The fourth upcoming Footprint issue will explore current engagements with theory in architectural practice and criticism. The crisis of theory has become a constant. The ’big schools‘ of thought, such as marxism and critical theory, no longer seem able to structure the humanities across disciplinary boundaries.
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The fourth upcoming Footprint issue will explore current engagements with theory in architectural practice and criticism. The crisis of theory has become a constant. The ’big schools‘ of thought, such as marxism and critical theory, no longer seem able to structure the humanities across disciplinary boundaries. Likewise, the project of a Theory that would directly guide architectural practice has lost its appeal. And yet, architecture as a discipline has not given up on theory. Recent calls for a ’post-critical‘ or ’post-theoretical‘ approach have only affirmed the continuing desire to theorise architectural production. But how then to engage theory in contemporary practice?
To grasp what is exactly at stake in current debates, we believe the notion of agency is paramount. In discussions about the architect’s societal position - as autonomous creator, self-interested professional, victim to market forces, resistive agent, ’enabler,’ or ’urban catalyst‘- as much as about the role of the user - as empowered citizen, producer of urban space, ’self-organizing‘ entity or ’everyday bricoleur‘ - the notion of agency is often as fundamental as it is taken for granted. At the same time, recent preoccupations with the material and performative dimension of architecture have led to new ways of understanding agency in architecture. Whether focusing on surface and aesthetic animation or the socio-political efficacy of the architectural project, they potentially reframe the question of criticality. This call for papers therefore aims to expand our theoretical understanding of agency in architecture, thus furthering Footprint’s earlier investigations into architecture theory, particularly in its inaugural issue.
We welcome historical and theoretical contributions that move the notion of agency in architecture beyond the opposition between the architect and the user, between mainstream and alternative, and between critical and ’projective‘ practice. We particularly look forward to theoretical speculation on alternative definitions of agency, such as object-based and historical agencies that frame and pre-code contemporary practices; repercussions of ideological and disciplinary battles in the built environment; the shifting cultures of expertise and the emerging distinction between central and peripheral agency; the active force of architectural representation and public images in space; and the power of theoretical fashions that often play a predominant if not legitimising role in architectural design.
The fourth Footprint issue will be published in April 2009. The deadline for submissions is 10 December 2008. Authors interested in submitting a contribution are requested to submit an abstract of max 500 words to the editors before 20 September 2008. For abstract/paper submissions and all other correspondence, please contact the editors (I.H.L.Doucet(at)tudelft.nl and Cupers(at)fas.harvard.edu – replace the (at) with @)
Paper submission