How to: do no harm

This will only hurt a little. 

It is not easy to accept that architects cause harm. We like to think of ourselves as good people—and most of us are. But we live in systems that we did not choose, feel unable to change, or may not even perceive. When we harm other living things, or the world sustaining our bodies, cultures, or even ourselves as architects, it is most often because it seems we do not have any choice. 

Following a possible career path of an architect is one way to explore this world of hurt. This journey starts with the initial shocks of encountering architectural culture, moves into the grind of first jobs, and then the search for other ways of being an architect—reclaiming agency and being able to choose what kinds of harm you will do. In mid- and late-career positions, for those people whose determination, creativity, or privilege allows them to remain in practice, comes greater power and both new opportunities to create alternative practices, as well as new temptations of complacency and rewards for complicity. 

Whatever choices we make, we will do some harm. At every turn there are possibilities to choose to do less and to accept the responsibility to repair the harm that we do. It is never too late, or too early. 

We now release a series of conflicted diaries of architects in ethical crisis. We hope you will recognize yourself somewhere in these entries illustrated with ephemera and evidence from the practice as it is today and as it could be, if we made different choices. 

How to: do no harm was produced over about a hundred hours over a three-week residency, with two weeks online and one in Montreal; its ingredients include over one hundred and nine pages of notes with over forty thousand words and a dozen hours of interviews.

This is the fifth iteration of CCA’s annual “How to” residency, which was conceived as a platform for rapid tool-making in response to specific opportunities and needs. We invited eight participants following an open call: Amélie de Bonnières (Cape Town, South Africa), Bailey Morgan Brown Mitchell (Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA), Loránd Mittay (Berlin, Germany), Mariana Meneguetti (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Marianna Janowicz (London, United Kingdom), Samarth Vachhrajani (New Haven, Connecticut, USA / Vadodara, India), Sophie Weston Chien (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), and Swati Janu (Delhi, India). 

The publication was possible only because of the dedication of the participants and the generosity of the interviewees: architects, activists, scientists, and critical thinkers whose practices suggest new ethical engagements with the harm at the heart of the architecture, including Elizabeth Timme & Chazandra Kern (Office of: office), Astrid Smitham & Nicholas Lobo-Brennan (Apparata), Guujaaw, Cristina Gamboa (Lacol), Menna Agha, Sename Koffi Agbodjinou, Andrew Daley (Architecture Workers United & The Machinists Union), Jess Myers (RISD), Kaya Lazarini and Giovana Martino (Usina CTAH), Andreas Malm. 

The research of the How to: do no harm residency will also inform the next chapter of the Architectural Review’s Ecologies podcast that seeks to be honest about the land, cities, materials, and workers that architects exploit, and will be released soon as an audio counterpart to the AR’s October issue on Energy. 

How to: do no harm is curated by Lev Bratishenko, CCA Curator, Public, and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Assistant Professor at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EPFL. 

Since 2018, the CCA’s annual “How to” residency has produced interventions in para-architectural activities like publishing (How to: not make an architecture magazine), curation (How to: disturb the public), and awards (How to: reward and punish). In 2022 it began a new three-year cycle focused on accelerating changes in architecture practice, starting with architect hybrids (How to: not become a developer). 

To be the first to find out when the call for the next “How to” opens, and more, subscribe to the CCA newslettter.