AA alum, Sonia Syed, discussed their student project with KoozArch at the beginning of this month. The project, which is entitled Write-Over-Write-Over-Write, explores the act of ‘writing over’ history, through the specific process of delisting buildings originally designated as sites of historical significance.

As part of this work, Sonia recognised sites across London which had heritage status and subsequently lost their listing, often without proper archiving or documentation, at the convenience of urban development and regeneration. In this conversation, Sonia provides a specific example of a series of industrial buildings that were Grade II Listed in the 1940s and were suddenly de-listed in the 1960s and demolished just weeks after. The project encouraged Sonia to build her curiosity in questioning ‘who decides what stays, and for how long.’ The interview, The Right to Over-write: The weirdly transformative act of delisting urban artefacts, can be read here.

Image: Fossil scan, “Write-Over-Write-Over-Write” by Sonia Syed.