Dialectic VIII

The VIII issue of Dialectic asks the reader to imagine possible ways to subvert architecture. Or to employ architecture as means of subversion. In this issue 7 articles from international authors and 2 guiding editorials invite the reader to reflect upon the various ways, of how architecture, normally conceived of as expression of power and elites, undermines and undoes exactly this taken-for-granted affirmatively. Divided in three sections the articles in the first part explore lessons from scholarship and design from the “field school” in Milwaukee, from social housing in Brussels, and from informal open-air bazars in Ukraine. Section two critiques instrumentalized architectural knowledge, such as sustainability and the medium of drawing, particularly from an indigenous perspective. Finally, section three wrestles with fundamental concepts of the architectural discipline, with the male, normalized, de-sexualized body and architecture’s relationship with the ground being two of the most fundamental ones.