Keynote: Architecture and Neoliberalism Conference: Graz
Ten Theses on Scarcity
Think I am glad not to be in Venice. Would be endlessly grumpy at what the pictures are suggesting: namely, refined… https://t.co/TGTSoL9wkY
Ten Theses on Scarcity
A research project funded by AHRC done with Tatjana Schneider and Nishat Awan at the University of Sheffield, gathering together numerous examples of how to use architectural intelligence beyond the production of objects, and in particular in terms of social and political agency. As part of the project we curated the 2009 RIBA Research Symposium (and Jonathan Charley’s video piece on the site is wonderful), produced a book, a website & various articles, and edited two special issues one of field: the other of ARQ. The project was awarded the 2011 RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University-based Research, making me the only person to have received this internationally important award three times.
Originally commissioned by the RIBA, a piece on what might or might not constitute architectural research. Big in Spain.
My response as to why giving the official government website 2013 Design of the Year was not so cool.
My longest piece on architectural education. Finalist in EAAE competition. Maybe should have won, but the judges, Perez-Gomez and Palaasma, rose to my bait of inauthentic phenomenology and sulked.
Scarce Pickings
A short think piece on the 2011 Occupation movement and its relevance to architecture.
This is a rare one where I write specifically about buildings, or in this case the subtlety of the plans of Proctor Matthews Architects. Online here, pdf here.
In order to get a balanced view, all reviews from the very nice to the very nasty are included here.
Spatial Ethics. A lecture that tried to marry work on spatial agency with Arna Mathiesen's brilliant analysis of scarcity in Reykjavik.
My contribution to the collection of fantastic photographs by Lisa Barnard of the former Tory Party Headquarters. The book, Chateau Despair, is an extraordinary document of the tawdry environment that Margaret Thatcher and her cohorts conducted their business in. Though I say it myself, I like my writing here, spurred by Lisa's great work. Buy the book!
Another introduction, this time for ARQ, to projects arising out of the Spatial Agency project.
Short piece on Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio, trying to find the line between adulation and critique.
With Tatjana Schneider. A comprehensive survey of Flexible Housing design. Winner 2007 RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University based research, with judges saying: ?An exemplary body of architecturally-relevant research?offering comparative design plans, well-researched historical referencing, a new classification system and a practical manual/tool kit. An innovative and brave approach?? There is a long and useful, if quite critical, review by John Habraken (who is one of the book’s heroes). The book is beautifully designed by Ben Weaver, who also did Spatial Agency and Architecture & Participation.
Short piece examining local identity, starting with a pop at Frampton’s Critical Regionalism.
My first published work. Oh, what a clever young chappy I was. Sanctimonious posturing.
This is the transcribed text of my speech closing the What's the Point of Art School conference at Central Saint Martins in May 2013. It reads rather crudely, but the points are made