The architectural profession has long understood itself as a service providing for society’s most basic needs—shelter, community. In practice, the architects’ work is often structured by hierarchy and profit, filtered through contracts and laws. As architects, we have failed to erect the most basic systems of care for our own collective needs, and instead have invested in a service profession premised on harmful systems, including excessive student debt, transactional service models, exploitative labor conditions, and an extractive economy dedicated to clients holding the highest capital. When collective needs aren't being met, what can we do to address them now? 

In conversation with educator and activist Dean Spade, we will consider how mutual aid can challenge the organizational logic of professional practice. These networks focus on immediate forms of care rather than categorical solutions. What might architecture gain by moving away from transaction and toward care? Join us in reading and discussing a short chapter of Spade’s forthcoming book, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next), with the author and with each other. Register now to receive future updates, materials, and resource guides.

BIO

Dean Spade has been working to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades. He works as an Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law. Dean’s new book is forthcoming from Verso Press in October, 2020.

Registration for this Event is Closed. Check out the recording of the session below!

Heat Aid was organized with M&A Program Board members Aubrey Bauer, Mateus Comparato, Gary Riichirō Fox, Jia Yi Gu, Jesse Hammer, Alyssa Lopez, Kendall Mann, Dana McKinney, and Sage Roebuck