A Dialogue (Beyond Architecture) on Growth-Centered Capitalism

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A Dialogue (Beyond Architecture) on Growth-Centered Capitalism

This multi-voice dialogue explores the dynamic relationship among architecture, growth, and capital through an open-access interview and dialogue among participants.

A schizophrenic, ceaseless mode of production characterizes the current condition of architecture, from architects’ increasingly long working hours to the approach tendentially adopted in design studios. As architectural production has started to imitate or explicitly serve growing capitalist purposes, both architecture and the planet have begun to degenerate. Inspired by degrowth scholars who emphasize reshaping imaginaries for post-capitalist societies, this session comprises an interactive dialogue aimed at engaging architecture with degrowth’s distinctive viewpoints.

Degrowth scholars stress the urgency of dismantling both the symbolic and material aspects of growth-dependent capitalist societies. Architecture, inherently socio-cultural and closely linked to capital, is a fitting topic for this debate—one that can and must draw upon diverse interdisciplinary voices to rejuvenate itself.

This open-access, multi-voice dialogue delves into the interplay between architecture, growth, and capital, raising questions such as: how does architecture, in education, academia, and practice, perpetuate mechanisms inherent to growth-centered capitalism? Is our architectural production oriented toward the well-being of both humans and non-humans, as well as coexistence among different species? Does architectural production currently support human rights? Is it a valuable tool for preparing young architects for an increasingly precarious, uncertain professional world? How can we expose, self-criticize, and counter growth-centered mechanisms in architecture? What actors enable, support, or hinder the propagation of identified growth practices? Lastly, how can architects assume more influential, critical, and authoritative roles in addressing and combating these issues at a political level?

Facilitators

Rebecca Carrai

PhD researcher (Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven Belgium)

Daniele Vico

Degrowth PhD researcher (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Barcelona)

Renzo Dagnino

PhD researcher (Faculty of Architecture, National University of Córdoba UNC-FAUD)

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Our Manifesto

Build worker power and collective agency through unions and cooperatives.
A living wage, benefits, job security, and wage transparency across the discipline.
No more free labor; no unpaid internships, unpaid overtime, or unpaid competitions.
Center the importance of labor in our understanding of architecture. Architecture is work!
Stop peddling buildings as products. Demand compensation based on the value and impact our work creates.
End oppression based on gender within and enabled by the discipline.
Confront the complicity of architecture in racism. Confront racism in our workplaces.
Design for the full spectrum of human life. Universal design is not an afterthought.
Challenge the concept of licensure. Expand the right to practice.
Celebrate the collective process of producing architecture. Demystify architecture as the work of a solo creative genius.
Climate justice as the basis of all architectural work. There can be no sustainable future without sustainable labor practices.
Fight for democratic alternatives to the capitalist system of development.

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