Action Lab

We are the Architecture Action Lab, operating within Carleton University. This Laboratory joins a long tradition of Community Design Centers (CDCs) that emerged in universities and communities as a result of the civil rights movement and the women's liberation movement of the 1950s and 1960s, generally providing technical and design advice to communities that could otherwise not afford it. Our Lab works through Design-Build interventions and advocacy research that aims to serve the community. Our students Research, Design, and build for community needs with the intent to make every project a community-driven one, with meaningful public participation and an intensive process to match our Carleton Architecture expertise and public values. Architecture and design are viewed as tools for ethical intervention in the built environment and the transformative potential of architectural practice are underlined through a participative approach that works for those least able to afford the traditional architectural services through an exclusive market. The Architecture Action Lab is an Abolitionist Laboratory, with a clear focus and commitment to marginalized people, by positioning architects as activists who provide architectural, planning, and housing services to community groups.