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Alex Warnock-Smith

@awarnocksmith

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Architect/ Urbanist/ Academic
Director @urbanprojectsbureau
Programme Director Spatial Practices @spatial_csm @csm_news

POSTS STORIES REELS

Thursday 29 October

On Environmental Justice and the Politics of Construction and Design
5:30 - 7pm
Room C303, Central Saint Martins @csm_news

Tickets at link in bio

Plano Negativo @plano_negativo, (Colombia/Mexico) and Island City Lab @islandcitylab (Jamaica) discuss environmental justice and the politics of construction and design.
With a focus on environmental justice and the politics of construction and design, Plano Negativo, (Colombia/Mexico) and Island City Lab (Jamaica) demonstrate ways in which interdisciplinary professionals and networks of civc thinkers are brought together to advance work focused on environmental justice in Latin America and the Greater Caribbean.

Speakers:
Plano Negativo (Colombia/Mexico); A pedagogical, artistic and research studio that brings together interdisciplinary professionals from across Latin America, focused on environmental justice, and the histories of political violence in Latin America.

Island City Lab (Jamaica); A network of civic thinkers that works towards the democratisation of the processes that initiate, build, inform and maintain towns and cities across the Caribbean. by @awarnocksmith

On the Power of Interdisciplinarity in Socially Engaged Spatial Practice

📆 Thursday 22 October

🕠 5:30-7pm

📍 LVMHE002 Theatre
Central Saint Martins @csm_news

🔗 tickets via link in bio

In this talk in the BA Architecture @csmarchitecture Demonstrations series, you will hear from Akil Scafe-Smith of Resolve Collective @resolvecollective (UK) and David Barragán, Al Borde @albordearq(Ecuador)
Together, Resolve Collective and Al Borde Arquitectura will demonstrate approaches to spatial practice which combine art, architecture, technology and engineering. Their projects address social challenges devising strong aesthetic and political positions through design and construction.

Speakers:

Akil Scafe-Smith (UK) is co-founder of Resolve, an interdisciplinary design collective that combines architecture, engineering, technology, and art to address social challenges.

David Barragán @david00b, Al Borde Arquitetura (Ecuador) an architecture firm based in Quito, Ecuador that centres the human dimension of space through minimal resources as an aesthetic and political stance, at the edge of art and architecture. by @awarnocksmith

15.10

On Shared Agency, Gender Equality and Public Space

🕠 5:30-7pm

📍LVMH E002 Theatre
Central Saint Martins @csm_news

🔗 Book your ticket at link in bio
UAL/CSM students and staff no need to book, just show up!

With a focus on giving agency to local communities, specially of women, Carina Guedes and Julia King @atjuliaking will present projects dedicated to foregrounding the needs of citizens, their life experiences and needs within processes of design and construction. Arquitetura Na Periferia @arquiteturanaperiferia trains women on design and construction, including finance management in Brazil; and Social Place connects young women and girls to design, consultation processes and urban policy so they can have agency in shaping future environments tailored to their needs.

Speakers

Carina Guedes (Brazil), Co-founder and Co-director of Arquitetura Na Periferia, and Julia King (UK), Co-funder and Co-director of Social Place

This talk is part of the BA Architecture @csmarchitecture Autumn Public Lecture series convened by @nanacobo @canovenove and @catalina_mejia_moreno with the support of @rearc.institute by @awarnocksmith

We are excited to announce the AIA x RIBA Keynote Lecture 2026 hosted by Spatial Practices @spatial_csm, with speaker Craig Dykers of Snøhetta @snohetta.

📆 Tuesday, 27 October 2026

🕧 6:30 pm for the talk, followed by drinks

📍 LVMHE002 Theatre, Central Saint Martins, Granary Square, N1C 4AA

🔗 Tickets £5- £20 at link in bio. Booking essential.

🎟️ FREE ENTRY for CSM / UAL students and staff on presentation of a student / staff pass. Please book via seperate link in the Eventbrite listing.

This lecture is jointly convened by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) @aia.uk and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) @riba in partnership with Spatial Practices @spatial_csm, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.

