AHRC-FAPESP MoU Translating Ferro / Transforming Knowledges of Architecture, Design and Labour for the New Field of Production Studies [TF/TK]

Translating Ferro/Transforming Knowledges is a 3.5 year research project bringing together UK and São Paulo based academics and producers of the built environment to study and raise awareness of building production, and to foster, responsible and just alternatives to the worsening and increasingly dispersed conditions of contemporary building construction across the globe. Working together with affiliated researchers and partner organisations from professional and informal building sectors, and resisting the separation of design from construction, the project consolidates and makes available resources and research methodologies for the new interdisciplinary, cross-cultural field of Production Studies. To do so it mobilises and makes available for the first time in English translation key works from the foremost enquiry into design, labour and the construction site by the still-active architectural historian and theorist Sérgio Ferro, whose work remains little known outside the Brazilian and French contexts where it was developed, despite its pertinence to the urgent crisis in building today.
Drawing on disciplines from political economy, sociology, philosophy to history of art, architecture and construction, Ferro's framework both provides a common critical, theoretical and methodological ground for Production Studies, and directs it towards social action, as already demonstrated by his important influence on architects working in Brazil today to technically advise grassroots movements and communities in self-managed building production. A number of these groups (Usina, Arquitetura na Periferia, Peabiru) are directly involved in the project, which strengthens their sustainability through international exchange and shares their expertise of alternative construction processes with building cultures such as the UK where mainstream construction dominates.
As a means to effect change the project will transform knowledge of design and building production through a series of activities with academics in the field of Production Studies, researchers and producers of the built environment, and with wider publics including:
i) an annual programme of Production Studies symposia and exchanges in the UK (Newcastle, London) and in São Paulo state (São Paulo; São Carlos).
ii) the co-production of 24 new case studies - that are aimed as exemplars to both address the gap in academic knowledge of production (histories of informal and formal production, related disciplinary approaches such as anthropology, political science) and to provide resources for further action and change (documenting the work of social movements and self-builders, recording and trialling alternative forms of design pedagogy that engage with production).
iii) a range of activities such as local workshops, live build projects, professional development training, public talks, theatre, film screenings with architectural practitioners, building industry professionals and institutions, activists, design students and pedagogues, and the general public, in conjunction with project partners (such as, in São Paulo, IAB-SP (Institute of Brazilian Architects); UMM (Union of Housing Movements); Centro Gaspar Garcia, and in the UK, the RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects), The Building Centre, William Morris Gallery).

There are three broad groupings beyond academia who will use and benefit from this research with the balance - due to the different local contexts of building production and identification of need for impact - more towards i) in São Paulo and towards ii) in the UK:

i) For grassroots organisations such as in the UK, Dwellbeing, Concrete Action, Architects for Social Housing or in São Paulo, Peabiru, Usina and UMM, the identification of an international network of groups engaged with alternative approaches to the production of the built environment provides a platform for exchange and strengthening of sustainability. Research methods training and collaboration with academics, for those developing Case Studies will assist in the production of internationally distributed coverage of the important and innovative work being done by grassroots organisations that challenge conventional construction and procurement. Research processes and events will connect groups with new advocates in academia and mainstream organisations, nationally and internationally. Organisations will both contribute to the production of new knowledge, and access information from the TF/TK project outputs.

ii) For design practitioners and architects identified in conjunction with professional project partners and in participating Schools of Architecture (Newcastle, Brighton, Grenoble, Central St Martins, Westminster, University of the Creative Arts) for teachers of students of architecture and design, (who are often themselves in practice, and coming in to teach for a few hours a week) and for students (who will be entering design professions) TF/TK is intended to transform knowledge of the relationship between design and production, and to learn from alternative possibilities such as those of grassroots movements. Production Studies resources will, via the website and related dissemination events, publications, public talks, workshops and CPD (continuous professional development) in practice offices, raise awareness of the distancing from the site which design methods produce, and develop awareness of the realities labour and processes on site, as well as providing materials for further information, and opportunities to get involved with the research activities. During the project BA and MArch (PGT) modules will be specially developed on TF/TK themes, as well as teaching materials accessible on the website, with Newcastle University MArch Collaborative Practice route students building a community structure over two years, that will be presented as an exemplar project at the Association of Architectural Educators (AAE) conference in 2023.

iii) Building industry and construction professionals partners (in São Paulo, the IAB, in the UK, The Building Centre, RIBA) will facilitate TF/TK industry networks and engage professionals with project issues through dissemination events such as workshops, public talks and roundtable debates, and if appropriate these organisations or individuals working with them can themselves get involved with website contributions or Case Study research. The aims are to establish greater awareness of historical, institutional or geographically distant building processes, and to engender longer-term discussions between sectors towards change.

iv) Some events and outputs are targeted more towards the general public with a view to raising awareness and debate; for example workshops with communities and residents working with grassroots organisations, and with Newcastle University MArch students on the live-build project; talks and screenings in public venues such as the William Morris Gallery (London), Star and Shadow Cinema, and the new Farrell Centre (Newcastle); and a specially commissioned audio play on the production of the built environment in Rio and Newcastle from theatre company Cap-a-Pie.