FA Breezeblocks

Para este Breezeblock (el primero en español) la editora María Mazzanti habló con Juan Corcione, publicista y académico colombiano que trabaja sobre cultura visual, teorías de la imagen y políticas del placer y el ocio. Juan ha venido reflexionando sobre las protestas masivas en Colombia que empezaron el 28 de Abril de 2021. En el podcast, Juan y María discuten sobre las dinámicas de la protesta y su influencia en la conquista narrativa de un país en conflicto, donde a través de imágenes digitales y la resignificación del espacio público los ciudadanos batallan por la legitimidad de un nuevo relato político.

In a slight change from the normal format, this episode represents the first a series of conversations, where we’ll be talking to organizers engaged in the work of “Design Justice” that demands an end to systemic racism in architecture and design, and re-imagines a just and liberated future. Nearly a year ago, architecture and design organisations joined countless others to mark their alignment with the Black Lives Matter protest movement by responding to the hashtag BlackoutTuesday with a black square. For the most part, their anti-racist commitment started and ended there. Meanwhile, however, the initial meetings of Design As Protest and Dark Matter University began. In their words, “DAP is a collective of designers mobilizing strategy to dismantle the privilege and power structures that use architecture and design as tools of oppression”. Their list of demands includes calls to cease implementation of hostile design, center community leadership in the design process, and create anti-racist design models in education. In the past year, the collective has initiated a series of ongoing projects, including the Anti-Racist Design Justice Index, which is “a tool for architects, designers, planners, policymakers, and community activists committed to taking action towards identifying and dismantling systemic racism.” Emerging from DAP’s demand to create anti-racist models of design education, Dark Matter University is “an anti-racist design justice school,” which has since its establishment in early July independently expanded its network and mission to “radically transform education and practice toward a just future” from both inside and outside of academia. Since last year, in support of DAP’s Anti-Racist Design Justice Index, Failed Architecture and the British social design and urbanism practice design collective, Migrants Bureau, have also been gathering the responses of architecture and design institutions following BlackoutTuesday in a Google sheet. For this first conversation, we’re talking to Quilian Riano. Quilian is, an architectural and urban designer, researcher, writer, educator, founder of DSGN AGNC, and he’s also associate director of Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, a board member of the Architecture Lobby, and a core member of Design as Protest and Dark Matter University. The release of this conversation was timed to mark almost a year since Blackout Tuesday, but also to coincide with the official release, later today, of DAP’s Anti-Racism Design Index. DAP will be hosting a national call for the launch at 2pm Eastern Time, a link to which is available below, along with the websites of all the initiatives mentioned. Links (in order of their mention): Design As Protest https://www.dapcollective.com/ Design as Protest National Call event https://www.dapcollective.com/events/national-call Anti-racism Design Justic Index https://www.dapcollective.com/index Dark Matter University https://darkmatteruniversity.org/ Migrant Bureau https://www.migrantsbureau.com/ List: Architecture & Design Organizations on BLM https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QcwaZCG3fUYKAnAdf3XFMUsfihQxpA1xRTTR5diUIxo/edit#gid=866527355 Article from Black Femailes in Architecture, Design as Protest, Failed Architecture, Migrants Bureau announcing the list: “Let’s Remind Architecture and Design Organisations of Their Support for Black Lives Matter” https://failedarchitecture.com/2020/08/lets-remind-architecture-and-design-organisations-of-their-support-for-black-lives-matter/ Quilian’s profile on DSGN AGNC http://dsgnagnc.com/quilian-bio/ Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative https://www.cudc.kent.edu/

This Spring, Failed Architecture initiated "Situations", an event series aiming to take critical reflections on architecture and space from the digital realm to the real world. This Breezeblock takes place shortly after the second Situation, "Swarming the Red Light District With Sound," when our editor René Boer hosted a conversation with some of the organisers and participants, at a moment when we were all pretty excited and also somewhat exhausted after having been swarming around De Wallen for the past hour. You can get more information about the event, swarming, and the forthcoming fourth Situation "Reclaiming the Red Light District" on our website: https://failedarchitecture.com/events/fa-situations-3-reclaiming-the-red-light-district/ https://failedarchitecture.com/events/fa-situations-2-swarming-the-red-light-district-with-sound/

