Dr Helena Rivera

Helena’s material and social practice focuses on grounded proposals for a just transition with a focus on ecology, climate change, resilient communities and community engagement methods.

A Small Studio is an RIBA chartered award-winning architecture firm in London specialising in site-specific and responsive projects that are thoughtfully designed. The studio is winner of the Urban Oasis 2023 Don’t Move Improve! Award and shortlisted for NLA Awards 2023 in the workplace category. It was shortlisted by Dezeen as ‘Emerging Architect of the Year’ in 2020 and selected by the Architecture Foundation as part of their ‘New Architects 4’ series in 2021. A Small Studio delivers projects that respond creatively to their context. The studio work focuses on innovative design through detailing and materiality. It has developed a sustainable material library dedicated to the promotion of net-zero emissions in the construction industry and a passport system that measures the embodied carbon of each material. The library is free to use and open to the local community. Above all, the studio has a commitment to wellbeing- of both its studio members and the stakeholders it engages with. Being small means the studio is flexible and its ethos is to focus more on quality than on growth.

Urban Oasis Winner of Don't Move Improve! 2023 by New London Architecture (NLA)

Shortlisted as curators of the Venice Biennale Pavilion 2025  ‘Shared Grounds’ by The British Council

Highly Commended in Workplace Category NLA Awards 2023 by New London Architecture (NLA)

Panellist at the Symposium ‘The Cladding Crisis: going beyond the layers of the façade’  ‘Behind the façade: the neglected user voice’ by The Architectural Association

Longlisted in Don't Move Improve! 2022 by New London Architecture (NLA)

Shortlisted as curators of the Venice Biennale Pavilion 2023  ‘Grenfell Residents and Stories of Home’ by The British Council

Longlisted in the small interior category of Dezeen Awards 2021

Longlisted for emerging architect of the year by Dezeen Awards 2020

Selected for the book ‘New Architects 4’ by The Architecture Foundation

Showcased in the ‘WRK/LDN: Office Revolution?’ by New London Architecture (NLA)

Research Grants

2019 “Upscaling Resilience”. Funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) made available by the British Academy’s Cities and Infrastructure programme. Heriot-Watt University, The University of Edinburgh, Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Medellín, University of São Paulo. Value £295k.

Description: The project #UpscalingResilience aims to explore upscaling and transnational transfer of participatory landslide risk-reducing strategies for informal settlements in Latin America. Drawing on lessons from a pilot experience in a single small informal settlement in Medellin, Colombia, this project will roll out and evaluate the use of community-based participatory monitoring and mitigation of landslide risk across the city in Medellín, Colombia, as well as in São Paulo, Brazil.

The overall aim is to develop bottom-up approaches to dealing with landslide risks in cities around the Global South, in a way that optimises the collaboration between communities and relevant governmental bodies, as well as the collaborative use of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ infrastructures.

Link: https://www.asmallstudio.co.uk/urban-design/upscaling-resilience

2017 “Resilience” Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Resilience Foundation Awards made available by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Heriot-Watt University, The University of Edinburgh, Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Medellín. Value £113k

Description: This is a joint Heriot-Watt University/The University of Edinburgh/Universidad Nacional de Colombia project that is piloting community-based monitoring and mitigation of landslide risk in an informal settlement in Medellin, Colombia, as a basis to inform negotiated strategies for risk management at the city level. This project aims to explore the scope for, and acceptability of, landslide risk-reducing strategies for informal settlements from the community and state perspectives; to understand the barriers to landslide risk-reducing strategies; and identify politically and practically viable approaches to landslide risk-reducing strategies within a wider and more complex context of social and physical risk. We will explore these issues in the city of Medellin, Colombia, which has received many accolades for its urban planning and design and has become a ‘model’ for cities elsewhere. Despite the city’s successes, informal settlement growth on land at risk of landslides continues to be a major problem due to its topography.

Link: https://www.asmallstudio.co.uk/urban-design/resilience

2017 “Medellín Urban Innovation”. British Council, Newton Institutional Links Grant from the British Council. Heriot-Watt University, The University of Edinburgh, Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Medellín, Universidad de Santo Tomás and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. Value of Grant £295k

Description: Medellin Urban Innovation (MUI) is a research collaboration between academic and non-academic institutions in the United Kingdom and Colombia. It is a two-year project that received a Newton Institutional Links Grant from the British Council. MUI is about researching to what extent urban innovation in Medellín (Colombia) has helped increase social equity and well-being in the city. This research project asks how and to what extent urban innovation in Medellin is contributing to an improvement to social equity and welfare in the city. Four specific themes structure the investigation, each with a research topic: ‘housing and habitat’, ‘cultural values and heritage’, ‘public realm, green infrastructure and wellbeing’, and ‘mobility and transport infrastructure’.

