“I like the word “default”, for not only does it mean “the result of not making an active choice”, but two of its synonyms are “failure to pay” and “evasion”, which seems incredibly appropriate, considering the group I wish to talk about.”
– G.Perry 2014, The Rise and Fall of Default Man
My thesis revolves around the concept of default; the default position, the default man and the default architect. A word which I became fixated with after reading ‘The Rise and Fall of Default Man’ by Grayson Perry;
“I like the word “default”, for not only does it mean “the result of not making an active choice”, but two of its synonyms are “failure to pay” and “evasion”, which seems incredibly appropriate, considering the group I wish to talk about.”
– G.Perry 2014, The Rise and Fall of Default Man
In the article, Perry states his perspective on the Default Man, that which is of course the white, middle class, heterosexual, middle-aged man who over the course of history has forced himself into positions of power around the world. From that elevated position, he has control over the economies, politics, cultures and ideologies of the world and alters them to in ways unrepresentative of the mass public. The world is created in his image and creates a default position, that which unknowingly assumes ‘Objectivity is male subjectivity’ (G.Perry. 2014), upon which the world and the populous operate; a default race, a default class, a default sexuality, a default age, a default gender. Anyone not fitting the description becomes the ‘other’, something that can be seen as imperfect, something that could be problematic to default operations if not forced to internalise the default position soon.
My thesis applies this default position to the discipline of architecture and to my own personal practices. My thesis supposition is that the hegemony of the default architect is maintained through the toxic intoxications of standard architectural practice. A practice that firstly awards an ‘invisible privilege’ (MUF. 2007) to those who match the default description. Secondly, if left nu-questioned, it forces architecture to perpetuate a quiet violence within our society and our discipline towards women and those who are ‘othered’ by the default architect. To borrow and modify a term from Grayson Perry, I was practicing as the default architect; after all, I was born in the default image.
The project first identifies the toxicities within the discipline, and myself, but then also is proposes new alternative methods of practice. Not to provide concrete solutions but instead to flick a cognitive switch, a switch that Keller Easterling advocates for, in the minds of default architects and asks them to question their own practices. In doing so, I might begin to detoxicate architectural practice from its intoxication to believing that the only and best way to practice is from within the default position.
“While a switch may even be a building in the urban information system, in some ways it is a thing as well as a delta, a thing that influences how many things will change over time. It inflects an indeterminate and ongoing series of choices. Designing that switch is medium design.”
– (K.Easterling 2018, Medium Design, p.19%)
Explorations began with a critical and detailed look at my time in professional practice. The most prevalent being the recognition of the Tea Lady. Every time a woman, generally a RIBA Part One, just like myself. However, it was never I who was expected to make tea, but what is worse is that due to my deep intoxication with the practice of the default architect I never resisted.
“A significant step for a feminist movement is to recognise what has not ended. And this step is a very hard step. It is a slow and painstaking step. We might think we have made that step only to realize we have to make it again”
– (S.Ahmed 2017, Living a Feminist life, p.5)
It is a step I struggled to take this year, constantly falling back into the safe comfort of my default practices, not to say I was demanding tea of my female colleagues, but a tendency to assume that these practices of oppression could be solved through spatial alterations of the office, explorations that failed into mere furniture arranging exercises. My intoxication to practice as the default architect is so deeply rooted I needed new approach, a method of practice where I could continually question my actions and also entice other default architects to question their own.
My thesis culminates in the presentation of my New Praxis Practice. I propose that through an exploration of worlds and engagement with narratives those who inhabit the default position can first perceive the oppressive nature of their actions and secondly begin to question how to better to practice an architecture steeped in ‘praxis’ (Freire, P. 2005), in continued reflection and action.
Taking a page out of Margaret Atwood’s book ‘The Handmaids Tale’, I have created, and will continue to create, a world framework constructed upon the logical conclusions of casually held toxic architectural practices. The Narrative outlined in my graphic novel and animation, speaks of my entry into the professional world of architecture and an intoxication with a dream to be like the gods, the great men of architecture.
With my RIBA Part 1 Passport in hand I gain entry to the Architects Archipelago, where each island is representative of a different office. The island on which I, the protagonist of the narrative, reside is constructed upon the contractual frameworks and experiences of my time in professional practice. The homogenisation and dehumanization of the individual that I experienced, and most importantly the introduction of the Tea Lady, who entered the island on the same level as me. However, as every level of labour on the island is divided to maximised value extraction, instead of working her way up the ranks towards becoming an architect she is assigned the role of hot drink provider, nourisher of the architect. Making quite apparent that it is not solely the labour that is divided, but the genders.
Through the utilization of Narratives within this tool, moments of toxicity now exist not as oppressive temporal instants experienced only by the ‘other’, but as engaging temporal stories that identify and expose that which has not ended to those who do not experience it. This opens the potential for Sara Ahmed’s first significant step to be taken in the minds of the default architects who fail to take it.
With the Default world created, I then have a freedom to work into the world medium. Through my New Praxis Practice live drawing, which re-appropriates the architects Mark-Up, and accompanying New Praxis Practice Charter, which is written in a language that the default architect can understand, I can propose alternative detoxicated methods of practice. Alternatives that do not claim to be definitive solutions but instead force me to continually reflect on my own practices and then through the charter condition me to action upon those reflections. Through the course of my year, it has certainly changed the way I practice as an architect.
This is my New Praxis Practice; it is a tool of identification, of perception and of continual questioning of my practices. The New Praxis Practice is a resistance to the practices of the default architect, and I propose that exposure to my work will help other defaulted architects to recognise and question the toxicities of their own actions.