Ascensions 2 {Collectivity}

For the second event in the Ascensions series, we are bringing together two collective practices formed out of the RCA School of Architecture: Edit and Xcessive Aesthetics.

Founded one year apart and both foregrounding research - into data, gender, power, care, alternative realities - in their design practices, Edit and Xcessive Aesthetics come together to explore what it means to be a collective. 

Alberte Lauridsen, Alice Meyer and Sophie Williams (from Edit) and Emmy Bacharach, Rhiarna Dhaliwal and Teresa Ribeiro Boulting (from Xcessive Aesthetics) will be back in the building to discuss their grounds and horizons and the ways in which the spirit of the RCA School of Architecture has informed and inspired their ongoing and future practice. Taking place in the ArtBar/Lounge, our guests will think through their work in both image and sound, emphasising the significance of presence and culture in the deepening of social and spatial practices, both across the School and beyond.

Held in the more informal, seminal setting of the ArtBar/Lounge, where some of the best ideas and deepest connections tend to come about, and to create a more discursive atmosphere; we want to talk, think, play some music, and collectively be together. 

Edit
Edit is a feminist design collective working to challenge biases embedded in the built environment. Edit’s research looks at architecture and its power to influence and maintain established gender roles within a capitalist system, and is interested in how traces of care and reproductive labour spill into the public realm, disrupting formal notions of public life and space.

Xcessive Aesthetics
Xcessive Aesthetics (XA) is an all-female interdisciplinary architecture collective exploring data and alternate realities through spatial installations. Founded in 2019, XA combines spatial design and digital tools in unconventional ways to explore the hidden biases behind emerging technologies. XA is made up of 6 members based globally, including London, Istanbul and Bangkok.

Alberte Lauridsen (RCA MA Architecture 2018) is an architect and founding member of feminist architecture collective, Edit. Her work considers how architecture reinforces gendered rituals and social norms, proposing alternatives through built and speculative projects. Alberte is currently teaching at the London School of Architecture.

Alice Meyer (RCA MA Architecture 2018) is an architect and educator. She graduated in 2018 from RCA and, apart from being part of Edit, she works at Haworth Tompkins as project architect and she is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University. 

Sophie Williams (RCA MA Architecture 2018) is an architectural designer and council worker. She works closely with grassroots organisations and underserved communities to support them in creating the spatial and social infrastructure they need. She explores similar themes through her work as part of Edit which she joined as a founding member in 2018.

Emmy Bacharach (RCA MA Architecture 2019) is a spatial designer exploring contested infrastructures across physical and digital spaces. She is a founding member of design collective Xcessive Aesthetics and currently works between architectural practice, teaching and multimedia installations. Emmy tutors at the Design Academy Eindhoven, co-leading Studio Digital Native. 

Rhiarna Dhaliwal (RCA MA Architecture 2019) is a British-Indian architectural designer, researcher and educator based in London. She is a founding member of collective Xcessive Aesthetics. Her work investigates global environmental and political systems that affect the future of landscapes and ecosystems. Rhiarna tutors at the Design Academy Eindhoven co-leading Studio Digital Native, and is an alumni of New Architecture Writers. 

Teresa Ribeiro Boulting (RCA MA Architecture 2019) is a Brazilian-British architectural designer with an on-going fascination in the social dialectic between (wo)man-designed and (wo)man-populated. She is a founding member of the all-female design collective Xcessive Aesthetics. Her project XAMA explored beauty salons as physical manifestations of already existing social networks. 

Co-curated by Charlotte Grace and Thomas Aquilina
Support from Pam Su and Luiza Tatarska
Music by Dara Khakpour (RCA Interior Futures 2021)
Poster design by Hereth (Clem Rousset: RCA MA Graphic Design 2020)