A field-defining work that demonstrates how architects are breaking with professional
conventions to advance spatial justice and design more equitable buildings and cities. As state
violence the pandemic and environmental collapse have exposed systemic inequities architects
and urbanists have been pushed to confront how their actions contribute to racism and climate
crisis—and how they can effect change. Establishing an ethics of spatial justice to lead
architecture forward Dana Cuff shows why the discipline requires critical examination—in
relation to not only buildings and the capital required to realize them but privilege power
aesthetics and sociality. That is it requires a reevaluation of architecture’s fundamental
tenets. Organized around projects and topics Architectures of Spatial Justice is a compelling
blend of theory history and applied practice that focuses on two foundational conditions of
architecture: its relation to the public and its dependence on capital. The book draws on
studies of architectural projects from around the world with instructive case studies from
Chile Mexico Japan and the United States that focus in particular on urban centers where
architecture is most directly engaged with social justice issues. Emerging from more than two
decades of the author’s own project-based research Architectures of Spatial Justice examines
ethically driven practices that break with professional conventions to correct long-standing
inequities in the built environment uncovering architecture’s limits—and its potential.
