MSA Stage 5 School of Architecture
Ryan Woods
Kyoto Institute of Technology/Glasgow School of Art
Having studied architecture in both Scotland and Japan, my practice is deeply rooted in social sustainability and political agency within the built environment.
My research and design approach explores how architecture can act as a tool for civic activation, with a focus on rethinking the systems that underpin contemporary urban development and architectural production. I am particularly interested in embedding political agency within architectural processes: how acts of making, reclaiming, and commoning can re-democratise our cities and create more equitable modes of living.
Works
Commoning the City
都市のコモニング
Kyoto is a city in constant dialogue with its past and present. Once the historic capital of Japan, the city’s morphology is confronted with balancing the scales between tradition and innovation.
In an era of hyper-capitalism and continual urban transformation, Japan’s built environment has been shaped by a speculative property market and the rise of ‘scrap and build’ culture, where buildings are often discarded after just a few decades. This approach has not only led to vast abandonment of building stock and material waste but has also eroded the communal and spatial traditions that once defined Japanese urban life.
At the core of this thesis is the synthesis between three research drivers:
- The historic ‘Neighbourhood Community Townhouse’ model as a typological framework for civic activation and as a convivial tool.
- The extensive nature of scrap and build culture prevalent in contemporary Japanese construction practices.
- ‘Ba’ – A Japanese spatial theory emphasising collective experience and the exchange of tacit knowledge.
This body of work proposes a radical re-engagement with the material and social dimensions of architecture through acts of reclaiming and circulating discarded building materials. Rather than viewing demolition waste as mere refuse, this thesis investigates how these materials can become community assets, imbued with new value through collective action. The process of repair and construction itself is framed as an ‘act of commoning’ – a tool for rebuilding not only physical objects but also social relationships.
By examining alternative material economies, collaborative construction practices and community-led interventions, this thesis seeks to explore how Japan’s discarded architecture can be transformed into vessels of civic engagement. The goal sets to re-democratise the material environment – shifting agency away from top-down speculative development and back into the hands of local communities. This, in turn, has the potential to encourage political reform by challenging current models of property ownership, urban renewal, and construction culture.
Through a synthesis of spatial theory, material reuse strategies, and socio-political activism, this thesis ultimately argues for an architecture that resists the disposability of contemporary urbanism and instead fosters lasting social and environmental resilience.
