Islands Talks: Owen Hatherley and Marianna Janowicz

How can London’s architectural history shape ecological futures?

This event brings together architectural historian and author Owen Hatherley with Design Researcher in Residence Marianna Janowicz to consider the untold history and radical potential of laundry.

Building on Marianna’s research as part of her residency with Future Observatory at the Design Museum, the talk takes the history of communal washing and drying facilities in London’s housing estates as a starting point to reimagine the politics of everyday life in a low-carbon future.

Owen Hatherley

Owen is the author of several books, most recently Modern Buildings in Britain (Penguin), and Artificial Islands (Repeater), winner of best book and best monograph at the Architectural Book Awards, 2023. He is also a commissioning editor at Jacobin.

Marianna Janowicz

Marianna is an architect, writer, educator and member of feminist design collective Edit. She teaches design studio and architectural history at the London School of Architecture and the University for the Creative Arts, and runs an architectural walking tour in London for the charity Open City. Her writing has been published in the New York Review of Architecture, the Architectural Review and e-flux Architecture, among others. She is a Design Researcher in Residence at the Design Museum.

Tickets to this event include access to Design Researchers in Residence: Islands, the display accompanying this year’s residency programme.