You can watch the thirty-second Parlour LAB here!
LAB 32 turns attention to the potential and potency of creative research practice to catalyse disciplinary transformation. What is the role of creative research in reimagining new futures, in tackling questions of social justice, climate justice and equity? How can the tools of architecture be put to work to visualise and analyse the world we find ourselves in?
In aiming to make visible the unseen impacts of mining, Sam and Edwardo are trying to raise awareness about climate change and environmental impacts, not through facts and figures, which have been around for many years, but through performance, installation, and architectural image. Architectural mediums and creative research outputs aim to make these impacts more accessible to a general audience. Confronting their audiences with real horrors through images, drawings, and models allows them to reach beyond the audience of scholarly papers and develop potential for communication and discussion. Is this method of visualising truth telling?
“mining=continuous colonisation=nationhood. Do we need to question our nationhood?” – audience member Fernando Pine
What role can built environment professionals take on to tackle these large issues? Sam and Edwardo believe that architects are well placed to visualise alternative futures to help galvanise communities – to help communities develop agency outside of governmental and corporate influence. Architectural images are a form of world making, where Sam, Edwardo, and their students project into the future the impact of not doing anything to stimulate people to do something and as a form of non-traditional protest. They believe that the role of universities and academic research is to do the deep thinking that practitioners can’t do – diagrams and other tools can be used to broaden practioner thinking and develop conversations
Every expertise needs to come together to tackle the problems of climate change and impacts of resource extraction. As Justine reminds us, make change requires many people operating in many different ways – from the speculative to construction details: we all have some kind of leverage, we just need to find it and use it.
Key takeaways?
Edwardo believes that architecture is a generous discipline that gives us many ways of tackling issues. As practitioners we can challenge the limits of our own practice, to create interesting opportunities to prompt change and make practice more interesting for ourselves.
Sam asks us to question how we become good ancestors. What is our role as architects for the future?
Audience member Kattie Williams sums up by saying “Artist, activist, architect, academic, ancestor. Fantastic.”