Jack Self

Jack Self (1987) is an architect based in London. He is Director of REAL and Editor-in-Chief of Real Review.

Jack’s architectural work promotes social equality through the design of homes, housing, and domestic space. He specialises in radical new typologies (including co-housing), alternative models of ownership, finance and procurement.

In 2016, Jack curated the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale with the show Home Economics.

He is Master of Diploma Six at the Architectural Association, where he teaches domestic design with Guillermo Lopez.

Jack’s other work includes curation, exhibition design, brand consultancy and communications, publishing, editing, writing, furniture design and art direction.

His clients and collaborators have included the British Council, IKEA, MINI, Prada, JW Anderson, Virgil Abloh, the Royal Bank of Scotland, PwC, Comme des Garcons, and many others.

His architectural work has been shown widely, including at the Maxxi in Rome, Tate Britain, ICA and Design Museum. Jack’s writing has appeared in The Guardian, eflux, 032c, the BBC, Frieze and CNN. He has lectured widely, including at Rice, Columbia, UCLA, ETH Zurich, TU Berlin, ETSAM, UBC Vancouver, Sotheby’s, Het Nieu Rotterdam, RIBA, Edinburgh University, KTH, the Royal Academy, and UTS Sydney.

Jack’s first book Real Estates: Life Without Debt is now in its third printing. His other books include Home Economics (2016), Mies in London (2018) and Symbolic Exchange (2017).

He was previously Contributing Editor for Architectural Review (2009–2017), Editor-at-Large for 032c (2014–2018) and Editor at Strelka Press (2011-2013).

Jack holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of New South Wales (2007), a Diploma of Architecture from the Architectural Association (2014) and an M.Phil in Philosophy and Macroeconomics from the University of London (2011). His thesis explored the morality of neoliberal economic theory and was titled, “Fifty Cent: Taxation and Moral Priority.”