ABC School Closing Plenary 2

Eight members of the Academia Working Group, who organize ABC School, present on a collective book project they have been developing over the last 18 months. 

The Organizers Guide to Architectural Education

, builds on our experiences with the ABC school and distills our findings for others. Through the efforts of planning and hosting ABC School, the Architecture Lobby's Academia Working Group has realized that addressing shortcomings of architecture education requires revisioning education as a forum for teaching organizing skills that empower architects to address the needs of our global present and future.

In all areas of curriculum – studio, structures, history, theory, professional practice, environmental systems – the need for architectural education to put issues of environmental and social justice forward is clear. But more than thinking through specific thematic urgencies from within pedagogical siloes, students must learn to think systemically, across boundaries, in order to disrupt capitalism’s exploitations and imbalances. Power-mapping and organizing training are essential in that re-education.

The Architecture Lobby academia working group increasingly understands itself as a collector of organizations fighting for architecture’s relevance and a forum for learning and teaching organizing skills that can and must re-envision architecture education. It is establishing a public resource of organizing how-to’s.

The authors are Kirsten Day, Peggy Deamer, Andrea Dietz, Tessa Forde, Jessica Garcia Fritz, Palmyra Geraki, and Valerie Lechene, supported by Renzo Dagnino.

The Organizer's Guide to Architecture Education

We imagine urban metabolism, and how we could live and work caring for it. 

During this session, we will examine this place through the lens of "eco-history" and connect urban patterns to their origins. We will discover that the city is a blend of human civilization and natural influences, often blurring the line between the two.

Our journey will take us deep into the city, where we'll envision what a contemporary extension of its urban metabolism might resemble. We will delve into ecological challenges and brainstorm new infrastructures that would enable citizens to compassionately care for a hybrid of nature and technology, creating a more habitable environment.

Using 3D data, maps, eco-historical information, and various media, we will explore how we can integrate and reintroduce natural processes into the city. We will consider the design of these infrastructures, their potential to enhance urban living standards, and the practical aspects of maintaining them on a daily basis.

Ultimately, all the ideas we generate will contribute to an optimistic vision of urban metabolism. This vision has the potential to foster a resilient urban continuum that harmoniously blends nature and technology.

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVMm86CyE=/?share_link_id=348427220234

This event will be facilitated by Pino Heye 

Pino Heye: Hi i'm Pino Heye, i'm establishing an architecture studio on the cross-section of Urban planning, Art and governance, focussing on territorial planning. I am located in Paris and Tokyo, (currently preparing a PhD about territorial infrastructure networks in Tokyo). I am interested in the emergence process of infrastructure networks, that improve the environment, and social situation, and the aesthetics of living and working in such networks. I always attempt to build a community around projects.

Everyday Metabolism

A screening and workshop about the role collective fantasies play in the development of housing methodologies through the lens of Judit Elek's 1969 film titled 

What is housing today? Is it a living fantasy attached to spaces, is it a cultural fantasy, is it archetypical, is it a process? The workshop is intended to explore new possibilities for habitat-making by experimenting with de-learning our already established attitudes and creating a new blank(ish) state for re-learning or re- dreaming notions such as the principal human right to housing and indeed what really is a “better” living condition. This utopistic proposition, attempts to challenge the tools we use to criticise systems (neoliberal vs. Marxist) and our obsession with ideologies (~ vs. ~). We'd also like to think about “semi-failed” housing utopias, and our emotional attachment to the meaning of better living conditions. As part of the session, participants will be invited to watch Elek Judit’s 1969 film titled 

, which is about finding a home in socialist era Hungary, where conflicting ideological-political elements illustrate how social systems in practice conflict with fantasies of better living conditions. We would like to invite participants to consider whether the unconscious (both collective and individual) mind has a role to play in the development of housing methodologies, living spaces, and common grounds, as not firmly fixed but constantly constructed concepts, shaped by (shared) narratives and (collective) imaginations. Therefore, in our daily lives, we are surrounded by a flux of external and sometimes forced knowledge. As part of this workshop, we’d like to explore the use of dreamscapes as an alternative to existing approaches used to decode urban morphologies and systematic displacements, and to dislocate what is known as the spatial realm, to explore the possibility of creating more liveable future spaces.

