Labour, The Way We Work

Abstract

Exposure to inequality and precarity is now so pervasive that in the darkest of ways, it appears to have provoked an appetite for change in a new generation of young architects. Providing a forum in which to discuss the forces shaping our unequal built environment, the Labour Symposium at Central Saint Martins hosted by Spatial Practices in March 2018, turned its gaze toward the profession of architecture, critically investigating architecture and the building industry through ‘the way we work’. As neo-liberalizing, market fundamentalist agendas have taken hold of our contemporary cities, the steady commodification of our urban and social fabric extends into our daily lives, revealed in the way in which architectural and construction labour is affected through deregularization and liberalization. Reporting on the contributions to the Symposium, this article showcases a series of collective platforms agitating for change, representing an apparent upsurge in actions toward the reconstruction of our profession.