This is an old revision of the document!

This atelier responds to a world framed by capitalist extractivism, the rise of ethno-nationalist authoritarianism, and the genocidal violence of imperialism that unfolds across the globe. It builds up on the study of, and participation in, critical movements and activism and is informed by values of collectivity and the commons, practices of solidarity, and a politics of difference.

Through iterative inquiry that follows a cycle of practice-performance-potential, we critique universalizing tendencies and instead set out to understand architecture to possess both analytical and speculative momentum. We do so from a position of difference that questions the very categories we employ in the first place in thinking about projecting possible futures.

3& TAB

5& TAB

6& TAB

In 6& we begin with a contradiction. We live in a time of extraordinary abundance, yet for many people insecurity, inequality and exclusion remain ordinary conditions of contemporary capitalism. The systems that organise our cities, care, labour, housing, logistics, infrastructure, consumption, and more, have become so familiar that they appear natural, inevitable, and beyond question. The contradiction is hidden in plain sight. Our atelier asks how architecture might respond to this contradiction. Rather than beginning with predetermined solutions, we begin by revealing, questioning, and critically engaging the realities of contemporary life. We believe architecture can challenge what is taken for granted by changing how we see, experience and understand the world around us.

There is no single way to respond. Some students may choose to intervene, others to expose, provoke, transform, repair, speculate or imagine alternatives. What unites the atelier is not a common aesthetic or political position, but a commitment to rigorous critical enquiry and creative experimentation. Through the creative implementation of artist methods, students are encouraged to move beyond familiar architectural processes and develop their own position, in their own territory, with their own diverse groups. We expect you to be ambitious, curious, and willing to question both the world around you and the ways architecture is traditionally conceived. The result should be architecture that is speculative yet rigorous, imaginative yet grounded, and capable of revealing hidden realities rather than simply reproducing them.