Bernard tschumi architecture disjunction

As early as 1973, Manfredo Tafuri wrote that вЂњarchitecture as the ideology of the plan is swept away by the reality of the planвЂќ when the economic forces at work no longer require architectural ideology to justify the plan.

But what this Major Architectural perspective ignores is the architectвЂ™s relative insignificance in shaping of the contemporary city. This narrative, which privileges the ideas and innovations of architecture over various economic, political and technical forces justifies the actions of starchitects, who are viewed as the new authors of the architectural future. If starchitecture is a contemporary practice of the Major, there is a corresponding Major Architectural historical narrative that accompanies and justifies this practice. Starchitecture, the fascination with which occupies an inordinate amount of the conversation in architecture schools and architectural magazines, is, however, only one aspect of what we might call the вЂњMajorвЂќ in architecture. In the discipline of architecture, the academic institutions and many enlightened publications have witnessed a broad protest to what we call вЂњstarchitectureвЂќ: typically large budget, grandiose projects designed by a relatively small group of architectural вЂњstarsвЂќ (folks like Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, etc.). Yet, rather than only serving as a descriptive theory, which attempts to explain the significance of the misuse of space, this essay also proposes a discursive strategy that can be harnessed by spatial and urban thinkers and designers, so that they may make a self-conscious use of urban hacking as an informed and self-conscious practice that everyday people participate in.

This essay examines contemporary misuses of urban space, finding theoretical lineages of these behaviors, and theorizing how an intentional misuse of the city and its existing features may be essential for twenty-first century urban life.

Bernard tschumi architecture disjunction