In October we hosted our fourth Alternative Practice event at Whitby Wood, considering the future of work and what that could mean for young people in the built environment. We presented a panel discussion with Reishin Kunishima Watabe and Pierre Saunal, chaired by Bella Hicks and Leia Monger. 

We set up the event space as a shared table to enjoy food and drinks as we considered some of the problems and solutions facing built environment workers. We considered alternative business structures such as airc.digital’s co-operative model, the power of unionising the workspace with insights from the Section of Architectural Workers (SAW), and the concept of ‘good work’ and whether there was enough of it about. Opinions differed on this, from acceptance that good work can sometimes involve promoting one positive change to otherwise uninspiring schemes, to a view from Sebastian Wood that the good work of the future was in the gift of the future commissioners sat in the room.

The final question that we posed to the panel was ‘What’s on your placard?’ Referencing a past event focusing on protest movements in cities. Our third panellist, Jasmin Yeo, who was unable to join us in person, was able to share hers with us prior to the event: ‘bring these conversations out the room.’

A big thank you to everyone who joined us, including our wonderful hosts  Whitby Wood and Florence Medforth, our insightful panellists Reishin Kunishima Watabe,  Pierre Saunal, our co-chairs  Isabella Hicks and Leia Monger, our barman Danny Ly, our samosa supplier RajMahal Sweets and our Intern Oge Anyokwu.