In a time of supra-national economic, political and social crises, the architectural profession is acknowledged as necessitating a fundamental restructuring in order to gain both renewed relevance as a discipline and sustainability as day-to-day practice.
In what is arguably a most crucial time for discourse around issues that are concerned with the political, institutional and social shape of worlds to come, this book explores the agency of the project of architecture and its processes of innovation by constructing an opportunistic and contingent map of effectual positions.
The book is built around two sets of questions: the first set of questions concerns itself with the distinction between built objects and actions as the focus of observation, and as objects that are susceptible to innovating, or being innovated. Should discourse deal with the built matter of architecture: buildings – and their effects on our societies, their narratives? Or, on the contrary, should it deal with the system of practices that, together with other systems of practices (that of engineers, contractors, but also sociologists and philosophers) contribute to the production of built objects on a daily basis? Both positions recognize the built world as part of a stratified entanglement of social, economic and political instances. Agency is not a prerogative of human beings: buildings, documents, people, can have different types of agency within a complex process processes of innovation.
The second set of questions concerns itself with the understanding of the relationship between theory and practice, and is defined by two positions: one that looks to theory as a result of practice, another that looks to practice as subsequent to theory. The difference is notable: on one hand, we find the cartesian argument that makes ontology a product of epistemology, and locates the distinctive trait of human nature in our ability to think and formulate complex thoughts – which makes us fundamentally different from other animals, but also from machines. On the other hand, we find the pragmatist claim that ontology leads to technology, which, in some cases, leads to epistemology: technology is developed in the course of action, and exists even without a “preliminary and full” complete comprehension of its functioning. If competence precedes comprehension, knowledge is produced in practice: the interval of possibilities is narrowed down in the course of action and reaction, and effects emerge as a consequence. If, on the other hand, comprehension must precede competence, actions in practice should follow a definition of desirable effects: actants preliminarily define their field of agency, and then act accordingly.
These two axes are used to locate and compare different positions, thus allowing the readers to construct their own readings of what it means to innovate the project of architecture.
ISBN
9781954081550Title
Innovation In Practice In TheoryAuthor
Valeria FederighiPublisher
AR+D PublishingPublication year
2022Binding
SoftcoverLanguage
English