Axl Books

Architecture, Critique, Ideology: Writings on Architecture and Theory, Paperback/Sven-Olov Wallenstein

To what extent can the relation between the theory and practice of architecture be understood as critical ? Instead of setting one against the other, should we not instead linger on the "and" that links them here, which not only allows us to understand their conjunction as a historically variable intersection, but also highlights the idea of critique as an activity that points towards a splitting and a division that shatters the present, and renders not just the future but even the past open? And might not such a dissolution of a conventional temporal axis provide us access to a history that is, precisely like the future, a space of possibilities, in which critique and creation continually call upon each other? Drawing on a long philosophical tradition from Kant to Adorno and Deleuze, as well on a series of debates in architectural and artistic discourse from the sixties onward, this book explores the possibility of reframing critical theory in a contemporary theoretical landscape that today seems more difficult to chart than ever. Thinking philosophy through architecture, and architecture through philosophy, it argues for a critique as an intervention that must continually redraw the line between concepts and things, words and objects. Sven-Olov Wallenstein is professor of philosophy at S dert rn University.