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SUMMARY:Pressure Points: Risk - Liam Ross / RIOT\, MAS UTD
DTSTART:20261103T170000
DTEND:20261103T190000
DTSTAMP:20260917T133948Z
UID:398c415c928aac5db131cc027ac50e436649a9172cf848d5120c5668
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Liam Ross is an architect and senior lecturer in Architectural
  Design at the University of Edinburgh\, with a focus on building standard
 isation as a mode of architectural design\, and in particular on fire-safe
 ty regulation. He also examines how those standards produce surprising sid
 e-effects as they are reinterpreted in practice. His book Pyrotechnic Citi
 es: Architecture\, Fire-Safety and Standardisation was published by Routle
 dge in 2022\, and describes the way that architectural design is an instru
 ment of political agency.  His work has been exhibited and published wide
 ly\, including in Architectural Research Quarterly (arq)\, Arch+\, and jou
 rnalistic outlets such as Blueprint\, Prospect\, and Volume. Ross has expe
 rience of practice in the UK and US\, including a period of 5 years with M
 alcolm Fraser Architects\, and maintains a relationship with professional 
 practice as co-founder of ESALA Projects\, a consultancy offering pro-bono
  and for-fee design services to public and third-sector clients. His most 
 recent work\, published in January 2026 in Architectural Research Quarterl
 y\, includes a co-authored article with Jon Goodbun entitled ‘Design and
  the extended building site: Ecologies of production and the production of
  ecologies’\, which reframes the building site as an 'extended' socioeco
 logical system reaching across the global supply chains\, material extract
 ion\, and labour that construction depends on\, arguing that building is a
 n ecological and political process rather than a purely material one.\n“
 To emphasize (...) dubious uses of risk is perverse\, a dirty way of talki
 ng about a\nclean scientific subject”\nMary Douglas\, Risk and Blame\, 3
 6.\n\nAs the baseline condition of so many territories shaped by extractiv
 e industries\, administrative delay\, and climatic instability\, risk is p
 revalent. Yet ecological risk—pollution\, fires\, floods\, heatwaves\, d
 roughts—is still presented as problems to be solved rather than conditio
 ns to be inhabited. This also speaks to an outsourcing of risk through ext
 ernalized consequences of spatial injustice. Banks\, developers\, material
  supply chains\, normative institutions\, subcontracting hierarchies —al
 l contend with calculated risk. This edition of Pressure Points asks us to
  unpack what it means to live with the risk\, how it is managed\, commodif
 ied\, quantified\, invented\, politicized\, instrumentalized\, tamed\, and
  to think\, design\, cohabitate intellectually and physically with it. The
  assembled guests should help us think and build literacy toward developin
 g tools for living within uncertain territories and futures. \n\nLiam Ros
 s \nTuesday\,  November 3\, 17:00 CET\n\nLiam Ross is an architect and s
 enior lecturer in Architectural Design at the University of Edinburgh\, wi
 th a focus on building standardisation as a mode of architectural design\,
  and in particular on fire-safety regulation. He also examines how those s
 tandards produce surprising side-effects as they are reinterpreted in prac
 tice. His book Pyrotechnic Cities: Architecture\, Fire-Safety and Standard
 isation was published by Routledge in 2022\, and describes the way that ar
 chitectural design is an instrument of political agency. \nHis work has b
 een exhibited and published widely\, including in Architectural Research Q
 uarterly (arq)\, Arch+\, and journalistic outlets such as Blueprint\, Pros
 pect\, and Volume.\nRoss has experience of practice in the UK and US\, inc
 luding a period of 5 years with Malcolm Fraser Architects\, and maintains 
 a relationship with professional practice as co-founder of ESALA Projects\
 , a consultancy offering pro-bono and for-fee design services to public an
 d third-sector clients. His most recent work\, published in January 2026 i
 n Architectural Research Quarterly\, includes a co-authored article with J
 on Goodbun entitled ‘Design and the extended building site: Ecologies of
  production and the production of ecologies’\, which reframes the buildi
 ng site as an 'extended' socioecological system reaching across the global
  supply chains\, material extraction\, and labour that construction depend
 s on\, arguing that building is an ecological and political process rather
  than a purely material one.\n\nRIOT (Research and Innovation on Territory
 ) is a laboratory engaged in pedagogy and research within the Institute of
  Architecture (ENAC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology–EPFL\,
  led by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes with Elif Erez\, Flore Guichot\, Jeremy
  Ratib\, Summer Islam\, Antoine Iweins\, Kathy Kao\, Nathalie Marj\, Romai
 n Dubetier-Grenier\, Sylvie Clavel\, and Saira Mohammed. Believing that th
 e construction sector and design disciplines must pivot and wholeheartedly
  engage in the current social and climatic urgencies by rewiring themselve
 s to face and repair the harm\, RIOT utilizes tactics and strategies to de
 carbonize\, decolonize\, and depatriarchalize space production–by design
 . \n 
LOCATION:AAC 0 14 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==AAC%200%2014
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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