The sociologist Richard Sennett describes cooperation as ‘an exchange in which the participants benefit from the encounter. This behaviour is instantly recognisable in children building a sandcastle or men and women laying sandbags against an impending flood. Instantly recognisable because mutual support is built into the genes of all social animals; they cooperate to accomplish what they can’t do alone.’  

All human endeavour carries risk and reward. Although it sounds beneficial, cooperation can slide into collusion and competition just as easily and quickly as it builds community. Genuine cooperation, as Sennett describes it, ‘is difficult and demanding; it tries to join people who have separate or conflicting interests; who are unequal or who simply do not understand one another. The challenge is to respond to others on their own terms.’  

Since 2022, the AFI has been engaged in a challenging and unusual period of intense collaboration between different groups of people located in different places in the world. Born out of necessity during the global pandemic, we’ve quickly become accustomed to this new way of working, yet at the same time, have had to develop new techniques and strategies to ensure meaningful cooperation. We are reminded of architectural educator Alvin Boyarsky’s concept of the school of architecture as a ‘well-laid table’, his metaphor for an educational model that confronts diversity and divergency head-on.