CRITICAL JOURNALISM IN ARCHITECTURE

A brief history.
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•The most important aim of the theories of arts and sciences is to guide practice and
validate implementation

•With the rise of positivism, scientists almost unanimously accepted the process of
experimentation to validate what would be “Truth”.

•Eminent philosophers like Karl Popper challenged the existence of any absolute truth
and preferred to use the concept of “versimilitude” to validate science.

•The world of arts bases the validity of contributions to “Originality”.

•Originality as a criterion might be easy to define in abstract terms but it is not very
easy to agree on what is original and what is not.
Positivism is a philosophical theory stating that certain ("positive") knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties
and relations.
Verisimilitude:the appearance of being true or real.
ARCHITECTURE – THE PREDICAMENT

•Neither a pure art that may benefit from theoretical premises nor is it just applied
science that may benefit from the assertions of sciences

•It uses the applied physical sciences to allow us to build on the safety of intention and
notions .

•However, its major pre-occupation is to mould spaces and create forms of ideas and
opinions . This lends itself to the ‘softer’ aspects of knowledge.
ARCHITECTURE – THE PREDICAMENT

•When architectural form develops through traditional processes, function, symbolic

values, material and technology, all act together to generate form.

•The process of determination of validity therefore lay within the communities that
create architecture.

•As architecture became a professional activity and moved beyond the function of
providing shelter, the mastery and creativity of the individual architect have become
important.
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•During the periods that preceded renaissance in the west, such as Romanesque and
Gothic, the knowledge of architecture was maintained in the hands of the few who
protected the profession such as the guild of masons and master builders.

•It was during renaissance that architectural knowledge became accessible to the
individual rather than just belonging exclusively to guild members.

•This development obviously owes a great deal to the invention of printing.

•In addition to making rapid and widespread dissemination possible, the printing press
also produced the manuals that functioned as documents for valid building systems
(Predominantly classical).
ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM – TIMELINE

•Criticism is perhaps the only process that validates architecture.

•It is not surprising that the first century BC book by vitruvius – De architectura also
known as the ten books of architecture was revived after fourteen centuries.

•This became a basic document of architectural theory with multiple editions.

•Most notably one by the practicing architect – Leon Battista Alberti who refined the
theoretical treatises for practical application.
ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM - TIMELINE

•Eventually architectural journals appeared. The first instance of the quality of

architecture being related to an architecture journal occurred in England.

•“THE BUILDER” or the weekly publication now called “BUILDING”, started in 1842 and
found its stride in 1844 – The early victorian period.

•The journal owes its existence to Mr. George Godwin, its first editor who published the
journal single handedly TILL 1874.
ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM - TIMELINE

•The following are magazines of consequences of much more recent history in the
western world

•Gio ponti with “DOMUS”

•Vittorio Gregoretti with “CASABELLA”
•Pierre Vago with “L’ARCHITECTURE AUJOURDHUI”
•Kenneth Frampton with “OPPOSITIONS”

•The influential group Archigram began in the early 1960s with a limited edition and
home made magazine voicing the ideas of the group.
ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM - TIMELINE

•Architectural criticism and awards are two processes that validate architecture.

•Criticism or critical journalism is validated by recognition of the work by bodies from

outside the architecture profession

•EG – American journalism award, Pulitzer prize etc.

•Ada Louise Huxtable, Paul Goldberger and Robert Campbell are examples of american
architectural critics who have been thus recognized.
ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM - TIMELINE

•The word critic comes from the word ‘crisis’ and refers to the act of judging or
deciding.

•Criticism means evaluating and placing a work in its historic context and amongst the
issues that are ‘contemporary” with it.

•Criticism is also about the circulation of ideas in the professional world and among the
public . It has a role to teach and initiate.

•Criticism often proposes to accompany or channel the evolution of architectural

trends to identify their historic roots.