We protest against the AJ120 nomination of HTA Design, Hawkins/Brown and Mae Architects for the award of Collaboration of the Year for their part in the eviction, demolition and gentrification of the Aylesbury estate.
We protest against the collaboration of architects in the transformation of London’s housing into commodities for property investors.
We protest against the demolition of housing estates built by architects who had a vision of the social duties of architecture so lacking in today’s architects.
We protest against the poverty of vision shown by contemporary architects in thrall to property developers, financiers and architectural awards.
We protest against the Architect’s Journal’s fetishising of form, materials and individual architects over the social context of what they build.
We protest against the assumption of neutrality by architects who are instrumental in the social cleansing of working-class communities in London.
We protest against the lameness of the excuses offered by architects for giving up their social, ethical and artistic agency to economic constraints.
We protest against architects designing housing with segregated entrances and communal spaces, as well as so-called defensive architecture in the form of anti-homeless spikes and benches.
We protest against the AJ120 holding an award ceremony for architects who continue to offer no answer to London’s housing crisis.
We accuse the 120 architectural practices invited here this evening of breaking paragraph 5 of the ARB Architects Code for Standards of Conduct and Practice to ‘Consider the wider impact of your work.’
We demand that paragraph 12 of the Architects Code against ‘discrimination because of disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or any other inappropriate consideration’ be amended to include ‘economic class.’
We call on architects to begin working with London’s communities to meet their housing needs, rather than siding with the economic and political forces arrayed against them.
