Critical storytelling as transformative practice

Storytelling is at the heart of spatial production and the creative fields. The discussion will centre on storytelling as a tool for transformative action, challenging dominant narratives. We will discuss not only how storytelling occurs through reclaiming historical projects and how it can be integrated within design pedagogies, but also how the telling of different stories can be heightened through exhibitions, public programming, and other tools for action and advocacy.

Lori Brown will speak about the motivations and pedagogical intersections of two current exhibitions: Now What?! Advocacy, Activism and Alliances in American Architecture since 1968 and Spatializing Reproductive Justice create different and interdisciplinary stories between design, politics, and social justice.

Isabelle Doucet will bring to the discussion her experiences with (hi)stories that resist as they occur in her research on histories of multispecies encounters in architecture as well as in her teaching about thinking and practising with environmental care and storytelling.

Bio Lori Brown

Lori Brown’s creative practice examines the relationships between architecture and social justice with particular emphasis on gender and its impact on spatial relationships. She is the author of Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals, the editor of Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture and the forthcoming Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, 1960-2020 co-edited with Dr. Karen Burns. She is the co-founder and leads ArchiteXX, a gender equity in architecture organization in New York City. Brown is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a 2021 Architectural League of New York Emerging Voices recipient. She is a Distinguished Professor at the School of Architecture at Syracuse University, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a registered architect in New York State.

Bio Isabelle Doucet

Isabelle Doucet is a professor of theory and history of architecture at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Her research focuses on the relationship between architecture, (urban) politics, and social/environmental responsibility. Ongoing research centres on women in architecture after 1968, the portrayal of women in architecture as role models, and environmental storytelling. Her books include The Practice Turn in Architecture. Brussels after 1968 (2015) and Activism at Home. Architects Dwelling between Politics, Aesthetics, and Resistance, co-edited with Janina Gosseye (2021). With Hélène Frichot, she edited “Resist Reclaim Speculate: Situated Perspectives on Architecture and the City” for Architectural Theory Review (2018). Isabelle is a member of the Steering Committee of the Architecture Humanities Research Association.