On Architecture and Work: The Political Economy of Space Vol. 3
By (Author) Charlotte Malterre-Barthes
Text by Marisa Cortright and
Designed by Fernanda Tellez Velasco
Hatje Cantz
Hatje Cantz
31st October 2025
Germany
General
Non Fiction
720
Paperback
120
Width 107mm, Height 178mm
100g
From the office to the construction site - what is the value of work
Why is architecture so remote from labor struggles, with poorly negotiated labor contracts and barely any self-management models What possibilities emerge when we acknowledge the glaring class divide between the architectural firm and the construction site What insights do the stories of workers provide about the construction industry How do different design practices emerge if designers and construction workers unite
On Architecture and Work is a collection of essays on the relationship between construction, architecture, work, and labor. From complaints over grueling working conditions on construction sites to demands for better benefits in design offices, asking candidly "who can afford to be radical", this is the third publication in the series The Political Economy of Space, after On Architecture and the Greenfield (2024) and On Architecture and Greenwashing (2024).
Edited by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, head of the RIOT laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of TechnologyEPFL in Lausanne, this volume updates the discussion on architecture and work by giving answers from construction workers, scholars, and design practitioners.
Includes texts by Marisa Cortright and (non-)Swiss Architects, Namita Vijay Dharia, construction workers' voices (collected by Lalie Porteret and Carolina Pichler), USINA-CTAH with Pedro Fiori Arantes.