“Theory […] always comes out of a historical moment and it’s produced in response to historical transformation […] and sometimes leads historical transformation…”
This piece asks “how do you teach architectural theory?” We ask what are the ways that each person teaches architectural theory in their specific classroom and in their specific school? How do they approach this as a pedagogical challenge? Do they approach architectural theory as something to survey or to explicate (chronologically, thematically, or philosophically), or as something to do, to demonstrate, or to perform in the classroom? And what are the methods that each person uses in the classroom to teach architectural theory?
Download“Theory […] always comes out of a historical moment and it’s produced in response to historical transformation […] and sometimes leads historical transformation…”
“I think […] there is a bit more tendency, for me, to do […] a history of theory so you become familiar with the discourse, that you become familiar with the names and the vocabulary…”
“But the danger of performance, is that it becomes just that …”
“…writing is a way of thinking, trying to convince and show students that writing can be like the design process, that it’s a way of repetively working out and trying to find something new …”
“…I do think it [architectural theory] should be aware of what is happening in Studio.”
“We are now in this pluralistic discourse, it’s no longer sufficient for us to simply consider the white male fixed gaze, and therefore, we are in a very exciting moment of radically rethinking what architectural theory could be.”
“I teach a kind of philosophical interrogation of technical conditions, and those technical conditions can be of various time periods, but they at least, at minimum, tend to involve some kind of philological engagement with contemporary technical systems.”
Producer
Arianna Corradi
Issue Editor
Joseph Bedford
Senior Editor
Joseph Bedford
Announcer
Trudy Watt
Interviewer
Joseph Bedford,
Interviewees
Joseph Godlewski, Jake Matatyaou, John May, Ginger Nolan, Bryan E. Norwood, Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco, Meredith TenHoor, and Marrikka Trotter.