https://miro.com/welcomeonboard/SU1Sc0NDTzF4YXJybVJjQ0tDclFqWkdXYVJvMnQ5N1BENW9saVg0bzU0WkR6eDl1YzN0Mk5palV0U3laVGlaS3wzNDU4NzY0NTYzOTAwMDY5NDIwfDI=?share_link_id=613408348823

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yz4rDK1ycQi1E2N3Jn_8KAXVprdCZ3PU?usp=drive_link

Shani Haberman (b. 1996 Jerusalem) lives and works in London. She graduated from University College London in 2021 with an MSc Urban Studies and previously studied Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins. She currently works for Ark Resettlement Services, an organisation that provides supported housing for ex-offenders. She oversees housing projects and the organisation's programmes to help prison leavers reintegrate into society. As part and beyond this role, she is investigating alternative approaches to the problem of being unable to compete with the open (housing) market. Previously, she curated and participated in several cultural activities, including an archival exhibition at Pushkin House, London, where she is in the process of preparing an Eastern European film programme addressing displacement and housing issues.

Károly Tendl (b. 1989, Budapest) lives and works in London. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2019 with an MA in Contemporary Art Practice: Critical Practice, and previously studied Contemporary Media Practice at the University of Westminster. He works with text, the emergence and dislocation of culture and identity, sound, new and old ideologies, dark nostalgia, speculative prose and installation. Károly fictions around the ideas of the urban and rural, planetary periphery and centre, and often around some of the shared sensibilities under oppressive regimes among the European non-homogenous working classes, the uncomfortable weight of class mobility and the dull sword of cultural capital.

At a certain point, we will dream about housing

Exploration of Architectures of Emergency, analyzing post Turkey-Syria earthquake processes, with emphasis on the Hatay Region. 

This session critically examines emergency architectures designed in the face of environmental crises and the response of communities following devastating disasters, exemplified by Hatay's response to the Turkey-Syria earthquakes. During the first part, we will delve into the declaration of emergencies outlined in precise protocols, shaped by global networks of experts striving to balance economic development and environmental concerns. Our discussion aims to reframe the concept of emergency by shifting focus from abstract norms to the lived experiences of disruptive events. In this context, in the second part, we will focus on Hatay province after the Turkey-Syria earthquake on 6 February 2023. Although Hatay was one of the cities most severely affected by the earthquake, it is worth examining the efforts of its citizens to reclaim the city and rebuild a future through the initiatives and platforms they established. On the other hand, the ‘reconstruction’ works and architectural/planning activities in the area need a critical lens on the ethical and social roles of architects. We will explore this tension between a normative human security framework, post-disaster regulations, and the efforts of society’s movements addressing social, environmental, and economic inequalities. Together, we'll approach spatially the concept of 'sentinel modes of care,' which embraces an affective connection to the environment and the potential for catastrophe. By doing so, we aim to rethink emergency protocols and discuss alternative approaches to managing crises, and we will seek answers to questions about different architectural potentials to the capitalist production mechanism that sees disasters as an opportunity for financial gain.

Estefania Mompean Botias is an architect and urban planner who is currently pursuing her PhD at ALICE laboratory at EPFL (2021-2025). Her research explores the emergency conditions, studies their ambivalences, and examines the new connotations of the regulation that the Emergency States are acquiring identifing how architecture and urban studies respond to these situations.

Nihal Evirgen has been a Member of the Executive Board at the Chamber of Architects Ankara Branch since 2018. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Department of Architecture at the Middle East Technical University (METU). Her articles have been published in various journals, and she is currently pursuing a PhD at METU. "Architecture and ideology," "urban politics," "critical theory," and "labor and class relations in architecture" are her fields of interest. She represents the Chamber of Architects of Turkey (CAT) as a congress delegate of the International Union of Architects (UIA).

