04 / Methodology

A career atlas + ecosystem,
interconnected + interdisciplinary.

Atlas of Practice is a workshop platform for architectural and interdisciplinary students and graduates created by AIS Alumni Grace Simmonds. It treats careers as living ecosystems, interconnected networks of institutions, projects, relationships, skills and values, and gives students the spatial tools to map them. This is not a chronology of jobs, but a map of how opportunities, relationships and values shape your practice over time.

Principle 01

Spatial, not linear

Careers branch, double-back and cluster. A ladder hides that; an ecosystem reveals it.

Principle 02

Reflection-led

Insight comes from the act of mapping. The artefact is secondary to the realisation.

Principle 03

Interdisciplinary by default

Built for graduates whose practice already crosses architecture, culture, research and community.

Principle 04

Participation and leadership

Practice is shaped as much by how you show up in rooms as by the titles you hold — contribution, organising and care are mappable.

Principle 05

Networks as infrastructure

Relationships, mentors and collectives are not soft extras; they are the scaffolding that carries a practice between projects.

Principle 06

Experimentation and self-direction

Side projects, residencies and self-initiated work are first-class nodes, not detours from a 'real' career.

Principle 07

Unexpected turning points

The pivots, accidents and refusals often matter more than the plan. The map makes them visible instead of editing them out.