LAB—OR is a design practice that works as an ongoing record of the teaching and scholarly work of Jessica Garcia Fritz and Federico Garcia Lammers. Jessica and Federico are faculty members in the School of Architecture (SoA) at the University of Minnesota. They are active members of The Architecture Lobby, and they align with other action-based programs. More details about their work are shared in news and events. Please say hello, contact us.
News and Events
Minneapolis. July 2024. Jessica is collaborating on the organization of an "Indigenous Design Camp" with funding from the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota.
St. Louis. May 2024. Jessica is participating in the "Design Futures Forum" at Washington University.
Minneapolis. March 2024. Jessica is leading a workshop, "Learning to Organize: Power Mapping Tactics", as part of the Design Justice Symposium at the University of Minnesota.
June 2024. Jessica has coauthored a book, "The Organizer's Guide to Architectural Education." with Day, K., Deamer, P., Dietz, A., Forde, T., Geraki, S. P., & Lechêne, V. (Routledge 2024)
Minneapolis. April 2024. Jessica received an Imagine Fund Grant for "Automated Colonization: Contemporary Specifications and the Dispossession of Indigenous Lands."
Minneapolis. December 2023. Jessica and co-principal, Terresa Moses, received a Research Infrastructure Grant for "Stolen Land & Stolen People: Connecting Indigenous Sovereignty and Black Liberation through Design."
Minneapolis. October 2023. Jessica is presenting "Specifying Territories: Colonial Practices of Material Selection," to the faculty in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Minneapolis. August 2023. Jessica is presenting, "Design Justice", at the AIA Minnesota Committee on Equity in the Built Environment AIA Minnesota.
Minneapolis. July 2023. Jessica and Terresa Moses are presenting, "The Semiotics of Flag Design," at the Kusske Lecture & Dialogue in the College of Design.
Eugene. June 2023. Jessica is participating with students in the "Design Futures Public Interest Design Student Leadership Forum" at the University of Oregon.
Urbana-Champaign. June 2023. Jessica is moderating a panel, "Contractors and Contracts" at the Construction History Society of America Biennial.
Urbana-Champaign. June 2023. Jessica is presenting "Specifying Anishinaabe Dispossession through Territories of White Pine Extraction" at the Construction History Society of America Biennial.
Urbana-Champaign. June 2023. Federico is presenting “Improvisational Construction Mechanisms in La Iglesia de Cristo Obrero” with Francesco DiCaprio at the Construction History Society of America Biennial.
Fargo. May 2023. Jessica is moderating a panel, "Otherness: Known and Unknown Territories," at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student North Dakota State University.
Lincoln, Nebraska. May 2023. Federico is an external reviewer for Architecture Thesis at the University of Nebraska.
Chicago. April 2023. Jessica is presenting, "Specifications: Labor, Extraction, and Nation-State Building", at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Chicago. April 2023. Jessica is presenting, "Matter, Materials, and Materiality: Specs Studio", at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Winnipeg, Manitoba. April 2023. Jessica is an external reviewer for Architecture Thesis at the University of Manitoba.
Minneapolis. March 2023. Jessica is moderating a panel, "Justice in Public Health: Design Justice" as part of the Speaker Series SPH Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Minnesota.
November 2022. Federico is contributing to "Field Notes on Design Activism" in Places Journal.
November 2022. Jessica is coauthoring a journal article in Log 54: Coauthoring, "Not as Easy as ABC." with Cayer, A., Chao, A., Day, K., Deamer, P., Dietz, A., Leonard, N. and more.
October 2022. Jessica became a member of the Oceti Sakowin Writers' Society.
October 2022. Federico is co-organizing "Beginnings and Endings" the School of Architecture lecture series with Alex Maymind.
October 2022. Jessica is coauthoring an article in the Journal for Architectural Education, "Beyond Capitalism." with Cayer, A., Chao, A., Day, K., Deamer, P., Dietz, A., Leonard, N. and more.
Minneapolis. September 2022. Jessica became a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota.
Minneapolis. July/August 2022. Jessica and Federico are joining the faculty in the School of Architecture (SoA) at the University of Minnesota. Jessica will be an Assistant Professor and a member of the Design Justice Collective, and Federico will be an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
Virtual. July 18-23, 2022. Jessica is helping to organize the Architecture Beyond Capitalism Summer School. "The ABC 2022 workshop will build on last year’s session, which focused on Capitalism, Labor, and Collectives, by concentrating on studio educational practices."
Brookings. Spring 2022. Jessica and Federico are part of a team that is teaching the DoArch Building Studio. The studio is the largest vertical design studio in the new architecture curriculum. It's a big school house (2-3-4-yr undergrad and 1st-yr grad) with no separate sections or hierarchical distinctions.
