Reactivating the Social Condenser! Architecture against Privation by UCL Urban Laboratory

'In the habits and attitudes of the mass population, low-voltage activity and a weak consciousness would be focused through the circuits of these ‘social condensers’ into high-voltage catalysts of change.' (Moisei Ginzburg, 1927)

1. We live in a time of privation, crisis and stratification, in housing as well as in public space. Space has become a commodity, and apathy is rife.
2. For nearly a century, architects, artists and thinkers have been inspired by and toyed with the grand old Soviet idea of the social condenser. Most, however, have attempted to tame this idea, or have done little other than to pay lip service to it.
3. It is high time, then, to reactivate the social condenser! We want to subject this electrifying idea to serious and systematic re-examination, to re-charge the social condenser as a vector for radical architectural thought and practice.

Contains tracks

• The Theory and Practice of the Condenser by UCL Urban Laboratory
• Social Condensation in Non-Designed Settings by UCL Urban Laboratory
• The Economy and Aesthetics of the Condenser by UCL Urban Laboratory
• The Fall and Rise of the Condenser by UCL Urban Laboratory