In 2010 Tom Greenall was commissioned by the writer and philosopher Alain de Botton to collaborate on a new book entitled Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion.

Contained within each chapter of the book are a number of micro-projects realised through illustrations and renderings, but examined in surprising detail through conversations with the author and through the production of numerous iterations of each design.

‘Religion for Atheists suggests that rather than mocking religions, agnostics and atheists should instead steal from them – because they're packed with good ideas on how we might live and arrange our societies.’
—Alain de Botton

De Botton is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and delivered RIBA’s annual lecture in 2006, basing his address on the themes of his book ‘The Architecture of Happiness’.

Tom Greenall has also collaborated with fellow Royal College of Art Architecture tutor Charlotte Skene Catling on the set design for a unique production of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. This was a historic production, taking place as a site-specific performance in the decommissioned Russian Gulag camp, Perm 36.

This production required intense collaboration with the director, Michael Hunt, and George Isaakyan, the intendant of the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre – one of Russia’s oldest and most important opera houses.

Working within a UNESCO World Heritage site, the design team devised a series of installations that were an adaptation of, an extension to, or independent from the existing structures that still remained on the site. 

As a permanent reminder of this remarkable production, the installation of a forest of 100 charred tree trunks remains on the site.

‘The universal nature of the themes will extend the piece beyond Russia and the twentieth century, to act as a witness to all victims of persecution and oppression. The approach of the production will open up the piece as a reflection on the past and a warning for the future. This will be art at its most powerful, as an agent of memory, transformation and catharsis.’
—Charlotte Skene Catling