Small Spaces in the City: Rethinking Inside the Box is an exhibition hosted by Roca London Gallery that asks how small space concepts can be applied across housing typologies; as well as whether a small space can only work for a single person or young couple, with minimalist minds.

Presenting new interviews, research, experiments, and a specially commissioned film that explores movement, health and wellbeing in a small space with Royal Ballet Principal, William Bracewell, other participants include: Proctor & Shaw, Intervention Architecture, Satoko Shinohara, Takeshi Hosaka, Kuma Lab, Gary Chang, JCPCDR architecture, Paola Bagna, White Arkitekter, nArchitects, Studio Noju and Colin Chee of YouTube’s Never Too Small.

Perhaps the most intriguing exhibit will feature a human experiment – Associate Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, Richard Beckett, will occupy a small booth in the centre of the gallery for a number of days, to measure the impact of his ongoing research into probiotic design: the relationship between humans and microbes in the built environment.  Working with an immunologist at UCL on the Japanese wellbeing concept of shinrin-yoku, or ‘forest bathing’ (Miyazaki, 2018) – which acknowledges the positive impacts on the body and mind of immersion in nature – Beckett is experimenting with bringing the forest into the home by injecting interior tiling with forest floor microbes.  The booth will be lined with these tiles, exposing Beckett to the microbes that could only otherwise be accessed deep in nature.