Architectures of Emergency. Responses on the Hatay province after the Türkiye-Syria earthquake

This multi-voice dialogue explores the dynamic relationship among architecture, growth, and capital through an open-access interview and dialogue among participants.

A schizophrenic, ceaseless mode of production characterizes the current condition of architecture, from architects' increasingly long working hours to the approach tendentially adopted in design studios. As architectural production has started to imitate or explicitly serve growing capitalist purposes, both architecture and the planet have begun to degenerate. Inspired by degrowth scholars who emphasize reshaping imaginaries for post-capitalist societies, this session comprises an interactive dialogue aimed at engaging architecture with degrowth's distinctive viewpoints.

Degrowth scholars stress the urgency of dismantling both the symbolic and material aspects of growth-dependent capitalist societies. Architecture, inherently socio-cultural and closely linked to capital, is a fitting topic for this debate—one that can and must draw upon diverse interdisciplinary voices to rejuvenate itself.

This open-access, multi-voice dialogue delves into the interplay between architecture, growth, and capital, raising questions such as: how does architecture, in 

, perpetuate mechanisms inherent to growth-centered capitalism? Is our architectural production oriented toward the well-being of both humans and non-humans, as well as coexistence among different species? Does architectural production currently support human rights? Is it a valuable tool for preparing young architects for an increasingly precarious, uncertain professional world? How can we expose, self-criticize, and counter growth-centered mechanisms in architecture? What actors enable, support, or hinder the propagation of identified growth practices? Lastly, how can architects assume more influential, critical, and authoritative roles in addressing and combating these issues at a political level?

This event will be facilitated by Rebecca Carrai, Renzo Dagnino and Daniele Vico. 

https://miro.com/welcomeonboard/eXRMUDR0bXR3UkRvT01obVpPNzNTR3hvTGNQdUR3RDB3TkRvYnlTWXBIT09pS09pRVZwZXJXN2t4MFRtQ0Rmd3wzNDU4NzY0NTY0MjA2NjMwMTA0fDI=?share_link_id=574384723623

Rebecca Carrai: PhD researcher (Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven Belgium) 

Daniele Vico: Degrowth PhD researcher (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Barcelona)

Renzo Dagnino: PhD researcher (Faculty of Architecture, National University of Córdoba UNC-FAUD)

A Dialogue (Beyond Architecture) on Growth-Centered Capitalism

This session aims to reveal the experiential and knowledge gaps between the design disciplines in the global North and South, and to suggest that “peripheral” practices in Africa, Asia, and South America provide the North a model for a post-capitalist future.

This panel discussion will gather practitioners and scholars from the global South engaged in non-capitalistic – that is to say, non-industrial, localized, and convivial – thought, design, and construction. The session aims to reveal the experiential and knowledge gaps between the design disciplines in the global North and South, and to suggest that “peripheral” practices in Africa, Asia, and South America provide the North a model for a post-capitalist future. 

The organizers will first give a brief introduction to the panel discussion. This will be followed by short video testimonies by a group of invited scholars and practitioners. This format is chosen to allow the guests the time and space to curate their own response to the session’s prompts and the opportunity to situate their work in the lived, concrete context of their specific locales. After the video viewing, the organizers and panel members will discuss the issues with the audience. Video contributors will include: Peter Mabeo and Beullah Serema (designers, Botswana); Marie Rose Ukwizabigiwa (civil engineer, Rwanda); Narayan Acharya (builder, Nepal); Claudia Muciño (architect & educator, Mexico); Nickson Otieno (architect, Kenya); and Norihisa Kawashima (architect, Japan). 

We will start with materials, and expand the conversation to the economic and cultural forces manifested in them. Materials as ubiquitous economic and aesthetic objects will allow the contributors to highlight the issues most pertinent to their activities, including ecological resilience, cost accessibility, and aesthetics. 

