Lila Athanasiadou | TU Delft (original) (raw)
Conference Presentations by Lila Athanasiadou
Architecture as taught and practiced through educational institutions often tends to follow presc... more Architecture as taught and practiced through educational institutions often tends to follow prescriptive models that can be defined as either scientific or theoretical, grounded on inductive or deductive reasoning respectively. Scientific models exemplified by the computational turn attempt to capture reality into 'accurate' 1:1 representations reducing its complexity into a problem-solution dialectic. On the other hand, theoretical models are epitomized by the reinvigoration of various -isms and the blind adherence to prevalent methodologies, styles and epistemes. This paper traces a critical alternative to practices rooted in dominant models by exploring an architectural re-iteration of Felix Guattari's "meta-model". Based on abductive logic, Guattari's four-fold metamodelization scheme traces the formation of the subject through the relationality between models (defined as patterns) and the crystallization of subjectivity as it transverses these relations. Beyond merely extending the notion of subjectivity to the making-of-territories, the methodological movements of Guattari are also applied to the creative process. By adopting a problematic approach rather than an axiomatic one, by complexifying questions rather than reducing them to a solutionist imperative and by acknowledging existing models while developing a sensibility towards their genesis, the creative process is transformed from teleological and product-oriented to a tool that explores a proliferation of quasi-methodologies and self-reflective models. In a field where difference is measured in variation of products and success into numbers, the paper acknowledges the precarity and possibility of failure of such an approach but also dwells on its queer potential to pluralize existing methodologies and destabilize dominant models. Echoing Jack Halberstam in The Queer Art of Failure, the paper concludes by folding this approach unto a de-centering of the role of the educator not as one of "leading" towards a resolution but rather one of problematizing and deterritorializing the creative process by navigating through knowledges instead of mapping existing ones.
Papers by Lila Athanasiadou
Architecture and The Built EnvironmentArchitectur
Architecture is, at its most basic, about imagining desirable futures. Yet, despite growing aware... more Architecture is, at its most basic, about imagining desirable futures. Yet, despite growing awareness of the lasting and extensive effects that design decisions have in the world, many people remain inadequately represented (or entirely unrepresented) by the profession, which lacks diversity. The faction of those who hold the power to design is still, by and large, comprised of a relatively homogenous group of middle-class white men who dominate not only the profession but also architectural education, even though there is now—in most places—near gender parity among students. How, then, might we—as educators committed to forms and practices of architecture that are inclusive, progressive, egalitarian, socially and environmentally just, and so on—implement and promote feminist pedagogies? Together, this set of short responses by young as well as established gures in the eld, begins to sketch the outlines of an approach to architectural education rooted in feminist politics. Our goal ...
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
No. 2 2016: Constructed Identities
Thesis Chapters by Lila Athanasiadou
Architecture as taught and practiced through educational institutions often tends to follow presc... more Architecture as taught and practiced through educational institutions often tends to follow prescriptive models that can be defined as either scientific or theoretical, grounded on inductive or deductive reasoning respectively. Scientific models exemplified by the computational turn attempt to capture reality into 'accurate' 1:1 representations reducing its complexity into a problem-solution dialectic. On the other hand, theoretical models are epitomized by the reinvigoration of various -isms and the blind adherence to prevalent methodologies, styles and epistemes. This paper traces a critical alternative to practices rooted in dominant models by exploring an architectural re-iteration of Felix Guattari's "meta-model". Based on abductive logic, Guattari's four-fold metamodelization scheme traces the formation of the subject through the relationality between models (defined as patterns) and the crystallization of subjectivity as it transverses these relations. Beyond merely extending the notion of subjectivity to the making-of-territories, the methodological movements of Guattari are also applied to the creative process. By adopting a problematic approach rather than an axiomatic one, by complexifying questions rather than reducing them to a solutionist imperative and by acknowledging existing models while developing a sensibility towards their genesis, the creative process is transformed from teleological and product-oriented to a tool that explores a proliferation of quasi-methodologies and self-reflective models. In a field where difference is measured in variation of products and success into numbers, the paper acknowledges the precarity and possibility of failure of such an approach but also dwells on its queer potential to pluralize existing methodologies and destabilize dominant models. Echoing Jack Halberstam in The Queer Art of Failure, the paper concludes by folding this approach unto a de-centering of the role of the educator not as one of "leading" towards a resolution but rather one of problematizing and deterritorializing the creative process by navigating through knowledges instead of mapping existing ones.
Architecture and The Built EnvironmentArchitectur
Architecture is, at its most basic, about imagining desirable futures. Yet, despite growing aware... more Architecture is, at its most basic, about imagining desirable futures. Yet, despite growing awareness of the lasting and extensive effects that design decisions have in the world, many people remain inadequately represented (or entirely unrepresented) by the profession, which lacks diversity. The faction of those who hold the power to design is still, by and large, comprised of a relatively homogenous group of middle-class white men who dominate not only the profession but also architectural education, even though there is now—in most places—near gender parity among students. How, then, might we—as educators committed to forms and practices of architecture that are inclusive, progressive, egalitarian, socially and environmentally just, and so on—implement and promote feminist pedagogies? Together, this set of short responses by young as well as established gures in the eld, begins to sketch the outlines of an approach to architectural education rooted in feminist politics. Our goal ...
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
No. 2 2016: Constructed Identities