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Abstract
Architectural theorists and historians have identified two common types of political response through design: the revolutionary’s utopian “project” and the dissident’s utopian “impulse.” Moreover, in architectural scholarship the former of these is typically celebrated for its vision and manifest agenda, while the latter is often dismissed as escapist and innately ephemeral. However, when viewed in the context of the work of French post-political philosopher Alain Badiou, it is possible to see that the more powerful potential is actually embodied in works of sustained, yet unpredictable, dissent. Using two designs by the Russian Paper Architects Brodsky and Utkin as examples, this article draws on Badiou’s theories to demonstrate the political potential of architectural dissidence.
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Michael J. Ostwald
Michael J. Ostwald is Dean of Architecture at the University of Newcastle (Australia) and a Visiting Professor at RMIT University. He has a Ph.D. in architectural theory and a higher doctorate (DSc) in design mathematics. He is on the editorial boards of ARQ, Architectural Theory Review and the Nexus Network Journal: Architecture and Mathematics. He has authored more than 300 scholarly publications and his design works have been published or exhibited internationally. In 2010 he was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship, one of the Australian government's highest honors for research.