Student Work / MA(Hons) Architecture

Programme Name: MA(Hons) Architecture
Course Name: AD4 / Tectonics
Course Organiser: Iain Scott
Tutors: Moa Carlsson, Simone Ferracina


Urban Ca[r]talyser repurposes a retail park in Edinburgh, seeking to divert low-value materials and to upcycle them into architectural components.

Set in an impending scenario wherein retail parks and the associated consumption patterns are no longer viable, and their current infrastructures become obsolete, the project uses Edinburgh’s Craigleith Retail Park as a testbed for a wider strategy that seeks to divert low-value materials and to upcycle them into architectural components. This effectively shifts the site’s focus from a market-driven and car-dominated approach, to one that percolates a philosophy of care, reuse and repair.

Winner, RIBA Awards for Sustainable Design, President’s Medals 2020.
Commendation, EAA McKay Medal 2020.