Author: Ashton HammThe business of architecture has created an extractive, inequitable, and precarious environment for its practitioners. These pressures have led many small firms, which make up roughly three quarters of architecture offices in the US, to adopt diverse, ad-hoc organisational and survival strategies. In their very precarity, these small firms offer fertile grounds to test more resilient structures. This title addresses the parallel trajectories of cooperatives in the US and the professionalisation of architecture.One such model, the worker cooperative, offers a critical mode of practice that is equitable, democratic, and addresses the systemic inequalities that plague the profession. This contextual background highlights the coincident struggles of the labour movement and the emergence of the architectural corporation. Within this context, the cooperative model is presented as a challenge to the prevailing conditions of the profession. Logistical frameworks for creating an architectural cooperative are offered for any firm looking to transition or incorporate anew. The book projects the social, economic, and aesthetic benefits of the architectural cooperative by taking stock of cooperatives in other industries.ISBN 9781951541958. ORO Editions. pb. 120 pages. 15 x 22 cm.in stock