For this Breezeblock, FA NYC editor Michael Nicholas spoke to Andi Schmied, whose book Private Views, documents her experiences being shown around high-rise luxury apartments in New York disguised as a Hungarian billionaire. Through transcripts of conversations with brokers, photos of views not intended to be seen by the public, and a number of essays from contributors on the subject, the book illuminates how inequality is built into New York City's real estate market.

Local government budgets were among the first to be hit by austerity measures imposed by the UK government after the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. With seemingly little room for manoeuvre, councils were forced to close libraries and community centres, sell off their fixed assets, and outsource social care, catering, park maintenance and other services to private providers whose business model has tended to depend on the erosion of workers’ pay and conditions and tax avoidance. In London, in particular, we also saw borough councils pursue highly controversial regeneration schemes that replaced social housing with luxury developments that have often effectively served as empty containers of global finance capital. Out of this inauspicious context, an exciting experiment emerged in the small Northern English city of Preston. Fresh from the cancellation of the much-vaunted Tithebarn shopping and leisure centre development and shortly before its central government grant was cut to zero, the city’s council decided to embark upon a radical project aimed at transferring economic, social and political power back to the local community, following the principles of the growing community wealth building movement. This is the subject of Paint Your Town Red a new book out this May on Repeater Books, which is co-written by Preston’s council leader Matthew Brown and writer Rhian E. Jones, author of several books, including Clampdown: Pop-cultural Wars on Class and Gender and Triptych: Three Studies of the Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible. For Breezeblock 19 we talked to Jones about Preston, community wealth building, and its capacity to radically transform our approach to development.

FA organiser René Boer talks to the founders of Radio Alhara, architects Elias and Yousef Anastas, on the one year anniversary of their radio project. It was launched in Bethlehem at the start of the global lockdown and by now has become a sonic public space reaching well beyond the confines of Palestine.

In this second installment of a two-part episode, Failed Architecture editors Michael Nicholas, Kevin Rogan, and Joshua McWhirter dive into the weird world of traditional architecture revivalism, or “trad arch” for short. Where the first part of this discussion focused on a critique of the intellectual undercurrents of the trad arch movement, here, the editors explore how the trad impulse folds back onto the real world, from historic preservation projects, to former president Donald Trump’s infamous, and recently revoked, executive order mandating a “classical” style for government buildings in the United States.

A few weeks ago, Yale Architecture professor Keller Easterling penned an article titled “On Political Temperament,” which became the subject of heated conversation about the role of architecture theory in discussions of politics. In response, Marianela D’Aprile wrote “Not Everything is “Architecture”’ for Common Edge. For this Breezeblock, FA editor Michael Nicholas spoke to Marianela and fellow editor Kevin Rogan about Easterling’s new book Medium Design, the role of architects as workers in the class struggle, and the politics of the architecture profession at large. Keller Easterling, "On Political Temperament," The Double Negative thedoublenegative.co.uk/2021/01/on-political-temperament-keller-easterling/ Marianela D'Aprile, "Not Everything is Architecture," Common Edge https://commonedge.org/not-everything-is-architecture/

In this first installment of a two-part episode, Failed Architecture editors Michael Nicholas, Kevin Rogan and Joshua McWhirter discuss the weird world of traditional architecture revivalism, or “trad architecture” for short. Starting with a critique of pop philosopher Alain de Botton’s recent article, “Why is the Modern World so Ugly?”, the three editors examine the surface-level aesthetic fixations and flattened historical perceptions of the trad architecture movement — so often a cipher for the exaltation of “Western” culture, even as it makes claims to an apolitical stance. Link to "Why is the Modern World so Ugly?": https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/why-is-the-modern-world-so-ugly/

Last week members of trade union United Voices of the World — Section Architectural Workers (UVW SAW), walked out of two architectural offices over COVID-19 safety concerns. Charlie Clemoes interviewed UVW SAW elected organiser Keri Monaghan for Breezeblock #14. As well as the strike, they discuss the recent work of UVW SAW, its first year as a union amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and what the future holds for workplace organisation in the architecture profession.

