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Our Story
The Emotionalists group encompasses thinkers, writers, artists, architects, filmmakers and more from around the world. The group started converging in 2019, drawn together through common interests and practices in emotion-led architecture and art, critical thinking and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Today we bring together work from across different fields to strengthen and enrich debate, create new links between like-minded practitioners and support contributors to grow the reach of the Emotionalism. Themes of interest are as broad as; AI, phenomenology, philosophy, drawing practice, psychology, neuroscience, theology, participatory approaches and systems thinking.
STEERING GROUP
Tszwai So
Tszwai So is a London-based architect, artist and filmmaker whose work explores the emotional and cultural resonance of spaces. His acclaimed projects include the Belarusian Memorial Chapel in London and the proposed Pan-European Memorial for victims of totalitarianism in Brussels. Through architecture, hand drawing, writing, film-making and interdisciplinary collaborations, Tszwai creates works that evoke memory, identity and human connection. His works have been widely exhibited internationally and his hand drawings are held in public and private collections such as the V&A Museum and Yad Vashem. He teaches architecture at master’s level at the University of Cambridge.
Natasha Reid
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Natasha Reid is founder of Matter Space Soul, a spatial design lab working at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, art and the human sciences, such as environmental psychology and neuroscience. Her work focuses on human-centric design for health and social wellbeing by prioritising human experience and emotion. Her Compassionate Places Method for humanistic, interdisciplinary spatial design has been published in the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health in 2025. This aims to situate human impacts at the center of everyday design processes to maximize the potential for the built environment to support people to flourish. This approach and benchmarks of “Place Quality” was adopted by the first London local authority in 2023.
Pinar Dinc Kalayci
Pınar Dinç Kalaycı is a professor of architectural design and the coordinator of StudioThinkImagine, one of the design studios at Gazi University, Turkey. Her research interests include environmental psychology, facility programming, post-occupancy evaluation of buildings, architectural criticism, and design studio education. Together with her colleagues and students in the studio, she primarily focuses on designing functional, meaningful, and sustainable environments that address the challenges of the 21st century. In shaping future architects, the studio fosters a design pedagogy rooted in multidisciplinary scientific knowledge and critical thinking, cultivating unique creative abilities, emotionally attuned approaches, and diverse ways of tackling design problems.
Lawrence Tang
Lawrence Tang is a London-based British architect. He has a particular interest in works that combine music and architecture, sound and space. His early works both as a student and a professional have frequently explored this relationship and merging of mediums. Lawrence was the recipient of multiple awards distinguishing his academic and intellectual work including his dissertation, ‘The Significance of Sound and Space’, which was awarded the Foster + Partner Research Prize as well as an RIBA Medal Nomination. After gaining experience at several practices in London, including Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Lawrence joined Spheron Architects in 2021.
Robert Spriddell
Robert Spriddell is a Cambridge based property and environmental business strategist. He has advised public bodies, real estate businesses, educational establishments as well as environmental technology and agri-businesses. His work assesses, develops and creates new business opportunities whilst integrating and intersecting natural and social capital solutions. He has a profound interest across the arts, architecture, education and ecclesiastical history. Robert is a writer whose first book has been published by Wisp & Stock in spring 2025 – and is a speaker/teacher in devotional development and theology.
Georgina Spriddell
Georgina Spriddell is a medieval historian, based between Cambridge and York. She has specialised in fifteenth-century spatial politics within ecclesiastical institutions. Georgina has built a profile as an art critic, serving as Arts Editor of Nouse during her undergraduate, where she has passionately written against the increasing visibility of AI-generated art within international markets. She has been the Editor of The Young Historians since 2024, a successful online platform that champions early-career scholars by removing financial barriers to publication. Georgina has worked with institutions such as Yale University Press and has partnered with Chalke History Festival as a strategic advisor. She begins her MA in Medieval Studies in September 2025. Her long-term goal is to specialise in rare books and manuscripts valuation.
UUendy Lau
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UUendy Lau (UU) is an illustrator and mixed-media artist, born in Hong Kong and based in the UK. Her practice centres on emotional storytelling, participatory processes and human-nature relationships,
using narrative drawing and tactile visual languages to explore how memory and lived experience shape meaningful connections between people, place and the built environment. Her work reimagines everyday surroundings through poetic juxtapositions between the natural world and human-made systems, encouraging slower and more attentive engagement with overlooked rhythms
of daily life. With sustainable materials, UU creates visual narratives that invite reflection, care and collective dialogue. She has collaborated with partners such as UNIQLO and cultural institutions including M+ Museum, and recently contributed to a community-inspired wall installation celebrating local textile histories.
Alex Evdokimov
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Alex Valentine Evdokimov is a London-based designer focused on cultural architecture and public infrastructure that prioritise user experience, materiality, and long-term adaptability. Having recently graduated from the Architectural Association, he has gained experience at Spencer Fung Architects and currently works at Mossessian Architecture, alongside freelance cultural collaborations. He co-founded Hysteresis, an independent practice focused on
enabling collaboration between young artists and designers: developing architectural and strategic interventions to redirect cultural and economic flows back into overlooked regions. Alex aspires to create thoughtful, tactile, and participatory environments that foster human connections. He is excited to explore phenomenology, materiality, and emotion in design through collaborative work within The Emotionalists.
Michal Matlon
Michal Matlon is an architectural psychologist dedicated to creating
environments that foster human flourishing and meaningful work, from homes to entire neighbourhoods. With experience at a strategic consulting firm in Vienna and one of Europe’s largest office developers, he combines practical expertise with a passion for advancing the field. In the past, Michal co-founded the Venetian
Letter, a newsletter that explored humancentered, science-based approaches to architecture and urbanism. He uses scientific research translation and a range of methods to understand needs of future
users and their communities. Michal regularly speaks at European events and in media contexts to advocate for the creation of more humane environments.
HONORARY MEMBERS
Herbert Wright
Herbert Wright is a London-based writer. He is senior contributing editor of C3 magazine, and columnist for Chroniques d’architecture. He was previously contributing editor of Blueprint magazine, and has written for South China Morning Post, The Guardian, RIBA Journal, Wallpaper and others. His books include London High (2006), Instant Cities (2008) and Mecanoo - People, Place, Purpose, Poetry (2023). Herbert curated Lisbon Open House 2012. His talks include the keynote Post-Digital Psychogeography (2019), a key inspiration for Emotionalism. Herbert was short-listed as head curator for the Oslo Architecture Triennial 2016, and with Tszwai So, the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2021.