The exhibition will be held at the Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA), and if you could see the exhibition, here we leave a little presentation.
The exhibition emphasizes the social role and responsibility of the architect by rethinking traditional field practices and pursuing strategies to initiate social progress through critical research, new tools and experimental attitudes. It offers a reading of the early 1970s McAppy report, a witty proposal by the British architect, thinker and radical innovator Cedric Price (1934–2003). The two-volume report combined with a Portable Enclosures Programme (PEP) proposed how to improve labour conditions, assuring happiness and well-being, both mental and physical, for employees by prioritizing a low-stress, boredom-free building site.
The exhibition emphasizes the social role and responsibility of the architect by rethinking traditional field practices and pursuing strategies to initiate social progress through critical research, new tools and experimental attitudes. It offers a reading of the early 1970s McAppy report, a witty proposal by the British architect, thinker and radical innovator Cedric Price (1934–2003). The two-volume report combined with a Portable Enclosures Programme (PEP) proposed how to improve labour conditions, assuring happiness and well-being, both mental and physical, for employees by prioritizing a low-stress, boredom-free building site.
Unfolding Cedric Price’s McAppy Report as an anticipatory contribution to current discussions surrounding working environments, job satisfaction, and company ethics.
In 1973, following the strikes that beset the British construction industry during the early 1970s, Alistair McAlpine commissioned a design program for his construction company, Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons, that aimed to increase production efficiency and improve labour relations. McAlpine, a friend of Cedric Price and a prolific businessman, assigned the project to the architect.
Cedric Price accepted McAlpine’s design challenge “based on the assumption that the construction industry in general is in a bad state” and with the intention of “improving the present situation” by “suggesting beneficial future procedures and activities.” Faced with outmoded regulations and deteriorating conditions at building sites, Price’s survey of McAlpine’s work practices and organizational policies generated a design strategy that would be applied and tested by the company. Price’s project took the format of a two-volume report (one published prior to action and one with final recommendations after testing) and a Portable Enclosures Programme (PEP).
The exhibition is curated by Giovanna Borasi, Chief Curator at the CCA and André Tavares.
