Relational Architecture

Located within the emerging field of Visual Culture, this research project aims to develop a theory of `relational architecture` based upon an investigation into new spatial practices which move from a hegemonic politics of representation to forms of participation. Instead of looking at consolidated spaces and signature architectures within our cities, the research turns to sites of crisis, conflict and negotiation along trajectories of migration in Europe as defining moments in the articulation of novel communities and the formation of public space. In doing so, notions of relational aesthetics are brought together with the social, ethical and cultural conditions of architectural space and the ways it is theorised. The research approaches relational architecture through on-site studies and analyses of the dynamics and effects of experimental and participatory art, architecture and urban projects, spread across a diverse set of geographic regions, which reflect the emergence of a new aesthetics of socio-spatial organisation. Based on the premise that globalisation produces not only flows but also local densities, the research will closely examine how this paradoxical process reinstalls the local as a new sphere of spatial activities which can only be understood through its network of relationships with other localities. Investigations into the character of these newly emerging spaces, nodes and public spheres are structured along questions of spatial appropriation, participation and migratory models of co-existence in order to re-conceptualise architecture through practices of human interaction. This approach is expected to exceed depictions of new architectural styles or movements, as it is based on a far more radical re- thinking of architecture as a performative and networked practice. While there has been increased attention towards relational materiality in the art world, in cultural studies and in social sciences especially in the last few years, what is still missing is a theoretical framework for relationality in the field of architecture, which refers to architectural production not only as an activity carried our by specialists (architects, planners, etc.), but as a wider set of distributed practices to do with transversal spatial production and spatial appropriation. In developing this theory of `relational architecture` the proposed research thinks architecture together with a series of other active participants in the production of contemporary social organisation, thus producing new notions of access and agency within the architectural discourse.

Located within the emerging field of Visual Culture, this research project aims to develop a theory of `relational architecture` based upon an investigation into new spatial practices which move from a hegemonic politics of representation to forms of participation. Instead of looking at consolidated spaces and signature architectures within our cities, the research turns to sites of crisis, conflict and negotiation along trajectories of migration in Europe as defining moments in the articulation of novel communities and the formation of public space. In doing so, notions of relational aesthetics are brought together with the social, ethical and cultural conditions of architectural space and the ways it is theorised. The research approaches relational architecture through on-site studies and analyses of the dynamics and effects of experimental and participatory art, architecture and urban projects, spread across a diverse set of geographic regions, which reflect the emergence of a new aesthetics of socio-spatial organisation. Based on the premise that globalisation produces not only flows but also local densities, the research will closely examine how this paradoxical process reinstalls the local as a new sphere of spatial activities which can only be understood through its network of relationships with other localities. Investigations into the character of these newly emerging spaces, nodes and public spheres are structured along questions of spatial appropriation, participation and migratory models of co-existence in order to re-conceptualise architecture through practices of human interaction. This approach is expected to exceed depictions of new architectural styles or movements, as it is based on a far more radical re- thinking of architecture as a performative and networked practice. While there has been increased attention towards relational materiality in the art world, in cultural studies and in social sciences especially in the last few years, what is still missing is a theoretical framework for relationality in the field of architecture, which refers to architectural production not only as an activity carried our by specialists (architects, planners, etc.), but as a wider set of distributed practices to do with transversal spatial production and spatial appropriation. In developing this theory of "relational architecture" the proposed research thinks architecture together with a series of other active participants in the production of contemporary social organisation, thus producing new notions of access and agency within the architectural discourse.