Despite our skill and experience in manipulating space and material, architects are incapable of addressing the needs of society unless they have first been explicitly asked to do so. Unsolicited architects do not wait to tackle the big issues often overlooked by the market. They create briefs where none are written, discover sites where none are owned, approach clients where none are present, and find financing where none is available. Unsolicited architecture offers an alternative to a reactive, service-oriented role, and instead calls for a new, more socially-motivated approach to procuring projects.

First introduced in issue 14 of Volume, unsolicited architecture is being re-presented at the extra/ordinary conference in Sydney between April 22-24, to continue spreading the unsolicited message. The bootleg, a transfusion of the Volume archive and new material, sketches out case studies and financial modeling along with interviews by unsolicited practitioners – and the essential twelve steps to becoming an unsolicited architect.

Don’t wait for the phone to ring, architects. Read the twelve steps and be on your way. The bootleg edition of Volume magazine, initiated by Anneke Abhelakh, Rory Hyde and Timothy Moore is now available on Issuu.