Research Project
Aesthetics of Resistance

This research project studies the interaction between social and political engagement and architecture and urban design. Within this overarching research project, Doucet and Gosseye pursue several subprojects, one of which – the current one – focuses on the architect’s own home. This subproject departs from the hypothesis that the design of the architect’s own home allows for greater experimentation than is possible in commissioned work, and affords architects the opportunity to formulate political, social and cultural critiques. When architects use their own home to channel such critiques, they embark on a tense yet productive balancing act between “aesthetics” and “resistance”. Because even if the architect’s own home is used as a vehicle of resistance, its design often also has to be aesthetically pleasing – to act as a calling-card for prospective clients. Through the focus on one particular type – the architect’s home – this subproject thus examines the capacity of architectural design to formulate critiques that resonate beyond the bounds of the discipline, resulting in a specific form of the “aesthetics of resistance”.

In 2018, Doucet and Gosseye published a position paper on the activist potential of the architect’s own home in Architecture Australia.

Contact

Dr. Ir. Janina Gosseye