When I Hear the Word Service I Look for a Crisis

The rhetoric surrounding service in architecture tends toprioritize the exceptional situations of crisis. Whetherthe aftermath of a natural disaster, the sudden outbreakof war, or the continued marginalization of acommunity, architecture is most confident in describingits capacity to effect social, political, and economicchange in the most harrowing of circumstances. Thispaper describes the potential consequences of prioritizingthese situations as the primary site of servicearchitecture. It argues that employing Chantal Mouffe’sdistinction between “us” and “them” might reconstitutea politically, socially, and economically engagedarchitecture in less polemic circumstances.

Volume Editors
Luis Francisco Rico-Gutierrez & Martha Thorne

ISBN
978-1-944214-08-1