Books by Chris L Smith
Architecture After Deleuze and Guattari, 2023
The impact of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari on 21st century architecture is... more The impact of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari on 21st century architecture is substantive. In the discourses of renowned architecture schools, in the explorations of architectural theorists, and in the refrains of architects, concepts derived from the individual and collaborative work of Deleuze and Guattari are reiterated ad nauseam. This nexus of philosophy and architecture does not however have the character of nausea; it operates more like a productive delirium. It is a delirium that fosters the critique and creation of cities, urban environments, buildings, public places, incursions, installations, and landscapes. And it is a delirium that unleashes the practice and processes of architecture itself.
Bare Architecture: A Schizoanalysis, 2017
In the text Schizoanalytic Cartographies (1989), the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari suggests the el... more In the text Schizoanalytic Cartographies (1989), the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari suggests the elements of schizoanalysis “are like crystals of singularization, points of bifurcation outside the dominant coordinates, on the basis of which mutant universes of reference can spring up". Schizoanalysis is thus simultaneously an act of departure and flight: A departure from the ‘dominant coordinates’ of thought—the thinking habitually imposed upon a subject. And a flight toward ‘mutant universes’—alternate modes of critique and creation—generative of new subjects. The present book, Bare Architecture, is a work of schizoanalysis. The key model of thought to be departed from is that thinking which we have habitually applied to the body and its relation to architecture. Three poststructural virtues: the impersonal, the indiscernible and the imperceptible, are engaged to recast the subject. Three architectural procedures: symptomatology, wayfaring and speaking, are invoked in order that the architecture that once held us in place, casts us afar.
Traditionally, architecture has been preoccupied with the resolution of form. That concern helps ... more Traditionally, architecture has been preoccupied with the resolution of form. That concern helps to make photogenic buildings, which have received a great deal of attention. This book looks instead at the idea of the flows, which connects things together and moves between things. It is more difficult to discuss, but more necessary, because it is what makes things work. Architects have to think about flow – the flow of people through buildings, the flow of energy into buildings, and waste out of them – but usually the effects of flow do not find expression. The essays gathered here present a collection of exploratory ideas and offer an understanding of buildings, people and settlements through concepts of flow.
Refereed Journal Papers by Chris L Smith
This paper explores the notion of myth as a specific form of evidence and evidentiality of archit... more This paper explores the notion of myth as a specific form of evidence and evidentiality of architecture. This exploration is conducted with specific regard to two key texts: the first, a philosophical text, and the second a text of architectural theory. As such, Barthes’s text: Mythologies firstly published in 1957 and Borden’s text: Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body published in 2001 are explored. This paper suggests that the role served by Barthesian myth in respect to language is similar to the role served by skateboarding in Borden’s exploration of the city. It is suggested that both myth and skateboarding serve as evidence of the instability of objectivity in language, everyday life practices and architecture. We thus argue that the notion of myth will chart a new dimension of contemporary architectural thinking and prompt more possibilities in interlinking design research between architecture, the human body and the sociologic study of mass culture.
This paper aims to explore the concept of the dispositif and develop arguments as to its value in... more This paper aims to explore the concept of the dispositif and develop arguments as to its value in reconceptualising the social function of architecture. The notion of the dispositif is derived from the writings of Michel Foucault and is explored in respect to the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The notion of the dispositif of concern emerges from Foucault's concepts of an apparatus that manages relationships of power between different bodies and organisations. Foucault considers the dispositif to be at once object and apparatus – a dynamic tension that is well recognised by theorists of architecture as a potentially productive condition. It is upon this dynamic tension that the present paper will focus and present an exploration of Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio as an example of an architectural dispositif.
Forthcoming Edited Book Chapters by Chris L Smith
In Katie Lloyd Thomas, Tilo Amhoff and Nick Beech (Eds.), Industries of Architecture, (pp. 282-29... more In Katie Lloyd Thomas, Tilo Amhoff and Nick Beech (Eds.), Industries of Architecture, (pp. 282-293). Abingdon: Routledge.
