Urban Alchemy is an investigation into demolition – its materials and the people who undertake it.  It has involved residencies on active demolition sites in East London with McGees, John Hunt and Maylarch and led to a both a residency with East London Printmakers and Leverhulme Trust artist’s residency with UCL Chemistry working with UCL Estates department, The Institute of Making and the demolition contractors on the UCL site.  It uses the materials of the demolition site as a way in to physical, artistic experiments and collaborations and also the often overlooked stories of these materials and the people who work with them. Outputs include large scale etchings into roofing zinc including portraits of demolition workers, a book ‘Urban Alchemy’ containing poetics narratives of the life cycles of materials from copper to asbestos, large scale public print events and collaborative experiments pushing the potential of stone lithography, etching and other traditional print methods on these unconventional materials. As the book, prints and films from the project travel the work has led to ongoing collaborations across science, print and making and is ongoing and developing constantly.