The Bartlett Summer Show 2026: Voices from Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies

About

Part of the Bartlett Summer Show 2026 programme, Voices brings together work from students on the Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies BSc whose projects use different perspectives to question the assumptions, values and realities that shape the built environment.

The programme includes a live puppet performance, a student-led panel discussion and workshop. Rooted in the idea of plural voices, the event explores architecture not as a singular discipline or fixed mode of practice, but as an open conversation shaped by multiple perspectives, experiences and ways of working. Through performance, discussion and collective reflection, Voices invites audiences to consider how different voices might challenge established assumptions about architecture and shape its future.

Schedule

14:00 - Doors open

14:30 - 14:35 - Opening remarks
By Tess Mihigo Uwera, Justin Tsai, and Tatiana Degtyareva

14:40 - 14:55 - CHUCHA* puppet performance
CHUCHA presents Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá, a mobile puppet performance exploring migration, identity and integration through the interaction between a mother, her son and a mischievous spirit. Combining music, dance and storytelling, the work invites audiences to consider how experiences of migration are understood, remembered and shared.

15:00 - 16:30 - VOICES panel and workshop

A student-led panel bringing together a range of perspectives from across the Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies BSc. The panel will begin with short provocations from participants before opening into discussion, audience Q&A and collective reflection. Through short presentations, discussion and audience participation, the session will explore questions including:

• Why has architecture struggled to enter mainstream cultural conversation in the way that art, fashion, music and film have?
• Has architecture become too reliant on specialised language to communicate its value?
• What does architectural knowledge mean following recent changes to RIBA Part 1 accreditation?
• Which disciplines beyond architecture most shape how we understand space today?
• Who authors a building, and what does it mean to design and author ethically?

16:35 - 16:50 - CHUCHA* puppet performance

16:55 - 17:00 - Closing remarks

*’Chucha’ is a Kichwa term (Ecuador’s native tongue) for possum, but its meaning has warped with time, transforming into today’s colonial vulgarity, and for diaspora outside of the motherland, it’s reclaimed as everyday slang. To me, language is a key borderland where colonial bureaucracy is upheld and decolonial futures are built. Hence, labelling our collective group CHUCHA, engages in what it can look like to recontextualise indigenous culture and iconography, whether that’s through words like ‘chucha’ to icons like ‘Ruminahui’, we aim to be the authors of our own language and push a new interpretation of what chucha is. Within Sergio’s project, CHUCHA is the producing body, and NI DE AQUI, NI DE ALLA. The puppet show touches on migration, identity and integration. What does it look like for a child to explore those topics through music, dance and play.

Panellists

Dhruv Gulabchande is an Associate Director at HFM Architects with 13 years of refurbishment experience across healthcare and retail sectors focussing on adaptive reuse of existing buildings into community-led spaces. He leads award-winning non-profit mentoring platform, Narrative Practice, where his current research focuses on promoting diversity through the long-term integration of mentoring into architectural practice and academia. In recognition of his ongoing work, Dhruv has been selected as a RIBAJ Rising Star, Curation Panel Member for the London Festival of Architecture, awarded Emerging Individual of the Year by the Thornton Education Trust and, most recently, has won the Archiboo Activism Award. Alongside practice and research, he has held teaching roles at Syracuse University London, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, University of Sheffield, and University of Brighton, exploring storytelling through the lens of community, identity and cultural narrative.

Maia Ardalla is a researcher and cultural practitioner. Her work is strengthened through partnerships with emerging artists, communities, and young people. Inspired by storytelling and the culture of her upbringing in London, she aims to use creative practice as a mechanism for strategic and socio-political transformation, with joy, sustainability, and an open-source philosophy as key pillars of her approach. Deeply collaborative in nature, her work has spanned many industries, including architecture, museums, contemporary art, and now film.

Spencer Lu is a communications professional with a background in marketing and museums. He is passionate about promoting awareness of the built environment across a wide audience and building dialogue between professionals and the public. After completing a Marketing Management BComm at the University of Toronto, Spencer moved to London for the Museums and Galleries in Education MA at UCL before starting on the programmes team at the NLA where he worked on the London Festival of Architecture. Spencer now looks after business development at Caro Communications, a PR agency specialising in design and built environment stories. He is always looking forward to meeting new people to learn more about current and historic design.

Contributors

Voices has been developed by students and staff from the Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies BSc at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture. The event brings together perspectives from across the programme, reflecting its commitment to interdisciplinary approaches to architecture, culture, research and public engagement.

Justin Tsai is a penultimate-year student on the Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies BSc at the Bartlett School of Architecture. His work explores architecture through the lenses of theory, aesthetics, and cultural practice, examining the tensions between style, meaning, and social responsibility.

Kyiga Wilberforce is a final-year BSc Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies student at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Her research and sculpture investigates incremental development and shifting building typologies caused by climate and conflict-induced migration in South Asia. A UCL Laidlaw Scholar and two-time recipient of both the Bartlett Medal and the Architectural Research Prize (2024, 2025), she is a member of New Architecture Writers 2026 Cohort and a commissioned artist by the Horniman Museum & Gardens, opening 2027.

Sergio Lopez is a Year 3 student on the Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies BSc at the Bartlett School of Architecture. His work explores storytelling, performance and migrant narratives through interactive and community-focused forms of spatial practice. 

Tatiana Degtyareva is an Architecture and Interdisciplinary Studies student at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Her work explores spatial reuse and reconstruction in response to changing natural conditions and social demands. Her current practice spans architectural research and design, project management , and exhibition curation, with projects focusing on sites of historical significance and their adaptation to contemporary social and environmental needs. Raised in Cyprus within an international environment, Tatiana brings a cross-cultural perspective to her work, often drawing connections between culture, social responsibility, and the built environment. Through her studies at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, she combines her interests in leadership, research, and three-dimensional design to explore new approaches to architecture and spatial practice.

Téa Texier is an Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies student at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Interested in the overlap between architecture and music, her work explores the production and control of urban sound, mapped through the tension between formal legislation and internalised behaviours. Alongside this, she works in media, music, and start-up spaces, and is passionate about bringing architectural thought into broader cultural conversations.

Dr. Janine Francois is a Black British feminist scholar, whose work explores climate justice through ancestral knowledge, anti-colonial thought and feminist ethics of care. Her interdisciplinary practice spans writing, research, curation and public engagement across academic, cultural and community contexts. Janine is an Associate Professor and Director of Climate Justice at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and Co-Curator of the BSc Architectural & Interdisciplinary Studies Summer Show (2025–26).

2026 is the year in which we celebrate UCL’s bicentenary, marking 200 years since UCL’s establishment as the first university in London. On 11 February 2026, UCL will begin a year of celebration to mark our Bicentenary. UCL200 will be an exciting and varied programme of activities, events and storytelling, celebrating and reinforcing UCL’s commitment to our founding values, highlighting the excellence and impact of our groundbreaking work and people, and presenting an ambitious and inspiring portrait of our future.