PARITY TALKS - WHAT'S GOOD?

The DRAG lab is happy to be part of the Parity Talks 6 - What's Good? hosted by the Parity Group ETHZ, together with Womxn in Design from Harvard GSD, Claiming Spaces from TU Vienna, Parity Board TU Munich and the Parity Front. 

It’s been 6 years since the first Parity Talks at the ETHZ began a discussion around gender and diversity in architecture and planning. This year together with four other institutions we will reflect on how the situation has evolved for planning disciplines. A day-long event on the 10th March hosted by the Parity Group at the ETHZ will be a collective questioning of ‘What’s Good?’. 

Together we will discuss our current understanding of good practice, who decides what is good, and the problems of education based on ideas of excellence. The Parity Talks 6 will be acting as the departure point for a season of digital events across the five institutions, propelling further debates on gender, equity, inclusion and belonging.

The DRAG lab will organise an online season of Book clubs along the topic of Representation during this spring semester 2021. 

PARITY TALKS PROGRAMME  

08:30 Welcomes

09:00 Meike Shalk (Anna Boyksen Fellow) – Rethinking Institutionalized Patterns
Introduced by the Parity Board TUM

09:45 Katarina Bonnevier (MYCKET) – Architecture as Drag
Introduced by the DRAG lab EPFL

10:30 Break

10:45 Eric Robsky Huntley – Data + Feminism
Introduced by the Harvard GSD

11:30 Afaina de Jong – A Space of Freedom
Introduced by Claiming Spaces from TU Wien

12:15 Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski (WAIThinkTank) – Collective Forms of Care
Introduced by the Parity Group ETH

13:00 Break

13:30 Round Table – Tastemakers with TU MUNICH + EPFL + ETHZ  

Following the guest presentations of the morning, this discussion aims to delve deeper into institutional structures, systems of taste, value and power, and what affects the standards of excellence held up by institutions have on the mental health of both students and staff. Students and staff from TU Munich, EPFL and ETHZ will join our guest speakers from the morning, providing a range of voices and perspectives on these topics.

Featuring: Meike Schalk + Katarina Bonnevier MYCKET + Cruz Garcia + Nathalie Frankowski + Els Silvrants-Barclay + Regina Keller + Dietrich Erben + Marion Fonjallaz + Morgane Hofstetter
Moderated by: Vera Sacchetti

15:30 Round Table – Curriculum Change: Learning/Unlearning Taste

With GSD + TU WIEN Curriculum changes are the order of the day in many architecture schools. Who is included in the change making process and  gets a say in what comes and what stays? Do these changes go far enough to sustain equity, decolonize, and depatriarchize our age-old canonical syllabi? While some teaching formats are quick to change, some seem impossible to dispel. How can institutional activism help and steer consistent and meaningful change in architecture education and beyond? Online black activist Rachel Cargle speaks about the "Great Unlearn." Can we teach to unlearn? We will discuss the possibilities of radical changes in content and form within design institutions, (un)learning and listening to one another.

Featuring: Lisa Haber-Thomson + Jenny French + Sarah Whiting +Afaina de Jong
Moderated by: Marlene Wagner

16:45 Concluding Discussion – What’s good?

DRAG lab EPFL asks the Parity Group ETH, Claiming Spaces from TU Wien, Harvard GSD, and Parity Board TUM about their experiences of good practice in institutional activism.

18:00 Alexandra Lange – Looking for Role Models in All the Wrong Places Keynote Lecture as part of the Wohnforum Athena Lecture Series
Welcome by Marie Glaser

19:00 Q&A with Alexandra Lange & students