AA alum and London Metropolitan University PhD candidate, Reishin Kunishima Watabe has co-organised a one-day symposium with Dr Claire Jamieson on themes of architectural labour. The symposium, which is titled Working for What? Architectural Labour: Organising, Work and Professionalisation, will be held on Thursday 12 September. The symposium aims to gather a diverse range of speakers around the subject of the history of labour organising within the architectural profession in the UK and to interrogate the conceptualisation of the architectural worker.

The symposium is heavily inspired by the history of the New Architecture Movement (NAM) which was instigated at the AA in the 1970s. It also invites AA Head of Archives Edward Bottoms to present and architect Sarah Wigglesworth as keynote speaker.

Working for What? will be held in the Wash Houses at London Metropolitan University’s Aldgate Campus in London – home not only to three professional architecture courses (RIBA Parts I, II and III), but also the Trade Union Congress archive.

The symposium promises to capture urgent issues on architectural practice. Although some UK practices have announced record profits this year, a slew of industry layoffs and a weak economic outlook pervades the contemporary architectural discourse. Government legislation to change foreign skilled visas have highlighted and racialised architects' poor pay, while senior industry figures complain of a ‘bid to the bottom’ in getting work. Activist organisations have emerged in recent years as a response to these conditions and are developing momentum; they represent a critical moment within the profession not only to organise, but also to reflect on previous moments of political activity.

More information on the event can be read here and click here to reserve a place.

Image: Poster for the event.