INTRODUCTION
The volume attempts to show that there is a consistent body of critical thought that exists outside of mainstream architectural discourse, such a body, it is argued, offer an effective means of rethinking architectural theory.
BACKGROUND
20th century > began on a note of optimism with visions of futuristic utopia, it ends on a note of reflection. For instance, it opened with slogans such as 'Towards a New Architecture', it closes with a ' rethinking' of architecture.
Collapse of confidence in the Modern movement
Modernism has been called into question. The 'soulless container architecture' of much contemporary construction is universally despised, yet not all would agree as to what should be the alternative.
Habermas
Habermas detects two broad strains that are polar opposites but that share a common platform in their opposition to modernism as it has evolved. i.e 1
- Those who champion a historical revivalism, a Neo-historicism and those who espouse a post-modern stage set architecture. Both of these reject outright all tenets of modernism.
- Those who seek to rework and reinvigorate the modern movement and who would support critical continuation of modernism
Hal Foster
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- Post-modernism of reaction
It repudiates modernism and seeks refuge in the forms of the past.
- Post modernism of resistance
It is committed to the project of modernism and seeks to rework it through a process of critical re-evaluation.
Theodor Adorno
'Logically, the ageing of modern music should not drive composers back to obsolete forms, but should lead them to an insistent self criticism'
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Architecture is not the autonomous art it is often held out to be. Buildings are designed and constructed within a complex web of social and political concerns. To ignore the conditions under which architecture is practiced is to fail social import of architecture.
Architectural discourse so far has operated largely at a superficial level . For instance, mainstream architectural discourse that revolves around question of form or style. Such debates have tended to be grounded on little more than moralistic arguments that seek their authority in terms such as 'sincerity' and 'appropriateness'. Such debates are trapped in realm of symptoms.
Architecture is the product of way of thinking, If the problems of architecture are to be traced to their roots, then attention needs to focused on the thinking and considerations that informs its production.
STRUCTURE
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PHENOMENOLOGY
- addresses humankind's situatedness in the world and focus on the depthlessness of modern existence.
- Offers a model to probe below the surface and to enquire about that fundamental basis of the human condition.
STRUCTURALISM
- semiological approach address how architecture can be read semantically
POST-MODERNISM
- Post-modernism is necessarily related to the conditions of late capitalism.
- Architectural forms can be seen to constitute the epiphenomena of broader underlying social forces.
POST-STRUCTURALISM
- Question of how architecture might be understood semantically is further elaborated by the post-structuralist contribution.
- emphasis shifts increasingly away from discussion of form towards one of content.
'To go after archtiecture; not in order to attack, destroy or deroute it, to criticize or disqualify it. Rather in order to think it in fact , to detach itself sufficiently to apprehend it in a thought which goes beyond the theorem and becomes a work in its turn