Link: https://www.asmallstudio.co.uk/urban-design/medelln-urban-innovation

https://www.medellin-urban-innovation.eca.ed.ac.uk

2016 British Council Researcher Links Workshop Awardee ‘Managing complex social housing urban redevelopment through improved project management and value generation’. Porto Alegre, Brazil

Publications

• A Small Studio Ltd. (2021), “Emerging Architects 4”, The Architecture Foundation [Book]
• Harry Smith, Soledad Garcia Ferrari, Gabriela M. Medero, Helena Rivera, Françoise Coupé, Mónica Elizabeth Mejía Escalante, Wilmar Castro Mera, Carlos Alberto Montoya Correa, Alex Abiko & Fernando A. M. Marinho (2021) Exploring appropriate socio-technical arrangements for the co-production of landslide risk management strategies in informal neighbourhoods in Colombia and Brazil, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, DOI: 10.1080/19463138.2021.1872082
• Smith, H., F. Coupé, S. Garcia-Ferrari, H. Rivera, and W. E. Castro Mera. 2020. Toward negotiated mitigation of landslide risks in informal settlements: reflections from a pilot experience in Medellín, Colombia. Ecology and Society 25(1):19. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11337-25011
• Smith, H., F. Coupé, S. Garcia-Ferrari, H. Rivera. 2018. City Profile: Medellín. Cities 74:354-364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.12.011
• Rivera, H. (2020), "Unpacking the Official View: Five Myths on British New Towns", Fée, D., Colenutt, B. and Schäbitz, S.C. (Ed.) Lessons from British and French New Towns: Paradise Lost?, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 45-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-430-920201003
• Smith, Harry, Garcia-Ferrari, Soledad, Medero, Gabriela, Rivera, Helena, Coupé, Françoise, Caballero, Humberto, Castro, Wilmar, Abiko, Alex, Marinho, Fernando A. M. and Ferreira, Karolyne. "Chapter 10: Learning From Co-Produced Landslide Risk Mitigation Strategies in Low-Income Settlements in Medellín (Colombia) and São Paulo (Brazil)". Housing and Human Settlements in a World of Change, edited by Astrid Ley, Ashiq Ur Rahman, Josefine Fokdal and Md Ashiq Ur Rahman, Bielefeld: transcript-Verlag, 2020, pp. 243-266. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839449424-013
• Smith, Harry, Garcia-Ferrari, Soledad, Medero, Gabriela, Rivera, Helena. "Hillside Communities learn to Mitigate Landslide Risks". Re.Think Earth, edited by Marikka Haeggman and Zoe Wildsmith, Creative Commons License, 2018. https://rethink.earth/hillside-communities-learn-to-mitigate-landslide-risks/
• Rivera, H (2015) ‘Housing (crisis) versus planning (ideology): Rethinking New Towns and the building of new communities in England’. [Conference paper] HSA Housing Studies Associations: Housing the Generations: Justice, Inequality and the implications of Political Change, University of York (9 April 2015)

