Throughout history, the solitary critic-writer has played an important role in championing thoughtful design and holding built environment professionals to account. While possessing this power to challenge the status quo, the architecture critic can also ensure its continuation. That is, if anyone still reads architectural criticism these days.

Indeed, a radical expansion and reimagination of architectural criticism has been long overdue. In times such as these, criticism must understand the power of words but also move beyond them. Who gets to be a critic? How can criticism become a form of critical action? Can criticism be collaborative? These are some of the topics Afterparti members Marwa, Thomas, Siufan and Aoi will explore, in addition to sharing some of the work Afterparti is doing to embody this new model of criticism.