Max Dewdney

Thursday 3rd February 2022, 6.30pm

Tessa Blackstone Lecture Theatre [0003]

“Humans are the only species that communicates information about things that don’t tangibly exist. Our ability to share abstract ideas is what has driven our evolutionary expansion. Today “the very survival of [real things like] trees and rivers and lions and sheep depends on the imaginary stories that Homo sapiens has invented.” – Yuval Noah Harari, ‘Sapiens’

Max Dewdney will show a series of projects from his practice Studio DERA, alongside examples of past students’ work, exploring ideas of ‘World Building’ through drawings, models and stories. ‘Imagined Realities’ are central to informing both the built and unbuilt work and the tools of representation that he moves between, and are fundamental to his practice as architect and educator.

Max Dewdney is co-founder and director of Studio DERA together with Swiss German Architect Marcel Rahm. Studio DERA is a vehicle for developing inquisitive projects operating in a non-hierarchical structure with the aim of contributing something meaningful to the world.  DERA works on both public and private projects across different contexts and at different scales, which allows projects to challenge and inform each other. A selection of DERA’s current projects include; Mozart House; a new community centre and nursery in East London; a stone vaulted basement in Regents Park and a new Sports & Cultural Centre for a school in west London.  

Max Dewdney spends his time between practice and teaching. He is an Associate Professor [Teaching] at the Bartlett, UCL and Co-Director BSc Y1 Architecture and has both taught and practiced extensively over the last 15 years. He trained at the Bartlett School of Architecture, the Cooper Union Irwin S Chanin School of Architecture, New York and was Rome Scholar of Architecture at the BSR. He has lectured and exhibited widely in the UK and internationally and won a number of awards.