2025 UP IN THE AIR 
STOP BUILDING! TAKE CARE.
Location
CHARLOTTE MALTERRE-BARTHES (RIOT)

"Stop Building!” Isn't that an easy call to make in the name of sustainability, from our over- built, solidified Western cities? What about the growing population, the comfort standards, the craving for modernity? Seeking to go beyond the provocation, "Stop Building! Take Care.” is an excerpt from the nine demands made by architect and scholar Charlotte Malterre-Barthes ("A Moratorium on New Construction", Sternberg Press, 2025) to interrogate new construction everywhere as the silver bullet for everything, from housing provision to economic wealth. Seeking to expose the mechanisms of space production as grounded in corruption, resource extraction, destruction of agrarian land or demolition, "Stop Building! Take Care.” asks to reconsider and interrogate global growth and newness narratives to instead cherish and maintain what is already there. Acknowledging the legitimate desires for progress while challenging their current implementation, the banner holding these demands cascades from the balcony of AHA collective’s gallery in the heart of Yerevan, transforming a private architectural element into a platform for public discourse, in response to Armenia's ongoing construction boom—characterized by heritage demolition, speculative development without infrastructure provision, and international architectural impositions. A public intervention drawing from activism communication methods, the banner references squat aesthetics, holding the bilingual critical demands from "A Moratorium on New Construction"—a call to stop building new everywhere—designed by Armenian typographer Sargis Antonian into a thoughtful manifest readable to all.

Design & typography: Sargis Antonian
Typeface: StopCondensed (Arm, Latin)
Banner hand production: Kathlyn Kao, RIOT
Curatorial support: Nairi Khatchadourian, AHA collective