To mark the launch of I Would Prefer Not To, the project’s creator Ana Miljački sits down with Mario Gooden and Paul Lewis to discuss the refusal of architectural commissions in practice today.

The live conversation will uncover the typically unseen process of architectural refusal and its relevance to the profession as a whole, from the stakes of refusal to the forces that drive and constrain architects’ commissions.

Ana Miljački is a critic, curator and professor of architecture at MIT. She co-curated OfficeUS for the US Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale with Eva Franch i Gilabert and Ashley Schafer. In 2018 Miljački launched the Critical Broadcasting Lab at MIT, a forum for critical curatorial and broadcasting work.

Mario Gooden is the director of Mario Gooden Studio: Architecture + Design. He is a professor of professional practice at Columbia GSAPP, where he is also interim MArch program director and co-director of the Global Africa Lab. He is a member of the board of directors of The Architectural League and is a recipient of the McKim Prize.

Paul Lewis is a principal at LTL Architects in New York City. He is a professor and former associate dean at Princeton University School of Architecture. Lewis is the president of The Architectural League.