Architecture In Transition

A plea for a return to a "universal architecture", propelled by the author's opinion that mid-20th-century cities had become "an urban nightmare.

This issue of AD posits that this re-examination and redeployment of postmodernist approaches is the architectural attempt to reflect, grapple with and make sense of the current political and economic situation. The term ‘ad hoc’ is used to describe a resistance to stylistic conformity and predictability that embraces individuality, and which conceives architecture in a broader cultural space. As a mode of practice marked by stylistic divergence, the links, shared interest and continuities that exist among a range of architects are often overlooked. It will explore and provide a critical analysis of the design tactics and the strategies that inform them, and will investigate some key questions: What is it that has led architects to adopt tactics that have long been vilified within architectural culture? What connections exist between our present moment and the postmodern one, architecturally and in terms of the broader political shifts, in particular our present moment’s return of the grand narrative – whether of populist nationalism, identity or climate change? What do these tactics represent, how do they reflect this situation, and what do they offer in articulating a position for architects and the public role of their profession? This issue brings together a range of architects and critical voices to reflect on these questions and offer some answers. Essays by historians and critics situate practice in relation to postmodernism and its legacies. Following these will be essays by architects situating their work in relation to the ideas posited by the thematic introduction, and the broader contexts in which it operates and proceeds. The issue will be completed by interviews with early career architects, reflecting on their work thus far, its influences, pressures and future directions.

In this thought-provoking book, Jane Rendell explores how architectural space registers in psychoanalysis. She investigates both the inherently spatial vocabulary of psychoanalysis and ideas around the physical 'setting' of the psychoanalytic encounter, with reference to Sigmund Freud, D.W. Winnicott and Andre Green. Building on the innovative writing methods employed in Art and Architecture and Site-Writing, she also addresses the concept of architecture as 'social condenser' a Russian constructivist notion that connects material space and community relations. Tracing this idea's progress from 1920s Moscow to 1950s Britain, Rendell shows how interior and exterior meet in both psychoanalysis and architectural practice. Illuminating a novel field of interdisciplinary enquiry, this book breathes fresh life into notions of social space."