2016 – (Re-)writing the Role of the Architect / Reading the Commons a double exhibition

Today changing territories, altering production modes, and new spatial questions require that architects redefine their roles. An increasing number of contemporary architects question the existing forms of design practice; they want to move away from more conservative roles of architects as top-down planners and explore other ways of doing.

The exposition and accompanying books together construct ‘a theory of practice’, which provides new insights on how architects practice today. This contribution for the Feria del Libro naturally takes writingas a mode of addressing these questions, in a twofold manner. On the one hand, it offers investigations of the role of the architect through the writingof a lexicon, while on the other hand, it shows how the readingof social-spatial practices can play a productive role in architectural research and practice.

LEXICON THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT

With post-graduate students of architecture, we have aimed through ‘A Reasoned Lexicon’ to offer a theoretical horizon to understand how the role of the architect is not an abstract theoretical construct, but part and parcel of the logos and praxis of architects. The contribution includes an exposition of 42 panels, in the form of diptychs which present image and text next to one another. These diptychs re-write the role of the architect by addressing different terms connected to contemporary architectural practice.