Category: Presentations

On Tuesday, 25 February, at the invitation of the campaign to save St. Raphael’s estate from demolition by Brent council, Architects for Social Housing gave a presentation to residents of the estate. At the start of the meeting we asked for a show of hands, and we counted 64 residents from St. Raphael’s estate present, … Continue reading Saving St. Raphael’s Estate: ASH presentation to residents, St. Patrick’s Church

In April 2019 Architects for Social Housing was invited by Murray Fraser, Professor of Architecture and Global Culture and Vice-Dean of Research at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, to be part of an experts group to advise his team in the Centre for London Urban Design (CLOUD) on a design research project being … Continue reading St. Raphael’s Estate: ASH presentation to the Bartlett School of Architecture (housing design research workshop)

Q. ‘Social and environmental issues really matter to me. I want to have real influence but, as an architect, I don’t. A. ‘Many architects contact me expressing a similar sentiment. Our profession tends to attract and develop idealists, and that can make some of our work little more rewarding than working on a factory production … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 1. Part 1: Social Principles

I want to begin with the diagram with which we ended Part 1 of this presentation, which illustrates the connections between the social, the environmental and the economic dimensions of architecture. The terms ‘ecology’, meaning the study of the relationship between organisms and the environment, and ‘economy’, meaning household management, both derive from the same … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 3. Part 2: Economic Practices

‘Where did this entire financial phantasmagoria come from? Quite simply, from the way people who could just not afford them were forced into buying nice new houses because they were seduced into taking out miraculous loans. Their promises to repay the loans were then sold on, after having been mixed up with securitisations whose composition … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 3. Part 1: Economic Principles

This presentation follows on from Part 1, that looked at the environmental principles of a socialist architecture. In our first presentation in this series we talked about the agents of a socialist architecture: those who pay for it, those who inhabit it, those who use it, those who design it, those who build it, those … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 2. Part 2. Environmental Practices

‘We want a say in how the resources are managed in our territory, to remind those who seek to benefit from them that they aren’t a commodity to be sold. Every resource is a part of the system. Each part that is taken out, or over-harvested, affects everything that depends on it. If we don’t … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 2. Part 1. Environmental Principles

In Part 1 of this presentation we looked at the political principles of a socialist architecture. In Part 2 I’m going to discuss the political practices through which ASH has implemented these principles in engaging with the political dimension of architecture. 1. The Political Economy of Housing Provision In this first diagram we have two … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 4. Part 2. Political Practices