This discussion will be facilitated by Yutaka Sho of GA Collaborative and Tyler Survant of Building Bureau.

Director, Tecnológico de Monterrey Academic Architecture Program, Campus Puebla

Claudia is an architect and Director of the Academic Architecture Program at Mexico’s Tec de Monterrey Puebla campus. Prior to her directorship, she worked at the Urban Development Office of Celaya and taught energy efficiency and bioclimatic architecture courses at the Tecnológico de Monterrey campus Qro. Claudia has a Masters in Advanced Sustainable Design from the University of Edinburgh, specializing in Latin American Cities and Sustainable Development. She holds certifications in permaculture and sustainable cities and is a Fellow of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Local Pathways program.

Narayan is a Kathmandu-based rammed earth builder and Director of the green construction company Sustainable Future Nepal. In order to minimize the carbon footprint of Nepal’s construction industry, increase energy efficiency, and enhance indoor comfort, Sustainable Future developed a reinforced and stabilized rammed earth construction technique using locally sourced and affordable materials. This solution enables societies to build comfortable, earthquake-resistant buildings while reducing carbon emissions. Rammed earth construction also provides thermal mass which passively modulates indoor temperatures without the need for mechanical heating and cooling.

Nickson is an Eisenhower Fellow, registered architect, and sustainability expert committed to enabling the transition to a climate-smart, circular and green economy through design, research, training and technology. His company, Niko Green, specializes in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), green building, climate change, circular economy, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), renewable energy and energy efficiency. Nickson previously served as co-founder and Environmental Design Director at Trine Architects Ltd; the Director, Green Africa Standards and Certification at the Green Africa Foundation; the President of the Executive Boards of World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSCSD); and the Young Engineers Foundation for Sustainable Empowerment.

Architect, Principal & Founder, Nori Architects, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Meiji University

Norihisa Kawashima, principal of Nori Architects, is committed to designing and practicing architecture with nature. Nature here refers to the climate, including sunlight and natural winds, materials such as soil and wood, the earth, plants, insects, birds, animals, microorganisms, and all other forms of life. Kawashima believes that we live on the earth and in relation to various things. We pursue environmental design that allows us to reevaluate our values and behavior without losing this sense, even in densely populated cities such as Tokyo.

Kawashima graduated from the University of Tokyo and completed his master’s degree at the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo in 2016. After working at Nikken Sekkei, Kawashima is currently an associate professor at Meiji University and the director of Nori Architects, founded in 2017.

Peter Mabeo is a globally-recognized designer and furniture maker based in Botswana, whose Mabeo Brand has been collaborating with local artisans and international designers since 2006. The studio has collaborated with designers such as Patricia Urquiola, Patty Johnson, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Garth Roberts, and Luca Nichetto on sustainable furniture and interior design projects that celebrate African craft heritage and support local craft economies. Peter regularly participates in a variety of international design fairs and exhibitions, including Milan Design Week, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, and the London Design Festival. Peter founded Mabeo Studio as an offshoot collaborative design office with an interest in Botswana’s materials, traditions, and techniques. 

Ukwizabigira Marie Rose is a designer and a project manager at GAC-Rwanda. She has been part of several projects at GAC including Masoro Learning and Sport Center. She contributes to design, preparation of bills of quantity, and construction administration. 

Marie Rose was born and raised in Bugesera district, eastern province of Rwanda. She attended Kagasa Primary School not far from her home in Mwogo sector, Lycee de Kigali, and GS Kabare for secondary school. In 2013 she received a scholarship to study in China, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Beijing University of Technology in 2018. She received a master’s degree in Bridge and Tunnels engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2021. 

Marie Rose describes working in a male-dominated industry as both interesting and challenging. Her focus is in team-oriented design, communication, and general project management. She believes in a collaborative working arrangement in which male and female work together as partners for both professional development and improving participation of women in the engineering field.