The School of Architecture + Cities is committed to our Polytechnic inheritance of offering ‘a transformative higher education for all’. The Department of Education has ranked us first of all UK Schools of architecture for social mobility, while at the same time we welcome students from all around the world, creating a mix of views and approaches that forms a key part of our contribution to contemporary architectural culture, and to meeting our planetary and societal challenges. Our experimental design and research, inclusive place-making and transport, and low-carbon building are proving more important than ever as we recognise the built environment as continuous with the living world. Work that we do in close cooperation with the world of practice, through the myriad practitioners teaching in the School, and through employing our students.

OPEN 2022 is our celebration of a year’s creativity, and the achievements of our community of students and staff. For the first time since 2019 it’s been wonderful to welcome all our friends and families back to our Marylebone home, and to celebrate our community and the creative serendipity that spending time together exchanging ideas and skills engenders. At the same time, we wanted to hold on to one of the key things that we achieved during the pandemic – an enhanced digital presence. So, this year is a new kind of hybrid OPEN, with our physical show combining with this digital twin, a digital exhibition through which we can share our work with an extended audience all around the world – a reach that we could only have dreamed of in 2019. Thanks are owed to David Scott, François Girardin and the Fabrication Laboratory staff and student helpers who have helped design and curate it. Thanks also to our students and the staff who managed to produce work for this digital platform as well as build the physical show.

Harry Charrington

Head of the School of Architecture + Cities