St Cross Fellow launches digital exhibition

Items from the exhibition

St Cross College celebrates the launch of Disobedient Buildings, a new digital exhibition by Professor Inge Daniels, Fellow in Anthropology.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Disobedient Buildings is a multi-sited research project examining housing, welfare and wellbeing in the context of ageing and retrofitted high-rise buildings. The exhibition marks the culmination of five years of international research and offers a fresh perspective on how residents experience and sustain everyday life within these often-overlooked environments.

By foregrounding lived experience and participatory research, Disobedient Buildings invites audiences to reconsider the future of housing, shifting attention from demolition towards investment in existing buildings and the communities within them. All are encouraged to send in their thoughts and feedback after viewing the digital exhibition.

Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Central London between 2020 and 2023, the exhibition focuses on six modernist tower blocks facing shared challenges such as ageing infrastructure, social change and evolving housing policy. Through this work, Professor Daniels explores what it means to feel at home in spaces frequently shaped by neglect, stigma and systemic pressures.

At the centre of the exhibition is a rich, multi-sensory archive of materials gathered during the COVID-19 lockdowns. These include postcards, disposable camera photographs and hand-drawn maps created by residents, presented alongside photographs, films and audio recordings produced as part of the research. Together, they illuminate how people create comfort, care and a sense of belonging in their homes.

The exhibition is now live at: exhibition.disobedientbuildings.com