History and Theory in Architecture IX. Urban Challenges and the Agency of Architecture

Abstract

This course offers a brief introduction to the city and its challenges, questioning the role of architectural and urban design facing these challenges. In a series of thematic lectures, the course explores how architectural and urban design has addressed and can address societal and urban questions.

Objective

This course aims to offer a reflection upon the agency of design in the context of the city and its societal challenges.

Content

In his famous book The Architecture of the City the Italian architect Aldo Rossi argues that architectural agency engages with the world in a twofold manner: (1) it is urged by the incentive to improve the world, and (2) to do so with an aesthetic appeal. Both aspects should be kept close together – an architecture that is focused solely on aesthetics has lost its societal and political calling, while an architecture that lost its aesthetic appeal, lost its instrument to establish a world-in-common. This view is close to the insight of philosopher Hannah Arendt, who argued that the world is a world-in-common. It is shared with others. Architecture shapes this world physically, through the design and construction of various buildings and public spaces, streets, housing blocks, squares, terraces, tables, courtyards, lobbies, and so on. Arendt stresses this physical world-in-common by urging how this world impacts the life contained by it: it creates the conditions of life, not just of its inhabitants, but also of the larger political communities, and not just now, but also in time. The world, as shaped by architecture, defines, for instance, where and how people meet. Architecture impacts and regulates the accessibility of spaces, and by doing so, it impacts the plurality of its users (or reduces it). Starting from this political dimension of architectural and urban design, which is not only related to the incentive to intervene, but also to its aesthetic appeal, this course explores the insight how architectural interventions shape the world-in-common. Architects and urban designers, in this perspective, then have a responsibility to engage with this world and its challenges. This view is examined at the background of contemporary urban developments, questioning how architecture can have a (positive) impact on the huge societal challenges that cities face today. What impact can design have on processes of gentrification and segregation, climate change and poverty? Architecture and urban design are obviously not the only scholarly fields addressing these urban challenges. Since the establishment of Greek and Roman city-states philosophers and poets, politicians and sociologists, historians and geographers, economists and artists have reflected upon the city. The lectures will explore a variety of past and current perspectives, not only in order to unlock the pedigree of reflections, but also to broaden the scope beyond regular Western-European and North-American discussions on the city. Each lecture therefore examines a particular topic from a variety of positions, which, together, offers a context to address the question how architecture can act upon the challenges at hand. The course consists of weekly, one-hour lectures. Each lecture discusses one particular topic at a time. The topics are addressed by examining various texts and illustrated with case-studies that highlight crucial moments in the history and developments of cities, bridging between theoretical reflections and architectural interventions. Students that participate in the course prepare the meetings by reading a fragment of one of the selected core texts. The course is finalised by writing a short essay during the final meeting. Overview of lectures: Lecture 01 – Introduction Lecture 02 – Politics Lecture 03 – Public Space Lecture 04 – Plurality Lecture 05 – Housing Lecture 06 – Capital Lecture 07 – Production Lecture 08 – Technology Lecture 09 – Migration Lecture 10 – Architectural Agency

Resources