Building Sites: Architecture, Labour and Production Studies makes a direct case for why architectural discourse must reckon with construction labour — tracing how the profession's systematic erasure of building production is not accidental but structurally bound to capitalism's development.
About This Book
At the centre of this collection is a question architectural education has long avoided: where does building labour go in the discipline's self-understanding? Drawing on the theories of Brazilian architect and theorist Sérgio Ferro — whose history of architecture 'seen from the building site' has remained largely inaccessible to English-language readers — the editors assemble the first sustained English-language engagement with Ferro's critique of construction labour and architectural production. The book ranges across historical and contemporary case studies from Brazil, the UK, Yugoslavia, Germany, India, Mexico and the USA, examining production at the construction site, in the factory, and in the design office. A concluding section on radical pedagogies, union politics, and alternative building practices moves the argument toward concrete response.
Key Features
- 376 pages of scholarly essays, historical case studies, and theoretical engagement with production studies across seven countries
- Edited by Matt Davies, Will Thomson, Katie Lloyd Thomas, and João Marcos de Almeida Lopes
- Case studies drawn from Brazil, the UK, Yugoslavia, Germany, India, Mexico and the USA
- Published by Routledge, ISBN: 9781032788845
What You'll Discover
- How Sérgio Ferro's concept of architecture 'seen from the building site' reframes the discipline's relationship to construction labour and production
- Why the silencing of production in architectural discourse functions as a structural mechanism rather than a disciplinary oversight — and how this connects to the logic of capitalism
- Historical and contemporary cases of self-organised building processes, traditional skills, and alternative construction economies across diverse global contexts
- How radical pedagogies, political alliances with unions, and alternative building practices offer practical responses to the contemporary crises Production Studies identifies
About the Author
This volume is edited by Matt Davies, Will Thomson, Katie Lloyd Thomas, and João Marcos de Almeida Lopes. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 376
- Dimensions: 150 x 200 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781032788845
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architectural historians, theorists, and educators; practitioners concerned with ethics and labour in construction; students in architecture and built environment programmes engaging with political economy, critical theory, or construction culture.