about
PhD Candidate, Vice Chancellor’s Scholar, London Metropolitan University
PG Cert in Higher Education with Distinction (FHEA)
MArch / AA Diploma with Commendation (ARB Part 2), Architectural Association
BSc Architecture (ARB Part 1), Cardiff University
Reishin Kunishima (Watabe), he/they
Reishin is a London based PhD candidate, architectural designer and activist. His work interesects the design skills from architectural training and analytical academic frameworks for social justice.
As part of his PhD ‘Architect’, Interrupted Reishin is currently exploring the Warne (1993) government report to abolish the architect title in the U.K through a decolonial, feminist and queer lens.
Author of the AA Diploma Honours nominated project “RIBA Interrupted”, Reishin graduated from the Architectural Association with commendation. The interesection of identity, historical analysis and decolonial + abolitionist theory have been instrumental in his academic development
Previously he has worked in Modular Design Management and Architectural design work in London, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C. His built experience includes a modular Permanent Supportive Housing protoype in Skid Row and 300 bed citizenM hotels in Washington D.C, London and Sunnyvale CA.
Reishin was previously elected as the Eqaulities officer and Co Campaigns Chair for the architectectural workers union, the Section of Architectural Workers (SAW), a branch within Unite the Union. He remains engaged with labour activism and a political praxis that treats intellectual labour as inseparable from collective struggle.
Email
reishin.watabe@gmail.com
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Unbuilding Empire, at Decolonising Architecture Symposium at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, 19th September 2024
'Architect', Interrupted: Gender Practices after the Warne Report, at Working for What? Architectural Labour, Organising and Professionalisation at London Metropolitan University, 12 September 2024
‘Architect’, Interrupted: The Warne Report and the Architect's Title, in Panel 'Configuring the Architectural Profession' at the Design History Society's Border Control: Excursion, Incursion and Exclusion conference, UCA Canterbry, 5th September 2024
'Architect’, Interrupted: Practice, Policy and Abolitonist Potentials 1989-1998 delivered at the AHRA PhD Conference, ‘Invisible Actants’ hosted at the Architectural Association, 10th May 2024.
‘Architect’, Interrupted: Practice, Policy and Abolitonist Potentials 1989-1998, delivered at London Metropolitan University’s School of Art, Architetecture and Design Post Graduate Research PhD Day, 20th March 2024‘
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The Dominion Dance: Escaping the colonial history of Great British architecture, in Crumble Magazine, Edinburgh: October 2023
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Second Year Design Studio Lead, Cardiff University, Welsh School of Architecture, October 2024 to present
Teaching Assistant, Architectural Association Visiting School Workshop Koshirakura, Japan, August 2024.
Second Year Tutorials and External Critic, Cardiff University, Welsh School of Architecture, March 2024
Part 3 Lecture on the Union/SAW and working rights, University College London, Bartlett School of Architecture, 13th February 2024
Third Year External Critic, Design Studio, De Montfort University, Leicester School of Architecture, January 2024
Second Year External Guest, History and Theory, Architectural Association, November 2023
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Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship funding cohort, London Metropolitan University, 2023 - 2027
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Working for What? Architectural Labour, Organising and Professionalisation, 12th September 2024
'Table Manners’, at Invisible Actants AHRA PhD conference at the Architectural Association, 9th May 2024
Section of Architectural Workers (SAW) Campaigns Working Session, London, 10th April 2024
Practice Repair Roundtable, Arch +, Akademie Der Kunste Berlin, 14 October 2024
After Capital A Architecture, Architectural Association, London, 7 March 202