„Stop Building Now“ might be read not only as an ecological call against the paradigm of endless growth, but also as an incitement to strike: Behind the production of architecture there are relations of production, or: labour conditions, wage schemes or commissional situations, that all remain unmentioned in the public debate. The claim for the great repair, the rebuilding of architecture articulated from all sides must not only concern the cities, the spaces or the role of the practice but in needs to be extended to the institutional self-understanding in the production of architecture, that is it needs to include all the participants and their relations of labour.
Does stopping building mean stopping working? How might calls for a moratorium on new construction amplify newly emergent labor organizing amongst architectural workers, and vice versa? What will architectural work look like after building, and can architectural workers position themselves as the arbiters of value in a post-building scenario?
Mit: Marisa Cortright
Moderation: Michael Klein / ÖGFA
Marisa Cortright is an architectural worker based in Zagreb. She is currently a Guest Researcher at ArkDes in Stockholm and the Guest Editor of the Avery Review at Columbia University GSAPP. In 2021, she published a book of essays, “‘Can This Be? Surely This Cannot Be?’ Architectural Workers Organizing in Europe” with the VI PER Gallery in Prague.