Bea Martin is a Portuguese-born, British architect, artist, writer, and educator. She is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture, where she is currently the Inscriptive Practices and Future Processes Lead, and a PhD candidate in Architectural Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Her work is driven by a sustained interest in the unknown, the unformed, and the not-yet, explored through speculative drawing, visual studies, and experimental architectural practice. Moving between digital and analogue modes of production, her research treats drawing not as a representational end, but as a living apparatus—an inscriptive and propositional process through which architecture is discovered, interrogated, and continually re-formed.
Bea is the founder of Speculative Assemblies, an experimental design and research laboratory that investigates visual and conceptual constructs in architecture, focusing on abstraction, ambiguity, and open-ended inquiry. Her work challenges conventional boundaries between architecture, art, and research, foregrounding rigorous relationships between concept, technique, and craft.
With over fifteen years of professional experience in architectural practice, including work at Richard Rogers and Partners, Bea’s background bridges the precision of professional architecture with experimental and speculative modes of thinking and making. Prior to joining MSA, she taught at the University of Huddersfield, Birmingham City University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Academic and professional qualifications
FHEA RIBA ARB OASRS
PhD (ongoing) MArch MA/Dip Arch/Urban Planning
Teaching
Current teaching:
All School | Inscriptive Practices
Past teaching:
MAAU | Dissertation
BA (Hons) Architecture | Humanities 1: Thinking Through Drawing
BA (Hons) Architecture | StudioPLUS
Career highlights
March 2021-April 2023Senior Lecturer in Architecture / Architectural Technology at the Department of
Architecture, 3D Design and Built Environment, School of Arts and Humanities, University
of Huddersfield (UK) as the Director of the BA (Hons) Architectural Programme
Year 3 Leader, BA(Hons) Architecture Programme at Birmingham School of Architecture.