ABSTRACT
Live Projects can be used to develop professional skills and/or to enable the development of critical consciousness, which can be seen to parallel the distinction between emergency and crisis. Producing spaces for Live Projects that are in-between emergency and crisis creates a two-fold pedagogical opportunity. This chapter therefore considers to what extent Live Projects can facilitate critical reflection in aspiring architects. Like Live Projects, disasters - natural or man-made; physical, economic, or cultural - give rise to contradictory responses, needs, and desires. The chapter reviews how the crises that develop after disaster are as much the symptom of a system's inability to cope with change as they are a result of the disaster itself. Indeed, the words crisis and critical are both etymologically derived from the Greek word krinein, meaning 'able to discern' or 'judge'. In short, Live Projects in 'gaps' can re-create or replace lost amenity and create an ethically informed alternative.