Virtual. January 21, 2022. Jessica is presenting Specifying Territories: Colonial Practices of Material Selection at the Construction History Society of America webinar series, "Material Selection and Other Tales of Construction History".
Brookings. September 20, 2021. Jessica and Federico are organizing a Building Arts and Labor Symposium. The symposium is sponsored by DoArch and the South Dakota Humanities Council.
Brookings. Fall 2021. Jessica and Federico are coordinating the first version of the DoArch Research Studios and co-teaching a studio called Specifying Territories: Colonial Practices of Material Selection.
Virtual (Lisbon, Portugal). July 12 - 16, 2021. Jessica will be presenting, The Specification as an Instrument for Colonizing Oceti Sakowin Lands in the Historicizing Material Properties: Between Technological and Cultural History session of the 7th International Congress on Construction History.
Virtual. June 19 - July 31, 2021. Jessica and Federico will be participating in the ABC Summer School (Architecture Beyond Capitalism), organized by The Architecture Lobby.
Virtual (Montreal, Canada). June 17, 2021. Federico is presenting, A Church, a Silo, and a Warehouse: Eladio Dieste’s Gaussian Vaults and the Workers of the Encofrados, at the The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the Canadian Council of University Schools of Architecture (CCUSA) Academic Summit on Architecture.
Auburn. June 10 - 12, 2021. Jessica and Federico, along with DoArch graduate students, Joseph Kenny, Nathaniel Krueger, and Rebecca Woytassek, will be presenting, Labor Movements: From the Specifications of the Panama Canal to Robotic Patents, at the Building Technology Educators' Society conference organized by the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture.
Fayetteville. February 11, 2021. Federico is presenting, The Engineering of an Economía Cósmica through the Construction Labor of Gaussian Vaults, at the University of Arkansas, Fay Jones School of Architecture undergraduate structures class.
London. November 20, 2020. Federico is presenting, "Cosmic Labor: Eladio Dieste and the Workers of La Iglesia de Cristo Obrero" at the God is in the Detail: Labour, Architecture and the Politics of Construction symposium organized by the Architectural Association.
Brookings. November 16 and 18, 2020. Jessica and Federico are coordinating the Specs Studio virtual review at DoArch.
Brookings. August 19, 2020. Jessica and Federico are co-teaching a graduate design studio called Specifications, Regulations, and Other Dull Subjects (Specs Studio) at DoArch.
Brookings. May 15, 2020. Federico received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at South Dakota State University.
New York. April 14, 2020. Jessica's article, Shifting Practices in Twentieth-Century Specification Writing: The Case of the R. Guastavino Company is included in the latest issue of the Technology, Architecture and Design (TAD) Journal, published by Taylor and Francis.
Worcester. April 10, 2020 (Postponed until Fall 2020). The Standardized Demise of the Guastavino Vaulting System. Jessica is lecturing about the politics of specifications at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.
San Diego. March 10, 2020. Federico and the Forensics Studio at DoArch won a AIA/ACSA Practice and Leadership Award. Federico and Jessica are presenting work at the 108th Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture meeting in San Diego, CA.
Norman. March 7, 2020. Federico will be presenting Political Turns: From Spaces of Detention to Spaces of Consumption in Montevideo, Uruguay as part of the Schools of Thought symposium at the University of Oklahoma.
Ithaca. December 11, 2019. Federico is a guest reviewer for Naomi Frangos' Coevolutionary Archetypes studio at Cornell University.
Brookings. November 25, 2019. Memorias of Deep Digs and Constructional Performances studio reviews. Jessica and Federico are teaching two different sections of 4th-year studio at DoArch.
Ames. October 23, 2019. Specifications and the Written Labor of the Guastavino Company. Jessica is lecturing at Iowa State University. Her lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Architecture and the Central Iowa chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute and co-presented by the ISU Consortium for the History of Technology and Science.
Lisbon. July 25, 2019. Matter over Materiality: Lessons on Authority from Eladio Dieste. Federico is presenting a paper at the International Conference on Structures and Architecture in Portugal.
Antwerp. June 28, 2019. I Didn't Do Architecture Today. Student work from the Forensics Studio at DoArch will be exhibited at the Practice of Teaching/Teaching of Practice Conference, organized by the ACSA and European Association for Architectural Education at the University of Antwerp.
