Practiceopolis; The city of architectural practice a critical tool for reading and critiquing modes of architectural practice

Megahed, Yasser ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1972-5429 2014. Practiceopolis; The city of architectural practice a critical tool for reading and critiquing modes of architectural practice. Presented at: Setting Out PhD Symposium, UCD Architecture / AHRA,

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Abstract

The research seeks to interrogate a dominant stance towards technology that prioritises a narrow approach to architectural production, which I have identified as Techno-­‐rational practice. Practiceopolis is introduced as a critical reading of the broad multiplicity of architectural approaches. This reading draws heavily from Andrew Feenberg's classification of varying stances towards technology. Practiceopolis is a fabled city built on diagrammatic relations between nine theoretical modes of practice covering a wide spectrum of the contemporary architectural world. It aligns itself in accordance with the influence of technology 1 and technical knowledge in shaping the difference between modes of practice. It reviews the conflict between the Determinist/Instrumentalist approaches on the one hand, and the Critical Theory/Substantivist on the other. Practiceopolis has two dimensions; the first sets out a parallel architectural world created as a tool for mapping the multiplicity of modes of architectural practice, of which Techno-­‐rational approach is only one. The second introduces a critical response to them. It reads architectural practice from an intermediate place between the Instrumentalist and Critical-­‐Theory stances of technology. This position challenges the hegemony of technical knowledge as providing the standard for quality in architecture. This approach is cautious of the notion that quality can be reduced to quantitative modes of practice – hence narrowing architecture to particular form of outputs. This view promotes the idea that the use of technology in architecture has no singular essence but is socially contingent, non-­‐determinist and subject to human control, and could therefore be appropriated through alternative routes of practice. This imagined city is used as a mode of investigation of different concepts separating modes of architectural practice. The paper is a journey of exploration into the world of Practiceopolis.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Architecture
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 15:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/152601

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