This is the text of a short talk I did as part of the UAL Climate Emergency Network 5 day festival in September 2020. It picks up on some of the themes of Architecture After Architecture
Short piece on Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio, trying to find the line between adulation and critique.
My response as to why giving the official government website 2013 Design of the Year was not so cool.
A short think piece on the 2011 Occupation movement and its relevance to architecture.
An extended argument of what participation might be and mean in architecture. Probably my most ‘scholarly’ piece. Widely cited and (so my co-design colleagues tell me) respected.
Posted in honour of their 2014 RIBA Gold Medal Award. First published in Architectural Review in 2005 (and needs the drawings/pictures) A bit of a rave.
Umeå School of Architecture, as part of their “Making Architecture Politically” lecture series. A new lecture. Quite bossy but clear about the issues. Video is here. Starts about 50mins in with a very generous introduction from Roemer Van Toorn (whose writing is always worthwhile).
A large European funded research project for which was the project leader. Looking at the way the production of the built environment is affected under conditions of scarcity. In partnership with TU Vienna and Oslo School of Architecture, and working with Deljana Iossifova and Jon Goodbun at the University of Westminster and the SEED Foundation. A range of books, exhibitions and events came out of it (press the 'scarcity' link below to find some of them).The link is to our original application to the HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area). It was one of only 18 projects funded under the first HERA call, with over 200 applications submitted.
This was my first Zoom lecture, delivered as part of the Architecture Foundation's excellent 100 Day Studio intiative during the 2020 COVID lockdown. The video is here , and the transcript linked to the title above. The lecture speculates as to where architecture might be in the face of the twin crises of climate and COVID, arguing that these challenge some of the fundaments on which the modern project of architecture has based itself.
An essay based on a presentation to the Society of Architectural Historians, tracing various historical episodes of austerity.
Happy to host Paul Chatterton's report: A Civic Plan for a Climate Emergency. Read it, y'all!
The keynote article for Architectural Review's 1500 issue. Draws heavily on the joint research with MOULD
Musings on Biennales and architectural exhibitions. Good opening! Light follow through.
Originally commissioned by the RIBA, a piece on what might or might not constitute architectural research. Big in Spain.
2021-24 AHRC-DFG funded research project in collaboration with Tatjana Schneider, looking at the implications of climate breakdown for spatial practice. Summary of project in the link. We formed a research collective, MOULD, to do the project, and work coming from the project is gathered together at the website MOULD. One of the main outputs of the project is the website Architecture is Climate, a resource that reimagines the future of architecture through its entanglement with climate breakdown.
A lecture on architectural education that I presented at The Agency Conference in Sydney in 2017, Yale Symposium on Rebuilding Architecture in 2018, and as part of the Bartlett International Lecture Series in 2018. It starts with the premise that architectural education is inherently conservative, and then spins out the argument from that uncomfortable start. The video link is from the Bartlett version. It did not go down universally well...
Scarcity Scares. Video here.