Alternative Modes of Architectural Practice for Resisting Injustice

Georges Bataille describes in an essay from 1929, architecture’s “predominant taste for authority” and although nearly a century has passed, the image of the “architectural overseer” still rings true. As a service industry, architecture relies upon wealthy clients who are often themselves products of an unjust society. Architecture, however, does not have to be complementary to the status quo and its spatial organization can be requisitioned to counteract structures of power. By expanding on Lebbeus Woods’ revolutionary designs and Lars Lerup’s critique of single-family homes in “Planned Assaults” I have begun a self-initiated research and design project consisting of drawings, models, and writing exploring radical methods in which architecture contravenes injustice.

In part one of the project Conscientious Objectors, similar to artist Paul Noble’s “Nobson Newtown”, I have created a semi-imaginary world, located in upstate New York called Subsullivan County, as a repository for these architectural interventions. Each intervention, referred to as a Mountweazel, is designed to encourage a critique of geopolitics in the U.S.A. One, for example, titled Decoy Totem is a large architectural folly built as bait to attract developers. The totem allows local residents a voice in directing the political trajectory and built form of their community while still reaping the economic benefits touted by real-estate moguls.

The second part of the book focuses on restrictions and loopholes in modern Zoning Resolutions and Construction Law that encouraged the explosion of development and led to the first “Developer President” in Donald Trump. While the first part of the project envisaged buildings and fiction, the second part consists of diagrams and text proposing new laws and code concerning the built environment. The first phase critiques the products of our current situation and the second phase targets the specific infrastructures and political devices that have given birth to these practices.

Author: Luke Douglas Erickson

Website: https://lukedouglaserickson.com/

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