Rhiarna Dhaliwal
- Associate lecturer
- Environmental Architecture MA
Rhiarna Dhaliwal is a British-Indian Architectural designer, researcher and educator. Her work investigates global environmental and political systems that affect the future of landscapes and ecosystems.
Alongside Kamil Hilmi Dalkir, Rhiarna is a tutor at RS6: Saharian Becomings on the MA Environmental Architecture programme at the School of Architecture.
Rhiarna previously co-led, together with Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli and Kamil Hilmi Dalkir, architecture design studio ADS8: Data Matter (2020–22).
Rhiarna holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Nottingham (2015) and a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Royal College of Art (2019).
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Research interests
Rhiarna’s work investigates environmental and political systems that affect the future of landscapes and ecosystems, with a particular focus on how the built environment is entangled with pollutants and toxic substances that are released as a consequence of disruptive technology industries such as data infrastructure.
She uses architectural tools and digital technologies to create imaginative future scenarios of landscapes that question our understanding of the built environment and how we can collectively live in damaged grounds and air.
Rhiarna completed a nine-month long Design Researcher in Residence programme at the Design Museum, London, where she investigated the geo-political and environmental implications of resource extraction in aquatic environments (2023).
Practice
Rhiarna currently co-leads, alongside Ibiye Camp and Emmy Bacharach, the Bachelor's design studio, Studio Digital Native at the Design Academy Eindhoven, is a founding member of Xcessive Aesthetics: a London-based interdisciplinary design collective exploring digital infrastructures and alternate realities through spatial installations and is an alumnus of the New Architecture Writers programme (2022).
Rhiarna has exhibited research projects at Design Museum, London (2023) and V-A-C Zattere, Venice, Italy (2021). She has written for the Architects’ Journal (2023) and E-Flux Architecture (2023). Her MA thesis project, MINES MINERAL MAGNETS, dissecting the link between global data usage and mineral extraction in Baotou, China was published in Flash Art International (2019) and Cosa Mentale/Dixit 02: A Matter of Data (2021).
Publications
Dhaliwal, R. (2023). Live Work Share House in Queensland, Australia by Bligh Graham Architects, Architects’ Journal.
Dhaliwal, R. (2023). Spaces of Cultural Resistance, edited by Nick Axel, E-Flux Architecture POSITIONS.
Exhibitions:
(2023) Design Researchers in Residence: Islands. Design Museum. London.
(2021) Non-Extractive Architecture. V-A-C Zattere. Venice, Italy.