investigation, the intersections of feminist and decolonial theories were explored and formed the foundation for a proposal for flexible, communal housing that is designed based on the needs of each resident rather than applying a one size fits all approach. In experimenting with how notions of housing and domesticity can be reinterpreted, we uncovered what has been established as the way to live centuries ago, is no longer appropriate, yet legislative frameworks continue to enable cookie cutter housing. Our proposal, therefore, acts a reinterpretation and renegotiation of often outdated norms.
Practice: EDIT Collective
LSA Tutor: Alberte Lauridsen
UNWASTED PLACES
By Gabriel Au-Yeung, Jessica Payne, Mani Motta, Olivia Alltree, Rachel Nti, Rachel Opie, Sarah Dinsmore
Re-imagining Disability, Land Justice and Intergenerational Housing
This exploration challenges traditional notions of ‘ability’ and ʼnormativity’ to empower people with disabilities and marginalised groups. Informed by David Gissen’s Outline for a Disability Critique of Property, we unpack how ‘disability’ as a construct has led to marginalisation and examine how design and policy have failed to serve diverse communities. By redefining ‘accessibility’ to embrace empowerment and agency, we critique housing standards, legislation, and societal perceptions of ‘normal’ to propose inclusive designs fostering belonging and autonomy, from homes to neighbourhoods.
We investigate the intersection of disability and land justice, moving beyond “accessibility” and “independent living” to envision spaces grounded in access intimacy, communalism, self-determination, and alternative ownership models. Addressing intersectionality and diverse needs, we question outdated nuclear family housing typologies and advocate for care and interdependence to be integrated into sustainable, inclusive communities.
Practice: DIS Collective
LSA Tutor: Emily Dew-Fribbance
THE NEXT STEP IN SHARED LIVING
By Alex Law, Gloria Hii, Natalia Dale, Rose Beresford, Noris Obijaku, Steve Brockman
Single families often cannot afford the family homes that the current Brent housing stock was originally designed for. Many of Brent’s Edwardian & Victorian family homes have been subdivided into smaller units often per floor by landlords. This is partially due to the rising housing costs, increased demand for rental properties, and the greater capital landlords can attain. Therefore families are often forced to live in these units which often result in poorer living conditions for tenants which do not always meet the modern standards for space, privacy, or safety.
We aim to design a set of guidelines, H17, with which our vision, creating schemes of affordable, shared living for families, may be achieved. This will not only allow for the creation of high-density, high-quality social housing, but also allow families under financial stress to more easily manage duties of childcare and housing maintenance via collaboration.
Practice: GPAD
LSA Tutor: Mat Barnes
PAGEANTRY AND PROCESSION
By Anu Sofuyi, Beatrice Renyard, Gustaf Sedihn, Josie Tindale, Lily Bunton, Reuben Fatoye, Tom Massey
The Everyday Pageant is located along Olympic Way, a processional route to Wembley Stadium, in Wembley Park, Brent. It is also the site of the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, 100 years in history, although little known in public memory.
The Everyday Pageant is a proposition for a decolonial strategy with storytelling, risk and rigour as three core principles.
The architecture follows a 5 Act play structure: Act 1- Inciting Incident, Act 2 – The Lock In, Act 3 – First Culmination, Act 4 – Main Culmination and Act 5 – Twist. Each act has an infrastructure centring decolonial education through play and the collective and individual re-appropriation of public space. Throughout each Act are the ‘Front rooms’, symbolic of home and diasporic fantasy. It is the golden thread of infrastructure to frame views into each act and an interior to break away.
Practices: DSDHA + Saqqra + Public Bureau
LSA Tutor: Eddie Blake
FOOD ON THE EDGE: FARMING FOR BRENT
By Alex Handy, Carlotta Guccione, Caspar Barker, Dominika Gozdek, Isabel Vile, Shivani Handa, Yangsihang Wang
Food is fundamental to our lives, shaping and affecting our bodies, cultures, and relationships. Through this belief, our project introduces a new method of thinking and considering how large scale production of clean and healthy foods can begin to tackle food insecurity, inaccessibility and unaffordability for the wider communities of Brent. We have designed a system that aims to de-carbonise the current model of food growing and distribution, through the introduction of borough-led intensive growing upon designated land in the greenbelt. This will ensure that our food comes from a local and environmentally conscious source, allowing for the supply of fresh seasonal produce, reflective of the diverse communities within each London borough. We have also endeavoured to de-standardise the current models of how we grow, where we grow and what we grow, considering new methods of agricultural practice and proposing a new system of work relating to food and farming. Most notably, this is through the introduction of new UK, London and Brent wide policy. Finally, our project focuses on decolonising the inherent ways in which we think about food, as well as the types of foods we introduce into our everyday meals, significantly through the introduction of Millet as a common staple ingredient of communities in Brent. Overall, we begin to reintroduce people to culturally significant foods, lost through colonial action, reconnect people with the land, celebrate diverse food practices, and address the structures that limit access to culturally significant, nourishing food.
Practices: EAST
LSA Tutor: Nicola Antaki
TAKING MEASURE ACROSS THE URBAN GREENING
By Cyril Kwok, Elen Togher, Emily Bradley, Ioana Sandu, James Read, Jamie Heap, Jayla Lai
Through our intervention, we have developed a framework capable of transforming life in Brent, using green infrastructure to reshape urban spaces and create a more sustainable, resilient environment. By prioritising both human living conditions and natural spaces, we have shown how this model can be scaled beyond Brent, to other parts of London and urban areas worldwide. This approach offers cities facing climate change adaptable solutions that balance development with environmental sustainability, creating an urban landscape that responds to and thrives within shifting climate conditions.
