The Everyday as Critical Ground:

Reflections from Practice & Pedagogy

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In cities across the world, architecture often begins after the blueprint ends. When formal systems fail short to meet daily needs, communities adapt: tarps become roofs, sidewalks become kitchens, fences become canvases. These improvisations—what Indonesians call akal-akalan—are often dismissed as informal, illegal, or unprofessional. But what happens when we see them instead as a form of spatial intelligence? What if we embrace them not as problems, but as pedagogical tools, design references, or collaborative practices?

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This forum invites students to explore the boundaries of what counts as architecture. It invites reflection on how architecture intersects with daily practices, habits, and lived experiences, and how it is (or isn't) addressed in architectural education and practice. How do everyday gestures—repair, negotiation, improvisation—generate knowledge that escapes the studio, syllabus, or regulation? Can we shift from being authors to enablers? How do we design with rather than for?

 

We welcome critical and creative reflections on the intersection of architecture and the everyday: from critiques of studio culture and institutional rituals, to domestic negotiations, use of space, or the politics of maintenance. Whether through writing, mapping, photography, or storytelling, students are invited to share how architecture is produced through lived experience—not only by design, but by doing. Rather than positioning architects solely as authors, this forum asks: what if we are witnesses, collaborators, or archivists of the everyday spaces?