In partnership with RIBA Client Services

Part of the RIBA’s clients in architecture schools initiative, Roland Karthaus delivers an annual teaching programme at the University of East London called Building Matters.

Postgraduate students meet with clients of major construction projects to understand their objectives and brief. They research the planning history of the project and interview design team members to investigate how the client’s brief is converted into a technical design. Finally they visit site to study the construction as both process and outcome.

The groups are encouraged to identify one or more specific details that encapsulate or exemplify the overall trajectory of the project and to investigate this through a large-scale model, or drawings. The projects are often very large and complex so they have to be tackled strategically. Following submission of a report, the students present back to the clients and in the best cases, reveal new insights that everyone learns from.

Read an RIBA article on the teaching programme here

Read example Building Matters report here and here

Partners: Lipton Rogers, University of Southampton, Bow Arts, Peabody, Metropolitan, Helical, Almacantar, Berkeley Homes, RIBA