Amherst. June 20, 2019. Synchronic and Diachronic Labor: Deconstructing Eladio Dieste's Ruled Surfaces. Design/Lift: An Extra Beam in a Park. Automated Comprehensiveness: Sectional Practices and the Misuse of Revit. Jessica and Federico are presenting two papers and a project at the Building Technology Educators' Society Conference at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Brookings. May 30, 2019. Written Architecture: How Specification Standards Dissolved the Role of the Master Builder. Eduardo Torroja and the Engineering of Technocratic Authority in Franco’s Spain. Jessica and Federico will be presenting two papers at the 21st Annual Conference of The Space Between Society: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945, at South Dakota State University.
Brookings. April 25, 2019. Labor Atlas: Imaging Construction in the work of Eladio Dieste will be on display as part of the 2019 Building Shop Exhibit at DoArch.
Pittsburgh. March 28, 2019. Building the Resistance: Eladio Dieste's Digital Work in Cerámica Armada. Dull Professional Data from Ordinary Precedents. Professional Landscapes at the End of Education. Specification Species: How the Standard Shaped the Guastavino System. Federico and Jessica are are presenting one paper and three projects at the 107th Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Conference at Carnegie Mellon University.
Denver. March 14, 2019. The Post-orthographic Tinkerbell Effect. Federico and Jessica are presenting two papers about contemporary media at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student at the University of Colorado, Denver.
Boston. February 01, 2019. The Mortar Pavilion is included in the first issue of Architectural Labor, designed by uxo architects and printed by Flash Print.
Brussels. July 09, 2018. From Master Builder to Subcontractor: The Guastavino Company and the Role of Specifications. Jessica is presenting at the 6th International Congress on Construction History hosted at the Palace of the Academies in Brussels.
London. June 05, 2018. The Art of Labor: Collaborative Practices in the Work of Eladio Dieste. Federico is presenting at the Architecture_Media_Politics_Society (AMPS), Tangible-Intangible Heritage(s) Conference at the University of East London.
Maryland. May 25, 2018. Gaussian Vault Construction During the Civico-Military Dictatorship in Uruguay. Federico is presenting at the Construction History Society of America Biennial at the University of Maryland.
Denver. March 15, 2018. Unmediated Matter and Catenary Practices. Federico is presenting in the Media Investigations session at the 106th Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Conference at the University of Colorado.
Cincinnati. March 19, 2018. Four Centuries Across Four Weeks for One Book. Federico is presenting work from the DoArch Uruguay Study Abroad program at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student at the University of Cincinnati.
Winnipeg. February 02, 2018. Master Building Complex Forms in the Absence of Graphics. Jessica and Federico are presenting at the Atmosphere 10 Symposium at the University of Manitoba.
Marfa. October 12, 2017. Sectional Practices: Between Archaeology and Generation. Eladio Dieste: A Network of Precise Errors. Jessica is presenting in the Design Methods: Working Across Boundaries session and Federico is presenting in the Architecture at the Edge: Emergent Views session at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Fall Conference in Marfa, TX.
Fargo. October 11, 2017. Action into Theory: Constructing the Building Arts. Jessica and Federico are presenting at LEVEL: A Symposium on Gender Equity in the Design of the Built Environment hosted by North Dakota State University and the North Dakota Arts and Humanities Council.
Detroit. March 23, 2017. Material Labor: Eladio Dieste and Ruled Surfaces. Federico is presenting in the Materials session at the 105th Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Conference hosted by the Lawrence Tech. University, University of Michigan, and Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Salt Lake City. March 10, 2017. Matter of Ruled Surfaces: Eladio Dieste for Beginners. Federico is presenting at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student at the University of Utah.
Santiago. July 29, 2016. The Dark God of Efficiency and the Economical Forms of Eladio Dieste. Jessica and Federico are presenting in the Pre-Modern Training For a Postmodern Practice session at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture International Conference at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Austin. May 26, 2016. The Decline of the Guastavino Company and the Rise of Eladio Dieste. Jessica and Federico are presenting in the Shells & Spatial Structures session at the Construction History Society of America Biennial at the University of Texas, Austin.
Porto. April 20, 2016. Origins from Washun Niya: Sacred Space as Contested Territory. Jessica and Federico are presenting at the Genius Loci, Places and Meanings Conference hosted by the Center for Transdisciplinary Research: Culture, Memory and Space at the University of Porto, Faculty of Arts and Letters. Porto, Portugal.
San Luis Obispo. February 26, 2016. Constructing the Gothic Vault in the Digital Age: Lessons in Accuracy and Precision / Public Failure: A Chronicle of #$%! Gone Wrong / Lessons in Precision and Accuracy. Jessica and Federico are presenting at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student at California Polytechnic.
Minneapolis. November 18, 2015. Unprecedented Histories: How the @#$% is that Made? Jessica and Federico are giving a Design at Noon lecture at the University of Minnesota.