This year’s hybrid edition of the festival focuses on ‘(un)learning’ architecture through a range of talks, exhibitions and activities
Scotland’s independent architecture festival the Architecture Fringe has now opened, with events taking place both in person across Scotland, and online. With this year’s theme of ‘(Un)Learning’, the festival invites people to explore, interrogate and rethink the world of architecture and what it could be.
The free festival, running 4 to 20 June 2021, takes the form of an Open Programme of activities, talks, research, performances and exhibitions with a curated Core Programme of projects and events. There is also an online graduate showcase for all graduating students from Scotland’s architecture schools.
The Core Programme includes the day-long event Common Ground/Common Good – (Un)Learning Land, which will bring together voices from Detroit, Glasgow and Kolkata to explore pluralities and commonalities in community development and our relationship to land. Towards COP26, meanwhile, looks ahead to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November in Glasgow with a ‘world cafe get together’ exploring the intersectional reality of the climate crisis and the transformative action necessary to tackle it.
Power Structures Exhibition. Photograph: Luke O’Donovan
The Open Programme’s range of exhibitions include Power Structures, a photographic show curated by Francisco Ibáñez Hantke and Luke O’Donovan focusing on the ways in which political and socioeconomic structures shape the built environment. Thurso: ‘Atomic Town’ is an online event exploring of the impact of Dounreay nuclear power station on the postwar expansion of the UK’s most northerly mainland town, Thurso. Here to Play is a nomadic installation/workshop that will drift through Edinburgh’s public spaces asking its participants what it means to play in the contemporary city.
‘The ability to rethink and unlearn is critical not only for the survival of the planet but also for humanity,’ says Liane Bauer, Architecture Fringe co-director. ‘The programme investigates the defining issues of our generation, from whiteness, race and capitalism, to how we use and care for the land. As built environment professionals we are asking how do we change our behaviours and biases to work in a more ethical, holistic and sustainable way?’
Explore the full programme at architecturefringe.com
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