This project emerged not from a predetermined form, but from a fundamental inquiry: How can three interconnected yet autonomous programmatic systems inhabit a single vertical construct—layered but porous—while remaining attuned to the urban tempo of its surroundings?
Project Name: The Alumni Centre, London
Studio Name: Kalbod Studio
Principal Architect: Mohammad Rahimizadeh
Design Team: Alireza Hajiesmaeili, Fatemeh Hajiali Beygi, Nazanin Salimi, Solmaz Fahimi
Visuals: Ziba Baghban
Rather than treating function as a mere utility, we approach the program as a field force—capable of producing its spatial realities. The architecture does not impose form; it negotiates context, shifting between problem, position, and condition. What results is what we define as a Refield: an architectural state in which context is recalibrated through the project’s internal logic.
Our recent proposal, located in London, is a modular residential complex designed for a new generation of urban dwellers—recent graduates navigating the overlapping realms of work, life, and movement. It fuses three programmatic currents—urban, productive, and domestic—into a single tectonic system.
- The base level operates as a civic threshold, defined by a crisscross of commercial axes and circulation cores. It encourages permeability and invites street-level interaction.
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©Kalbod Studio The middle layer is carved into a circular form, enclosing a public void—an open square that organizes coworking areas, social amenities, and cultural venues around its perimeter.
- Rising above, the residential zone comprises 280 modular units, spiraling diagonally and rotating incrementally at each level. This creates cascading terraces and interwoven courtyards that cultivate both privacy and communal exchange.
Vertical connections—structural nodes, stairs, and cores—thread through the complex, allowing the three programs to coexist without hierarchy. Each layer speaks a different architectural dialect, but together they form a shared grammar.
