Call for Submissions

“Buildings are objects and the act of building leads to such objects, but architecture is something else…architecture is a way of representing, shaping and perhaps even offering critical alternatives to the human-made environment.”
–Aaron Betsky from the 11th Architecture Biennale, Venice

In the mid-1960s, when institutions generally were coming under intense scrutiny for their inwardly-focused, self-interested and often elitist positions, Bernard Rudofsky’s exhibit/book Architecture without Architects took on the institution of architecture by pointing to a rich vernacular history of building, “produced not by specialists but by the spontaneous and continuing activity of a whole people.” Similar provocations followed, from Hans Hollein (“Everyone is an architect. Everything is architecture.”) and Archigram (Peter Cook: “The prepackaged frozen lunch is more important than Palladio.”) among numerous others, many of whom would become influential in education and practice. Crit 69: Architects Without Architecture asks whether the ferment of that revolutionary era is reaching its productive conclusion, as disciplinary anxiety (over what architecture is or can be, or to whom it “belongs”) is being replaced by ethical action and social-spatial practices.

Protest against institutions today seems almost quaint, as the rise of information technologies has significantly decentralized the power traditionally held by governments, corporations, professional organizations, and cultural gatekeepers. New relationships between producer and consumer have developed, such that circumventing traditional channels has been made possible, if not expected. Blogging has challenged the newspaper, cheap video cameras and YouTube have challenged Hollywood, and open source software has challenged the Microsofts of the world. None of this is news, but the impacts of these shifts are just beginning to be understood. Architecture is affected as a result of these cultural-technical phenomena simultaneously creating new models for practice and aiding in their implementation.

In evaluating the institution of architecture–or at least the part of it dedicated to producing buildings–licensure provides an interesting reference point. Over the last few decades, there has been a notable decline in the number of architects who are actually completing the process. Many of those working in architecture firms (and teaching at architecture schools!) are not licensed, but this rarely becomes an issue either legally or professionally. The American Institute of Architects places its nominal focus on architects (licensed ones in particular) as opposed to architecture, in contrast to, for example, the American Medical Association or the American Bar Association, which are named based on what is being practiced as opposed to who is practicing it. Perhaps this is because, as Jonathan Hill writes in The Illegal Architect, while “the term ‘architect’ is enshrined in law…’architecture’ has no legal protection.”

Younger architects–licensed or not–have been promiscuously finding ways to push their work with the aid of the Internet. Typically not built, and in many cases “unsolicited,” this work often transgresses one or more of the “cornerstones” of architecture (client, budget, site, and program). It is disseminated virally, through old-fashioned word-of-mouth or through the digital equivalent–logs maintained by the designers themselves and cross-promoted with others. To start a firm today can require little more than launching a Web site, and ultimately, publicity can equal projects (which may, or may not, be buildings).

Crit 69: Architects Without Architecture seeks written essays, built projects, studio designs, and competition entries that address how architects work both within and without the profession.

The deadline is February 15, 2009. Please send questions to 2009-2011 Editor-in-Chief Zach Heineman at crit@aias.org.

Download the guidelines for submission (PDF).