ajh x academia
studioAJH x academia
Amelia is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art within the superFUTURES platform [MA Interior Design].
superFUTURES is a research-led unit that focuses on spatialising futures. We rehearse the not-yet and collaboratively employ queer and feminist approaches to challenge traditional interior and architectural practices. We use film as our method and utilise foresight methods, scenario planning, storytelling and world-building to question the role of the built environment and speculate on its possibilities in futures yet to come.
Amelia’s pedagogic approach draws from performative methodologies; scenography, storytelling and world building expertise and translates them into the teaching of speculative spatial design film making and practice. Amelia’s research interests are focused through a spatial dramaturgical lens and positions scenography, performative research, and queer futurity at the core of building spatial fictions and inquiries.
‘The Land of Queer Cockaigne’ est. 2025 by Amelia Jane Hankin and Gaetano Drago is an evolving exploratory research project that investigates the politics of queer spatiality and gender control. Initiated as part of the Annual RCA School of Architecture Research Programme, the project draws on theatrical methodologies and spatial justice practices to rethink architectural representation through queer, embodied, and marginalised perspectives. Through radical performative workshops and speculative design; we build a land where where empathy is fostered, boundaries are erased, and you are invited to play who you never had permission to be.
Part 1] Workshop, November 2025. Part 2] Active installation, exhibition and symposium, February 2026, RCA.
Previously, Amelia was a Visiting Lecturer on the BA Interior Architecture programme at the University of Brighton BA [2017 - 2022].
studioAJH x workshops
Amelia has led and developed workshops in the practice and theory of performance design, world building, set design, costume design, architecture, interior architecture/design, spatial design and model making with students of the RCA, University of Brighton, University of Nottingham, UWE, Warwick University and Regents University and with young people, schools, artists and communities associated with the Shakespeare’s Globe, RSC, Royal Exchange, Almeida Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and The Old Vic. Get in touch for more details.