Agency—Agency: Tei Carpenter

What does it mean to practice architecture?

Tei Carpenter: I come from a background in philosophy and visual art. Practicing architecture became a synthesis of those two disciplines, having a broader outlook on things and being able to step back conceptually. What I liked about architecture was the frictions and the tensions that are introduced as a result of the reality that it hits up against. And the possibilities of publicness—the possibilities of experience, not just in a gallery setting, but in a much more public dimension. Architecture is a commitment, and it takes persistence. Fundamentally, at the end of the day, it is really about practicing. You learn through projects, and it’s this layering of information and experience over time. And eventually, you develop what that practice is and how it can become nimble and agile enough to deal with the challenges in the world right now.

Many of your projects seem to be interested in everyday ritual or routine. What are your own everyday rituals that are important to the way you practice architecture?

It’s such a funny question because with COVID, and also having a child, there’s a lot of disruption, and a lot of destabilization. But I get up really, really early in the morning and have quiet time to think and reflect on what I’m doing, and to set out what I need to get done in a day. I also try to get out of the office, go out to see things. I usually do better thinking when I’m not at my desk, when I’m taking a walk around the block or on the subway or something. There’s a level of organization that’s required, on a really pragmatic level, but I think it’s important to have a looseness around doing the production work to make space for thinking, rather than constantly reacting to every single email.

You have developed a number of projects that engage with urgent and complex ecological issues relating to waste—Pla-Kappa, Testbed, Hamilton Gears Reuse Park. How do you envision your role as an architect relative to these issues? Relatedly, when you work on these kinds of often large and speculative projects, how do you think about the relationship between your disciplinary expertise and interest in interdisciplinary collaboration?