This is the keynote lecture following the MArch Jury for the Landscape Urbanism Taught Postgraduate Programme.
In this lecture, Jamie Hignett will show the work of Unit 38 that offers design services to working class communities who are typically excluded from processes of urban change – ranging from migrants and refugees to low-income groups threatened with displacement from their neighbourhoods. While Unit 38 does not think architecture alone can address wider issues of societal inequality, it can demonstrate viable alternative futures, which in turn can enable new political, economic and ecological possibilities. Consequently, Unit 38 strive for a multi-disciplinary approach which enables communities and social movements to realise their own ambitions for neighbourhood change, through directly taking charge of the development process.
Unit 38 is a workers’ cooperative focused on community-led developments operating at the intersection of low-carbon architecture, democratic ownership, economic policy and political action. Unit 38 has worked on a range of community planning projects across the country which emphasise retrofitting, cooperative ownership and community wealth building.
