about

PhD Candidate, Vice Chancellor’s Scholar, London Metropolitan University

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 is also 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.

Ultimately the Reishin hopes to cultivate a practice that will lead to a collective future that, one day, is fairer, more just and radically hopeful.

Email
reishin.watabe@gmail.com

    • 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‘

    • The Dominion Dance: Escaping the colonial history of Great British architecture, in Crumble Magazine, Edinburgh: October 2023

    • 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

    • Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship funding cohort, London Metropolitan University, 2023 - 2027

    • 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