Positions: Cultivating Critical Practice

by Collective

Cedric Price once said that “architecture is everything architects make.” Sure, we could dismiss this as an unhelpful, overly empirical and even tautological statement. But instead, we will take it as a form of reinforcement for this class’s aim, we will take it to mean that architecture manifests itself in buildings, certainly, but also in drawings, in writing, in broadcasts, postures, experiments, social and professional organizations and modes of practice. In fact, it is the discursive, cultural, personal, historical, technological circumstances that give architecture its value, not by following some simple—one, two, base, superstructure—principle of causality, but often far more entangled routes of relation. It is far easier, of course, for an established and wise (and humorous) architect, to look back and say “architecture is everything architects make,” than it is for someone beginning in the field of architecture to feel reassured by that same statement. In this class we will not aim to fortify or fix that youthful (and useful) sense of uncertainty, but rather find ways to navigate it productively, by engaging in conversations around the objects and texts that momentarily occupy our collective attention—learning thus from one another. - Ana Miljački

A selection of student responses to weekly readings assigned in 4.210 Positions: Cultivating Critical Practice in Fall 2021, taught by Ana Miljački and TA’d by Jack Hanly and Mariana Medrano.

4.210 / MArch Core I Seminar