Autonomy-within-relationality : an alternative for architecture after the Global Financial Crisis

Observes how the profession and practice of architecture started to rethink their relations with each other following the Global Financial Crisis - that is, to identify the parameters of architecture in a deregulated neoliberal economy in which the autonomy of architecture is reduced to the minimum layer of a façade or eye-catching forms for a consumer society. Acknowledges autonomy-within-relationality, through which architectural autonomy cannot be understood without the wider ever-changing relations in which it is embedded. Argues that the political in architectural discourse has been wrongly sought within the object itself or in the context in which the object was conceived but that, instead, architecture should be sought in the relations that produce the object. Discusses the notions of object and relation by drawing upon Pier Vittorio Aureli’s idea of autonomy and Nishat Awan, Tatiana Schneider and Jeremy Till’s work on agency. Embeds the theoretical framework through the evolution of Coop Himmelblau’s projects since 1960s, Zaha Hadid’s and Patrick Schumacher’s projects, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo’s consideration of the politics of the building envelope in architectural practice. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.