Digital Exhibition Launch: Disobedient Buildings
New exhibition from Professor Inge Daniels explores the love and worry of tower block living
Photo credit Inge Daniels.
“The feeling of camaraderie that grew between neighbours”
“My kettle has gone on the blink”
Quotes from participant's postcards
Five years in the making this new exhibition is the culmination of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, Disobedient Buildings. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork across six post-war tower blocks in Soho, the City of London and Islington, the buildings all face shared challenges: ageing infrastructure, social change and shifting housing policies.
The exhibition showcases material collected through the COVID-19 lockdowns including postcards, disposable camera photos and hand-drawn maps. It documents the daily lives and environments of residents between 2020-2023 and forms a multi-sensory archive presented alongside photographs, films and audio recordings created by Daniels.
The packs sent to residents participating in Disobedient Buildings. Photo by Inge Daniels.
Participant photo by Joy.
Participant samples. Photo by Inge Daniels.
Residents’ contributions offer layered insights into the complexities, contradictions and routines that define life in tower blocks. Together, their voices illuminate what residents value, what they struggle with and how they sustain connection in spaces marked by stigma, disinvestment and systemic disregard.
I remember long discussions with neighbours after the Grenfell tragedy about the fire escape; how it is not enough to have one in a large building like ours.
Eszter
One of the featured buildings, Braithwaite House, was the focus of a contentious redevelopment proposal during the period of research. In 2025, plans were withdrawn following a sustained resident-led campaign supported by a team of architects, planners, legal experts and Daniels herself, who advocated as both researcher and neighbour. This reflects the project’s broader ethos of care, solidarity and engaged anthropology.
Disobedient Buildings invites us to rethink the future of housing. Rather than beginning with the demolition that 130 London Estates currently face, it asks what becomes possible when we invest in existing buildings and the people who call them home. The ageing blocks studied are not relics of the past; they are lived-in, deeply loved and cared for environments. The research shows how care, commitment and everyday creativity forge social ties that sustain hope and belonging, even in the face of neglect.
The construction site that surrounds us just needs to go, after 5 + years!
Andrew
The exhibition showcases the love and care that people enact and express for these often maligned homes and their surroundings. The research also highlights how connecting with other people and nature brings joy, inspiration and the occasional mishap.
We have gone through birth, death and marriage together.
Emma
Sometimes, we get foxes that come to steal the food we leave for the cats. All good until you wake up hungover and find them on your sofa staring at you.
Andrei
The award-winning documentary film She Waves at Me, produced by Daniels in 2023, is only available to watch within the exhibition. It juxtaposes the experiences of older residents, capturing the small acts of care that shape life in later years, with the care that goes into maintaining ageing buildings. Age UK has used the film in public discussions on wellbeing and health among older urban residents.
Ageing tower blocks are too easily framed as failures. Listening to residents reveals something else entirely: the everyday work of care that sustains homes and communities despite neglect. The real issue is not just funding, but fairness and what we choose to value in housing. If we want real solutions to the housing crisis, we need to value dignity and security over rising property prices and learn how to care better for what we already have.
Professor Inge Daniels
The Disobedient Buildings Exhibition will be available online for at least five years.
