ARCH+

ARCH+ 229 
In the End: Architecture

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Architectural discourse in recent decades becomes visible in a sequence of crisis after crisis, optimistic restart after optimistic restart. We touch on the failure of functionalism, which triggered a return to vernacular and historical built forms; the oil shock, which brought a sudden end to the utopias of the 1960s; the crisis of the modern city, which stirred the populace into action and put questions of participation onto the agenda; postmodernism, which ended by toothlessly playing with architectural citation; deconstructivism, which demoted architecture to a mere linguistic game; globalization, which led to the sprouting of megacities in boom economies around the world; and finally, digitalization, currently in the process of stripping architects of authorship.

Every end is a new beginning. Just as history can help us understand the present, the present can help us reinterpret and reconfigure history. Ultimately, the strength of the new also lies in how it can reveal formerly hidden aspects of the past. In the End: Architecture—50 Years ARCH+: Project and Utopia is the first publication in a series that sheds a new light on topics essential to the history of ARCH+. Using the 20th Vienna Architecture Congress and the Az W exhibition In the End: Architecture as a basis, the new issue not only reflects on the past 50 years of architectural discourse from today’s perspective, but also explores how architecture can be a social practice using contemporary examples from the field.

The issue is a cooperation with the Az W to celebrate Dietmar Steiner’s retirement and the 50-year anniversary of ARCH+, founded in 1967. For this special occasion, ARCH+ will release its first online reader in English to accompany the German print edition of the issue. The special offer is for free until the end of this year. Read the entire English edition of In the End: Architecture online, or purchase the German print version through our website or a local bookstore.

Essays

Project and Utopia: Nikolaus Kuhnert, Anh-Linh Ngo, Kristina Herresthal, and Stephan Becker on 50 Years of ARCH+
Crisis as Strategy: Jean-Louis Cohen on Architectural Anxiety since 1950
Recoding the 1960s: Georg Vrachliotis on the demythologization of a heroic epoch
Marco de Michelis on Manfredo Tafuri and the Death of Architecture
ALDOLOGIES: Wilfried Kuehn on Rossi, the Swiss, and Us
Ana Maria Zahariade on Ceaușescu’s Postmodernist Manifesto
Oliver Elser offers Three Theses on the Ongoing Relevance of Postmodernism
Testing Boundaries: Irina Davidovici on Architecture in the 1990s
Elke Krasny on Architectures of Assertion in Times of Crisis, Terror, and Catastrophe
From the Swinging Sixties to the Alt-Right Teens: Stephan Trüby offers A Political Critique of the Bubble
Dietmar Steiner on The Future of Architecture
Karoline Mayer, Sonja Pisarik, and Katharina Ritter on Cool Memories and New Paths in Architecture

Projects

In the same way that the historical stations represent a sequence of crises and moments of optimism, actions, and reactions, the issue seeks to contrast this narrative with current positions, all of which can be viewed as responses to the situation of contemporary architecture. 

Architecture is: Society
With projects by Michael Maltzan Architecture, LAN (Local Architecture Network), Pilosio Building Peace, Studio Anna Heringer

Architecture is: Material
With projects by Herzog & de Meuron, Martin Rauch, Amateur Architecture Studio, DUS Architects

Architecture is: History
With projects by Monadnock, Kuehn Malvezzi, David Kohn Architects, architecten de vylder vinck taillieu

Architecture is: Theory
With projects by Antonas Office, Dogma, Andreas Rumpfhuber, Brandlhuber + Emde, Burlon

Architecture is: Law
With projects by Barkow Leibinger Architekten, Sung Hong Kim, Rotor

ARCH+ Features
Eyal Weizman, Forensic Architecture
Reestablishing Facts in the Post-Truth Era

ARCH+ 229 In the End: Architecture is published in cooperation with the Architekturzentrum Wien (Az W). The reader is developed in collaboration with Lamm & Kirch and Knoth & Renner, CMS by colognetworx cnx.