- 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.
architectsforsocialhousing 