Towards a Deleuzoguattarian methodology for urban design

ABSTRACT

The philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (Deleuzoguattarian) is now widely thought to be apropos for today’s world. This paper proposes Deleuzoguattarian philosophy as a new methodology for urban design research and practice. First, existing methodologies in the field of urban design are examined and their strengths and limitations outlined in relation to current urban problems. A reading of Deleuzoguattarian philosophy from an urban design perspective is then provided in order to propose a new methodology for research and practice. This reading mainly concentrates on the ontology and epistemology offered by the philosophy, aspects that have been neglected in the literature. The concept of territorialization as a complementary concept to assemblage theory is highlighted in order to illustrate the characteristics of the ontology and epistemology. Finally, normative goals are discussed. It is concluded that Deleuzoguattarian philosophy is not only an ethical response to modernism but is an epistemological need.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban design
• methodology
• Deleuze
• Guattari
• epistemology
• ontology

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our appreciation to all members of our reading group with whom we have explored Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy for over more than 4 years.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Deleuzoguattarian philosophy would not agree with this distinction, nevertheless it can be helpful to provide better understanding of urban design. It seems that in both aspects, epistemology and ontology, urban design is chaotic.

2. Faludi considers rationalism as a methodology (Faludi 1986).

3. Heideggerian term for being-there conceptualizing human being as a spatial phenomenon (Heidegger 2013).

4. In French agencement which is translated to assemblage in A Thousand Plateaus.

5. Machine in Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy means a mechanism in that its parts are working together to produce something. Machines are defined by their goals. Machines are always connected to other machines. So they are more like dynamic mechanisms rather than merely mechanical machines.

6. After Anti-Oedipus and before A Thousand Plateaus they published Kafka, which has lots to offer in relation to literature. But since the key points of that book are reflected in their later works and also because Kafka is not part of their project Capitalism and Schizophrenia, this book is not considered here.

7. Deleuze and Guattari develop a vocabulary that emphasizes how things connect rather than how they “are”, and tendencies that could evolve in creative mutations rather than a “reality”. They prefer to consider things not as substances, but as assemblages or multiplicities (Parr 2010, 174).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hooman Foroughmand Araabi

Hooman Foroughmand Araabi Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design and Researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments a University of West England (UWE).

Alex McDonald

Alex McDonald Art Therapist, Co-Editor in Chief of International Journal of Art Therapy: Inscape, and Officer at the British Association of Art Therapists.