Pa­rity Talks VI: What's Good?

It’s been 6 years since the first Parity Talks at the ETHZ implored us to begin a discussion around gender and diversity in architecture and planning. This year we will join forces with four other institutions to 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. Joined by Womxn in Design (Harvard GSD), Claiming*Spaces (TU Wien), DRAG lab (EPFL), Parity Board (TUM), and the Parity Front 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.

 PROGRAMME

08:30 - Welcomes

 

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

 

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

 

10:30 - Break

 

10:45 - Eric Robsky Huntley – Up, Down, Around: Figuring Perspectives for Feminist Pedagogy
Introduced by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (Harvard GSD)

 

11:30 - Afaina de Jong (AFARI) – The Multiplicity of Other
Introduced by Claiming*Spaces (TU Wien)

 

12:15 - Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski (WAI Think Tank) – Collective Forms of Care*
Introduced by the Parity Group (ETH Zürich)

 

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 + Regine Keller + Dietrich Erben (tbc) + Marion Fonjallaz + Morgane Hofstetter + Dieter Dietz + Tom Emerson (tbc) + Leonie Wagner + Olga Cobuscean

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 + Afaina de Jong + Christian Kühn + Mo Hartmann + Bernadette Krejs + Eric Robsky Huntley + K. Michael Hays (tbc) + Shira Grosman + Lauren Janko + Junainah Ahmed

Moderated by: Marlene Wagner

 

17:15

Concluding Discussion – What’s good?

DRAG lab asks the Parity Group, Claiming*Spaces, Womxn in Design, and the Parity Board 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

Event on line: https://ethz.zoom.us/j/97159291199