Reading Session with Peggy Deamer, The Organizer's Guide to Architecture Education

Join us for a reading session featuring The Organizer’s Guide to Architecture Education (Routledge, 2024), co-authored by Kirsten Day, Peggy Deamer, Andrea Dietz, Tessa Forde, Jessica Garcia Fritz, Palmyra Geraki and Valérie Lechêne, in collaboration with Renzo Dagnino. The publication serves as a timely call-to-action for transforming architecture education to meet the monumental environmental and social challenges of our time.

Written by a collective of seven educators, practitioners, and organizers, who have been key organizers of the Architecture Beyond Capitalism (ABC) School’s summer sessions, the book considers organizing across four scales of architecture education and reorients architecture toward stewarding the planetary commons. Illuminated with how-to methods—from power mapping to conversation tactics—and case study precedents, the book catalyzes a collective redefinition of architecture as a vital player in building a socially just and ecologically regenerative future.

For this reading session, Peggy Deamer, one of the co-authors, brings her insights into how organizing for education should be a central component of all architecture curricula. This session will delve into the authors’ experiences and the lessons they believe all architecture schools should adopt.

Rather than a traditional lecture or seminar, this reading session will create an interactive space where participants can read and discuss the text together. No prior preparation is required—those attending are welcome to read along with us during the session. A brief introduction will be provided by one of the authors, followed by a group discussion. Printouts and coffee will be provided, and the text can be accessed in advance on the KHI server (or by contacting annaluise.schubert@khi.fi.it, for external guests).

This event will take place in person at Casa Zuccari and online. There is no need to formally register to participate.

Zoom link: https://eu02web.zoom-x.de/j/64122624601

Biographical Note

Peggy Deamer is Professor Emerita of Yale School of Architecture and a founding member of the Architecture Lobby. She is the editor of Architecture and Capitalism: 1845 to the Present and The Architect as Worker: Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design. She is the author of Architecture and Labor and co-author of The Organizers’ Guide to Architecture Education.

This event is organized by Rebecca Carrai and the Lise Meitner Group "Coded Objects," and is part of "ABC, Architecture Beyond Capitalism, 2024-5 - Hacking the Institution".