Overview
Nura, L.D, Valeria and Momo are a mixed team of architects, visualisers and interior designers based between Italy and London. Their finalist proposal explores how AI-assisted workflows can accelerate early-stage architectural design while preserving a strong spatial and conceptual identity — using the verticality of the historic hall as the central design move.
The concept
The team transforms the historic structure into a multi-layered civic space combining culture, play, nature and public interaction. Rather than treating Old Spitalfields as a horizontal floor with a roof over it, the proposal works the building vertically — layered circulation, suspended play spaces, hanging gardens and flexible civic areas — so the experience changes as you move up through the section. The project explores how the same hall can host markets, performances, celebrations and climate-refuge conditions, and uses the verticality of the iron envelope as the device that holds all of it together.
Workflow & process
The project started with quick hand sketches exploring the idea of using the hall vertically — layered circulation, suspended play, hanging gardens, flexible civic areas. Early 3D massing models tested proportions, movement and spatial relationships inside the historic structure. From there, base renders were produced in Chaos Vantage and used with Gendo to rapidly iterate design options, atmosphere, materials, activities and multiple scenarios — daytime use, performances, celebrations, climate-refuge conditions. Gendo became a key tool for fast visual exploration and refinement, helping transform early spatial ideas into a coherent architectural vision within a very short timeframe.
Interview
Q: Was this your first time using Gendo, and how has your relationship with it evolved?
Yes, we have been using Gendo earlier in our practices and are quite familiar with it. It was intuitive and helpful, especially on the imagination and pre-concept side.
Q: What did the result mean to you — and what would you do differently next time?
The result validated not only the final visuals but the entire experimental workflow behind the project — it showed how traditional architectural thinking can sit alongside AI iteration without losing rigour. If we went back, we would spend slightly more time on the thinking side. Workflows in there tend to be faster, so less time working and more time thinking leads to overall better thinking.
Q: In your own words, what was it like to compete in Gendo 48?
Fast, intense and genuinely inspiring. Gendo 48 felt like a real-time design laboratory — a space where ideas could evolve rapidly from rough sketches into immersive architectural visions through constant experimentation and iteration.
Key takeaways
The team's verticality argument is straightforward, and that is its strength. By organising the proposal through the section rather than the plan, they give the iron hall a programmatic logic that scales across uses — and they show what a hybrid Chaos Vantage + Gendo workflow can deliver inside 48 hours.