On the Social in Architecture
24th Nov 2017
24 November, 9 March & 21 June | ICA, London
These three CHASE training days, co-organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the ASSC (Architecture, Space and Society Centre, Birkbeck) will collaboratively consider a question fundamental to PhD students in architecture and other disciplines, particularly in relation to public institutions, social housing, and resettlement: ‘What is the social in architecture?’
Each training day will be comprised of a participatory training/skills session and a more public presentation of exemplary work in this area. Students will be expected to take on active roles in chairing discussions, acting as discussants, recording events, conducting and transcribing interviews, writing posts for the ICA/CHASE blogs, and thinking about the ethical, political and social structures in which their own research is situated.
Besides architecture and urban planning, the sessions will touch upon themes of ethics and equality, cultural geography, environmental psychology and performativity, community practice and documentary film or photography.
The aim is for these sessions to be generative events, shaping new ways of working together and involving different perspectives and stakeholders in the nature of the public institution/space.
Eligibility and Application Process
Open to postgraduate research students from across the Consortium for Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE).
Register your place through the online application form below by 12:00 on 7 November.
Please note that places are limited and applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendance to all three sessions is required.
If you would like any further information or have questions about any of the above then please contact Mark Crinson m.crinson@bbk.ac.uk
Day 1 – 24 November 2017 - Where is the Social in Architecture?
Briefing for PhD students
Time: 2.00-3.00 pm
Location: The Studio, ICA London
Facilitator: Professor Mark Crinson (Birkbeck University)
This initial session will cover definitions of terms, issues of agency and ethics, as well as the different stakeholders and communities involved in shaping social space. We will discuss skills such as interview and oral history techniques, event management and online publication.
Seminar/workshop
Time: 3.00-5.00 pm
Location: The Studio, ICA
Speakers: Samir Pandya (University of Westminster), Kate Macintosh (Architect of the Dawson’s Heights social housing estate in Dulwich, amongst others) and Geraldine Dening (Architects for Social Housing).
In this session we will consider the role of architects in providing social housing and public space over the last few decades. This day builds upon a number of events that have taken place at the ICA recently, such as Urban Planning as Social Cleansing, the Architects for Social Housing residency and A Heavy Nonpresence: Housing Workshop. After brief presentations by each speaker, students will take over as interviewers and chairs for the discussion. Questions we may touch on include the role of architects in creating new social forms and solutions to housing problems, past and future models of local collaboration, and the problems and opportunities of utopian concepts.
Evening lecture and discussion
Time: 6.30- 8.00 pm
Location: Cinema 1, ICA London
Jonathan Massey (Dean of Architecture, University of Michigan) title tba. Followed by discussion.