Space Black

London, United Kingdom
@spaceblack__
space black

Activism

The collective who are centring the perspectives of POC communities and marginalised genders in urban design.
Space Black

Reimagining the built environment is no easy feat, but Space Black are ready to take on the task. Composed of engineers, architects and artists, the London-based collective aims to create urban frameworks which centre the perspectives of POC communities and marginalised genders. Their name reflects this shared goal, deriving from the desire to explore negative space in design.

Co-founded in 2021, Space Black is led by structural engineer and DJ Heba Tabidi, architectural designer and artist Rayan Elnayal, infrastructural engineer and poet Mohamed Gaafar, and urban designer Ahmed Mahgoub. Reflective of these different fields, Space Black’s work is multifaceted, and often outside what we’d typically term ‘urban design’. As well as functioning as a consultancy and workshop, they recently developed the music series Homeplace. The show features Black, female-identifying DJs playing music about the buildings or spaces that have made them feel humanised. Homeplace now has a residency on the Ghana-based platform Oroko Radio.

Space Black currently operate out of the independent workspace RARA in Clapton, and kicked off their year-long residency there with an event titled Spaces in the City. Recently, they visited Copenhagen along with Dazed Studio and THINKHOUSE, to discuss youth perceptions of ‘the home’, based on a report titled ‘IMPERMACULTURE’ by research lab SPACE10.

Text Morna Fraser