Robin Sparkes is a spatial designer and musician whose work engages the kinesthetic and acoustic dimensions of architecture. Her practice responds to the entanglement of sound and time. Drawing on design, she activates listening, movement, and spatial awareness, positioning architecture as a sensory instrument.
Robin’s work spans musical instruments, sonic installations, stage and set design, residential, and urban-scale interventions. Notable works include Prosthetic Symphony No.1 (Reference Point, London, 2024), a live performance and spatial study in sound propagation activating her handmade electro-acoustic instruments. As well as Resonant Nest (2025), an amphitheatre for birds combining parabolic sound mirrors and bird boxes to improve urban avian communication while mitigating industrial noise. Robin’s research and writing are published by Rick Rubin, including New Forms in Music: Sound is a Spatial Force Part 1(2025), Building with Music: Sound is a Spatial Force Part 2(2025), Patterns of Authority: Sound is Spatial Parts 1 & 2(2025), Body Typologies(2024), and Form Follows Phenomenon(2024). She was also published by the Princeton Architectural Journal Rumor Review with Metaphorically Functional, reflecting her interest in mobility, adaptability, and the functional versus representational enactment of space. Other professional projects include creative direction and exhibition design, for artists including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Madonna, Playboi Carti, and Jefferson Hack.
Robin has exhibited internationally, including Frieze London, OR Space (Resonance, 2025), Moth Club (Phoning, 2025), Terzo Paesaggio (Wishing Station, 2025), Atomiser (WINDOW, 2025), Ante Pavilion (Resonant Nest, 2025), Reference Point (Prosthetic Symphony No.1, 2024), Reference Point (Physical Philosophies, 2022) Princeton University SoA Gallery (Tentsile, 2022), Rumble House (Studio, 2019) Oxford University (Mystic Structures, 2018) Vancouver Art Gallery (Potentials, 2017), and 221A, Vancouver (Reading Room, 2017).
Her educational background includes an MA Part 2 Architecture at the Royal College of Art, (2023–2025), Global History of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2021), Pattern Design at Central Saint Martins (2019), and a BFA in Sculpture from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2013–2017).
robin sparkes 