Bo Tang
Bo Tang, co-author of Loose Fit City (2018), and co-editor of Learning from Delhi (2010) and The Architecture of three Freetown Neighbourhoods (2013). I am a senior research fellow, module leader and lecturer in the Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources (ARCSR) at The Cass, London Metropolitan University. My research is focused on collaborative live projects and making as a catalyst for civic engagement and social change. I have worked on projects in India, Nepal and Sierra Leone.
Biography
Bo Tang studied architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University of East London and The Cass, London Metropolitan University, where she graduated with distinction in 2008 and won the prize for best Integrated Design Study. She completed her PhD on a full 3-year scholarship in 2014. Her research thesis, entitled ‘Negotiating Shared Spaces in Informal Peri-Urban Settlements in India’, was one of four shortlisted for the RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding PhD Research in 2014.Since 2006, Bo has been involved in the research field of the Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources (ARCSR), coordinating and managing live projects with students in informal settlements in India, in collaboration with local NGOs, supported by The Water Trust (ARCSR). These include a sanitation upgrading project in Agra and quarry classrooms in Navi Mumbai. The first classroom building was shortlisted for the AJ Small Projects Award in 2010. A further research project in Sierra Leone has led to the construction of a new primary school in Freetown in 2011. Since 2014, she has led research in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal with her students, focused on the peri-urban topography. Bo regularly organises and curates ARCSR exhibitions in the UK and internationally, and was part of the RIBA Boyd Auger Scholarship 2008 research team, which explored art, urbanism and architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bo is co-editor of Learning From Delhi (2010) – awarded an Urban Design Group prize in 2012, and The Architecture of Three Freetown Neighbourhoods (2013) – a collaboration with the British Council in Sierra Leone. She has recently co-authored a new book, Loose Fit City, with Maurice Mitchell, published by Routledge in 2017. She has written papers in various journals including Planum and the Oxford Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching.
Bo is currently an undergraduate studio tutor, research supervisor and technology module leader at the Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University. She continues to further the research of ARCSR as senior research fellow and coordinator, with a new live research project in Athens, Greece, launched in 2017.
Education
-
PhD in Architecture, London Metropolitan University, 2014
DipArch(Dist) RIBA II, London Metropolitan University, 2008
BSc (Hons) Architecture, University of East London, 2005
BSc Architecture, University College London, 2004
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
-
Research organisation: Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources (ARCSR)
Charity: The Water Trust (ARCSR)
Personal Interests
-
My research is focused on collaborative live projects and making as a catalyst for civic engagement and social change. I have a keen interest in architectural education and pedagogy, and live projects as as research and teaching methods.
Websites
Books
Articles
Live Projects: Innovating in the Present
Published: Apr 01, 2016 by Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching Vol. Eight – Issue 1 – April 2016
Authors: Bo Tang, Maurice Mitchell
Setting boundaries is a creative act. Harnessing the idea of student involvement and engagement in live projects to their architectural education is difficult. This paper looks at the work of ARCSR, and assesses the relationship between boundary setting and changing intentions; speculating on the effect of changing intentions on the education of the student.
Live Projects as Research: Tools of Practice Research in Making Architecture
Published: Sep 10, 2015 by ADAPT-r Conference Proceedings ISBN: 8790979443
Authors: Bo Tang, Maurice Mitchell
Hands-off or hands-on? Do architects ‘design’ buildings or do they ‘make’ them? This paper addresses the role of the architect as a maker, someone who has a foot in many camps in order to bring together and realise an intention in response to a setting. In a field where professional practice tends to take precedence over research, what is architectural research? How do we define it?
Towards a New Architectural Identity for Freetown: Setting Up the First Free Sch
Published: Nov 01, 2014 by Edge Condition Vol. 4 - Teaching the Future. Nov 2014. pp. 28-35
Authors: Bo Tang, Maurice Mitchell
In April 2014 London Metropolitan University signed an agreement with the University of Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone Institute of Architects to collaborate in founding Sierra Leone’s first School of Architecture to be set up on the university campus perched high above the capital city of Freetown overlooking the sea.
Negotiating Shared Spaces in Informal Peri-Urban Settlements in India
Published: Oct 01, 2014 by Planum The Journal of Urbanism n.29 vol II/2014
Authors: Bo Tang
This paper investigates the creation of common places in informal peri-urban settlements in India through negotiation and sharing, and aims to develop a sensitive understanding of the role of amenity buildings and the effect of the post-hoc introduction of infrastructure. The approach takes collective architectural making as a catalyst for self-empowerment and social change, discussed primarily through first-hand experience of practical testing through small scale live interventions.
Quarry Schools: Building Community Classrooms in Stone Quarry Worker Settlements
Published: May 01, 2012 by Children, Youth and Environments 22(1), 2012
Authors: Bo Tang
This field report describes the successful collaboration of UK architecture students, the Indian non-governmental organization (NGO) ARPHEN, and local families in the construction of two community classrooms to provide a bridge into state education for the marginalized children of stone quarry workers in Navi Mumbai. The report examines the role of the architectural students as designers, makers and curators, as well as their relationship with the NGO and local residents.