Architecture is sensitive to social change, particularly when that change is in the foundational norms and myths upon which our society is constructed. Perhaps most notably, historic and ongoing shifts in ideas of the family and of its importance as a basic social unit can be read through many scales of architecture, from the house to the city. We are exploring this topic in three ways.

A series of live-streamed lectures present historic case studies and moments of key changes in ideas of the family, in relation to emerging types and understandings of families that influence and are expressed in architecture today:

Jamie Jacobs invents the “family room,” on Thursday, 29 April 2021.

Wendy Gamber reads boarding houses, on Thursday, 20 May 2021.

Valentina Davila follows Venezuelan domestic workers, on Thursday, 27 May 2021.

Frida Escobedo opens a door to the domestic quarters, on Thursday, 15 July 2021.

Sophie Lewis swims in the gestational workplace, Thursday 22 July 2021.

A virtual event, What, if not the family?, brings architects and other spatial practitioners together with artists, designers, filmmakers, and activists to reflect on the family today (and alternatives to it), on Wednesday, 2 June 2021.

A roundtable, Designing intimacy, now?, gathers invited Canadian architects to discuss questions of collectivity, privacy, and economy, on Thursday, 10 June 2021, in a special collaboration with the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada.

This series is part of the CCA’s one-year investigation Catching Up with Life.