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Charlotte Malterre-Barthes is an architect, urban designer, and Assistant Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), where she leads the laboratory RIOT (Ig).

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes argues that to build is to destroy. Every element of the built environment — from steel and concrete to wood and insulation — stems from extractive, polluting processes. Driven by profit-oriented economies, the global production of space keeps expanding, with severe consequences for climate, land, water, humans, and non-humans alike.

At the same time, housing is both a human right and a central task of the design disciplines. How can we balance the urgent need for housing with the destructive nature of construction itself?

A moratorium on new construction — even a temporary one — opens space for radically rethinking how we produce and inhabit our built environment. Rather than pursuing endless growth, Malterre-Barthes calls for revaluing what already exists: redistributing housing, adopting anti-extractive practices, reforming education and office culture, and reshaping design and construction processes.

Her latest publication A Moratorium on New Construction is both a thought experiment and a call to action — a leap toward a less extractive future built from what we already have: building less, reusing what exists, inhabiting differently, and caring more deeply for our shared environment.

Date: Wednesday 3 December 2025
Time: 7.50pm doors | 8pm Start lecture | 9.15pm End
Location: Academy of Architecture
Address: Waterlooplein 211-213, 1011 PG Amsterdam
Tickets: Reguliar € 9,-
Free: Emplyees and Students Academy of Architecture – free (via Ticket button)

NB: English spoken lecture