Conferences, Lectures & Public Speaking

• Rivera, H [2024] Invited Speaker at ‘Rockaway Housing Superstorm: Between Rising waters and Climate Gentrification’, hosted by Ed Wall of Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Titled: ‘A Small Studio on community engagement practices. [Talk with Q&A]
• Rivera, H [2024] Invited Lecturer at Spatial Practices public lecture series, hosted by BA Architecture Central Saint Martins. Titled: ‘Maintenance and joy’. [Lecture]
• Rivera, H [2024] Invited Speaker and workshop moderator at the ‘Co-joining city, land and sea workshop’, hosted by The University of Plymouth. Titled: ‘Co-joining city, land and sea’. [Workshop]
• Rivera, H [2023] Invited Speaker at the ‘Cladding Symposium’, hosted by Architectural Association. Titled: ‘Behind the Façade; the neglected user voice’. [Talk with Q&A]
• Rivera, H [2023] Invited Speaker at London around the world: Cities in dialogue led by Haptic Architects. Titled: ‘Bogotá urban collectives: unveiling the inequality through urban cartography using different languages, from architecture to Hip Hop culture.’. [Talk with Q&A]
• Rivera, H [2023] Invited Speaker at College of Built Environment, Birmingham City University for the ‘Placemaking’ module led by Professor Silvia Gullino. Titled: ‘Using a participatory approach to transform public realm’. [Talk with Q&A]
• Rivera, H [2021] Invited Speaker by The University of Greenwich Roundtable ‘Urban Development Diets’. [Roundtable]
• Rivera, H [2020] Invited Speaker by The Developer ‘Parley on The Future of Retail and High Streets’. [Parley]
• Rivera, H [2017] Invited Speaker The Bartlett Pracdemic ‘A Small Studio Ltd: Bridging research and practice’. [Seminar], The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London
• Rivera, H [2017] Invited Participant to the Medellín Roundtable Discussion ‘Shaping Cities for the ‘Challenging the Medellin Miracle: The long (hi)story of recovering the city for the people’. [Roundtable], The City Leadership Laboratory, University College London
• Rivera, H [2017] Guest Speaker at the ICA Representing Irregular Urbanism’. [Presentation], RESCALE (RESearch into Cities, Architecture, Landscape and Environment), Kingston School of Art and the ICA
• Rivera, H [2016] Guest Speaker at City Seminar is ‘Shaping Cities for the ‘Nightwatchman’ State?’. [Presentation], The University of Cambridge
• Rivera, H [2016] ‘Latin American Roundtable + Urbanization’. [Presentation], Kingston University
• Rivera, H (2015) ‘Pioneer perspectives: enabling Participatory Action Research (PAR) to rethink public policy formulation’. [Conference Paper] AESOP Young Academics Conference: Differences and Connections, Universitá Degli Studi di Palermo (25 March 2015)
• Rivera, H (2015) ‘Political ideology and housing supply: Rethinking New Towns and the building of new communities in England’. [PhD Thesis] University College London, 2015

Published Projects

• New London Architecture (NLA) (2021). ‘WRK/LDN: Office Revolution?’. (found online: https://nla.london/insights/wrkldn-office-revolution)
• High Street Tasks Force [2021]. ‘The Power of Norwood High Street by A Small Studio’. (found online: https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk)
• Dezeen [2021]. ‘Ten Loft Conversions by architects that add extra space to homes’. (found online: https://www.dezeen.com/2021/07/04/ten-loft-conversions-dezeen-lookbooks/)
• The Telegraph Magazine (2021). “Inside Story: Roof rooms that pay for themselves’ (July 2021).
• The Building Centre [2020]. ‘The People’s High street by A Small Studio’. (found online: https://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/news/articles/the-peoples-high-street)
• RIBA Journal [2020]. ‘Canopy House in Nairobi by A Small Studio.’ (July 2020)
• Grand Designs [2018]. ‘New Tradition: A Stylish Combination of Geometric Shapes creates an eye-catching scheme’. (September 2018)
• Dwell [2018]. ‘Better Half A modest expansion is a major improvement for a Victorian 'half-house' in London.’ (April 2018)
• Jenkins, H. (2017). “British + Irish Modern. ‘New Houses and Old Houses Made New’”. Images Publishing. London.
• The Guardian [2017]. ‘Former Glory: Staying True to 1950s Home Design’ (December 2017)
• Dezeen [2016]. ‘Victorian loft conversion by A Small Studio creates "relaxation oasis" (found online: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/10/31/victorian-loft-conversion-by-a-small-studio-creates-relaxation-oasis-south-london-uk/)

Exhibition

• Exhibition at University of Edinburgh (2017). “Medellín Urban Innovation - #MUI funded by the British Council Newton Fund”

Link: https://issuu.com/medellin.urban.innovation/docs/mui_catalogue_english

Director, A Small Studio. Link: https://www.asmallstudio.co.uk

Chartered Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Link: https://www.architecture.com

Member of the Architects Registration Board (ARB). Link: https://arb.org.uk

External Examiner of MArch Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2), at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth. Link: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/march-architecture-arbriba-part-2

Board Member, Station to Station, West Norwood and Tulse Hill Business Improvement District (BID) - https://stationtostation.london

Member of the RIBA Future Architects student mentoring scheme. Link: https://www.architecture.com/education-cpd-and-careers/studying-architecture/student-mentoring?srsltid=AfmBOooiA8_KgorsEwosWoTtCcunn9fyPb7fk-yW5qbDKbl7uJoEMTJz