Past Event
The Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact publicprogrammes@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
– Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
– This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
Covid Information
– We encourage all visitors to take a lateral flow test before attending events and to wear a face covering during events.
– For more information on health and safety measures in relation to Covid-19, please see: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/coronavirus-update/
About This Event
– This event takes place in the Zilkha Auditorium at Whitechapel Gallery
– You must purchase a ticket to attend the event. Concession tickets are available. If you require a Personal Assistant to support your attendance, we can offer them a seat free of charge, but it must be arranged in advance.
– This event is suitable for those over the age of 16
– We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event
– We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
– This event last approximately 1.5 hours.
– An audio recording of the event can be obtained by emailing publicprogrammes@whitechapelgallery.org following the event.
Transport
– To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
– Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
– Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
Live Recording
Please note: we audio record all events for the Whitechapel Gallery Archive. This audio material may also be used for our Hear, Now podcast series.
How are architects creating new spaces for artistic practices in an urban landscape reshaped by the pandemic? What forms of innovative and equitable design might support artists? Holly Lewis, co-founder of the studio We Made That, leads a conversation exploring fresh possibilities for culture in our cities. She will be joined by Astrid Smitham, co-founder of APPARATA, and Yves Blais from Creative Land Trust.
Coinciding with the exhibition A Century of the Artist’s Studio, the Architecture Foundation is developing a series of live conversations with architects and designers exploring the rich typology of the artist’s studio and the challenges of delivering studio provision today, which can be watched here.
In association with The Architecture Foundation.
This event is part of our season Ways of Knowing: Work/Process.
Holly co-founded We Made That in 2006 – a practice of architects, urban designers and researchers. She cares deeply about locally-informed and impact-driven outcomes. She is a registered architect and affiliate member of the Landscape Institute. She has led a unique range of urban projects for the practice, from London-wide mapping of artists’ workspace through to delivery of culture-led regeneration projects. Holly advocates for community involvement within the design process, empowering women in the built environment and equitable city-making.
Astrid Smitham is an architect, and the co-founder of East London practice APPARATA. Much of her work has been focused on both the provision of carefully considered community spaces in contexts that lack social cultural infrastructure, and creating places of creative work in a city where such places have become increasingly rare. Often these concerns are within the same project, with a focus on making the needs of the existing local community central, whilst working in conversation with artists to make spaces that work for them and the various aspects of their lives. The work looks for ways to design spaces where the people and communities that will occupy them have agency, and as such where the spaces are open and adaptable to the unknown.
The studio has recently completed A House for Artists, a new form of low rent co-housing combined with a community arts centre in Barking, London. APPARATA’s proposal is a new spatial model of housing, that provides shared spaces throughout with the aim of helping foster social relations inside and around the building. It is one of the Observer’s best 5 buildings of 2021, and has been covered in the Guardian, and The RIBA Journal amongst other places.
Yves Blais is Operations Manager at Creative Land Trust. He manages the property portfolio and is currently leading the tender process and overseeing the fit out of 33,000 sf of affordable workspace in LB Hackney, as well as a further 7,000 sf in LB Newham. Yves has worked with Creative Land Trust since its inception and throughout his career, has worked with arts organisations in production, curatorial and brokerage roles. He is a Trustee at Forma Arts & Media and director at The Other MA.
Creative Land Trust was founded to tackle a long-standing problem for London, and indeed other global cities. The loss of affordable workspace, and consequent outflow of artists and makers, presents a serious threat to the wellbeing and prosperity of a city so reliant on creativity for its success. As a charity, Creative Land Trust seeks to build a new financial and operating model to secure workspace that would otherwise be unattainable.
The Architecture Foundation leads the conversation on the development of London and contributes to a global discourse about the architect’s changing role and responsibilities. We pursue this mission through the delivery of an accessible public programme that makes space for emerging architects, groups historically underrepresented in the profession, and representatives of a wide range of related disciplines. Exploring the architect’s capacity to combat climate change and systemic social inequalities represent central concerns of the programme.
