Amy Qianqian Ma

Architecture (MA)
Woman with flowers
Exploded axo of the church showing the roof, a mezzanine walkway and a decorated ground floor with various kitchen dining furniture.
[Savouring Culture] St Luke’s church in Deptford has been reimagined to house a food bank, a dining area, a kitchen, a mezzanine greenhouse and SureStarts consultation facilities. The church floor reuses existing brickwork in a new pattern inspired by Cosmati tiles, with added tiles in kitchen areas.
Three digital collages showing the mezzanine with plants and gardening equipment, the kitchen with two round stoves and ductwork, and a dimly lit church apse with lots of food on long tables.
A new glazed roof will encapsulate the existing trusses with added headroom, creating a greenhouse mezzanine which accommodates private conversation, with plants performing as acoustic puffers. The sink and stoves are customised to allow more than one user at a time, with pipework and ducts in a decorative manner to reflect the language of gothic arches and columns. The apse is kept for informal worshipping, bible service can be performed whilst people are eating and drinking.
A line drawing of a cross section, showing a boat like structure with columns. Below is a rectangular plan showing different soil textures and plant names in text.
[New Land, Same Home] Using new DNA technology, native Tuvaluan plants are genetically modified to also host various data for their metaverse nation. These plants are hosted on the deck of a buoyant embassy, with a small crew of staff on board to maintain the structure.
Three digital renders showing a sandy landscape filled with plants and miscellaneous cultural artefacts, with rusty corrugated roofing.
Tuvaluans gather once a year at the embassy for the continued celebrations of their national independence day, involving dancing and singing around a tin box. ⁣On board the buoyant structure is a forest of memories, scattered objects from the past. Occasionally cables can be seen sprawling across the floor, carrying their metaverse data.
Exploded axo of the church showing the roof, a mezzanine walkway and a decorated ground floor with various kitchen dining furniture.
Three digital collages showing the mezzanine with plants and gardening equipment, the kitchen with two round stoves and ductwork, and a dimly lit church apse with lots of food on long tables.
A line drawing of a cross section, showing a boat like structure with columns. Below is a rectangular plan showing different soil textures and plant names in text.
Three digital renders showing a sandy landscape filled with plants and miscellaneous cultural artefacts, with rusty corrugated roofing.

About

Amy is a London-based architectural designer whose work emphasises meticulous detail and human-scale interaction within spaces, often showcased through her compelling digital collages.

Last year, Amy ventured into the metaverse, exploring the intriguing intersection between digital and physical archives. ‘New Land Same Home‘ is a speculative project in a future where low lying island archipelagos submerge under rising sea levels, Tuvalu will preserve its sovereignty through the metaverse in the cloud. This project addresses the tangible world, it lives through a buoyant embassy in the seas of west Auckland, New Zealand, surviving beyond the limits of land and mass.⁣

This year, Amy’s focus has shifted to the preservation of historically and locally significant buildings, along with the adaptive reuse of derelict structures. ‘Savouring Culture‘ is a project preserving architecture and culinary skills in Deptford, linking churches to food. The project promotes reuse of deconsecrated churches across the urban landscape as life skill schools – to save both locally significant buildings and the future of communities.

Amy approaches her projects with a sensitivity to cultural contexts, ensuring that her designs respect and reflect the unique heritage of each site. Prior to the RCA, she studied BA in Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Through her practice, she is dedicated to enhancing the built environment for the benefit of the community.

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