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Table Work
by
Matilda Terolli
Spaces of production have been designed and engineered for high levels
of efficiency for maximum output and profit since the industrial revolution. In
these spaces of profit, improvements in efficiency have left less
consideration for the care of the human condition. Architecture is complicit in
the design of spaces of production that stage a range of
labor practices that are ethical, unethical, humane, and inhumane.
In closely observing spaces of
making in architectural education and architectural practice, I have analyzed
that not only are spaces reconsidered but decisions of those spaces result in
very specific types of making. I am interested in the analysis of existing
conditions that is required in spaces of practice and production. If we don’t
change the way we operate as architects, the making of buildings and the making
of architecture will continue to contribute to carbon emissions. The situation with climate change and COVID-19 are both a current state of emergency given that this pandemic wave has most dramatically affected our world. The high efficiency of work seems to have taken a pause, leaving the world in shortage of mass production. This dramatic and urgent crisis system will require rebuilding our societies that are sustainable and equitable. Given what we know, our practice of architecture must change in order to produce efficient and meaningful work by not relying on preconceptions of the work of the architect.