Radical Rooms: Power of the Plan was an immersive exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), created in collaboration between architect Charles Holland and visual artist Di Mainstone.
Spanning nearly 500 years of architectural history, the show focused on three domestic buildings—the 16th-century Hardwick Hall, the 18th-century A la Ronde, and the 1970s Hopkins House—each linked by the theme of women’s overlooked influence in architecture.
For Holland, the exhibition highlighted how architectural plans express power—how corridors, rooms, and layouts can shape social relations. Di Mainstone brought to life four women protagonists—Bess of Hardwick, Jane and Mary Parminter, and Patty Hopkins—through audio-visual performance, costume and projection.
The gallery itself became a grid of spaces, defined by patterned floors, hanging curtains and subtle references to the houses. Archive drawings, photographs and artifacts from the RIBA Collection were tucked away for viewers to discover—challenging conventional narratives of domestic architecture.
“Radical Rooms” invited us to rethink homes not just as shelters, but as spatial systems reflecting social hierarchies, agency and resistance—past, present and future.
