CRUNCH: Collective Construction: From Housing to Revolution

This seminar explores the crisis of resources in relation to housing, material extraction and land looting. Our panellists discuss what it means to foster collective autonomy in planning, designing, and building; why this entails the end of architectural design as we know it; and the role that architects play in such a process. 

Can the path opened up by the self-managed mutirão (collective effort) lead from housing to a far more comprehensive transformation of spatial production? What are the contradictions? How does this translate in the London context? 

Join for presentations and discussion from Silke Kapp (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), João Marcos Lopes (University of São Paulo,) and Anurag Verma (University of East London), chaired by Megha Chand Inglis (The Bartlett School of Architecture). 

This event is part of the inaugural CRUNCH Series at The Bartlett School of Architecture, replacing the International Lecture Series. Please note this event is first-come, first-served and is limited capacity. 

Speaker Biographies

Silke Kapp is a professor at the School of Architecture at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, in Brazil, and a founding member of the group MOM (Morar de Outras Maneiras/ Living in Other Ways). Her research focuses on critical theory and experimental practices for the production of everyday spaces. As part of the TF/TK project, she leads the team currently translating the theoretical work of Sérgio Ferro into English. 

João Marcos Lopes is a professor at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo, and a founding member of the technical aid collective USINA CTH. His research focuses on housing, human settlements, self-management, mutual aid, building design, technique and technology, structural systems and structural analysis. He is the Principal Investigator at the Brazilian side of the TF/TK project. 

Anurag Verma is an architect and has taught History and Theory at University of East London and London Metropolitan University where he explored themes relating to identity and ‘otherness’ with students. He is involved in delivering commercial new-build and historic building refurbishments, predominantly in central London.  He is an ambassador for the Community Land Trust Network and Chair at RUSS, a South London Community Land Trust. He believes that housing should be developed as resource and not a commodity and that the land trust model delivers long-term sustainable benefit to its communities. 

Megha Chand Inglis is Associate Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, and Research Affiliate on the 'Translating Ferro/Translating Knowledges' international research project between Brazil and the UK (https://www.tf-tk.com/). She is an architect and an architectural historian with interests in the intersection of labour, craft and technology, and temple building practices and practitioners in India. She is currently working on a monograph on the Sompura temple builders of western India and has recently co-curated a special issue with Architectural Research Quarterly on the theme of modernity and the Indian temple (September 2022).

More information

Image: Usina