About me

I am a architectural designer with a transdisciplinary practice that spans the fields of architecture, art, research, education, community organising and evelopment. I initiate, develop, design, make, deliver and collaborate on a range of creative projects, practice-based research, as well as education and engagement projects. These are often experimental, playful and collaborative in their nature, and often engage with social and environmental justice, people and places.

Much of my practice takes place as a member and director of Studio Polpo, a social enterprise architecture, art and research practice. We use situated and collaborative approaches to create objects, structures, initiatives and research-led resources that engage with and enable transformative social change and climate action.

I am a board member Sheffield Community Land Trust (SCLT), a community benefit society established to deliver community stewarded change in the city of Sheffield - primarily through bringing land and underused buildings into community ownership and developing them into housing and spaces of community benefit through a retrofit approach. My role has involved establishing SCLT as a community benefit society, co-leading the strategic, day-to-day operations, and project based work of SCLT, as well as growing and coordinating our membership, supporters and active member base. SCLT is currently embarking on a city centre project retrofitting which is being supported and part-funded by South Yorkshire Comibined Mayoral Authority (SYMCA)

As a Part-time Lecturer at Leeds School of Architecture (LBU) I teach architectural design across a number of levels. I lead an architectural design studio, RESOURCE, which explores the dialogical potential of everyday objects and infrastructures as a method of teaching critically and socially engaged architectural design. I am regularly invited to guest lecture and project review at the University of Sheffield and other institutions.

I am a member of Social Art Network, a community of artists committed to building agency for the fields of art and social practice, co-leading the network in Sheffield. From 2021-2023 I was a caretaker - a network-wide coordinating member.

I am a RIBA Part 2 architectural designer, graduating my MArch from the Sheffield School of Architecture in 2020 with distinction. I have strong design and practice based experience; prior to working with Studio Polpo I previously worked with award-wining, design-led practices Levitate, and Ash Sakula, across a range of sectors, such as conservation, public and cultural buildings, housing, as well as temporary architecture, and installations.

James Harrington

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