Speculative Assemblies is an experimental design lab that explores the visual construct in architecture. It is a conceptual investigation—both digital and analogue—into the apparatus of drawing, challenging its boundaries as both an artistic and architectural practice. The lab’s research is neither fixed nor finite; it is an ongoing interrogation of drawing as a medium of inquiry, speculation, and transformation.
Our work questions and redefines the role of drawing, engaging in continuous research, rigorous experimentation, and deep devotion to craft. We investigate the graphic theoria, praxis, and poiesis of architectural verbalization, treating drawing as a generative act rather than a mere representational tool. Speculative Assemblies moves beyond conventional architectural delineation, embracing drawing as a site of exploration—where material, connection, and notion converge into a body of work that reimagines architecture’s visual and conceptual frameworks.
Some drawings emerge as discursive investigations, others as visual records. Some merely hint at architectural subjects, while others refuse to reveal them altogether. Across all, our work opens new frontiers of the imagination, harnessing the unique potential of both analogue and digital methodologies. Here, drawing is not an end but a field of continuous discovery—an evolving language of architectural thought.
B ...is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture, where she is also the Inscriptive Practices and Future Processes Lead.
Bea Martin is a Portuguese born, British architect, writer and artist, and a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture where she is also the Inscriptive Practices and Future Processes Lead.
Bea received her academic qualifications from the University of California at Berkely and University of Lisbon, and she is currently pursuing a PhD in Architecture by Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
As a practitioner, her technical and design experience in office, spans over fifteen years, working for a variety of architectural practices in London, such as Richard Rogers and Partners. She is also the founder of Speculative Assemblies, an experimental design lab exploring the visual construct in architecture. In her role as a visual theorist, the focus is on a conceptual investigation, digital and analogue, of the apparatus of drawing, the challenging boundary of drawing as a work of art, research that is both architectural and artistic but never an end in itself. Her work questions and reiterates the mission of drawing through continuous research, intense interrogation, and devotion to craft.
