The Resourceful Architect report

The ambition of The Resourceful Architect was to prompt and give exposure to new ideas for the future uses of architecture in the changing context of professional practice. Submissions were expected to be diverse in form and character, and to express critical thinking about potential new directions for contemporary architectural practice.

The project recognised that many architects now operate in radically different circumstances from those for which they were trained; and that the economic downturn might offer architects an opportunity to re-cast themselves in a new social role within a distributed, local economy.

The call recognised and sought to give exposure to the resourceful forward thinking many architects have shown, and are continuing to show, in the prevailing climate of financial constraint, emphatic localism and reflexive critique. Proposals could be entirely new and prompted by the call, or they might be already in development; they might also be completed but under-exposed. 

All the judges were briefed to look for resourcefulness, and specifically to consider: 

• How have you released architecture from conventional professional and economic bounds?
• Whom does your project benefit? What, if any, are the political implications of the idea?
• Who have you communicated with in developing this project and who owns the idea?
• What is the geographical area of application of the idea? What range of resources will need to be managed and how will they be managed?
• Strategic thinking:What is the wider agenda of your intervention and how does it engage with today’s big issues? How will you communicate it to the right people?