ELISAVA MASTERS’ TALKS: THE WORK OF REPAIR

The third session of the new cycle of Elisava Masters’ Talks is given by Amica Dall, founding member of Assemble, a collective focused on the social and material processes of architecture, art, urban design and research. Dall will present The Work of Repair.

Dall is focused on the architecture and culture of the city and children’s rights in the city. She is a founding member of Assemble, where she delivered more than 15 major projects over 10 years. Her work as a writer and filmmaker has been broadcast by the BBC, exhibited at the Venice Biennale and published on E-Flux, among many others. Dall recently co-wrote a book on the post-carbon future for architecture in the UK with the architecture studio Material Cultures, published by Mack Books, and is co-editing a volume edited by Assemble for Common Ground on the contemporary conception of the rural. She is a founding trustee of Baltic Street Adventure Playground as well as of Theatrum Mundi, a creative arts research organisation started by Richard Sennett in 2016. With postgraduate training in Anthropology of the Built Environment at UCL, Amica has taught across a wide range of topics and works with children and postgraduates. She is currently directing a new seminar course, “Childhood, Culture, Design”, at the Architectural Association, and is teaching the Situated Practice MA at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Dall is currently collaborating with the artist Cristina Lina Fraser on several projects, including making participatory films with the Working Child Movement in Peru and the children's strategy for the European City of Culture in Chemnitz, 2024.

The Work of Repair
With “The work of repair”, Amica will reflect on how architectural and creative practices can move away from invention and innovation towards the patient and slow work of repair, and consider work that is based on long-term personal or ethical commitments term with places, situations and social contexts. Dall will cover some of Assemble’s early work before discussing a set of projects that reoriented her and the studio's attitudes towards the city and rural ethics, material and intergenerational justice.