Introduction to Outreach

John McAslan + Partners’ outreach activities are broad in scope and wide in geographical range. Activities such as ongoing educational outreach in London communities engage schoolchildren and young people in shaping the design of their communities, while the Hidden Homeless initiative spearheaded by JMP seeks out innovative architectural solutions to the homelessness crisis.

Further afield JMP has worked with earthquake-struck communities in Haiti to rebuild a historically symbolic public gathering space, and with educators and schoolchildren in Malawi to develop a prototype for low cost, low-energy classrooms for impoverished rural communities.

Supporting emerging design talent to create positive social outcomes is central to the JMP ethos. Since 2004 the practice has funded the RIBA / McAslan Bursary, encouraging architecture students to develop original ideas for constructive change in impoverished communities around the world. More recently the practice has established the American Institute of Architects / McAslan Fellowship – a travel bursary sponsoring graduate architects from US universities to develop projects for the greater social and environmental good.

JMP’s outreach programmes reinforce the wider practice ethos – that good design creates a sense of pride, inclusion and accountability that ultimately improves people’s lives.