Shifting archi(text)ure: Notes on a discourse

Abstract

The final issue of Assemblage marks a new form of discourse in architecture: compilations of short responses to general provocations about architecture from numerous writers active in the field. Why are polls of this nature being taken now? The provocations imply a fundamental uncertainty, a gnawing existential angst. This trend relates to a current fascination in the broader architectural discourse with self-organizing systems. Yet self-organizing discourse fails to resolve the fundamental issues concerning architecture. In fact, soliciting input and disseminating it in this fashion, with no attempt at synthesis, provides a false sense of accomplishment. This shifts focus away from the question generating crisis and may contribute to dissolution of the discipline of architecture as we know it through appropriation by an emerging body of thought on the broader role of creativity and aesthetics in culture. The question then becomes, who cares? Architectural autonomy and critical practice are at stake.