Research + Writing

Christopher is a member of the Suffolk Design Review Panel;  an independent service, promoted and endorsed by the authorities within Suffolk. 

What happens when the stories we tell ourselves are the wrong ones; not quite true or damaged? We are telling tales; lying to ourselves. 

James was part of a group convened by the University of Westminster to visit the historic Bulmer Brick works in Suffolk, where production has been taking place since Tudor Ttimes.

James presented ‘Intensive Care’ at the Architects Educators conference in Bristol. 

James reviewed this important book for New York’s Vertical Urbanism publication.

Popular Taste: Secular Vernacular, published in Building Design. James is part of their Housing panel.

Project Orange were invited to lead a tour around Lavenham for a group of Suffolk Planners as part of a new initiative to connect people and place. 

We were part of a team re-writing the local NP and a Design Guide. Although not adopted it represents three years of important research.

James presented his paper - Architecture in the Future Imperfect - at this conference held at Lancaster Univeristy. He argues for radical change towards creating an ecological civilisation.

Book review of, The City of Today is a Dying Thing, Des Fitzgerald. Faber and Faber, 2024 

LIFE is an independent initiative to share ideas and thoughts that contribute to our collective future and wellbeing in Lavenham set up by Project Orange.

LEO is a group of residents who are looking into the future of energy in Lavenham, initiated by Project Orange. We were awarded a £10k grant by the University of Suffolk resulting in a report.

The aim of Future Zone, India, is to consider global trends in hotel design, guest expectations and new initiatives over the next 10 years.

Read James’ review of Walcot Square housing by FORM Studio, published in Architecture Today.

We participated in a conference hosted by PRATT in New York that was addressing questions of community involvement in planning the future.

The aim of the President’s Fact-Finding Mission was to examine why architects continually exclude themselves from positions of power and leadership 

What does it mean to practice architecture in the Age of Climate Emergency? How might we pivot in these difficult times?

Designing Out is a showcase of LGBTQIA+ talent in Architecture, encompassing projects and research from students, graduates, professionals and academics. 

A collection of essays and writing by James Soane around teaching and learning at the LSA.

This is a strand of research that draws on student writing from the LSA to share alternative approaches to the teaching and learning of architectural theory.

This essay examines how the Craig-era Bond films present the concept of home,

from personal spaces to our planetary home,

The times are urgent, let us slow down

Collectively pause and fall silent

The pause is counter to that which has brought us to near extinction

During Covid we developed our fourth edition asking difficult questions around becoming an architect in the Climate Crisis. 

This paper reflects on the school’s ethical agenda and asks questions on the importance of societal and political theories that inform the teaching practice. 

​What, if instead of creating pollution and landfill as a by-product, our urban developments produced nutrients? What if all new housing created sustainable communities living together in an inspiring healthy environment? 

What is practice based research and how does it relate to the business of architecture? This is a question that interests Project Orange​

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Teaching Practice: the London School of Architecture:  Embedded within the teaching model of the school is the conviction that there is a dynamic and critical conversation to be had between students, teachers and practitioners.

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Climate Models: Bending the Rules: Climate is commonly defined as the weather averaged over a long period. Today statistical evidence shows that our climate is changing fast, which in turn is affecting the architecture of our planet. The model is now in flux.

For the third issue of our research “zine”  we chose to look at the theme Housing, House and Home. PO Box 3 is a collection of short essays each written by a member of the practice about a topic of their choice within the wider theme.

We initialised a new research mechanism for the practice back in 2010 to allow members of the practice to research into their area of interest, with particular reference to projects that they had worked on. PO Box 1 was the result; it was shortlisted for the RIBA President’s medals for Research in Practice.

James is a founding Director of the London School of Architecture. He taught Critical Practice for seven years before being appointed a fellow.

James is the co-editor and author of “A Gendered Profession” by RIBA Publishing and available from October 2016.

We have designed an alternative housing scheme for a site in Lavenham Suffolk as a research project. The intention was to see if there is an alternative, cost effective model that may offer a more contemporary response to this special opportunity.

Project Orange was invited to carry out a piece of research to investigate option for the next phase of the ambitious works planned for the famous Park Hill Estate in Sheffield.

James took part in the Living and Learning AAE Conference in Sheffield, looking at the role of education within practice.

For part of the London Festival of Architecture we opened up our studio and used the opportunity to create a small publication to review our work in progress within the housing sector.

James was selected as a lecturer, judge and moderator for the 2015 World Architecture Festival 2015 spending a week in Singapore.

James took part in the THEORY by DESIGN conference at the Faculy of Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp, basing the paper on PO Box 1 our collection of essays produced  by the studio in 2010.

James wrote the final chapter for An Architect's Guide to Fame published by the Architectural Press

We initialised a new research mechanism for the practice back in 2010 to allow members of the practice to research into their area of interest, with particular reference to projects that they had worked on. PO Box 1 was the result; it was shortlisted for the RIBA President’s medals for Research in Practice.

James was the author of New Home published by Conran Octopus, a study of housing typologies in the UK.