The Labour of Architecture: Book Launch + Panel Discussion

Join us for a book talk + panel discussion to celebrate the release of The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Building of a New Class Consciousness by C.G. Beck, published by Monthly Review Press in October 2025.

From Beck’s dual standpoint as architect and union organizer, The Labor of Architecture challenges the lingering myth of the architect as a singular genius, obsessively working alone in the studio. The Labor of Architecture addresses the new reality confronting designers – including exploitative workplaces, a financial crisis that ravaged the housing sector, sexist and racist hiring practices, and climate catastrophe – and advocates for a solidarity-based union movement to improve architects’ and designers’ profession and the society they help build.

Panelists will discuss architecture and class, the technological transformation of design work, studio education as a labour training model, the challenges of union organizing, and worker-owned architecture firms.

Panelists

C.G. Beck, IAM Union/Architectural Workers United (AWU) and Parsons School of Design, The New School

Adrian Blackwell, University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Architects Against Housing Alienation

Yvonne Ip, OAA, Arise Architects Co-operative

The Architecture Lobby Tkaronto (TAL-To)