Friction as
affordance
for flourishing

PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge [2020-24]

The thesis argues that frictionless design strips out affordances for autonomy, agency, creativity, instinct and awareness. Including a novel framework: ‘FAF’ (Friction as Affordance for Flourishing), formulated to identify, map and design experiential friction across physical, social and cognitive contexts. Tested through case study analysis of architecture in Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna and the UK, and on a series of high-friction product prototypes.

Currently embargoed pending publication. LINK

2025
RS022-FAF

Design for Flourishing

Hawkins Brown + BBP Group at the University of Cambridge LINK

Design for Flourishing synthesised the latest research into creating healthy spaces that promote sustainable wellbeing. Produced by a team of experts at the Behaviour and Building Performance Group at Cambridge, it created a solid foundation of research and resources to inform evidence-based design decisions to create interactive, socially and sustainably healthy spaces.

Part of the ongoing Eddington Development LINK

2021-22
RS018_LMI

Last Mile Neighbourhoods

MPhil research project, Architecture and Urban Studies, University of Cambridge, with design proposal outcome.

Further design work with Space and Motion LINK

A research study and design project exploring how removing 'friction' from last-mile delivery logistics erodes the uncurated social contact that sustains neighbourhood life. Proposes public realm interventions — drop-off lay-bys, delivery lockers, greenery, play space — that meet the logistics challenge while rebuilding opportunities for rich community interaction.
Shortlisted for The William Sutton Urban Innovation Prize 2021. LINK

2020-21
RS021-EFF

Counter Efficiency

MPhil Thesis, University of Cambridge

Study exploring the pitfalls and positives of experiential friction in the entangled interactions between technology and architecture in the kitchen - the most engineered space in the home. Of all domestic spaces, it has undergone the greatest degree of scientific testing, analysis and consequent transformation; from the fire-based cooking of our ancestors to the Smart Kitchens of today. Much of the recent transformation has been informed by industrialisation, specifically the theories of ‘scientific management’ built on a dogma of efficiency that this thesis argues is misapplied to the domestic context.

2018-19
RS015-ADE

The Activators

Design & Research: with Vital INC for Google

Role: Consultant Designer

A series of active use public realm play elements designed with Vital INC (Now Nash Hurley Architecture) for Google’s Gibraltar Campus in California. The concept was to activate the public realm (which in Silicon Valley is normally a car park) with thoughtful, nature-embedded play and reflection elements, acting as moments of slow punctuation in daily experiences governed by efficiency and productivity.

The team included:

West 8 LINK and Situ Fabrication LINK

2013-14
RS015-ADE

Active Design East

Research project and publication. Role: Founder & Project Lead

Funded by the London Legacy Development Coorporation (LLDC)

Active Design East was a funded research project that explored the potential of design for active use of space in the wake of the 2012 Olympics. The research included interviews, pioneering ‘action audits’ and case studies, zooming in on the responsibilities of architects designing for healthy living, questioning how effective design is as a tool to solve complex social problems.

2012-13
RS015-ADE

The Olympic Potential of Problemative Space

Awarded the NLA Prize for Architecture 2013 LINK

Published in The Architectural Review LINK

If easy living is costing us human function, how can we design spaces that keep us adapting? This thesis asked how architecture might fill the void of activity left as we outsource human function to technology? In Homo Ludens, Huizinga identifies tension as an integral component of play. He sees it as an imbalance created by the game’s rules or storyline, a device that draws the player in as they rise to the challenge. In effect, this tension is the catalyst that ignites the game. The architectural component of this project asks how can this tension can become spatial, and what benefits that might bring.

2012-13

RS015-ADE

The Hazard of Convenience

Royal College of Art MArch Thesis (Distinction)

Our modern environments continue to encourage an easier life, a life that adapts to us, rather than asking us to adapt to it. This lack of environmental challenge now becomes the responsibility of design.
This study was a response to the overwhelming prescription of comfort, convenience and ‘ease of use’ in design, and starts with the assertion that this tendency needs to be questioned, asking whether designers are capping our potential by making things too easy?

Above are selected personal research and academic projects, many professional projects also contain these ideas, for more information on them in practice visit: sam.london