Alternative Practices and Research Initiatives (APRI) Cluster Showcasing past and current architect initiated projects, the symposium brings together architects and spatial practitioners involved in self initiated projects who see architecture as a political and social act embedded and born out of strong links with its context. Their initiatives define a form of practice which does not rely on a single commissioning client but which takes its mandate from a close engagement with a wider public. To continue a tradition of proactive architectural practice and to initiate new alternatives to the predominant model of architecture as service, the symposium presents and examines new models of operation outside the convention of the hired and contracted architect. Curated by Susanna Gonzalez and Andreas Lang, the event concludes the first cycle of the Alternative Practices and Research Initiatives Cluster which focused on mechanisms and spaces that enable alternative practices to emerge.Chaired by Carlos Villanueva Brandt, Jon Broome - 'Technology and Participation towards Sustainability'. Lucie Stephens - 'The Power of Social Networks'