The term ‘backstory’ is associated with novels, TV and film as a storytelling device for bringing depth to a character and helping to make sense of a present event. In these, backstories can be used to provide an explanation for audiences about the personalities and actions characters exhibit in the present. But we argue backstories can be found everywhere. Buildings and people have backstories: stories from their pasts used to explain who and what they are. Backstories reveal some of the meanings invested in places, spaces and buildings. Building materials have backstories, in the reason for their selection alongside their geographic and commercial origins, stories that include people involved in or affected by their use.
The work of the unit was located in and around Thamesmead, which is sited between the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley in South East London. Thamesmead, a major architectural project from the 1960s and 70s is full of stories and undergoing change, with regeneration projects and the arrival of new public transport infrastructure that will make a once remote part of London more accessible.
Naomi Gibson and Matthew Lenkiewicz
Ashmi Thapar
BA Architecture is a three-year full-time programme offering exemption from ARB/RIBA Part 1, and the first step towards a career as an architect. The programme interweaves the disciplines of architectural design, histories and theories, technology, and professional practice. The design studio is central to the work students undertake, with year 2 and 3 students taught together in design units. Each unit addresses a different brief and design agenda. This is a rigorous and highly inventive programme, dedicated to architectural ways of designing, thinking and seeing the world. It provides students will skillsets applicable to a wide range of careers.
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