Overview
Ali Damani and Omar Mostafa are Part 2 architectural assistants based in London — Ali at Howells, Omar at KSR Architects — who studied their MArch together at Loughborough University. Their Honourable Mention proposal reframes Old Spitalfields Market as a place of making, learning and cultural continuity, grounded in the surrounding neighbourhoods that have shaped the area for generations.
The concept
The pair were drawn to the market's role in cultivating community, culture and tradition — and in particular to the value of handiwork, craftsmanship and the kind of tacit knowledge that lives in the hands. Their proposal treats the building as a space where these traditions can be taught, practised and quietly passed on, so that the memories of the people who have occupied the market continue to shape the people who come next. The seasonal reading sits inside the same logic. The proposal draws on the local narratives that surround Spitalfields — the value of faith, the rhythms of Brick Lane's bagel and Bangladeshi communities, the climbing community north-east of the site — and lets the hall adapt to host the events and traditions each of them brings. The aim is not to revive culture, but to maintain it: a market that flexes to suit the moment without losing its civic role.
Workflow & process
Ali and Omar were busy that weekend with other commitments, and used that as a constraint rather than an excuse. They started together on the canvas, played with the platform to understand its capabilities, then moved into site research — culture, history, people, precedents and Google Street View shots — laying everything out on the board alongside notes and storyboards. The canvas became their shared working surface. They tested ideas on a long phone call while working simultaneously on different parts of the same board, then split off to develop variations independently and reconvened to debrief. The annotative tools — sticky notes, drawings and live collaboration — felt familiar from Miro, but the ability to generate visuals and edit with generative AI inside the same surface gave them a single, seamless workflow rather than a series of handoffs.
Interview
Q: Was this your first time using Gendo, and how has your relationship with it evolved?
First time for both of us. We had to get used to which tools worked best for which visuals — the render tool was strong for establishing a base from precedents or applying a particular photographic style, and the edit tool let us hone in on details and bring the narrative through. As we understood the functions better we became more efficient: needing it less for certain visuals because we could see a faster way to reach the outcome with less prompting.
Q: What did the result mean to you — and what would you do differently next time?
Genuinely great — this was the first competition either of us has done outside of university or together. We have both been interested in AI since its early days, and it is striking how much the capabilities have grown — particularly how well Gendo fits architectural work. Compared with other AI platforms we use day to day, it feels like a tool built for architects by people who understand what we need. Next time we want to use our time more deliberately and test the proposal across more mediums — plans, sections, axonometrics — to express the story more fully.
Q: In your own words, what was it like to compete in Gendo 48?
Competing in Gendo 48 felt like something we will take back into our day-to-day work — better prompting, better outputs, more coherent visuals. It also opened us up to a wider network of like-minded people who are keen to grow their skills, and the ability to look across other entries' boards has been a real bonus. Definitely worthwhile, and something we would do again.
Key takeaways
Ali and Omar's entry is a study in how two early-career architects, working around other commitments, can still produce a coherent and emotionally legible proposal inside 48 hours. The canvas's value here is not novelty — it is integration: research, references, generation and collaboration in a single surface, so the design conversation never has to leave the working board.