Spatial Agency is an ongoing research project that aims to shift the of focus of architectural discourse from one that is centred around the design (= building) and making (= technology) of buildings to one where architecture is understood as a situated and embedded praxis conscious of and working with its social, economic and political context.

In the spirit of Cedric Price the project started with the belief that a building is not necessarily the best solution to an architectural problem. Architecture, and it is easy to forget this, is about a lot more than just objects in space. The project attempts to uncover a second history of architecture, one that looks at other ways that people have operated beyond the building, working on behalf of others as spatial agents. Buildings are of course not excluded, but the project expands its reach to cover all aspects of spatial production - from publications to pedagogy, activism to enabling.

The project therefore aims to re-focus attention on those episodes of architectural and spatial practice where architects take a pro-active role in helping to shape the production of the built environment. These instances are often stories of architects initiating rather than just reacting, of architects taking action rather than merely responding, of architects co-formulating issues rather than just replying to a given set of problems.

Clearly, this shift of emphasis and involvement has repercussions on the role of the architect within the processes of production. Allowing others into the process of design and making necessarily means that negotiation and deliberation, but also inconsistency and conflict, become key components of every project. Rather than seeing these terms as pejorative, Spatial Agency sees these terms as a signal for genuine advance in inquiry.

Through this different reading of architecture, Spatial Agency attempts to develop a new perspective and point of reference for understanding architecture. Our aim is to gather an inspiring set of examples of how spatial intelligence has been applied to a variety of international contexts. The examples of individuals, groups and projects collated in this database all show a desire to critically interrogate the status quo. They show architecture's capacity for transformative action and, even more importantly, how the role of the architect can be extended to take into account the consequences of architecture as much as the objects of architecture. In this we hope to point people towards ways in which architects and other designers may address a broader field than previously defined, and so give a new scope, even hope, to the profession.

For more detailed reading of SPATIAL AGENCY see a recent article by Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till published in FOOTPRINT.

THIS WEBSITE IS WORK IN PROGRESS. We welcome any feedback, comments, or suggestions on the website itself and the projects featured. Please contact us if you want to alert us about a project or group that fits the scope of this project.

RESEARCHERS
Nishat Awan is a research associate at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield.
Tatjana Schneider is a lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, where she teaches design studio, history and theory.
Jeremy Till is an architect and educator. He is Dean of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Westminster, London.