CRUNCH: Platformers 2: Architecture Through the Fields

To change discourse and thought we not only need to change our practices but the platforms where our practices take place. A platform could be an institution, an edited publication, a series of events, an educational project, a job offer, or the space and geography where each of these occur.  

Artist, researcher and curator Fernando Portal and teacher, curator and editor Shumi Bose will discuss the platforms they set up to enable and cultivate new practices that help them thrive. The Latin American cultural and educational initiative Núcleo Lenguaje y Creación was set up by Fernando to promote interdisciplinary practice throughout architecture, graphic design, civil engineering and the arts. It does so through mentorship programmes that platform researchers interested in Latin American topics. Likewise, Shumi has platformed BIPOC and other colleagues through her teaching, mentorship, curatorial and activist work. Amongst other initiatives, Shumi is the founder of HoldSpace, a digital platform for reading, thinking and talking about architecture beyond the academic sphere.

This event is part of the flagship CRUNCH Series at The Bartlett School of Architecture, replacing the International Lecture Series.

Please note this event is first-come, first-served and is limited capacity. 

Speaker biographies

Fernando Portal is an artist and researcher exploring the intersections between design and politics. He works as associate professor and director of the interdisciplinary research centre, Núcleo Lenguaje y Creación at Universidad de las Américas in Santiago, Chile. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. He holds a Master of Science degree in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture (CCCP) from Columbia GSAPP, and a Master’s in Architecture from Pontificia Universidad Católicade Chile where he trained as an architect. 

Shumi Bose is a teacher, curator and editor based in London. She is a senior lecturer in Architecture at Central Saint Martins and visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art. Shumi has worked as a curator of exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and at the Royal Institute of British Architects. 

Thomas Aquilina is an architect and academic dedicated to building communities of radical imagination and collective practice. He is an Associate Professor of Spatial Justice at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. His work investigates the twin relationship between belonging and Blackness, as well as architecture and empire. Thomas is co-director of New Architecture Writers, an experimental pedagogic project based in London.

More information

Image: Sensible al código/FPS01126.JPG by María Jesús Schultz from the "Circuito expandido " exhibition at the 16º Media Arts Biennial, Santiago de Chile, 2023. Curated by Fernando Portal.