When life itself becomes a political project, any distinction between space of action and dwellin... more When life itself becomes a political project, any distinction between space of action and dwelling ceases to exist. Contemporary bio-capitalism is nothing but the strenuous attempt to parasite and make productive any form of living far beyond the body and the spatial-temporal coordination of its movement, subsuming the whole complexity of relations, affects, desires as crucial driving forces of development. The most typical domestic activities, traditionally concealed as ‘unproductive’ and ‘servile’ unpaid labour, have become paradigmatic forms of exploitation, to the extent that household management, reproduction, affectivity and care have become, today, the fundamental qualities of the ubiquitous field of labour precarity. In this sense, dwelling itself has been stripped out of its spatial organizations and traditional protective cliches, becoming the most profitable living performance of value production, triggering a progressive hybridization of the domestic space through a par...
PenelopeTM is the leading product of Ithaca Co., to a machine to \u201cmake and do almost anythin... more PenelopeTM is the leading product of Ithaca Co., to a machine to \u201cmake and do almost anything.\u201d As one can read in the company's mission, \u201cPenelope is a modern, user-friendly decision making and data management system for nonprofits, governments, health, military and social services agencies that is secure, fully integrated and highly configurable.\u201d Penelope is today 100% powered by renewable energies\u2014aeolic, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric. It is composed by a score written on a loop tape containing an indefinite number of arrays of random-access memory cells, which can move in either directions, and Moog, a programmable roll which executes a variable set of instructions over the cells. The core of the system is constituted by the Turk, a central processing unit which programs Moog and composes any available data on the cells of the tape: mortgage interest rates, bird migrations, basal temperatures, world university rankings, the concentration of co...
Construire des scénarios répond justement à une exploration des réponses possibles aux problèmes ... more Construire des scénarios répond justement à une exploration des réponses possibles aux problèmes actuels dans le cas de la métropole parisienne comme dans tout autre cas. What…if…? , «et si…?» un scénario c'est cela: une 12 paris hong kong central northwestern metropolitan area 9 J.-C. François, Les évolutions récentes de la division sociale de l'espace francilien: observation des discontinuités structurelles par l'analyse discriminante, Espace Géographique,
Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970\u2019s London architecture scene was a m... more Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970\u2019s London architecture scene was a moment of ideological conflict between political factions over which direction progress should be oriented. Instead of a victor being declared and a single vector followed, what resulted, at the Architectural Association at least, was an academic framework set up to preserve and even encourage such tendencies for conflict and divergence. Behemoth Press introduces here a text by Elia Zenghelis first published in 1975 that was originally written as a polemical response to a growing movement for unionization; a political form of labor that surely threatens the great productive potentials of competition and precarity
The aftermath of WWII not only marked the beginning of a new geopolitical order but also once aga... more The aftermath of WWII not only marked the beginning of a new geopolitical order but also once again brought discourses of architecture and planning back to the frontline of the confrontations between the West and the Soviet blocs. Although the immediate need for post-war reconstruction left almost no time for contextual theoretical development in architectural and planning principles, the “occupied” and “liberated” territories became laboratories in which the new concepts of urban form, domestic architecture, and forms of life were tested. During 1945–1967 Tehran became one these experimental grounds in which these planning principles were tested and implemented; a battleground where the socialist and the capitalist ideologies met. The key to this urban development project was an ideologically charged repercussion of the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) discourse, specifically on Existenzminimum (1929) and Rationelle Bebauungsweisen (1930). While the CIAM’s agend...
