The Bartlett
Summer Show 2026
25 June – 12 July
Summer Show 2026
The Bartlett
Summer Show 2026
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Summer Show 2026
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![The main making spaces are distributed across the first floor above the public exhibition hall. Rather than separating craft processes, the design encourages connection between making types through making the craft process visible within each area.]()
![Tiered floors create visual links between levels, allowing spaces of making, research and public activity to overlap vertically through continuous sightlines through the space.]()
![Fabric models were continually tested and iterated on throughout the project to understand how its materiality as well as logic could be brought into the design.]()
![The plan was informed by a series of sewn iterations that treated the space similarly to the process of making a garment. For instance, cuts and pleats encourage movement, while tucks and folds drive the flow of the plan.]()
![A fabric canopy extends the building into the street, softening the threshold and dissolving the boundary between public realm and interior space.]()
Tailored Space
This project centres on craft in both methodology and materiality, exploring how garment pattern-making can be translated to an architectural scale to create a more considered ‘fit’ between architecture, programme, and site in El Poblenou, Barcelona.
The design proposes an institute of heritage craft, where historic making techniques are preserved and passed between generations through learning and social exchange. Craft is positioned as a serious cultural practice rather than secondary to fine art. The building also transforms in the evening to host music, dance and community events, keeping the space active across the day.
Responding to El Poblenou’s industrial history and its shift from collective manufacturing to individualised tech work, the project addresses growing social isolation by considering how the built environment can help open and reconnect cities.
A pattern-making methodology informs the design process, where iterative physical and drawn studies refine the building as a series of ‘fits’ shaped by site and programme constraints. The architecture emerges through continuous adjustment and refinement, echoing the logic of tailoring and garment construction.
First Floor Plan
The main making spaces are distributed across the first floor above the public exhibition hall. Rather than separating craft processes, the design encourages connection between making types through making the craft process visible within each area.
Long Section
Tiered floors create visual links between levels, allowing spaces of making, research and public activity to overlap vertically through continuous sightlines through the space.
Concept Models
Fabric models were continually tested and iterated on throughout the project to understand how its materiality as well as logic could be brought into the design.
Iterating the Sewn Plan
The plan was informed by a series of sewn iterations that treated the space similarly to the process of making a garment. For instance, cuts and pleats encourage movement, while tucks and folds drive the flow of the plan.
Entrance Render
A fabric canopy extends the building into the street, softening the threshold and dissolving the boundary between public realm and interior space.
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