CRUNCH: Site: Form, Structure and Technique

About

Architect Luis Callejas presents recent projects by focusing on methods rather than finished results, exploring how design can work with sites not as static information but as dynamic fields of possibility.

His practice approaches site reading as a field shaped equally by surveying technology and direct, subjective perception. By mixing digital data, lived experience and material gathered on the ground, these projects challenge conventional site analysis. The layering of different ways of reading and responding to a site gives rise to clear and tangible structures – forms shaped by overwhelming layers of information that sometimes echo the site's morphology, sometimes embrace formal autonomy.

Following his talk, The Bartlett’s Diana Salazar and Tamsin Hanke will offer responses, chaired by Professors Mark Smout and Laura Allen, and co-convened by Professor Yeoryia Manolopoulou – bringing together perspectives from landscape architecture, experimental practice and design research.

This event is part of the flagship CRUNCH Series at The Bartlett School of Architecture.

Please note this event has limited capacity and operates on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors close at 18:40.

Speaker biographies

Luis Callejas is co-founder of LCLA Office, an Oslo-based practice working across architecture and landscape, alongside Charlotte Hansson. The studio’s projects include the exterior areas for the former US Embassy in Oslo, the aquatic sports centre for the South American Games and the renovation of Bogotá’s main football stadium. LCLA has been nominated for the EU Mies Award and the Mies Crown Hall Award. The practice has exhibited at major biennales. Luis is Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Diana Salazar is an ecologist and Senior Teaching Fellow at The Bartlett School of Architecture. She studied at Javeriana University, Colombia, and holds the Environment and Sustainable Development MSc from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit. She is doctoral researcher at The Bartlett, exploring extractivism, political ecology and environmental justice in Latin America and Africa. Diana has worked extensively with communities in Colombia and Mozambique, written on seed cultivation and energy landscapes, and is a Trustee of the London Mining Network.

Tamsin Hanke is an architect and founding director of THISS Studio, a London-based practice known for its people- and material-first approach. Her projects range from cultural buildings to experimental installations, driven by innovative technologies and low-impact methodologies. Tamsin also teaches at The Bartlett School of Architecture, where she leads PG17 on the Architecture MArch.

Mark Smout is Professor of Architecture and Landscape Futures at The Bartlett School of Architecture. His research and teaching explore speculative design, mapping and future landscapes. He is co-director of the design practice Smout Allen alongside Laura Allen. Smout Allen’s projects range from competition entries to conceptual design research, often revealing the dynamic relationship between the natural and the man-made to enhance architectural experience. Their work has been widely exhibited, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Laura Allen is Professor of Architecture and Augmented Landscapes at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Her work explores water, landscape and speculative design approaches to urbanism. Alongside Mark Smout, she is co-director of the practice Smout Allen. Their projects explore the dynamic relationship between the natural and the man-made to enhance architectural experience.

Yeoryia Manolopoulou is Professor of Architecture and Experimental Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture. She is co-founder of the London-based practice AY Architects, winners of the Stephen Lawrence Prize and multiple RIBA awards. She is the author of Architectures of Chance (Routledge, 2013), Open Score Architecture (UCL Press, 2020) and Dialogic Drawing (Elsevier, 2022). Yeoryia is Founder and Lead Editor of the Bartlett Design Research Folios, and from 2011 to 2023 was Director of Architectural Research and Design Research at The Bartlett. For the 2016 Venice Biennale, she co-created Losing Myself, a design research project concerning architecture and dementia. Her recent work develops dialogic drawing and scoring tools for collaborative forms of architectural design in pedagogy, research and practice.

Image: Ballen Houses by Luis Callejas

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/events/2025/oct/crunch-site-form-structure-and-technique