Djalali Amir. Common Space: Politics and the Production of Architectural Knowledge

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Architecture.
Delft Technical University. Delft, Netherlands, 2014. — 296 p. — ISBN: 9789461863089Today we are familiar with definitions of architecture as an integrated, multidisciplinary “networked practice,” which takes its cognitive potential from a “diffused design intelligence.” These definitions were introduced to counter an individual, authorial approach to design which allegedly characterized modern architecture since its beginnings. This thesis aims to overcome such a distinction, showing that, on the contrary, a diffused, collective intelligence was at the core of architectural production since its invention in the 15th century. Renaissance sprezzatura, the monster in Enlightened France, Alois Riegl's Kunstwollen, Aldo Rossi's collective memory and the 1970s debate on architectural language are taken as indexes of a Western tradition of collective intelligence in design. Moreover, this genealogy shows that by embracing “collective intelligence” and “projective” practice architecture does not necessarily surrender to constituted political powers and to the forces of the market. On the contrary, this thesis shows how such a practice can be an instance of a positive and constitutive political force—in other words, able to produce the common.Introduction: Towards CommonspacePrehistories of Common Space
The Project of the Renaissance City, 1378-1570Taming Monsters
The Construction of the French Public Sphere, 1770-1851.Will to Architecture
Alois Riegl’s Kunstwollen and the Politics of the Grossstadt, 1896-1936Architectures of Tendency
The Image of Time in Aldo Rossi’s Analogous City, 1966-1979A Grammar of Common Space
Architectural Language in Peter Eisenman’s Work 1963-1984Epilogue
241 Bibliography