Creative commons

You can be imaginative all day long and never do anything. To be creative, you have to do something Sir Ken Robinson

Creating a global commons is an essential fundamental requirement of addressing climate crisis; Creating communities of care is a necessary condition of healthy, happy living; Creating community economies is essential for ecologically and socially just production. Architecture is an essential tool for curating the expertise to address these border-crossing, discipline-spanning, life-threatening challenges because they require us to collectively imagine different worlds and together create the ways to realise them.

& architects explore the cutting edge of architectural practice, evolving a discipline to address the existential challenges facing our planet, its peoples and their livelihoods. In 2023/24 BA3 and MArch1 students created spaces and strategies with local community groups in Attercliffe in Sheffield, to maximise collaborative resources over-time. MArch 2 students developed a personal design research programme identifying strengths and challenges to advance their creative repertoire. All cohorts respond to the following common principles for practice.

1. Creative cultures and users: Welcome and celebrate the differences between us to enable safe spaces for creative exploration, actively including people with different abilities, identities and advantages in the design of our cities and neighbourhoods.
2. Creative places and programmes: Work together with diverse local actors to realise the collective creative potential required to develop social, environmental and ecological commons
3. Creative justice: Work to enable equitable and sustainable access to common labour, environmental and knowledge resources.