‘Research in Place’ residency: Joanna Dong

03 November 2025

We are excited to welcome Joanna Dong as our second 'Research in Place' resident at We Made That.

Joanna is a first-year PhD student at The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCL, exploring how heritage-centred co-creation and capacity-building processes can strengthen social sustainability in urban redevelopment. Her work focuses on enhancing community cohesion, engagement, inclusivity and diversity through design, cultural heritage and sustainable construction practice.

Alongside her PhD, she co-founded FeastFest, a food-themed festival collective based in the Royal Docks that celebrates the area's heritage as a historic food hub through site-specific cultural experiences, outdoor performances, installations and community events.

This second research residency continues our 'Right to Place' initiative – offering researchers dedicated time and space to advance their independent work on themes of rights, spatial justice, cities and regeneration.

Following the successful completion of our inaugural residency we welcomed the strength and diversity of applications we received for round 2 of this residency programme. Joanna’s proposal stood out for its grounded approach to heritage-led regeneration and its clear connection between academic research and community practice.

Her work centres on London's Royal Docks, once the world's largest food port and now an area with immense redevelopment potential. Her research recognises that heritage lives not only in landmark buildings but also in streets, parks, historic infrastructure and everyday community spaces including cafés, restaurants, community centres and libraries. Through FeastFest, she explores how food and culture can activate public spaces and strengthen local identity between longstanding and new residents.

During the residency, Joanna will map heritage assets, public spaces and community networks in the Royal Docks, exploring food mapping techniques and developing cultural tours and programming. Her goal is to create a practice-oriented funding proposal for a pilot project that builds community capacity through heritage and public space.

“What excites me most about this residency is the chance to ‘research in place’. As a new PhD student still refining my focus on spatial justice, this isn’t just an opportunity to study the topic from a distance, but to ground my early research in real, living dialogue. I’m eager to engage with We Made That’s community, feed my emerging ideas into meaningful discussions on city rights, and turn my preliminary findings into contributions that align with the studio’s ‘Right to Place’ initiative. This space will be more than a workspace; it’ll be a critical support for my PhD journey — helping me bridge theoretical questions with practical insights, sharpen my research direction, and build the kind of grounded perspective that will strengthen my work for years to come.”

Joanna Dong

We look forward to supporting Joanna's research journey and learning from her insights on heritage-centred regeneration and community-led placemaking. Watch this space for updates on her residency outcomes.

Image credits: Tate & Lyle sugar depot by Philipp Ebeling; Cargo being unloaded in 1949, Newham Archives and Local Studies; The Peoples Plan for the Royal Docks 1983, design by Sandra Buchanan © Docklands Community Poster project.