Our editor Joshua McWhirter speaks to Jilly Traganou, editor of the recently published book Design and Political Dissent: Spaces, Visuals, Materialities. Near the end of a year filled with mass protests on streets across the United States and the world, Jilly talks about some of book’s themes and their significance during a moment when many architects are thinking about how to leverage their skills in the service of social justice movements. Jilly Traganou is a Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Her work examines urban and material questions related to social movements, identity, affect and participation, and her current research is focusing on the role of spatial agency, material engagement and maintenance in prefigurative politics. For more information on Design and Political Dissent, visit: https://www.routledge.com/Design-and-Political-Dissent-Spaces-Visuals-Materialities/Traganou/p/book/9780815374220

Failed Architecture editors Charlie Clemoes and René Boer discuss the future of De Wallen (aka Amsterdam's Red Light District), which is under increasing threat from the so-called "smooth city": the safe, clean, well-functioning and homogenous urban environment that has been taking over cities around the world in the past few decades. In the podcast, they talk about the ways in which the municipality, developers and various old white dudes are conspiring to frame the neighbourhood as an "urban jungle" and pushing to replace it with a "monumental garden". Against these moves, René has written a counter-manifesto, "Wallen 2020", which is intended to galvanise resistance to the neighbourhood's creeping sanitisation. Links: Wallen 2020: A Counter Manifesto http://www.wallen2020.nl/ Zef Hemel, "'Turn the center of Amsterdam into a garden'," Het Parool, 11 October 2019 https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/maak-van-het-centrum-van-amsterdam-een-tuin~b3b72611/ Hans Marijnissen, "Ombudsman raises the alarm: 'The center of Amsterdam is a lawless jungle at night'" Trouw July 28, 2018 https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/ombudsman-slaat-alarm-het-centrum-van-amsterdam-is-s-nachts-een-wetteloze-jungle~b939a839/

Editors Chiara Dorbolò and María Mazzanti discuss Failed Architecture series A City of Our Own: Urbanism for the 99%.

Land reparations have remained largely unaddressed by the architecture profession, despite the glaring adjacency of building, landscape, and planning to land and the colonial concept of property. What do land reparations really mean for the many communities who have been harmed in different ways by white supremacy? Having connected through recent movements on work seed distribution and community gardens in the midst of the BLM protests, kuwa jasiri and Christin share recent personal experiences and current work, as well as thoughts on the unanimous city council vote in Asheville, North Carolina (US). Support kuwa jasiri indomela: Paypal @ArtisticApothecary or Venmo @Ricchi-Machado Submit to kuwa jasiri's Fierce Together Zine on Reparations: BeBraveGather@riseup.net A note on the graphic: This week’s Breezeblock graphic draws from the Adinkra symbols, compiled and translated by a myriad of folx, including Aaron Mobley, Charles Korankye, and Adolph H. Agbo. These symbols are used in textiles and Asante architecture in West Africa. The central one shown is known as Mpatapo, the “knot of reconciliation,” which shows we are all tied together in peace and harmony after conflict.

In the early days of the protests following the death of George Floyd, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a cover story written by Inga Saffron whose headline made the infamous claim that "Buildings Matter, Too". Responding to the article, our editors Bassem Saad and Kevin Rogan discuss the value of looting and destruction of private property, with special reference to recent uprisings in the US and Lebanon.

Our editor María Mazzanti spoke with Arielle Assouline-Lichten about the invisibility of women architects, Denise Scott Brown and the Pritzker Prize, and a Wikipedia editing activism.

