Untimely Teachers: Recovering Postmodernism’s Anachronic Pedagogies

Abstract

How does one distinguish between a reactionary retreat into the past and a critical reconnection with lost practices that might disrupt the current order? This question weighed heavily on architectural educators in the 1960s and 1970s as they encountered an increasingly politicised student body. In this introduction, we detail some of the motivations and the consequences, of the turn to outmoded and forgotten architectural mentors, precedents, and ideas. In a period of pedagogical experimentation and curricular reform, how—and why—did a group of teachers find new techniques for sharing historical narratives and incorporating historical content into design studio practices? Friedrich Nietzsche’s theorisation of the “untimely” provides a reference point for the wider range of anachronic pedagogies tested and developed by architect-historians during this period. Ultimately, the introduction frames the contributions to this issue as attempts to challenge the prevailing theorisations of postmodern time consciousness.