About
Equal By Design is a 25-minute documentary film about equality, wellbeing and the UK housing crisis. The film shows how seventeenth-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s theories of wellbeing and equality can be used to analyse housing and income inequalities, and how his ideas relate to post-war and current social housing design. It features contributors from the architectural profession, national charities, journalism and academia.
On this website you may view Equal by Design in the main window. In the smaller windows below, there are additional short interviews with contributors that expand on some of the film’s themes.
The film and interviews are freely available to view and share.
From June to December 2016 we asked viewers to complete an audience survey. The survey is now closed. We would be happy to receive feedback via Twitter. We ask for your email address so we can get in touch at a later time, if we seek further audience feedback about the film.
About the film
Equal By Design was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the 3-year project Equalities of Wellbeing.
The film was shot in 2015-16 in London, Oxford and Sheffield (UK), and in Rijnsburg and the Hague (The Netherlands). It was produced in 2016 by Lone Star Productions.
Authors:
Peg Rawes, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
Beth Lord, University of Aberdeen
Director:Â Adam Low
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum
Editor: Joanna Crickmay
Music: George Taylor
Contributors:
Peter Barber, Peter Barber Architects
Danny Dorling, University of Oxford
Alex Ely, Mae Architects
Duncan Exley, former director of The Equality Trust
Deborah Garvey, Shelter
Susan James, Birkbeck College London
Paul Verdugt, Hof van Wouw
Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian
Sarah Wigglesworth, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects
Martin Rosenbaum and Lone Star Productions have a distinguished record producing feature documentaries including Sophie Fiennes’ The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology with Slavoj Zizek, and Jarvis Cocker’s The Big Melt.  Films for television, in collaboration with BAFTA and Emmy Award winning director Adam Low include: Arena: T.S. Eliot (winner of 2010 Grierson Award for Arts); Alan Bennett and the Habit of Art (winner of 2011 Royal Television Society Award for Arts); Frankenstein: A Modern Myth (Silver at 2012 Chicago Film Festival); and BBC Imagine documentary The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2015). Martin Rosenbaum and Adam Low are currently working a major documentary about Alan Bennett and a film for BBC Imagine about artist William Kentridge.
For further information or to arrange a screening, please contact Beth Lord or Peg Rawes.
