Abstract
While the established histories of architectural theory generally focus upon the discourse produced by eminent architects and/or famous scholars, there is another counter-discourse that has developed gradually in the background. This is a discourse against architectural theory, in an effort to undermine theory’s importance, even to eliminate its value, scope and use altogether. Yet this implicit anti-theory – which has slowly but steadily become embedded in the international architectural scene over the last decades – is usually ignored or underestimated by architectural historians. Drawing upon the recent literature on populism (e.g. Arditi, Moffitt, Taggart, Laclau), and also taking into consideration the few, but valuable, recent texts about populism within architecture (e.g. Fausch, Fowler, Shamiyeh, Lootsma), I will argue that a populist trend against theoretical inquiry is nowadays dispersed horizontally, thereby legitimizing particular, even if diverging, research methods and design practices. The fight against intellectualism and the elites, the promoting of a new sense of architectural ‘morality’, the use of simplistic procedures, forms and slogans, are among the many symptoms of a populist mentality that traverses ideological boundaries, social contexts and conflicting political identities, linking dreams of radical communal utopias to fantasies of limitless post-capitalist markets. This essay discusses in particular the ways in which such a counter-theoretical discourse has re-emerged in the last decades among architects in Greece. By examining the publications about twentieth-century Greek architects (notably Dimitris Pikionis and Aris Konstantinidis), as well as looking at the informal talks and interviews being spread today through the internet (such as greekarchitects.gr on the Vimeo channel), I will comment on how, in the case of Greece, a long established populist architectural rhetoric was, and still is, disguised behind various anti-theoretical facades.
Highlights
Most of the scholars who have written extensively on populism agree that it is a rather tricky topic, difficult to recognize, describe and define
Is there a populist architecture, or just a populist discourse about architecture? Does populism in architecture refer to constructions and forms, or only to strategies and practices? Is every ‘pop’ or popular architectural form by definition populist? Is any architect who cares about the wills and choices of users or clients a populist architect? Adopting the designation of populism by Arditi as being a ‘inexact object’ [1: p. 75], and taking into account contemporary literature that examines populism from its broader political to its architecturally orientated modes, the attempt in this essay is to highlight two divergent areas of counter-theoretical architectural discourse in which populism appears strongly
In order to explore these propositions, what I will do is to discuss in more detail the problematic, worrying, aspects that are raised by the use of populism by architects and scholars in the field. This will be followed in the rest of the essay by a more specific discussion of the role of populism within Greek architecture from the early-twentieth century through to the current day, tracing how this kind of anti-theoretical position is still there bubbling under the surface
Summary
While the established histories of architectural theory generally focus upon the discourse produced by eminent architects and/or famous scholars, there is another counter-discourse that has developed gradually in the background. This is a discourse against architectural t heory, in an effort to undermine theory’s importance, even to eliminate its value, scope and use altogether. This implicit anti-theory – which has slowly but steadily become embedded in the international architectural scene over the last decades – is usually ignored or underestimated by architectural historians. By examining the publications about twentieth-century Greek architects (notably Dimitris Pikionis and Aris Konstantinidis), as well as looking at the informal talks and interviews being spread today through the internet (such as greekarchitects.gr on the Vimeo channel), I will comment on how, in the case of Greece, a long established populist architectural rhetoric was, and still is, disguised behind various anti-theoretical façades
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