About Us
Dr Constance Smith
Constance Smith is a Senior Lecturer and UKRI Future Leader Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research explores landscapes of architecture, time and urban change with a particular interest in participatory and practice-led research in collaboration with artists, communities and urban practitioners. Her work has been widely published and has featured in several exhibitions, including at the National Museums of Kenya.
James Muriuki
James Muriuki is a Nairobi-based art practitioner. His practice focuses on the transition of society through materials and objects, exploring the social landscape. His work takes up forms such as architecture and constructions as visual elements and metaphorical symbols that are an illustration of human capacity, desire and aspirations. He is an alumnus of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre of Curatorial Leadership, Fellowship and Training.
Kasim Ali is a North Kensington resident and Councillor in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where he is Deputy Leader of the Labour Group. In 2020-21 he was a project facilitator and research assistant for High-rise Landscapes, exploring how social networks and community support that developed in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire were reanimated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Kasim has an MSc from the Institute of Global Prosperity at UCL, and has ongoing interests in issues of housing, health and community wellbeing.
Kasim Ali
Caterina Sartori is a Research Associate for High-Rise Landscapes, in the frame of which she researches cladding remediation processes in London, and the impact on residents. She is a visual and urban anthropologist interested in spatial and housing justice, ideas of value and investment, and creative research methodologies. As part of her doctoral research on the demolition of a council estate in London, she developed the interactive online documentary Living Room. She previously held the post of Film Officer and Film Festival Director at the Royal Anthropological Institute (2015-2023).
Caterina Sartori
Declan Murray is a Research Associate for High-Rise Landscapes. His research looks at material flows, supply chains and regulation in Eastern Africa. He is especially interested in questions of quality, value and waste. For High-Rise Landscapes, his research is tracing how quality is understood, tested and demonstrated in the concrete economy of Nairobi. Declan has a developing interest in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques within ethnography. His first book – The Repair Mindset: How to fix off-grid solar in Kenya – is forthcoming with Bristol University Press in January 2026.