English

History and Theory in Architecture IX: Urban Challenges and the Agency of Architecture

Vorlesung History and Theory in Architecture IX (063-0805-23)
Veranstalter: Professur Avermaete
Dozierende: Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete, Dr. Hans Teerds
Zeit: Freitags 08:50 - 09:35
Ort: ETH Hönggerberg HIL E1

Amsterdam, 2019

Political philosopher Hannah Arendt opens her well-known book The Human Condition (1958) with the claim that it is the world that conditions the human being. In her writings, the term world has a specific meaning, distinguished from the term ‘earth’. The latter addresses the globe and its natural circumstances, while the first direct to what human beings make from it in order to inhabit the globe. In order to survive, intervention is needed. Arendt therefore also often urges the world as a world-of-things, a world of artefacts, ranging from infrastructure to cutlery, and from furniture to works of art, from institutions to shelters. In her work, Arendt presents this world-of-things as ‘in-common’: shared by the inhabitants of the world in space and time. Artefacts create the conditions of life, not just of its inhabitants, but also of the larger political communities, and not just now, but also in time.

Though Arendt did not address specifically the role of buildings or landscapes, infrastructure or cities, it is obvious that architecture – as well as urban design, landscape architecture – plays an important role in shaping, constructing and maintaining this world-in-common. Architects after all literally design, construct, and transform buildings and public spaces, streets and housing blocks, squares and parks, courtyards and lobbies that offer spaces for inhabitants to live (together), work, meet, rest, relax, produce, discuss, and so on. Arendt’s claim thus offers a perspective wherein we can understand the political dimension of architecture. By designing, constructing, and transforming the world, architecture defines where and how people meet, it regulates the accessibility of spaces, and shapes the paths and possible movements of its inhabitants. By doing so, it increases (or reduces) the possibilities of interaction, to relate to one another, and to ‘act’ politically (as Arendt would urge).

Starting from this political dimension of architecture this course examines how architectural intervention impacts the world-in-common against the background of the contemporary urban condition. Though this ‘urban condition’ cannot be reduced to a single situation – as it includes sprawling suburbs and historic inner cities, from super-luxury condos to the unbearable conditions of the unhoused, and from cities in the West to cities in the so-called Global South – it is still valuable to stress the impact of ‘urban’ life on earth today. Not only since more than half of the population of the earth lives in cities, nor because of the still predicted growth of cities in the coming decades, but particularly since in urban territories the societal and political challenges of our time are most prominent, tangible, and urgent. Climate change and segregation, the housing issue and the privatization of public space have an enormous impact on the livability, accessibility, plurality, and affordability of cities, and thus on its inhabitants. Since architecture shapes the built environment, and thus the conditions of living, this lecture series questions the impact of architecture – as a practice of design, imagination, construction, planning, transformation, and maintenance – on the urban condition in the context of the contemporary challenges. Arendt’s philosophical framework urges us to think, examine, and understand the responsibility architects and urban designers in this context.

Since the establishment of Greek and Roman city-states philosophers and poets, politicians and sociologists, historians and geographers, economists and artists have reflected upon the city. The lectures therefore will explore a variety of past and current perspectives, not only in order to unlock the pedigree of reflections on cities and its urgent challenges, but also to broaden the scope beyond regular Western-European and North-American discussions on the city. Each lecture examines a particular topic from a variety of positions, which, together, offers a context to address the main question: how can practices of architecture act upon the challenges at hand.

The course consists of weekly, one-hour lectures. Each lecture discusses one topic. The topics are addressed by examining various texts and illustrated with case-studies that highlight crucial moments in the history and developments of cities, bridging between theoretical reflections and physical environments. Students that participate in the course prepare these meetings by reading a fragment of one of the selected core texts. Students finalize this course by writing a short essay, addressing architecture in the context of severe contemporary urban issues.

For more information and further questions, please contact Dr. Hans Teerds, hans.teerds@gta.arch.ethz.ch.

An overview of the course and more information about the assessment can be found in the handout (download).