AA Experimental tutor Katie Kasabalis who teaches Dreaming Domesticity, Sheltering Speculations (EXP17) has been featured in the AJ with her practice Kasawoo as part of an ongoing series profiling young practices. Katie runs Kasawoo with Darius Woo, whom she met whilst studying architecture at Cornell University.

The practice is interested in exploring the tensions and opportunities of working from home in an age of covid-19 lockdowns:

‘While the distinction between home and office is becoming increasingly muddled, our experience so far suggests that a total collapse of these two spaces is equally problematic. The question for us therefore becomes, how does one strike a balance between a place for work, a place for leisure and a place for refuge from a design and space planning perspective?’

Katie and Darius emphasised the range of projects they were engaging with, from bungalow conversions to proposals for housing schemes:

‘Due to our diverse backgrounds, we work across multiple scales and disciplines whenever possible. At an urban scale, we were shortlisted for a council housing competition in Somers Town, Camden, where we reimagined the relationship between affordable housing, nature and city. On the opposite scale, we have just submitted a design proposal for a public bench along the Royal Docks for the upcoming London Festival of Architecture. No project is too small for us as long as it has the potential to improve the community it serves.’

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