Hybrid briefs proliferate in an urban boom. Whilst teaching at the Architectural Association from 1993 until 2001, LaGess-McNamara London studios have recorded evolving briefs. We believe that brief as a list of nouns is only marginally useful, instead our studios seek the latent potential of the brief by making it a list of verbs or actions, what we call the Active Brief. When designers routinely worked on site, it was far easier to envision activity and space directly, in respect of need. Design was carried out in person. We propose to refocus on the uniqueness of sites by systematically invoking present and future desire and activity. These are design's reason for being; artefacts develop meaning from use and occupation, or in spite of them. Stated as verbs, the brief suggests multifarious activities with their tendency for coincidence and conflict. Streets and buildings are a theatre of daily life in which we emphasize the ensemble of person, place, and action within a time sequence. In 1999, the Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA) awarded its Gold Medal for the first time to the city of Barcelona. The former Mayor, Pasqual Maragall, stated, "in the last 20 years in Barcelona, we have come to equate 'city' with 'betterment…' [Constructed artefacts are] visible, corporeal, criticisable-action-become-object, which thousands of eyes will gaze on with respect, or will pass over, which thousands of hands and feet will touch, trample, alter, and which make of the city one of the few lasting concepts of our present and future…" Maragall referred to London as Barcelona's big sister: she supercedes the usual boundaries of building by insinuating programme into unexpected areas. London is entering a phase of intense change to its built fabric as its way of life mutates.