Not for Sale! An Architectural Activist Campaign for Non-Alienated Housing

Date: Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm
Location: Rotary Education Centre
Cost: FREE! Registration required

Join Adrian Blackwell of Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) for a talk about the collective’s transformation of the Canada Pavilion in Venice, Italy into a campaign headquarters for equitable housing. The project draws attention to the housing crisis being experienced by many communities across Canada and denounces how the real estate market converts homes into financial assets, aggravating a range of issues including a general lack of affordability, precarious housing, and homelessness. To address these issues, AAHA worked with interdisciplinary teams across Canada to collaboratively develop demands and create architectural projects to address housing alienation, presenting bold visions for equitable and deeply affordable housing in Canada. The AAHA Not for Sale! campaign seeks to mobilize all Canadians to join the call for safer, healthier, and more equitable housing.

Adrian Blackwell is an artist, designer, theorist, and educator, whose work explores the relationship between physical spaces and political economic forces. His art and design have been exhibited across Canada, in the United States, and internationally at the Shenzhen and Chengdu Biennales, Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, the Chicago Architecture Biennial and the Toronto Biennial of Art. In 2022 Adrian and David Fortin co-edited issue 12/13 of the journal Scapegoat– c\a\n\a\d\a: delineating nation state capitalism. He has taught architecture and urbanism at Chongqing, Michigan, Toronto, and Harvard Universities and is currently an associate professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.

The collective Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) was formed and came together to communally shape a grassroots architectural movement founded on shared principles and intentions to put an end to housing alienation. Through the Not for Sale! exhibition and campaign, the collective aspires to inspire architects, activists, and advocates to join a growing movement that will make housing more equitable and accessible for everyone.