Build Structures for Activism

Drop in to design and build physical structures with Environmental Architects Studio Bark.

Work alongside Architect Nick Newman and his team to build structures that respond to a variety of design briefs, learning how architects, designers, builders and researchers collaborate.

This event is part of Upstart a creative careers festival for young people ages 14-26. Join us to explore and expand your creative practice, meet inspiring artists and designers, develop your network and learn new skills for your creative career journey.

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Nick Newman’s expertise integrates design-led architecture, carpentry, deep energy retrofit, and government-funded research. He is a founding member of Studio Bark, and as Director of U-Build plays a key role in advancing modular construction methods.

Nick leads U-Build’s commercial retrofit programme, delivering circular office fit-outs including Sustainable Workspaces at County Hall. He oversaw the delivery of exhibitions Barricade and Beacon at the V&A (2024), and Long Life, Low Energy: Designing for a Circular Economy at RIBA (2022). He regularly runs workshops with young people and pioneered the Box Library, loaning U-Build boxes for temporary projects and events including festivals, trade shows, and exhibitions.

Nick is the author of Protest Architecture: Structures of Civil Resistance (RIBA Publishing, 2024), and contributed to The Environmental Design Pocketbook and The Passivhaus Designer’s Manual. He speaks regularly on environmental design, activism, modular building, and circular construction, and was named a ‘Rising Sustainability Star’ by Building magazine.