The Service Spine
Project
Present-day architecture is often too static, controlled, and alienated from the systems of labour and environment that sustain it. Located in the Barbican Centre, this project responds to London’s largely invisible migrant workforce—the backbone of the city's construction and maintenance industries—who are rarely acknowledged by institutional spaces.
Instead of a static object, the project proposes a modular bamboo scaffold based on a flexible, "live" joint system and a non-hierarchical hexagonal geometry. This open framework replaces rigid rooms with a vertical sequence of shared platforms, collective kitchens, and community workspaces. The structure and translucent skin are fully repairable, bringing ongoing maintenance out of the shadows and into everyday life
Spatial Concept
Spatial adaptability must operate as a direct political strategy, rather than just a technical solution. This project argues for an adaptable architecture that grows, changes, and is collectively occupied over time to make hidden labour visible. By transforming a controlled, permanent urban space into an evolving vertical commons, the architecture moves beyond symbolic representation to materially redistribute access, agency, and presence to those who build and sustain the city.
