Devaansh Agarwal

Here is Devaansh’s final design thesis, “Reviving the spirit of Soho”, a spatial critique of gentrification in Soho, London. The project began with an investigation into the cultural erasure and spatial control brought about by speculative development, where creative communities are displaced in favour of sterile commercial architecture. Through layered mapping of Soho’s past and present cultural hotspots, LGBTQ+ venues, population density, and the rise of branded facades the project identified moments of tension where the city’s historic identity is being overwritten.

At the heart of the proposal is a metaphorical and physical cut an architectural intervention that slices through gentrified buildings, exposing their hollow corporate logic. Into this rupture grows a chaotic, timber grid structure: a material counterpoint to glass curtain walls and smooth developer control. This structure is deliberately open-ended and unpredictable, allowing for temporary use by artists, protestors, performers, and residents. Rather than resolve into a fixed function, it adapts over time, resisting the permanence of commercial real estate.