Yeoryia Manolopoulou has been teaching the postgraduate design studio Unit 17 at the Bartlett School of Architecture since 1999 with teaching partners Niall McLaughlin, Michiko Sumi, Phil Tabor, and more recently with Thomas Parker.

Unit 17 students design contextual buildings that purposefully interplay with the social and material cultures of specific places. Each project is research-based, aiming to construct an architectural thesis that is explicitly manifested in the design proposal. We are interested in each student’s imagination and original voice, and seek diversity in the work produced by the unit as a whole: projects complement and sometimes intentionally contradict each other to form a multilayered dialogue about the nature of architectural thought and practice today. Design iteration through drawing and making is a constant activity that we encourage. Creative collaboration and an osmosis of ideas and techniques in the studio environment are vital aspects of the Unit’s culture.

Please visit PG17’s anthology page and follow the students’ instagram page.