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East London Smells
About the project
Daisy and Ava’s project, ‘East London Smells’, grew from a fascination with smell and a curiosity about how sensory experiences shape our understanding of place. Inspired by the rich diversity of Brick Lane, they collaborated with Beyond Sight Loss, a peer-support group for visually impaired people, and engaged local businesses through walks, workshops, and conversations. These encounters helped to map the area, highlighting how sensory landscapes can connect people, cultures, and generations, even as urban redevelopment challenges the area’s identity.
Meet the collaborators
Daisy James works at the intersection of art, activism, and architecture, exploring how individuals and groups assert their presence in urban landscapes. Through site-specific practice, she challenges the dynamics of public space, designing collaborative actions and localised interventions that position her work within frameworks of institutional critique.
Ava Fatah gen. Schieck is an architect, researcher, and educator based at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, exploring sensory experiences through place-based work. Applying co-creation processes, she works with artists and communities on projects spanning digital and physical ecologies. She is a co-investigator on the ‘Smell Care Project’ and has led cross disciplinary digital urban interventions that foster diversity in east London.