Spatial Violence Routledge

This thesis focuses on spaces that have experienced brutal and radical transformations, in cities that have endured war, asking what architecture becomes when it collides with violence. While it dramatically alters architecture, destruction does not seem to belong to any architectural discourse. Hence, architecture as destruction becomes merely a product of violence. However, this research discusses destruction differently, it argues that when destruction impacts architecture, it should not be seen as a final act, rather architecture acquires new meanings. Analyzing the relationship between architecture and violence starts with investigating the human component in an attempt to explore a triangle between humans, violence, and architecture. How do perpetrators of violence carry out destruction without hesitation? Do they give up thinking and blindly follow orders? Is architecture often targeted because of what it represents? Does architecture contribute to empowering violence or resisting it? The research's intention resides not in presenting answers, but in reading and exploring some crucial ideas around the human experience of violence and its relation to architecture. It argues that architecture can transform violence as much as violence transforms architecture.

Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts

Architectural Theory Review, 2014

A special issue guest-edited by Andrew Herscher and Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, containing new articles by Keith Bresnahan, Brian L. McLaren, Lisbet Portman, Raphael Sperry, Alberto Estrada Alvarez, Patrick Bearup, Aron Castlin, Ernest Jerome Defrance, Joseph Dole, Carnell Hunnicutt Sr., Baba Yafeu Iyapo-i, Dominic Marak, Ricky D. Matthews, Hector Villegas, Kenny Zulu Whitmore and Willie Worley, Joy Knoblauch, Nikolina Bobic, Marnie Jane Thomson, and Anoma Pieris.

2022

For architecture and urban space to have relevance in the 21st Century, we cannot merely reignite the approaches of thought and design that were operative in the last century. This is despite, or because of, the nexus between politics and space often being theorized as a representation or by-product of politics. As a symbol or an e ect, the spatial dimension is depoliticized. Consequently, architecture and the urban are halted from fostering any systematic change as they are secondary to the event and therefore incapable of performing any political role. This handbook explores how architecture and urban space can unsettle the unquestioned construct of the spatial politics of governing. Considering both ongoing and unprecedented global problems-from violence and urban warfare, the refugee crisis, borderization, detention camps, terrorist attacks to capitalist urbanization, inequity, social unrest and climate change-this handbook provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary research focused on the complex nexus of politics, architecture and urban space. Volume I starts by pointing out the need to explore the politics of spatialization to make sense of the operational nature of spatial oppression in contemporary times. The operative and active political reading of space is disseminated through ve themes: Violence and War Machines; Security and Borders; Race, Identity and Ideology; Spectacle and the Screen; and Mapping Landscapes and Big Data. This rst volume of the handbook frames cutting-edge contemporary debates and presents studies of actual theories and projects that address spatial politics. It provides comprehensive and multidisciplinary research focused on the complex nexus of politics, architecture and urban space and will be of interest to anyone seeking to meaningfully disrupt the reduction of space to an oppressive or neutral backdrop of political realities.

Colonial and Post-Colonial Landscapes: Architecture, Colonialism, War-II International Congress, 2023

THE CONGRESS The infrastructure of the colonial territories obeyed the logic of economic exploitation, territorial domain and commercial dynamics among others that left deep marks in the constructed landscape. The rationales applied to the decisions behind the construction of infrastructures varied according to the historical period, the political model of colonial administration and the international conjuncture. This congress seeks to bring to the knowledge of the scientific community the dynamics of occupation and transformation of colonial territory, especially related to and resulting from the war effort, which involved not only the agency of architecture and urbanism but also of military apparatus, and its repercussions in the same territories as independent countries. Colonial infrastructures will be addressed to question, for instance, how housing production during armed conflict has conditioned future spatial models of the independent countries or what options taken by colonial administrations were abandoned or otherwise strengthened after independence. The congress is part of the ongoing research project entitled “ARCHWAR - Dominance and massviolence through Housing and Architecture during colonial wars. The Portuguese case (GuineaBissau, Angola, Mozambique): colonial documentation and post independence critical assessment” funded by ‘Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia’ (FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology), ref. PTDC/ART-DAQ/0592/2020, in which Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) is a partner. The general goal of the congress is to debate on the repercussions of the decisions taken by the colonial states in the area of territorial infrastructures – in particular through the disciplines of architecture and urbanism – in post-independence spatial and urban models and the formation of independent countries with a colonial past.

2017

Footprint 19 focuses on the more recent roles of architecture in the contemporary spaces of conflict. Departing from a spatial understanding of geopolitical, climatological and economical conflicts, the various contributions highlight the large scale and phenomenal transitions in the physical world and in society by extrapolating, through examples, the abundance of relations that can be traced between conflict, territory and architecture. Conflict areas often prove to be fertile grounds for innovation and for the emergence of new spatial forms. The issue reports on the state of perpetual global unrest in architecture through a series of articles and case studies that highlight the consequences of conflicts in the places and spaces that we inhabit. In the introduction, these are discussed as an interlinked global reality rather than as isolated incidents. In doing so, the contemporary spaces of conflict are positioned in the context of emerging global trends, conditions, and discour...

2024

In regions afflicted by radical conflicts, architecture plays a complex and dynamic role that extends beyond mere building design. The physical landscape of conflict areas such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine not only reflect the devastation of war but also serves as a canvas for resistance, identity, and cultural expression. This paper explores the intersection of architecture and radicalism in these conflict zones, examining how architecture is both a target and a tool in warfare, a symbol of cultural resilience, and a framework for reconstruction and peacebuilding. The discussion addresses the destruction and subsequent reconstruction of built environments, the role of architecture in socio-political narratives, and the challenges faced by architects working within these contexts.