Practising Ethics is an open-access educational toolkit for emerging and established built environment practitioners to teach themselves and others how to identify ethical dilemmas that may arise in research and practice, negotiate their ethical responsibilities, and rehearse strategies to navigate unpredictable ethical issues with care and creativity. In this talk I narrate the journey from my doctoral research which challenged the dismantling of London’s social housing to my work co-curating this toolkit as part of the Bartlett Ethics Commission led by Professor Jane Rendell and with Dr Yael Padan. Rather than a regulatory hurdle, we consider ethics as an opportunity to enrich architectural practice through reflexive curiosity and critical investigation.
The lecture series ‘initiatives’ focuses on student-led initiatives, grassroots organisations, and community-driven efforts in spatial practice, architecture, urbanism as well as their neighbouring fields. It sets out to examine the significance of these initiatives in addressing pressing ecological, cultural and social issues – most prominently climate breakdown. Often shoring up the limitations of legacy structures and habits, these initiatives often operate outside of mainstream offices and educational institutions – filling in the gaps left by those structures with ideas, new forms, and types of communities as well as political concerns. The act of ignoring becomes a subversive element here, whereby those structures/presumptions/sets of rules are actively rejected, trespassed or enhanced, leading to new and different uses of space.
Invited guests will talk about their experiences creating and leading these initiatives, presenting a critical analysis of the challenges and opportunities they have encountered along the way. Discussions will cover the role of community-based initiatives in tackling ecological problems, the significance of student-led organisations in advancing social and spatial justice, and the potential for these initiatives to develop other types of practice and other ways of doing architecture, and urbanism.
The event will be held in English and can be accessed via the following link:
https://tu-braunschweig.webex.com/tu-braunschweig/j.php?MTID=m6945dbfc83d06cb76ab055598fa768b5
Meeting-ID: 2734 224 5841
Meeting password: ZhtE2X2RM3n