About
Unit 07 is a design unit on the BSc Architecture programme at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Our approach to architecture is driven by environmental design, material tectonics and systems literacy, working towards a greater understanding of how architecture fits into the wider context of the economic and social consequences of the construction industry.
Buildings do not arrive in isolation but as the result of a complex interplay between material economies, social dynamics and creativity. We encourage students to find their own unique methods of developing designs and making, connecting with communities, practitioners and industry experts to shape projects that have professional credibility and resonance within concerns of the wider industry. In previous years, staging participatory workshops, organising large-scale fabrication, interacting with suppliers and building new tools both physical and digital.
We invite students to work collaboratively and to consider themselves as a think-tank, researching emerging materials and techniques collectively and sharing their findings in the studio.
Systems & Tectonics
Students in UG07 are asked to use materials inventively as the generator of architectural form and language. We invite students to consider how their designs are physically made and to speculate experimentally through the lens of construction systems and tectonics, towards cultivating a professional understanding of the supply chains and ecological realities of contemporary architecture.
Mitigation, Adaptation
The context of these investigations is the unavoidable reality of global climate change and the uneven experience of its effects. The scientific consensus implies that we must now consider both how to mitigate and reduce the impacts of our energy and material consumption in parallel with the development of strategies to adapt and respond to their consequences.
Unit Tutors
Joseph Augustin
Joseph Augustin (Senior Research Fellow) is an environmental designer, researcher and practicing architect. In 2018 he co-founded Heat Island, a London-based collaborative design studio formed of architects, engineers and designers working internationally on projects related to the climate crisis and the built environment. Projects have included working with social enterprises within Bangladesh's challenging RMG sector, detailed design and delivery of a series of low carbon homes using natural materials and developing evaporative cooling facade systems to passively cool environments in hot-arid climates.
Christopher Burman
Christopher Burman (Senior Research Fellow) is an urban technologist, researcher & designer and co-ordinator of the Bartlett Future Architecture graduate summer programme. He has worked across a variety of digital platforms related to urban and climate data, including "Pachube", an IOT platform acquired by Google in 2018 and RAFT's "Zero Carbon Action Builder", a platform helping UK schools realise efficient, zero carbon buildings, funded by a 2024 Ashden LetsGoZero grant.
Wider Research
Joseph & Christopher are also research collaborators focusing on evaluating heat adaptation and mitigation strategies with a focus on scalable, evidence-based approaches that integrate local knowledge, vernacular design, and public health priorities.
They are co-investigators as part of SHAPES, a multi-year research partnership with the Institute for Global Health and Development (Aga Khan University, Pakistan) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), supported by the Wellcome Trust, exploring the role of low-tech architectural and behavioural strategies in reducing extreme heat exposure and advancing climate resilience through design for vulnerable communities in Karachi and rural Sindh, Pakistan. Read more
The project was presented as part of the 14th São Paulo Architecture Biennale. View exhibition
Former Tutors
Luke Jones
2021–2024
Guest Critics
We are grateful to the following guests who have contributed as critics across our annual project reviews.
The Bartlett School of Architecture
The Bartlett School of Architecture is part of University College London (UCL), consistently ranked among the world's leading architecture schools. The BSc Architecture programme is accredited by the ARB and RIBA as Part 1.