The AIA and RIBA have a long history of collaboration dating back to the founding of their institutes in 1857 and 1834 respectively and are delighted to present this year’s keynote lecture with Central Saint Martins @csm_news.

About Craig Dykers

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Craig Dykers is an architect, educator, and founding partner of the internationally acclaimed design practice Snøhetta.

Educated at the University of Texas at Austin, he co-founded the Oslo-based practice in 1989 and later helped establish its New York studio, contributing to the firm’s emergence as one of the world’s most innovative multidisciplinary design practices.

For more than three decades, Dykers has led projects that blur the boundaries between architecture, landscape, urbanism, and cultural infrastructure. His work is distinguished by a commitment to creating environments that strengthen the relationship between people, place, and the natural world while fostering social interaction and civic engagement. by @awarnocksmith

🚀 Launching this week!

Join us for the first talk in the BA Architecture Public Lecture Autumn Series: Demonstrations

On the Politics and Ethics of Arquitecture Education and Practice Today

📆 Thursday 01 October

🕠 5:30-7pm

📍 LVMHE002, Central Saint Martins @csm_news

This first talk is internal - open to CSM /UAL students and staff only. No need to book - just show up.

🎟️ All other lectures in the series are open to public: head to link in bio to book your FREE tickets for the lectures taking place on Thursdays from 08 October to 05 November 2026.

In this first talk, the conveners of Demonstrations introduce the series discuss its ethical framing and intersections with their academic, teaching and design practices.
Together, the convenors’ practices cut across urban, sub-urban and natural sites and landscapes which share a common interest on exploring non-traditional approaches for the design and maintenance of built environments.

Speakers:
Adriana Cobo Corey / the Ethical Table @nanacobo
Catalina Mejia Moreno / Climate Forum @catalina_mejia_moreno
Carlotta Novella / School of Filo (Colombia, Italy, UK) @canovenove by @awarnocksmith

📣 We are excited to announce the BA Architecture Public Lecture Autumn Series 2026: Demonstrations

📆 Thursdays from 01 October to 05 November 2026

🕠 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm

📍LVMH E002 Lecture Theatre, Central Saint Martins @csm_news

With a focus on architecture and spatial practices, Demonstrations explores diverse approaches to design that critically negotiate between futility and agency within the current global poly-crisis context.

For this fourth edition this year, The Ethical table and Bochinche, and initiative of the Climate Forum funded by rearc Institute @rearc.institute, collaborate to devise these five conversations between the UK and European based practices and international guests from Latin America and the Greater Caribbean.

🔗 More information and (free) tickets at link in bio

✏️ Save these dates your diaries:

01 October - an introduction by the convenors of the Demonstrations series @catalina_mejia_moreno, @nanacobo @canovenove

08 October - On Collective Action and Art Practices Towards Equity and Fairness
Speakers:
Joseph Elbourn
Hannah Tweg and Olly Piers (UK)/Section of Architectural Workers SAW Julika Gittner (UK-Germany)/Artist, architect and researcher

15 October - On Shared Agency, Gender Equality and Public Space
Speakers:
Carina Guedes (Brazil), Co-founder and Co-director of Arquitetura Na Periferia @arquiteturanaperiferia and Julia King (UK) @atjuliaking, Co-funder and Co-director of Social Place

22 October - On the Power of Interdisciplinarity in Socially Engaged Spatial Practice
Speakers:

Speakers: Akil Scafe-Smith of Resolve Collective (UK) @resolvecollective and David Barragán, Al Borde (Ecuador) @albordearq

29 October - On Environmental Justice and the Politics of Construction and Design
Speakers:

Speakers: Hannah Meszaros, Nadia Méndez of Plano Negativo @plano_negativo (Colombia) and Dorraine Duncan, Jhordan Channer of Island City Lab @islandcitylab (Jamaica)

05 November - On the Ethics of Care, Inequality, Gender and Social Opportunity
Speaker:
Diana Rodriguez; economist, lawyer and sociologist.

Demonstrations is hosted by @csmarchitecture - Stage One’s Unit on Practicing Ethics @spatial_csm. by @awarnocksmith

Join us next week, 18-21 June, to see our fifth cohort’s final projects!

