A massive value shift for existing buildings, infrastructure, materials, unbuilt land, earth, and the labor that holds our world together.To build is to destroy, writes Charlotte Malterre-Barthes. From steel bolts to concrete blocks to wood flooring to polyester insulation panels, every single component of the built environment is the product of extractive processes. Driven by greedy economies, the global enterprise of space production expands, impacting climate, earth, water, humans, and non-humans everywhere. However housing is both a human right and the mandate of design disciplines: How to navigate the need for housing versus the destructive practice of construction? To pause new construction—even if momentarily, creates a radical thinking framework for alternatives to the current regime of space production and its suspect growth imperative. Engaging with unsettling questions, A Moratorium on New Construction envisions a massive value shift for our existing stock. From housing redistribution to reinviting value generation, from anti-extractive measures to profound structural changes, from curricula reforms to purging the exploitative culture of the office, an entire rewiring of design processes and construction lays ahead. Somewhere between a thought experiment and a call for action, A Moratorium on New Construction is a leap of faith to envision a less extractive future, made of what we have: Not demolishing, not building new, but building less, building with what exists, inhabiting it differently, and caring for it.

As an industry that relies on extracted materials and an intense use of resources, isn''t construction unsustainable by design? The pressure is increasing for the sector to diligently address the harm caused by the built environment, begging the question of whether real sustainability in architecture and planning is possible. As institutionalized and commodified greenwashing hollows out the term, how do architects and designers position their work beyond the inadequacy of a flattening universalistic understanding of sustainability? What forms of practice allow for accountable and revolutionized construction modes? How can we critically engage with technology as an ambivalent tool in the service of green capitalism.The first volume of a forthcoming series by RIOT—Research and Innovation On Territory, a laboratory within the Institute of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), On Architecture and Greenwashing presents a cross-section of positions on architecture and its political economies and explores ways to correct course in the face of a climate crisis of unprecedented magnitude— beyond greenwashing.RIOT—Research and Innovation On Territory—is a laboratory engaged in pedagogy and research within the Institute of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), lead by architect and urban designer CHARLOTTE MALTERRE-BARTHES. Believing that the construction sector and design disciplines must pivot and wholeheartedly engage in the current social and climatic urgencies by rewiring themselves to face and repair the harm, RIOT utilizes tactics and strategies to decarbonize, decolonize, and depatriarchalize space production—by design.

Urbanisation reconsidered in the face of ongoing climate emergenciesIn the face of the ongoing climate emergency, can humanity keep chipping at its food sheds via urbanization? This is the paradoxical question raised by residential forms of urbanization: On the one hand, housing settlements across the world devour thousands of hectares of arable fields at the periphery of growing cities. On the other hand, housing is a human right. This publication investigates these complexities. After On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024), it is the second volume in the series The Political Economy of Space and presents a cross-section of positions on architecture and its political economies from different perspectives.

In the face of the ongoing climate emergency, can humanity keep chipping at its food sheds via urbanization? This is the paradoxical question raised by residential forms of urbanization: On the one hand, housing settlements across the world devour thousands of hectares of arable fields at the periphery of growing cities. On the other hand, housing is a human right. This publication investigates these complexities. After On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024), it is the second volume in the series The Political Economy of Space and presents a cross-section of positions on architecture and its political economies from different perspectives.

From the office to the construction site – what is the value of work? Why is architecture so remote from labor struggles, with poorly negotiated labor contracts and barely any self-management models? What possibilities emerge when we acknowledge the glaring class divide between the architectural firm and the construction site? What insights do the stories of workers provide about the construction industry? How do different design practices emerge if designers and construction workers unite? On Architecture and Work is a collection of essays on the relationship between construction, architecture, work, and labor. From complaints over grueling working conditions on construction sites to demands for better benefits in design offices, asking candidly “who can afford to be radical?”, this is the third publication in the series The Political Economy of Space, after On Architecture and the Greenfield (2024) and On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024).Edited by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, head of the RIOT laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL in Lausanne, this volume updates the discussion on architecture and work by giving answers from construction workers, scholars, and design practitioners.

Why is architecture so remote from labor struggles, with poorly negotiated labor contracts and barely any self-management models? What possibilities emerge when we acknowledge the glaring class divide between the architectural firm and the construction site? What insights do the stories of workers provide about the construction industry? How do different design practices emerge if designers and construction workers unite? On Architecture and Work is a collection of essays on the relationship between construction, architecture, work, and labor. From complaints over grueling working conditions on construction sites to demands for better benefits in design offices, asking candidly "who can afford to be radical?", this is the third publication in the series The Political Economy of Space, after On Architecture and the Greenfield (2024) and On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024).Edited by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, head of the RIOT laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL in Lausanne, this volume updates the discussion on architecture and work by giving answers from construction workers, scholars, and design practitioners.

Why is architecture so remote from labor struggles, with poorly negotiated labor contracts and barely any self-management models? What possibilities emerge when we acknowledge the glaring class divide between the architectural firm and the construction site? What insights do the stories of workers provide about the construction industry? How do different design practices emerge if designers and construction workers unite? On Architecture and Work is a collection of essays on the relationship between construction, architecture, work, and labor. From complaints over grueling working conditions on construction sites to demands for better benefits in design offices, asking candidly "who can afford to be radical?", this is the third publication in the series The Political Economy of Space, after On Architecture and the Greenfield (2024) and On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024).Edited by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, head of the RIOT laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL in Lausanne, this volume updates the discussion on architecture and work by giving answers from construction workers, scholars, and design practitioners.

