Disobedient Buildings

2020-2023: Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Grant
Principal Investigator: Inge Daniels

Disobedient Buildings is a multi-sited research project about housing, welfare and wellbeing, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Against the backdrop of the rise in health and safety incidents in decaying and retrofitted high-rise buildings worldwide, the project explores how the inhabitants of aging blocks of flats strive to create safe and comfortable homes.

A multi-disciplinary team of researchers and visual practitioners will study the impact of recent neo-liberal reforms on everyday life inside blocks of flats in the UK, Romania. Norway and Sweden. Based on 12 months of empirical research in these European countries, that are generally associated with different kinds of welfare models, we will compare how ordinary citizens conceptualise and confront welfare, health and wellbeing on the ground.

What makes the project ground-breaking is that it is centred around the production of a participatory, comparative exhibition that aims to generate new thinking beyond the initial research context. We will focus on the exhibition from the start of the project in order to recruit research participants and collect and analyse data and objects. The show will also enable multiple creative collaborations and cross-fertilisations with participants, museum professionals, art practitioners, urban planners, policy makers and the general public that continue long after the exhibition has finished.

Project website: www.disobedientbuildings.com