Our editor, Charlie Clemoes, speak to Shruti Hussain about the current situation for migrant workers in India amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Shruti is an architect, journalist and researcher based in Pune, India. She has worked on EU and DAAD projects with the University of Pune and has been the Editor of Quality Edge, an architecture and construction magazine. Shruti's article for Failed Architecture: https://failedarchitecture.com/indias-smart-city-fuelled-construction-boom-ignores-a-huge-migrant-workforce-toiling-backstage/

Our founding editor Michiel van Iersel and Anne Dessing discuss the Swedish city of Kiruna with Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, curator of the exhibition Kiruna Forever at ArkDes Sweden's National Centre for Architecture and Design. Kiruna is experiencing one of the biggest urban transformation projects in recent history. The city is being relocated by three kilometres due to the expansion of a mine, around which Kiruna was built. A third of the population must relocate, housing blocks and landmark buildings are being demolished or moved, and a new city is taking shape. Michiel and Anne’s project Global Kiruna has been commissioned as part of the exhibition Kiruna Forever. See below for more information about the respective exhibition and project. KIRUNA FOREVER Kiruna Forever examines the ongoing relocation of the city of Kiruna. It features over a hundred works by architects, urban planners and artists who have transformed the community and addressed the challenges facing theregion from the first industrial settlements, today, and into the future. Putting the relocation of Kiruna into a historical and geographical context, the exhibition reflects on the questions that such a complex project raises. What is the limit of natural resources? What happens to residents’ identity and security when their homes are demolished? How do we decide whether cultural heritage should be preserved or sacrificed? How does a relocation of this scale affect the lives of the Indigenous population: the Sámi? Ultimately, how permanent are the cities that we live in? GLOBAL KIRUNA Global Kiruna follows the journey of the iron ore around the planet, from the ground in Kiruna, transported by train and by ship, to eventually become part of different objects, from paints and coatings and pipelines to the steel structure of buildings on the other side of the world. The research project investigates the impacts, traces, and sometimes opaqueness of the extractive and export operations of state-owned mining company LKAB. The research project brings into play images, drawings, and text to reflect on the global spread of minerals and the entangled stories and complex realities of places and people on opposite ends of the planet. Commissioned by ArkDes and Konstmuseet i Norr with generous support from the Creative Industries Fund NL. In collaboration with FA editor Daphne Bakker. Carlos Mínguez Carrasco Carlos Mínguez Carrasco is an architect and curator based in Stockholm. He is Head Curator at ArkDes – the Swedish National Centre for Architecture and Design. Between 2012 and 2017 he was Associate Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. He organized the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale with the After Belonging Agency and was Assistant Curator of OfficeUS, the U.S. Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale. Anne Dessing Anne Dessing is a Dutch architect. Her practice, Studio Anne Dessing, operates at the intersection of art and architecture. She researches architecture through exhibitions, installations, drawings, models, interiors and (temporary) buildings. She uses the discipline’s powerful representational techniques as tools for understanding societies as complex aesthetic systems. Dessing teaches at the Academy of Architecture, the Rietveld Academy, TU Delft and was the Douglas A. Garofalo Fellow from 2018-19 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Michiel van Iersel Michiel van Iersel is an independent urbanist, curator, writer and teacher and holds the position of Program Lead of the NEWROPE Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation at ETH Zurich. He works at the intersection of the arts, architecture, (urban) design, and heritage. He started Failed Architecture in 2011 as a series of lectures in The Netherlands.

Our editors Juana Salcedo and María Mazzanti discuss the situation in Bogotá since the COVID-19 lockdown, especially as it effects the large informal sector of the Colombian economy.

Los Angeles Tenants' Union (LATU) organiser Sasha Plotnikova talks to our editor Charlie Clemoes about the situation for tenants in LA amid the current Covid-19 pandemic crisis, as well as discussing the organising efforts of LATU in recent years, the prospects for a permanent rent strike, and how to get involved in tenant organising. Links: Julian Francis Park, "Rent and its Discontents" https://communemag.com/rent-and-its-discontents/ LA Tenants Union https://latenantsunion.org/en/