What is Architecture?

Kaaba, Mecca

Marco Vitruvio PollioneDe Architectura30-15 B.C.

Charles-Dominique-Joseph EisenFrontispiece of Marc-Antoine Laugier’sEssai sur l'Architecture1755

Giovanni Antonio BelmondoFrontispiece of Bernardo Antonio Vittone’s Istruzioni Elementari pe’ l’indirizzo dei giovani allo studio dell’Architettura Civile1760

Hans HolleinEverything is architectureBAU #1/2, 1968

8 definitions of architecture

Antonio MonestiroliLa Metopa e il Triglifo2002

28 definitions of architecture

Nicola Braghieri and Monica BruzzoneLaboratorio di Fondamenti della Progettazione Architettonica 1, Università di Genova2007

70 definitions of architecture

Julie Marthe Hoffmann, Luca De Giorgi, Olaf H GrawertWhat is Architecture?www.whatisarchitecture.cc

121 definitions of architecture

Becky Quintal121 definitions of architectureArchdaily, 17 October 2016

The definition of architecture makes visible the value that is given to it in the moment in which it is formulated.

Antonio MonestiroliLa Metopa e il Triglifo2002

What is Architecture?

What is the system of phenomena and discourses that I am interested in bringing back to the idea of architecture in this precise historical moment, given that my knowledge and taste are limited by a specific frame of experiences and that I have specific intentions as researcher and teacher?

What are the architectures I like?

Frontispiece to Thomas Huxley’s Evidence as to man's place in Nature1863

Piit-RiversExamples of evolutionary series of technical objects1862

Friedrich KieslerMorphology-Chart of Three Types of Technological Products1939

Evolutionary tree

Charles JencksEvolutionary tree of architecture1970s-2010s

Adrian MeyerArchitecture – A Synoptic Vision2008

Alejandro Zaera-Polo & Guillermo Fernandez AbascalArchitecture's Political Compass2016

Rem Koolhaas, Madelon VriesendorpThe City of the Captive Globe Project1972

Richard DawkinsThe Selfish Gene1976

Luca SilenziKnow your [archi-]meme2012

Luca SilenziKnow your [archi-]meme2012

Osman KahnHow music travels2011

Tree VS Rhizome

Simon RaperGraphing the history of philosophy2012

Social Media Research FoundationGraph representing a network of 3,758 Twitter users whose tweets in the requested range contained "futureofwork", or who were replied to or mentioned in those tweets. The network was obtained from the NodeXL Graph Server on Tuesday, 30 May 2017 at 11:34 UTC.

LinkedIn network visualization

2. What do the architects I like do?

“SABR”

Peter ZumthorBruder Klaus chapel2007

ElasticoSPA1301iNN2013

Gabinete de ArquitecturaQuincho TíaCoral2015

Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton One week1920

Lacaton & VassalNantes Architecture School2009

Santiago CirugedaKuvas S.C.1997

Toni GironèsArchaeological Museum in Serò2012

Marcel DuchampFountain1917

Office for Political Innovation12 Actions to make Peter Eisenman Transparent2002

Rotor DeconstructionSalvaging floor tiles from Val-Benoît, Liège

Forensic ArchitecturePro-Government strikes on M2 hospital, Aleppo, SyriaJune-December 2016

Once the normative place of beauty is destroyed there is no obvious way to logically isolate aesthetic judgement. Hence the "concept" of art can change depending on the social agreements under which art develops.

To make art is at the same time to define art.

Because history remains open to the future, the future meanings of art cannot be determined in advance. The present therefore is fundamentally open to the risk of new praxis and meaning.

(John Roberts, Revolutionary Time and the Avant-Garde, 2016)

3. What do the architectures I like deal with?

Media

SUBJECT MEDIA OBJECT

SUBJECT MEDIA OBJECT

Leon Battista AlbertiDe Re AedificatoriaI a.C.

Le Corbusier & Amédée OzenfantL’Esprit Nouveau1920-25

Sergei EisensteinSequences diagram for Battleship Potemkin1924---Le CorbusierVilla Meyer1925

ArchigramArchigram Magazine #51964

Radical DesignCasabella #3671972

Every NYT front page since 1852

Erik Kessels24HRS in photos2011

DOMOData never sleeps 4.02015

Philipp SchaererBildbauten2007-2009

Andrew KovacsArchive of Affinities

Andrew KovacsPlan for a 9 Square Grid2012

Davide TrabuccoConfórmi

Davide TrabuccoVS2016

Luca GalofaroUnfolding Pavilion2016

Beniamino ServinoPennata con addizione nerviana/Pennata housing with external profusion2013

Carmelo BaglivoUntitled2014

Aby WarburgAtlas Mnemosyne1924-29

Fala AtelierPublic library2013

LGSMANew Cyprus Museum2016

Bureau SpectacularThe Pool House2015

Capital

SUPERSTRUCTURE / IDEOLOGY

BASE / ECONOMY

ArtFamilyCultureReligionPhilosphyEducationSciencePoliticsMediaLaw...