A massive value shift for existing buildings, infrastructure, materials, unbuilt land, earth, and the labor that holds our world together.To build is to destroy, writes Charlotte Malterre-Barthes. From steel bolts to concrete blocks to wood flooring to polyester insulation panels, every single component of the built environment is the product of extractive processes. Driven by greedy economies, the global enterprise of space production expands, impacting climate, earth, water, humans, and non-humans everywhere. However housing is both a human right and the mandate of design disciplines: How to navigate the need for housing versus the destructive practice of construction? To pause new construction—even if momentarily, creates a radical thinking framework for alternatives to the current regime of space production and its suspect growth imperative. Engaging with unsettling questions, A Moratorium on New Construction envisions a massive value shift for our existing stock. From housing redistribution to reinviting value generation, from anti-extractive measures to profound structural changes, from curricula reforms to purging the exploitative culture of the office, an entire rewiring of design processes and construction lays ahead. Somewhere between a thought experiment and a call for action, A Moratorium on New Construction is a leap of faith to envision a less extractive future, made of what we have: Not demolishing, not building new, but building less, building with what exists, inhabiting it differently, and caring for it.

As an industry that relies on extracted materials and an intense use of resources, isn''t construction unsustainable by design? The pressure is increasing for the sector to diligently address the harm caused by the built environment, begging the question of whether real sustainability in architecture and planning is possible. As institutionalized and commodified greenwashing hollows out the term, how do architects and designers position their work beyond the inadequacy of a flattening universalistic understanding of sustainability? What forms of practice allow for accountable and revolutionized construction modes? How can we critically engage with technology as an ambivalent tool in the service of green capitalism.The first volume of a forthcoming series by RIOT—Research and Innovation On Territory, a laboratory within the Institute of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), On Architecture and Greenwashing presents a cross-section of positions on architecture and its political economies and explores ways to correct course in the face of a climate crisis of unprecedented magnitude— beyond greenwashing.RIOT—Research and Innovation On Territory—is a laboratory engaged in pedagogy and research within the Institute of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), lead by architect and urban designer CHARLOTTE MALTERRE-BARTHES. Believing that the construction sector and design disciplines must pivot and wholeheartedly engage in the current social and climatic urgencies by rewiring themselves to face and repair the harm, RIOT utilizes tactics and strategies to decarbonize, decolonize, and depatriarchalize space production—by design.

Urbanisation reconsidered in the face of ongoing climate emergenciesIn the face of the ongoing climate emergency, can humanity keep chipping at its food sheds via urbanization? This is the paradoxical question raised by residential forms of urbanization: On the one hand, housing settlements across the world devour thousands of hectares of arable fields at the periphery of growing cities. On the other hand, housing is a human right. This publication investigates these complexities. After On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024), it is the second volume in the series The Political Economy of Space and presents a cross-section of positions on architecture and its political economies from different perspectives.

In the face of the ongoing climate emergency, can humanity keep chipping at its food sheds via urbanization? This is the paradoxical question raised by residential forms of urbanization: On the one hand, housing settlements across the world devour thousands of hectares of arable fields at the periphery of growing cities. On the other hand, housing is a human right. This publication investigates these complexities. After On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024), it is the second volume in the series The Political Economy of Space and presents a cross-section of positions on architecture and its political economies from different perspectives.

From the office to the construction site – what is the value of work? Why is architecture so remote from labor struggles, with poorly negotiated labor contracts and barely any self-management models? What possibilities emerge when we acknowledge the glaring class divide between the architectural firm and the construction site? What insights do the stories of workers provide about the construction industry? How do different design practices emerge if designers and construction workers unite? On Architecture and Work is a collection of essays on the relationship between construction, architecture, work, and labor. From complaints over grueling working conditions on construction sites to demands for better benefits in design offices, asking candidly “who can afford to be radical?”, this is the third publication in the series The Political Economy of Space, after On Architecture and the Greenfield (2024) and On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024).Edited by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, head of the RIOT laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL in Lausanne, this volume updates the discussion on architecture and work by giving answers from construction workers, scholars, and design practitioners.

Why is architecture so remote from labor struggles, with poorly negotiated labor contracts and barely any self-management models? What possibilities emerge when we acknowledge the glaring class divide between the architectural firm and the construction site? What insights do the stories of workers provide about the construction industry? How do different design practices emerge if designers and construction workers unite? On Architecture and Work is a collection of essays on the relationship between construction, architecture, work, and labor. From complaints over grueling working conditions on construction sites to demands for better benefits in design offices, asking candidly "who can afford to be radical?", this is the third publication in the series The Political Economy of Space, after On Architecture and the Greenfield (2024) and On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024).Edited by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, head of the RIOT laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL in Lausanne, this volume updates the discussion on architecture and work by giving answers from construction workers, scholars, and design practitioners.

Why is architecture so remote from labor struggles, with poorly negotiated labor contracts and barely any self-management models? What possibilities emerge when we acknowledge the glaring class divide between the architectural firm and the construction site? What insights do the stories of workers provide about the construction industry? How do different design practices emerge if designers and construction workers unite? On Architecture and Work is a collection of essays on the relationship between construction, architecture, work, and labor. From complaints over grueling working conditions on construction sites to demands for better benefits in design offices, asking candidly "who can afford to be radical?", this is the third publication in the series The Political Economy of Space, after On Architecture and the Greenfield (2024) and On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024).Edited by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, head of the RIOT laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL in Lausanne, this volume updates the discussion on architecture and work by giving answers from construction workers, scholars, and design practitioners.