On 16 July 2025, the seventh cohort of New Architecture writers hosted their summer live event, ‘Filed, Misfiled, Unfiled: Archives in Question’, at Heatherwick Studio’s Making House. The event launched a new three-year partnership with Heatherwick Studio and was N.A.W.’s largest gathering to date. In a series of live interviews, the cohort explored archives as a site of struggle, questioning existing practices and imagining alternatives.
The event was organised into three sets of interviews that posed provocative questions to guest speakers, responding directly to their practices and their relationships to the archive. The night’s playlist was collectively curated to bring a sense of nostalgia to the space, with generous platters of food sampling global majority cuisine.
The Role and Responsibility of Archivists
For the first dialogue of the evening, cohort members Angus and Lena interviewed artists Prem Sahib and Emii Alrai and V&A curator Donata Miller-Obebe. Together, they discussed the agency, ethics and visibility of those who archive in shaping what is preserved, omitted and legitimised within archives.
After the interview, cohort member Hollie’s reading reflected on ‘Listening to Images’ by Tina Campt, imagining the archive beyond its complicated legacy and considering what truths can be uncovered by an archive produced by a diaspora.
The Archival Tendency
The second conversation was hosted by cohort members Hadeel and Efua interviewing V&A East Storehouse curator Georgia Haseldine and iniva archivist Kaitlene Koranteng. They reflected on the human compulsion to archive, asking if this is driven by anxiety, control, memory or care.
Drawing from her experience with community-led facilitation workshops and designing public programmes, Georgia spoke of her process-based approach and the importance of creating meaningful encounters with diverse voices. Kaitlene emphasised the legacy of archival work and what remains after a project ends, where the act of archiving is to capture an emotional, visceral response.
Following their discussion, Qinxue’s reading derived from her exploration of Meconopsis, or the Himalayan blue poppy. She examined the disconnect between the spiritual and scientific treatment of the flower, and how what was once considered a sacred treasure became a tool of scientific imperialism through archiving and extraction.
Speculative Archives, Alternative Forms
The final dialogue of the night was facilitated by Akif and Henna in conversation with Zaha Hadid Foundation Director Aric Chen and British Library Community Hub Manager Shaoli Choudhury. They discussed possibilities for speculative, performative and non-linear archives that resist traditional forms and reimagine the act of archiving as a creative, political and affective practice.
Aric talked about using the archive as a testing ground, moving away from presenting static objects and instead experimenting with them to put forward alternative histories. Shaoli is dedicated to archiving as a revolutionary act, using participatory methods within local Camden communities to prompt unusual and surprising responses to local history.
Responding to speculative archiving, Chisei read his fictional letter to iniva’s staff dated from 2055, describing a journey through a future Stuart Hall Library. He wrote this as part of N.A.W.’s third brief on speculative fictions, created in collaboration with iniva.
Though only scraping the surface of current discussions around archival practices and imaginaries, the evening’s wide-ranging discussions asked the audience to reflect on their own archival tendencies – what do you remember, what do you keep, and why does it matter?
Words by Akif Rahman