MeansRelationsCommodities

...

Ricardo BofillDior Perfume Bottles1983

MIPIM Cannes2016

A supermarket

Vanity Height

Elenberg Fraser ArchitectsPremier Tower, Melbourne2016

Zaha Hadid ArchitectsCityLife residential complex2014

Hangzhou2013

BIGThe Spiral2016

Battersea Power Station ad

Frank GehryLouis Vuitton Iconoclast bag2014

Stefano Boeri ArchitettiBosco Verticale2014

Stefano Boeri ArchitettiBosco Verticale2014

Stefano Boeri ArchitettiBosco Verticale2014

Stefano Boeri ArchitettiBosco Verticale2014

Stefano Boeri ArchitettiBosco Verticale2014

Stefano Boeri ArchitettiBosco Verticale2014

STEFANOBOERIARCHITETTI,RenovationofNo.501JiujingRd,Shanghai,2015

Stefano Boeri ArchitettiVertical forests

Bubble

Wall Street crash2008

The Big Short2015

The Big Short2015

The Big Short2015

Vallecas

Seseña

Simona RotaInstant Village I: Tenerife2011

Simona RotaInstant Village II: Fuerteventura 2011

Julia Schulz-DornburgRuinas Modernas2012

Julia Schulz-DornburgRuinas Modernas2012

CadelasverdesSpanish Dreams2013

CadelasverdesSpanish Dreams2013

Carlos Quintáns, Iñaqui CarniceroUnfinished / Spanish Pavilion at Biennale di Venezia2016

Basurama, Ecologistas enacción, Medit_Urban, NaciónRotonda, Neo-RuinasRuinas contemporaneas - Real Estate Corpses2016

Bubblescapes2010-2016

Bubblescapes2010-2016

Bubblescapes2010-2016

Bubblescapes2010-2016

Bubblescapes2010-2016

Studio AlboriDomestication of an eco-monster2008

Aldo Rossi, Gianni BraghieriExtension of San Cristoforo Station1983-1991

Studio AlboriDomestication of an eco-monster2008

Studio AlboriDomestication of an eco-monster2008

Le CorbusierMaison Dom-Ino1915

Le CorbusierUnité d'Habitation Prefabricated Cell1947

Frei OttoÖkohaus1982-87

Scarcity

Graffiti in Norwich2012

Solano Benitez’s housemaid broom-fumigator

Although austerity and scarcity are inevitably intertwined — the regimes of austerity induce real scarcities — austerity is not the same as scarcity. Austerity is the outcome of the ideologies of neo-liberalism, whereas scarcity is a higher-level condition that both drives those ideologies and also threatens them.

Jeremy TillScarcity contra Austerity2012

Austerity

ElementalQuinta Monroy2003

Scarcity

Lacaton & VassalMulhouse Social Housing2005

Lacaton & VassalPalais de Tokyo2001-2012

Lacaton & VassalPalais de Tokyo2001-2012

Lacaton & VassalPalais de Tokyo2001-2012

Lacaton & VassalPalais de Tokyo2001-2012

Lacaton & VassalPalais de Tokyo2001-2012

Gabinete de ArquitecturaEsmeraldina house2000

Arturo FrancoNave 8B2009

H ArquitectesCasa 7122011

Destruction

Minoru YamasakiPrutt-Igoe Complex1954-1972

Minoru YamasakiWorld Trade Center1973-2001

The Ring at Blackfriars1783-1940

Orbit House1960s-1998

Will AlsopPalestra2006

Gordon Matta-ClarkConical Intersect1975

Gordon Matta-ClarkConical Intersect1975

OMA / AMOHermitage Museum2003-2005

De Vylder Vinck TaillieuTwiggy2011

Eduardo Souto de MouraMusic School at former Carandà Market1984-2011

ARCHITECTURE

REPRESENTATIONS

OBJECTS MEDIA

DISCOURSES

TextsImagesAudiosVideos...

HistoricalTheoreticalCritical

Promotional...

BooksMagazinesWebsites

Social media...

ManufactsPlaces

IndividualsSociety...

REPRESENTATIONS

OBJECTS MEDIA

DISCOURSES

TextsImagesAudiosVideos...

HistoricalTheoreticalCritical

Promotional...

BooksMagazinesWebsites

Social media...

ManufactsPlaces

IndividualsSociety...

Economy

Technology

Power

Culture

A thousand architecturesA thousand fronts