The Bartlett School of Architecture's flagship seminar series, CRUNCH, returns for the 2025–26 academic year with a thematic focus on ‘imminence’ – what’s just around the corner, what feels too close, or what may already be here.
Our collective contemporary condition has been described as a ‘polycrisis’, where multiple global challenges – climate change, social inequality and political instability – unfold at once and interact in complex ways. These overlapping pressures demand urgent attention, but perceptions of what is imminent vary across communities, geographies and power structures. What is imminent for some may be distant or already endured by others.
Against this context, CRUNCH asks: What role can architecture play in the face of these escalating pressures? Can it offer strategies that are not only reactive but also imaginative and transformative? While dominant visions of the future often appear bleak, is there space within architectural practice for approaches grounded in care, reflection and repair? It looks to long-standing social movements whose histories of resistance and resilience might offer insights for architectural practice today.
CRUNCH is The Bartlett School of Architecture’s platform for research-driven and practice-led public engagement, offering space for critical dialogue and experimental thinking. Across seven events in Term 1, the series brings together designers, architects, planners, artists, thinkers and activists to explore urgent spatial questions around energy, planetary futures, architectural practice and design legacies. CRUNCH is curated by the school's Co-Directors of Public Programming, Albert Brenchat-Aguilar and Déborah López Lobato.
Please note
All events are free to attend, however registration is essential. Events will take place from 18:30–20:00 on Monday's in 22 Gordon Street, unless otherwise stated. A drinks reception will follow each seminar.
Schedule
29 September 2025
Geology of Imminent Repair
Speakers: Kathryn Yusoff (Queen Mary, University of London) and Kabage Karanja (Cave Bureau)
Chairs: Prof Murray Fraser and Prof Eva Branscome (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
6 October 2025
Extraplanetary Habitats: An Imminent Frontier?
Speakers: Barbara Imhof (Universität Innsbruck), Irene Gallou (Foster + Partners) and Alan Smith (UCL Space & Climate Physics)
Chair: Prof Marjan Colletti (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
13 October 2025
Oblique Architectures: The Combinatory Urbanism of Iwona Buczkowska
Speaker: Iwona Buczkowska (Architect)
Respondent: Nichola Barrington-Leach (NVBL)
Chair: Robin Wilson (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
20 October 2025
Site: Form, Structure and Technique
Speaker: Luis Callejas (LCLA OFFICE)
Respondents: Diana Salazar and Tamsin Hanke (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
Chairs: Prof Mark Smout and Prof Laura Allen (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
Co-convener: Prof Yeoryia Manolopoulou (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
27 October 2025
Imminent Energies
Speakers: Julia Barfield (Marks Barfield Architects), Iain MacDonald (HKS Architects) and Ele Carpenter (Umeå University)
Chair: Luke Olsen (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
17 November 2025
The Imminent Practitioner
Speaker: Níall McLaughlin (Níall McLaughlin Architects)
Respondent: Prof Izaskun Chinchilla (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
Chair: Prof Amy Kulper (The Bartlett School of Architecture)
8 December 2025
Architecture and Environment
Speaker: Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA)
Chairs: Prof Murray Fraser and Michiko Sumi (The Bartlett School of Architecture)