Godofredo Enes Pereira

Alternative Nature celebrates 21 years of PARKKIM, the acclaimed landscape architecture practice founded by Yoonjin Park and Jungyoon Kim in 2004 after winning the ChiChi Earthquake Memorial Competition. Based in Seoul and Boston, the duo redefines terrain through sculptural landforms, material experimentation, and ecological sensitivity. This first global monograph features 26 projects of diverse scale—from corporate landscapes to civic venues—and curated reflections that reveal their obsession with shaping ground through rhythmic “blades”. Eschewing conventional formats, the book offers an intimate portrait of their creative vision and global relevance.

With Contributions From
Gary R. Hilderbrand, Niall Kirkwood, Jeong-Hann Pae, and John Hong.

Alternative Nature

Paul Mylecharane

The lecture presents the methods that *Monsoon as Methodology* has evolved for engaging the monsoon, a globally connected weather system, as a co-producer of urban life and space in South and Southeast Asian cities. It challenges views of climate as an inert backdrop to urban life, instead suggesting that it is materially and spatially active in shaping urban politics, ecologies, infrastructures, buildings and bodies. The book invites urban practitioners, from architects to policy makers, to think differently about space, time, representation and human and non-human agency. It offers intra-disciplinary, intra-active methods for rethinking human and non-human relations with weather in ways that meet the challenges of climate change and the Anthropocene. 

Monsoon as Methodology

Permafrost is a paradox: the frozen bedrock of northern worlds is both a repository of ancient carbon, microbial life, and ancestral memory, and, in its thaw, a database of deadly instability.

Groundwork

Prof.

Sam Jacoby

### EXHIBITION PART 1: HOUSING STANDARDISATION IN SIX COUNTRIES

What does a typical home in England look like? How does it compare to housing in other countries? How are these homes designed? And what is it like to live in them?

Based on a three-year study of recently built affordable and subsidised housing in England, Chile, China, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, this exhibition explores these questions through 37 in-depth case studies that document typical homes and the lived experiences of their residents.

The exhibition shows how design governance processes, regulatory approaches, housing markets, and social and cultural norms shape housing expectations, perceptions, standards, and the types and quality of housing that are built. The exhibition examines the role of design governance and design regulations and standards, with a particular focus on space standards as a measure of housing design quality. It investigates why these standards are often contextual and subjective rather than universal, and how they inform designdecisions. It also questions the effectiveness and underlying motivations of these standards, asking whether they genuinely improve – or simply standardise – the way we live.

As affordable housing is frequently built at scale using standardised dwelling types and construction methods, it is often more shaped by regulations and standards than by architects. As a result, it commonly relies on established house types used by volume housebuilders and housing associations. The exhibition explores what “well-designed”, “housing quality”, and “affordable housing” mean to different housing stakeholders — especially residents — highlighting how these definitions and perceptions are deeply contextual.

### EXHIBITION PART 2: HOUSING STANDARDISATION IN THE NORTH EAST OF ENGLAND

This part of the exhibition explores how architectural practices and their clients use housing standardisation to achieve quality and affordable housing in the North East of England. Case studies of current housing projects in the region reveal how house types and related design guidance —produced by architects and their clients — are adapted during the design and development process to meet mandatory national standards and their local interpretations, promote voluntary good-practice standards, and respond to local context and housing markets.

This exhibition and related event series form part of an ongoing research project that seeks to understand how architects and housing associations contribute to housing quality and develop design expertise through shared design practice and participation in design governance.
 
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Part 1: Project Team
Sam Jacoby (RCA), Alvaro Arancibia (PUC Chile)
Lucia Alonso (RCA), Seyithan Ozer (RCA), Consuelo Albornoz (PUC Chile)
 
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Part 2: Project Team
Dhruv Sookhoo (MSA), Sam Jacoby (RCA)

Housing Standardisation Exhibition

The Bat Galim Casino is a nexus in the political transformation of the region. It emerged as an extraterritorial space where, from the 1940s, British officials and Palestinian and Jewish politicians mingled with De Gaulle's Free French forces, as well as architects, artists, spies, traders, journalists, travelers, sportspeople, poets—many leaning to leftist and communist ideologies—and refugees, fostering a dynamic exchange of ideas. The region is fragmented; this book seeks to weave together connections.

RCA School of Architecture Research

Events

Alternative Nature (21 May 2026, 6:30pm)

Monsoon as Methodology (12 May 2026, 6:30pm)

Groundwork (4 May 2026, 6:30pm)

Housing Standardisation Exhibition (18 Feb.–18 Dec. 2026, 6:00pm)

Image RIP: After Printing (5 Nov. 2025, 7:30am)