Stephen Kite, Mhairi McVicar, Juliet Odgers eds., Economy and Architecture
David Ellison and Andrew Leach eds. On Discomfort, (London: Ashgate, [2015]) (forthcoming).
Elizabeth Grierson, Harriet Edquist and Hélène Frichot eds., Designing Design: Cartographies of T... more Elizabeth Grierson, Harriet Edquist and Hélène Frichot eds., Designing Design: Cartographies of Theory and Practice. 73-81 (forthcoming)
Chris L. Smith and Sandra Kaji O’Grady Industries of Architecture, (London: Routledge, 2016), (fo... more Chris L. Smith and Sandra Kaji O’Grady Industries of Architecture, (London: Routledge, 2016), (forthcoming).
Edited Book Chapters by Chris L Smith
Miriam Mlecek and Claudia Perren eds, Perception in Architecture: Here and Now, (Cambridge Schol... more Miriam Mlecek and Claudia Perren eds, Perception in Architecture: Here and Now, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), 30-37. ISBN: 978-1-4438-7256-0.
Ross Anderson ed. Analogue, (2013), 9-14.
This collection looks critically at how Deleuze challenges architecture as a discipline, how arch... more This collection looks critically at how Deleuze challenges architecture as a discipline, how architecture contributes to philosophy and how we can come to understand the complex politics of space of our increasingly networked world.
Since the 1980s, Deleuze’s philosophy has fuelled a generation of architectural thinking, and can be seen in the design of a global range of contemporary built environments. His work has also alerted architecture to crucial ecological, political and social problems that the discipline needs to reconcile.
Andy Dong, John Conomos and Brad Buckley eds. Ecologies of Invention. 114-124.
Dagmar Reinhardt ed., Youtopia: A Passion for the Dark. Architecture at the Intersection of Digit... more Dagmar Reinhardt ed., Youtopia: A Passion for the Dark. Architecture at the Intersection of Digital Processes and Theatrical Performance. pp. 88-95.
Andrew Ballantyne and Chris L. Smith in Ballantyne and Smith eds. Architecture in the Space of F... more Andrew Ballantyne and Chris L. Smith in Ballantyne and Smith eds. Architecture in the Space of Flows. ) 1-39
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Books by Chris L Smith
Refereed Journal Papers by Chris L Smith
Forthcoming Edited Book Chapters by Chris L Smith
Edited Book Chapters by Chris L Smith
Since the 1980s, Deleuze’s philosophy has fuelled a generation of architectural thinking, and can be seen in the design of a global range of contemporary built environments. His work has also alerted architecture to crucial ecological, political and social problems that the discipline needs to reconcile.
Since the 1980s, Deleuze’s philosophy has fuelled a generation of architectural thinking, and can be seen in the design of a global range of contemporary built environments. His work has also alerted architecture to crucial ecological, political and social problems that the discipline needs to reconcile.
Institutions, Information and Dissimulation at the Cold Spring
Harbour Laboratory.” In Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 32, Architecture, Institutionsand Change, edited by Paul Hogben and Judith O’Callaghan, 290-299. Sydney: SAHANZ, 2015.
The conduct of scientific research and its architectural expression, in both public and private institutions, has been caught up in larger political and social changes with curious results and evident contradictions. This paper will focus on the case of the most recent additions to the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (CSHL) campus on Long Island, constructed in 2009. CSHL is one of the most prominent centres for genetics research in the world. The observations drawn from CSHL are instructive for any critical engagement with the question of informational transparency, institutional change and the means by which architecture may negotiate actual content and formal expression. This is because CSHL is a significant departure from its type – its location is discrete, its laboratories are opaquely subterranean, its campus residential and its architecture nostalgic. Yet, this organisation is subject to legislation that means its financial dealings and its dependency on philanthropic networks are made transparent.
Project Summary: This project will explore the precise and nuanced ways in which architecture configures, influences and expresses the ideas and ideals of contemporary experimental science. Digital drawings, animations and critical textual analysis will expose the ways in which architecture shapes the public perception and practice of experimental science.