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Open Charter Agency - From Venice Biennale 2013 to RIBA, London

Date uploaded: February 27, 2013

Public works in collaboration with Urban Projects Bureau and Owen Pritchard are launching Open Charter Agency at RIBA (Royal institute of British Architects)
27th February 2013 - 27th April 2013

Open Charter Agency (OCA) is a platform for discussion and action for the architecture profession and those disciplines involved with architecture to clarify, critique and act upon critical issues determining the wider role of the architect and their identity as a catalyst for change.

OCA supports politicised and experimental practices that are searching for change within and outside of the accepted norms and codes of the established profession.

OCA is motivated by a desire to reaffirm the social, ethical and political qualities of contemporary spatial practice that are vital to the progress of society and the architect as a valuable agent in the world.

What they are doing

OCA was conceived after extensive direct research into the image, role and definitions of the architect around the world, collecting over 5000 voices which revealed widespread confusion and fear of architecture as a profession. You can see all these profiles and comments at the RIBA exhibition.

There are a number of ways to participate and offer your thoughts:

Open Charter Agency at RIBA
Three afternoons a week, OCA will be in residence at RIBA. Here you will be able to contribute to the ideas further and look through the research that underpins our current themes:

Activism in Architecture
Empowerment
Architects in residence
Knowledge transfer and models of learning

Visitors can also feed back at the residency desk when it is unmanned.  It is possible to record comments under the themes on the wall, which will be collated and incorporated into the discussion evenings.

Open Charter Agency Discussion Forums:
Over the course of five events we will be inviting speakers and guests to participate in critical conversations surrounding alternative modes of architectural engagement within the built environment. We invite you to join us to offer ideas, criticism and support for the OCA and play an integral part of forming and informing this way of working.

The four themes for the evenings have been established in response to the thousands of submissions we gathered on our research trips and through the installation at the Venice Biennale.

25th March – Opening Discussion - Open Charter Agency

9th April – Architects in Residence

16th April – Knowledge exchange and modes of learning

20th April - Empowerment

23rd April – Activism

Visit open-charter.net/