The Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources (ARCSR) is an emergent, studio based, teaching and research area within the practice and academic discipline of architecture. It examines and extends knowledge of the physical and cultural influences on the built environment, focusing on situations where resources are scarce and where both culture and technology are in a state of rapid change. ARCSR aims to explore how the urban landscape is inhabited, made and remade through personal and collective acts, events, memories and experiences; attempting to cut through the surface to expose the undercurrent of silent issues that constitute the everyday.

Students are encouraged to work outwards from the observed fragment of lived experience. Study is by speculative studio project and has generated a small number of live projects including the construction of 3 small schools and a water and sanitation project.

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Research, speculative design work and reflective practice are carried out with optimism, in the hope and expectation that the creative interplay between the energy of the students and the residents’ ongoing act of dwelling will generate a valuable and meaningful architectural discourse around engagement with the opportunities and responsibilities available within civic topography. 

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ARCSR is based at The School of Art, Architecture & Design (AAD) at London Metropolitan University and works in collaboration with The Projects Office (formerly Cass Projects). ARCSR is generously supported by The Water Trust (ARCSR); registered charity number 1160565.

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https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/research/centres/architecture-of-rapid-change-and-scarce-resources/