📍Central Saint Martins
1 Granary Square
London N1C 4AA

Public opening hours next week:
Thu - Sat: 12-8pm Sun: 12-6pm

🥨 MA Cities creates city-making practices that foreground social and climate justice. Through an inquiry-led approach, the course challenges the conventions of urban development, regeneration and place-making, providing a platform for generating and implementing innovative forms of civic practice.

💥 The course understands cities, towns and other dense urban settlements as collaborative and contested spaces – created through interactions between various participants and stakeholders.

↔️ MA Cities engages in collaboration and knowledge exchange with a wide range of art, design and architectural practices, external partners and organisations. For 2024-26 these have included ARIES Recife (Brazil), Scott Polar Research Institute (Cambridge), and SONCITIES (Oxford).

📚 Confronting the pressing social, ethical and environmental concerns of the city, students explore the value and agency of alternative practices from around the world. The cohort navigated, through complex and dynamic scenarios, a wide range of future city-making challenges. These include mapping interruption and strategic friction in the production of engaged public realms; pavements as a bureaucratic layer; security systems in policy and lived realities; the digital infrastructuring of space; food cultures; the potential for city landscapes to double as gym drills; the life of parks beyond their boundaries; reflection in the city; activism in the face of regeneration, treated transnationally; and analysis of efficiency in the informal.

📸: Ruiqi Huang @ricki_2s by @awarnocksmith

🫟 Everyone makes their mark.

CSM Shows 2026 presents the work of graduating students from Central Saint Martins across art, design and performance.

💡Here, ideas are tested, materials explored and new systems imagined; all in pursuit of a more-than-human future.

We invite you to see and interact with the work of students from BA Architecture @csmarchitecture, MA Architecture @csm_architecture_march, MA Narrative Environments @narrativeenvironments and MA Cities @csm_ma_cities shown across four distinct exhibition installations.

Each project carries the imprint of its maker, revealing the powerful connection between creator, material, and world.

Together, these works show how creative practice leaves its mark on our communities, cultures and the futures we share.

📍Join us 18-21 June 2026
Central Saint Martins
1 Granary Square
London N1C 4AA

Public opening hours:

Thursday – Saturday: 12–8pm
Sunday: 12–6pm

Last entry 30 minutes before closing time.

#CSM26 by @awarnocksmith

It was an honour to host @linaghotmeh at Central Saint Martins last night for the @aia.uk keynote lecture, in collaboration with the @riba. Thank you to Lina for such an eloquent and uplifting lecture, and for sharing your work and practice with our Spatial Practices community. @spatial_csm @csm_news by @awarnocksmith

We are excited to announce a talk with architect Lina Ghotmeh, hosted jointly with the American Institute of Architects (AIA UK) @aia.uk and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) @riba.

Recently named in the TIME100 Next 2025 list as one of the world’s most influential leaders shaping the future, Paris-based Lina Ghotmeh is recognised for her work forming new spaces and dialogues through her “Archeology of the Future” approach to architecture.

Join us in person for the talk, followed by a drinks reception.

📅 Thursday, 13 November

🕡 6:30pm

📍LVMH Theatre
Central Saint Martins
Kings Cross, N1C 4AA

🎟️ Tickets: book via link in bio

£10 - AIA and RIBA members
£20 - General admission
£5 - Students [not from UAL]
Free - UAL / CSM students + staff [UAL ID will be required on entry]

image: Lina Ghotmeh
image credit: © David Levene by @awarnocksmith

Thank you to Ruby Betts at Dezeen for this interview. It was great to discuss transformations in architectural education and the ways in which we are preparing our students in spatial practices at CSM for the future. In the contemporary context, in which we are facing immense challenges in higher education and across the spatial disciplines, it’s essential that we use our creative skills to shape the world for the better. Read the full article at link in bio. by @awarnocksmith

And that’s a wrap (part 2)
A wonderful week-long workshop on SITUATING DATA with @arquiteturaunicap and @ariesrecife ✨ by @awarnocksmith