Our strategies allow us to live in harmony with nature, integrating green spaces, ecological corridors, and flood-resilient design into urban life. By reimagining roads, housing, and public spaces, we foster environments that promote biodiversity, improve residents’ well-being, and enhance the overall quality of life. This framework not only enables adaptation to the changing climate but also offers long-term, regenerative solutions to environmental and social challenges.
Practices: RSHP
LSA Tutor: Alpa Depani
CHURCHES IN THE MODERN CITY: A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
By Bihi Mohamed, David Mullaly, Edmund Alcock, Niamh Sharratt, Ryan Yeboah, Thomas Groves
The Church of England owns a vast number of churches, many of which are underutilised or struggling with financial sustainability. This issue is especially evident in Brent, where some churches flourish as community hubs, while others sit empty, burdening the Church with high maintenance costs.
The CofE is asset-rich, but cash-poor, unable to sustain all of its buildings effectively. Meanwhile, Brent faces severe deprivation, with many residents suffering from data and energy poverty, spending a significant portion of their income on utility bills.
In this report we propose interventions at a policy, borough-wide and local level that combine churches with data centres. This proposal seeks to alleviate the CofE’s financial issues by leveraging their access to an abundance of space, to house an emerging data market that can provide the revenue churches require to not only make repairs, but enact meaningful, material change to their communities.
This initiative not only preserves historic church buildings but also reinvents their role in modern society, transforming them into engines of sustainability securing a future where churches continue to serve their communities in meaningful ways.
Practices: Waugh Thistleton
LSA Tutor: Pete Jennings
TOWN HALLS: THE NEW REPUBLIC OF BRENT
By William Brooks, Celine Carias, Sam Wimbush, Kerryn Peters, Denizhan Peker, Stephen Goddard
The New Republic of Brent set out to uncover if democracy, in its current scale, is working for the people of Brent. We focused on exploring the different scales of democracy to address the challenges of representation, inclusivity, and accessibility. Rigorous research and analysis of the current political systems and mechanisms for engagement in Brent led to the conclusion that the people are too far removed from decision making within the borough.
Our strategy explores spatial and structural decentralisation, transforming governance from a top-down civic centre model into hyperlocal governance ‘Bubbles’ where democracy is embedded in everyday urban spaces. These bubbles, formed of 500 people allow for more intimate and active decision making than the current oversized wards, where political apathy is the norm. Within bubbles, everyday spaces like libraries, markets, and high streets, act as hubs for participatory budgeting, local planning, and micro policy decisions, allowing residents to reclaim control over public space and resources. A three-tiered governance approach is proposed, where hyperlocal Bubbles, Inter-bubble, and borough-wide structures balance direct citizen power with strategic oversight. This is supported by a spatial strategy that integrates street-level participatory tools, digital engagement platforms, public realm, and adaptive-reused council owned assets to reinforce democracy as an everyday experience.
Practices: Hawkins/Brown
LSA Tutor: Daniel Marmot
REIMAGINING NEASDEN TOWN CENTRE
By Adam Clifford, Alara Ozturk, Carla Kyalo, Rachel Howsen, Steven George, Thomas Simms
How might Neasden town centre be reimagined, towards a more social high street that better serves its local communities?
Strategy Snapshot:
- An Applicable Framework
Although Neasden Town Centre would provide a focus to our proposals, our ambition was always for this project to reach further, and to provide a framework applicable to high streets across the country, of all shapes and sizes.
- Our Guiding Principles
Off the back of our research findings, we have formulated a series of eight key principles to help guide high streets towards a more sociable and equitable future.
- A Visionary Plan
We then set about applying these principles to our site in question: Neasden Town Centre, producing a forward-thinking framework plan to help support Neasden’s evolution towards a more social and prosperous future.
- The Key Interventions
Within this masterplan, we explored a number of key interventions in greater detail, including the transformation of a large vacant unit, the design of a newly unlocked town square plaza, a landscape strategy for the high street and a brief vision to rethink the North Circular Ring Road.
Practices: IF_DO + Diamond Architects
LSA Tutor: Gill Lambert
CROSSING BOUNDARIES
By Aaliyah Kaka, Conor Wilson, Felix Jenkins, Rachel Nonhebel, Renee Wong, Rhianna Stirton, Sam Wilkie
Within Brent, the Local Authority has designated eight Growth Areas, including the Neasden Station Growth Area. This area is set to accommodate at least 2,000 new homes and jobs through industrial intensification and the co-location of residential and commercial uses, supported by the proposed West London Orbital Line.
However, new developments often fail to reflect the existing community’s demographics, culture, and financial realities, creating persistent challenges for residents. Crossing Boundaries explores the role of public consultation—tracing its historical evolution and examining its implementation today to assess its effectiveness.
To define our own approach to public consultation, we have proposed a unique urban room – Huh? – which is contextualised through current policies, operational frameworks, and funding procedures.
Through Huh? a team of Neighbourhood Leads will be formed, who will be involved in development at every stage of construction.
Crossing Boundaries aims to inspire the council to challenge their existing public engagement strategies using Neasden as a testbed.
Practices: CITIZEN
LSA Tutor: Siraaj Mitha
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