How We Live Now considers who our buildings and shared spaces are designed for, who is excluded from our designed environment, and what effect this has on the communities who live there? A jumping off point for these questions is an unseen archive of work by the radical 1980s feminist architecture co-operative Matrix. The installation will feature rare films, drawings, photos and architectural models from the Matrix archive, presenting their use of radical methods across a range of projects, past and present.

The installation also introduce archival and contemporary approaches to design that aim to empower groups often excluded in the design of buildings, including Black and Asian women’s organizations, community and childcare groups and lesbian and gay housing co-operatives, to explore more inclusive ways of designing, building and occupying spaces.