Contra*

Latest episode

6 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 6 min

Conversation 5: Takeaways with Aimi Hamraie, Jos Boys, Scar Barclay and Paul DeFazio

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘takeaways,’ brings together themes and tensions arising over the series. It reflects on what worked with the format, the themes which arose and what questions we did not get around to. This episode features all of the people from The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Critical Design Lab who coordinated this series. This includes Aimi Hamraie (they/them) who is a disabled designer, researcher and…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

1. 

   30 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 13 min

   Conversation 4: Antifascism with Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Paul DeFazio and Scar Barclay

   Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘anti-fascism,’ attends to the rise in right-wing, populist movements and their rhetoric. It asks what it means to continue to operate against the political pendulum, how to find gaps for resistance and how to fortify our movements in the face of erasure. It swings between the need to be legible to hold on to the basics of functional access versus a desire for illegibility and more expansive notions…

2. 

   23 Mar 2026 · 58 min

   Conservation 3: Who Counts with Micha Frazer-Carroll and Samir Pandya

   Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘who counts,’ explores which bodyminds are thought of as productive. We are thinking about histories of systemic ableism and racism and how to go about challenging architecture’s understanding of diverse identity and lived experience, so that Disabled lives and experience is rightfully valued. This episode features Micha Frazer-Carroll (she/her), a writer and journalist who is a former editor of…

3. 

   16 Mar 2026 · 54 min

   Conversation 2: Care with Teeth with Anthony Clarke and Jeff Kasper

   Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘care with teeth,’ takes its name from the expression “joy with teeth” in Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human (2024) by Cole Arthur Riley. It considers the plurality of care, what it means to fiercely care and be cared for, care as a radical embedded practice and one which brings with it at times conflict and challenge. This episode features Jeff Kasper (he/him), an…

4. 

   9 Mar 2026 · 51 min

   Conversation 1: Access Washing with Karen Braitmayer and Natasha Trotman

   Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘access washing,’ an expression coined by Stacey Milbern, considers the power dynamics in the design process and projects, where and how Disabled practitioners are involved, and to what extent ‘access’ is understood on a deep, systemic rather than superficial level. This episode features Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA (she/her), a licensed architect and accessibility specialist who is a full-time…

5. 

   2 Mar 2026 · 15 min

   Intro: Round Tower with Jos Boys and Aimi Hamraie

   Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, the introduction to our series, takes place at the Round Tower, Rundetårn, in Copenhagen. It was recorded just as we were planning the series when Jos and Aimi found themselves in the city at the same time. This tower, completed in 1642 for Christian IV of Denmark, features an equestrian ramp which would enable a horse and carriage to rise 34.8m to the observatory at the top. This ramp is not accessible…

6. 

   1 Dec 2025 · 42 min

   For Alice Wong

   This episode celebrates Alice Wong, crip ancestor and disabled oracle, through her collaborations with the Critical Design Lab and Contra* podcast.

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