Participation to Monditalia, 14th International Architectural Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia,... more Participation to Monditalia, 14th International Architectural Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, with the project "A night with a Logistic Worker"
Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and contro... more Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and controlled, domestic interiors become art galleries, clubs, cultural centers, factories and offices. Interiors cease to be the exclusive domain for individual life and family matters; homes become the spaces in which new forms of collective life are explored and nurtured, and the battleground for social conflicts and political constituencies. Through its extensive apparatus of drawings, Tehran: Life within Walls presents an archeological inquiry over the politics and the ecologies of the interior spaces of the Iranian Metropolis, from its foundation as the Iranian capital till today. The book also provides an accessible entry point for the study of Tehran and Islamic/Iranian architecture, as well as a methodological experiment for the study of contemporary cities. An appendix of six projects provides an imaginative\u2015yet radically pragmatic\u2015vision for the future of Tehran
Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and contro... more Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and controlled, domestic interiors become art galleries, clubs, cultural centers, factories and offices. Interiors cease to be the exclusive domain for individual life and family matters; homes become the spaces in which new forms of collective life are explored and nurtured, and the battleground for social conflicts and political constituencies. Through its extensive apparatus of drawings, Tehran: Life within Walls presents an archeological inquiry over the politics and the ecologies of the interior spaces of the Iranian Metropolis, from its foundation as the Iranian capital till today. The book also provides an accessible entry point for the study of Tehran and Islamic/Iranian architecture, as well as a methodological experiment for the study of contemporary cities. An appendix of six projects provides an imaginative\u2015yet radically pragmatic\u2015vision for the future of Tehran
Focusing on the small state of Sealand, a platform built off the English Essex coast to carry ant... more Focusing on the small state of Sealand, a platform built off the English Essex coast to carry anti-aircraft guns during the Second World War, this article posits the North Sea as a particular geopolitical condition based on its status as a "state of exception." The article formulates its reading by considering the architectural legacy of the pirates, privateers and hackers who have been the principle rulers of the terrain. Their spatial strategies are understood not only in terms of physical constructions that accommodate exceptional functions, but also as a conceptual apparatus that facilitates extraterritorial juridical practices. The spatio-juridical characteristics of the "architecture of the sea" are seen to offer new possibilities for ordering the distribution of goods, capital and information, and for alternative forms of living. 1 The Sea as the Space of Exception The axiom freedom of the sea meant something very simple, that the sea was a zone free for booty. [ … ] On the open sea, there were no limits, no boundaries, no consecrated sites, no sacred orientations, no law, and no property. 2
Tehran as a New Town can be described as those human settlements that were founded at a certain m... more Tehran as a New Town can be described as those human settlements that were founded at a certain moment in history by an explicit act of will, according to a preceding plan and aiming to survive as a self-sustaining local community and independent local government. It indicates the role of the City as, New Town, as an iconoclastic form of Political expression via Planning. The Problem By 2050 Tehran needs almost double urban area with the current density. But the city is geographically limited. The problem is becoming serious when the city finds the way to expand beyond its natural limits. New territories will be attached to the Tehran’s plain, as a part of time-space perception of the city, which will increase the uncertainty and it will make the city freeze in a transition form. The spatial structure of the city is very complex. It is the physical outcome of the subtle interactions over centuries between land markets, topography, infrastructure, regulations, and taxation. The compl...
Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970’s London architecture scene was a momen... more Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970’s London architecture scene was a moment of ideological conflict between political factions over which direction progress should be oriented. Instead of a victor being declared and a single sector followed, what resulted, at the Architectural Association at least, was an academic framework set up to preserve and even encourage such tendencies for conflict and divergence. Behemoth Press introduces here a text by Elia Zenghelis first published in 1975 that was originally written as a polemical response to a growing movement for unionization; a political form of labor that surely threatens the great productive potentials of competition and precarity.
When life itself becomes a political project, any distinction between space of action and dwellin... more When life itself becomes a political project, any distinction between space of action and dwelling ceases to exist. Contemporary bio-capitalism is nothing but the strenuous attempt to parasite and make productive any form of living far beyond the body and the spatial-temporal coordination of its movement, subsuming the whole complexity of relations, affects, desires as crucial driving forces of development. The most typical domestic activities, traditionally concealed as ‘unproductive’ and ‘servile’ unpaid labour, have become paradigmatic forms of exploitation, to the extent that household management, reproduction, affectivity and care have become, today, the fundamental qualities of the ubiquitous field of labour precarity. In this sense, dwelling itself has been stripped out of its spatial organizations and traditional protective cliches, becoming the most profitable living performance of value production, triggering a progressive hybridization of the domestic space through a par...
PenelopeTM is the leading product of Ithaca Co., to a machine to \u201cmake and do almost anythin... more PenelopeTM is the leading product of Ithaca Co., to a machine to \u201cmake and do almost anything.\u201d As one can read in the company's mission, \u201cPenelope is a modern, user-friendly decision making and data management system for nonprofits, governments, health, military and social services agencies that is secure, fully integrated and highly configurable.\u201d Penelope is today 100% powered by renewable energies\u2014aeolic, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric. It is composed by a score written on a loop tape containing an indefinite number of arrays of random-access memory cells, which can move in either directions, and Moog, a programmable roll which executes a variable set of instructions over the cells. The core of the system is constituted by the Turk, a central processing unit which programs Moog and composes any available data on the cells of the tape: mortgage interest rates, bird migrations, basal temperatures, world university rankings, the concentration of co...
