FUN for #GivingTuesday

I recently read, Anti-Hero: The Hidden Revolution in Leadership & Change - written by the team at Osca (who also produced a short film on the topic)... and it's worth watching.

The report discusses humanity's pressing issues and our collective mindset towards leadership. For generations it's been fatally flawed; a Trumpian model based on over confidence, lack of empathy, inflexibility and little acknowledgement of uncertainty.

The humility and self-awareness that Osca say define the Anti-Hero, are things that we at AzuKo felt compelled to discuss. We also thought we'd fundraise for our work with JBM slum in Bangladesh, while we were at it.

The result was a FuckUp Night for #GivingTuesday in collaboration with Impact Hub King's Cross. FuckUp Nights is a global brand that promotes the sharing of failures. #GivingTuesday is the global day of giving - the Anti-Hero to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

(Photo: E. Andrews)

On 29 November a stellar line-up of Anti-Heroes took the stage:

• Our Director, Jo Ashbridge found that good work, positive change and a belief in a process alone are not necessarily enough to drive individuals and organisations to action.

• Finn Williams, a public planner at the GLA, shared how a lack of honesty can quickly snowball into an elephant, or in this case, a poor design solution.

(Photo: E. Andrews)

• Jonty Sharples, Co-founder of Hactar, reminded us that intergrity is paramount and that a compromise in relationship (with the world and with ourselves) is a failure. Jonty also reminded us to smile.

• Jack Graham, Founder of Year Here, urged all of us no matter what context, to be humble enough to listen first.

• Lauren Currie, founder of #upfront, reminded us that a lack of diversity and a homogenous perspective round 'the table', is a large part of why we face the challenges we do today. Lauren closed with the thought that we are all responsible for the change we want to see.

I would urge us all to listen to Lauren's plea; this is not a cliché. There is no more appropriate or urgent time than now to accept this fact. Blaming the 'other' has gotten us nowhere. This sentiment is captured perfectly by Jiddu Krishnamurti,

“To put an end to outward war, you must begin to put an end to war in yourself. Some of you will nod your heads and say, ‘I agree,’ and go outside and do exactly the same as you have been doing for the last ten or twenty years.

Your agreement is merely verbal and has no significance, for the world’s miseries and wars are not going to be stopped by your casual assent. They will be stopped only when you realize the danger, when you realize your responsibility, when you do not leave it to somebody else.

If you realize the suffering, if you see the urgency of immediate action and do not postpone, then you will transform yourself.

Peace will come only when you yourself are peaceful, when you yourself are at peace with your neighbor.”

Thank you again to our speakers. Thank you to our volunteers, donors and supporters... and all those who attended. Collectively you helped us raise £1078.

Inspired? You can support our work in JBM slum.

Author: N. Ardaiz

Social impact designers who've failed & thrived

We collaborated with Impact Hub King's Cross, to put on a fundraising event with a difference. 'Social Impact Designers Who've Failed & Thrived' - a mashup of global campaigns, FuckUp Nights and #GivingTuesday - allowed us to breakdown the stigmas surrounding failure. It was a lesson in learning from mistakes, sharing and humility.

Five outstanding speakers, from the world of social impact, took the stage to present their stories. We exhibited photographs of our sanitation project in Bangladesh and held a raffle to raise vital funds for the next project phase. The energy in the room was infectious.

It was a sell-out event, and you helped us raise £1078 for Jogen Babu Maath slum. Thank you to everyone who supported, and to our speakers - Peter Murray, Jo Ashbridge, Jonty Sharples, Jack Graham, Finn Williams and Lauren Currie.

Read our thoughts on the event.

View our event welcome pack >>

---

“... a dynamic event full of interesting people with a lot to take away - thank you.”

— Simon-Joe Portal, Arup

“It made me think a lot about the positives which can be found in my own failures.”

— Ruth Baker, Ryder

---

How do you feel about your own failures? Why were you interested in our event? Did it change your opinion about failure?

We asked our audience - here's what you told us:

• At the start of the event, only 9% felt at peace with failure

• 55% believe your failures are due to a lack of experience

• 75% said our event changed your perspective on failure

• The amazing lineup of speakers was the main reason you came

• Over half made new connections on the night

Check out the animation, by our friends at Voist, for more insights >>

Brutal London

My relationship with architecture in London could be described as an intimate one.

One building in particular defines this relationship: Erno Goldfinger's Balfron Tower in Poplar. My first residency in London was Balfron. The 9th floor. I was romanced by the western terraced views, the London skyline and the aerial perspective of my new neighbourhood.

(Photo: N. Ardaiz)

It's also an abusive relationship.

Commenting on violent crime taking place in Trellick Tower in west London (which he designed and which is a near carbon copy of Balfron), Goldfinger was quoted as saying:

“I built skyscrapers for people to live in there and now they messed them up. Disgusting.”

Space is built for people, but not always with people in mind (or the greater socio-economic context for that matter).

Le Corbusier, in the same brutalist spirit, remarked that houses are "machines for living", as though like a cocoon or beehive, are linear technical creations that need the all-knowing, top-down mechanic to maintain it. Corb perhaps understood his tenants as non-complex cogs, pigeon holing them into a mindset that Carol Dweck would call 'fixed', assuming that they are incapable of shaping their own space and defining their own past, present and future. This is largely the history of post-war architecture in east London.

I'd like to share a few learnings from my first month of research at AzuKo...

• "In England, 19,093 evictions were by social landlords, such as housing associations, while 5,919 were by private landlords." (The Guardian, 2016)

• Gentrification has commonly been referred to as the "rehabilitation of working-class and derelict housing and the consequent transformation of an area into a middle class neighbourhood". (Smith N. and Williams P., 1986)

• "This week, it was revealed two property developers have been leafleting council properties in Westminster offering families money to sell their homes." (The Daily Mirror, 2014)

• "It is estimated that if just one in 100 inactive people took adequate exercise it could save the NHS in Scotland as much as £85 million per year." (CABE, 2014)

“If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.”

— Wendell Berry

• In Dr. M. Corcoran's research of six deprived neighbourhoods throughout Europe (including Holloway, London) "what emerged in the biographical narratives gathered from urban dwellers was a sense of ambiguity and indeterminacy in relation to place".

This particular work falls under our A sense of place project. Defining the term poses a real challenge, especially when some researchers (or one in particular) have argued that "income, employment statistics, housing provision, crime statistics, instances of anti-social behaviour, physical and mental health, and educational attainment" are all directly correlated to this 'sense of place'.

If you take however, even a seed of truth from these correlations (which I do) then a sense of place is about tackling externalities. It's about addressing the fundament of the human experience - how we connect to others in a particular space.

(Photo: N. Ardaiz)

I spoke to Jo to hear her views on the concept.... "There isn't an agreed upon definition, and I think that's what's exciting." When discussing her experience of working with one particular at-risk community she commented,  

“That group... really wanted to fight, because there would be something lost. But that drive to fight for something was because they really belonged to that place.”

This draws parallels to our work in Jogen Babu Maath slum, Bangladesh - "Together, they are trying to build a future for the community".

(Photo: T. Chowdhury)

We're essentially operating in the realm of social capital - the coffers of our relationships. A currency that authors like Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone) have argued has been diminishing for years.

It's an incredible challenge that spans dimensions ranging from memory and meaning to planning and policy, and one that I'm excited and honoured to be a part of.

Author: N Ardaiz