Editorial for the third issue of the Italian Journal Ardeth, for which I was guest editor. The issue theme was ‘Money’
This is my very short response to Paul Finch's comments on Extinction Rebellion that he made in the Architects Journal on 14th May and 21st May 2019
My response as to why giving the official government website 2013 Design of the Year was not so cool.
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.
On the basis of a pitch written on an iPhone on the top of a mountain in Ethiopia, I was invited to curate the UK Pavilion at the 2013 Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. The eventual pavilion was curated, designed and produced by students and staff from Central Saint Martins, and took the theme of Liquid Boundaries - arguing the need to find ways through the hardening of space as it is being increasingly controlled, regulated and divided. The pavilion presented four films, each 129 seconds long (the average time someone spends in a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale), which interpreted briefs provided by four UK architects and spatial agents. All in their own way open up ways in which boundaries might be negotiated with, and in so doing a more democratic form of space emerges. More information, including a downloadable pamphlet and 'user manual', can be found on the Liquid Boundaries website.
Together with members of MOULD, I delivered a keynote address at the opening of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, 'Nature of Hope', where we were also exhibiting our embroidery installation. The lecture has interventions from members of MOULD who stand up to read excerpts from our writings. Our bit starts around 32 minutes in.
The keynote article for Architectural Review's 1500 issue. Draws heavily on the joint research with MOULD
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.
Short piece on Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio, trying to find the line between adulation and critique.
Edited text of an interview with me about participation done with Bernd Upmeyer of the Dutch journal MONU
A short think piece on the 2011 Occupation movement and its relevance to architecture.
My closing speech at the main conference for What's the Point of Art School, a series of events organised by Central Saint Martins. The video of the speech, which was well-recieved, is here. Other talks, including brilliance from Johnny Vegas, are here. There was a good write up of the day in the Guardian.
Short piece examining local identity, starting with a pop at Frampton’s Critical Regionalism.
From Objects of Austerity to Processes of Scarcity. Text of presentation available through link above.
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
An essay based on a presentation to the Society of Architectural Historians, tracing various historical episodes of austerity.
Originally commissioned by the RIBA, a piece on what might or might not constitute architectural research. Big in Spain.