A Conversation on Labour & Practice

Automated approaches to design, fabrication, and construction present disruptive and potentially transformative challenges to the conventional practice of architecture, as computational workflows recalibrate traditional roles and responsibilities in the production of buildings. How does computational design change how labor is defined and enacted in architectural and construction practice? What are the ethical implications and questions that arise in this context, particularly as we consider the implications of uncompensated or under-compensated labor of those doing computational work? This keynote event brings together three architects and thinkers to critically explore the intersections between computation, labor, and practice. Peggy Deamer is Professor Emerita of Yale University’s School of Architecture, principal in the firm of Deamer, Studio, and a founding member of the Architecture Lobby, a group advocating for the value of architectural design and labor. Billie Faircloth is a Partner at KieranTimberlake, where she leads a transdisciplinary group leveraging research, design, and problem-solving processes across fields including environmental management, chemical physics, materials science, and architecture. Mollie Claypool is an architecture theorist and activist at AUAR and UCL Bartlett. Her work broadly focuses on issues of social justice highlighted by increasing automation in architecture and design production, such as the future of work, housing, platforms, localised manufacturing, and circular economies