THE DREAM – PLAY – CHALLENGE PROJECT Facing up to the crisis in residential living.

Editors' introduction. Eds. Sarah Riviere & Wiltrud Simbuerger

Riviere, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1629-6370 and Simbuerger, Wiltrud (2023) THE DREAM – PLAY – CHALLENGE PROJECT Facing up to the crisis in residential living. In: THE DREAM – PLAY – CHALLENGE PROJECT. Facing up to the crisis in residential living. Eds. Riviere, Sarah & Simbuerger, Wiltrud. Jovis / De Gruyter, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-98612-078-8

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Abstract / Summary

This introduction by Sarah Riviere and Wiltrud Simbuerger describes how the Dream – Play – Challenge Project sets up a different form of creative exchange that enables architectural practice to address current challenges in a new way.

It sets out how the Dream - Play - Challenge methodology developed by Riviere & Simbuerger can uniquely inform architectural design and practice in the future, extending the inclusive approaches of intersectional feminism to the real challenges of both design and practice.

The introduction includes academic references and acknowledgements. It gives an accessible and inspiring overview of the Dream-Play-Challenge concept for the lay-reader with a description of the link to intersectional feminism.

This introductory essay introduces the first Dream - Play - Challenge publication, describing how forty international researchers came together at the first symposium to dream into future ways of residing, playfully co-creating more vibrant and just spaces of exchange through the dream-play-challenge methodology.

The Introduction sets out the foundations to the Dream - Play - Challenge Project, showing how it is grounded in feminist discourse. Following publication of this Introduction, Professor of Architectural History (UCL), Jane Rendell, refenced the impact of the Dream - Play - Challenge Project to ongoing feminist activism. In Rendell, Jane (2022) "Feminist Architectural Figurations" in Hadad, The Contested Territory of Architectural Theory (Routledge, 2022) Rendell described Dream - Play - Challenge as being part of a significant contribution to feminist architectural activism as follows:
"Performative interventions and events- based activities are core to this [social engaged practice], as are conferences that include design as well as history and theory. The International Congress of Architecture and Gender’s ‘Matrices’ (2017) and ‘ACTION’ (2021), and the recent Berlin- based 'Dream- Play- Challenge’ (2021) have re- connected and re- imagined the kinds of work – political activism, policy, advocacy, and access – which animated feminist architecture in the 1970s." (Rendell, 2022).

This introduction was published as part of the first Dream-Play-Challenge symposium, and was funded by Lotto Berlin and the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The full publication with edited papers by participants is available separately from Jovis Verlag, Berlin.

Since this publication, the DPC project has continued with two further public workshops applying DPC to the theme of Sustainability in Architecture.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	residential architecture; architectural methodology; Berlin symposium; Nordic Embassies; activism; architectural practice; dream - play - challenge;
ISBN:	978-3-98612-078-8
Subjects:	Architecture Research Sustainability & Environment
Department:	School of Architecture, Design & Interiors
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Sarah Riviere
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2026 15:07
Last Modified:	29 Jul 2026 15:20
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/5305

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