Construire des scénarios répond justement à une exploration des réponses possibles aux problèmes ... more Construire des scénarios répond justement à une exploration des réponses possibles aux problèmes actuels dans le cas de la métropole parisienne comme dans tout autre cas. What…if…? , «et si…?» un scénario c'est cela: une 12 paris hong kong central northwestern metropolitan area 9 J.-C. François, Les évolutions récentes de la division sociale de l'espace francilien: observation des discontinuités structurelles par l'analyse discriminante, Espace Géographique,
Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970\u2019s London architecture scene was a m... more Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970\u2019s London architecture scene was a moment of ideological conflict between political factions over which direction progress should be oriented. Instead of a victor being declared and a single vector followed, what resulted, at the Architectural Association at least, was an academic framework set up to preserve and even encourage such tendencies for conflict and divergence. Behemoth Press introduces here a text by Elia Zenghelis first published in 1975 that was originally written as a polemical response to a growing movement for unionization; a political form of labor that surely threatens the great productive potentials of competition and precarity
The aftermath of WWII not only marked the beginning of a new geopolitical order but also once aga... more The aftermath of WWII not only marked the beginning of a new geopolitical order but also once again brought discourses of architecture and planning back to the frontline of the confrontations between the West and the Soviet blocs. Although the immediate need for post-war reconstruction left almost no time for contextual theoretical development in architectural and planning principles, the “occupied” and “liberated” territories became laboratories in which the new concepts of urban form, domestic architecture, and forms of life were tested. During 1945–1967 Tehran became one these experimental grounds in which these planning principles were tested and implemented; a battleground where the socialist and the capitalist ideologies met. The key to this urban development project was an ideologically charged repercussion of the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) discourse, specifically on Existenzminimum (1929) and Rationelle Bebauungsweisen (1930). While the CIAM’s agend...
Participation to Monditalia, 14th International Architectural Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia,... more Participation to Monditalia, 14th International Architectural Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, with the project "A night with a Logistic Worker"
Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and contro... more Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and controlled, domestic interiors become art galleries, clubs, cultural centers, factories and offices. Interiors cease to be the exclusive domain for individual life and family matters; homes become the spaces in which new forms of collective life are explored and nurtured, and the battleground for social conflicts and political constituencies. Through its extensive apparatus of drawings, Tehran: Life within Walls presents an archeological inquiry over the politics and the ecologies of the interior spaces of the Iranian Metropolis, from its foundation as the Iranian capital till today. The book also provides an accessible entry point for the study of Tehran and Islamic/Iranian architecture, as well as a methodological experiment for the study of contemporary cities. An appendix of six projects provides an imaginative\u2015yet radically pragmatic\u2015vision for the future of Tehran
Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and contro... more Life in Tehran proliferates and thrives in its interiors. When public space is policed and controlled, domestic interiors become art galleries, clubs, cultural centers, factories and offices. Interiors cease to be the exclusive domain for individual life and family matters; homes become the spaces in which new forms of collective life are explored and nurtured, and the battleground for social conflicts and political constituencies. Through its extensive apparatus of drawings, Tehran: Life within Walls presents an archeological inquiry over the politics and the ecologies of the interior spaces of the Iranian Metropolis, from its foundation as the Iranian capital till today. The book also provides an accessible entry point for the study of Tehran and Islamic/Iranian architecture, as well as a methodological experiment for the study of contemporary cities. An appendix of six projects provides an imaginative\u2015yet radically pragmatic\u2015vision for the future of Tehran
Focusing on the small state of Sealand, a platform built off the English Essex coast to carry ant... more Focusing on the small state of Sealand, a platform built off the English Essex coast to carry anti-aircraft guns during the Second World War, this article posits the North Sea as a particular geopolitical condition based on its status as a "state of exception." The article formulates its reading by considering the architectural legacy of the pirates, privateers and hackers who have been the principle rulers of the terrain. Their spatial strategies are understood not only in terms of physical constructions that accommodate exceptional functions, but also as a conceptual apparatus that facilitates extraterritorial juridical practices. The spatio-juridical characteristics of the "architecture of the sea" are seen to offer new possibilities for ordering the distribution of goods, capital and information, and for alternative forms of living. 1 The Sea as the Space of Exception The axiom freedom of the sea meant something very simple, that the sea was a zone free for booty. [ … ] On the open sea, there were no limits, no boundaries, no consecrated sites, no sacred orientations, no law, and no property. 2
Tehran as a New Town can be described as those human settlements that were founded at a certain m... more Tehran as a New Town can be described as those human settlements that were founded at a certain moment in history by an explicit act of will, according to a preceding plan and aiming to survive as a self-sustaining local community and independent local government. It indicates the role of the City as, New Town, as an iconoclastic form of Political expression via Planning. The Problem By 2050 Tehran needs almost double urban area with the current density. But the city is geographically limited. The problem is becoming serious when the city finds the way to expand beyond its natural limits. New territories will be attached to the Tehran’s plain, as a part of time-space perception of the city, which will increase the uncertainty and it will make the city freeze in a transition form. The spatial structure of the city is very complex. It is the physical outcome of the subtle interactions over centuries between land markets, topography, infrastructure, regulations, and taxation. The compl...
Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970’s London architecture scene was a momen... more Along with creativity, optimism and will, the early 1970’s London architecture scene was a moment of ideological conflict between political factions over which direction progress should be oriented. Instead of a victor being declared and a single sector followed, what resulted, at the Architectural Association at least, was an academic framework set up to preserve and even encourage such tendencies for conflict and divergence. Behemoth Press introduces here a text by Elia Zenghelis first published in 1975 that was originally written as a polemical response to a growing movement for unionization; a political form of labor that surely threatens the great productive potentials of competition and precarity.
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Papers by Hamed Khosravi