Perspecta 45: Agency
Editors Kurt Evans, Iben Falconer and Ian Mills
designed with Mylinh Trieu Nguyen
Architecture has always been intimately intertwined with its social, political, and economic contexts; major events in world history have had correspondingly dramatic effects on the discipline. The Great Depression, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Hurricane Katrina, for example, were all catalysts for architectural response and resulted in a diversification of the architect’s portfolio. Yet far too often, architects simply react to changes in the world, rather than serving as agents of change themselves.
This issue of Perspecta — the oldest and most distinguished student-edited architectural journal in America — takes a broader view, using the concept of agency to explore the future of architecture. The retreat from liability, the barricade of theory, and the silos of specialization have generated a field that is risk-averse and reactive, rather than bold and active. Instead of assuming that architects can only throw up their hands in despair, the editors of this issue of Perspecta invite them to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
In Perspecta 45, prominent architects, scholars, and artists investigate how architects can become agents for change within their own discipline and in the world at large.
Contributors: Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Nader Tehrani, Ines Weizman, Jaime Lerner, Urban-Think Tank, Stefano Boeri, Peter Eisenman, Michael Osman, Darryl Collins, Vann Molyvann, Enrique Ramirez, Rania Ghosn, Victor Van Der Chijs, Bjarke Ingels, Jan Kempenaers, Andrew Shanken, Keller Easterling, Timur Galen, Perspecta 45 & Pierluigi Serraino, Thomas Auer, Joshua Vanwyck & Erik Olsen, Preston Scott Cohen, and Ariane Lourie Harrison
Perspecta is the Yale Architectural Journal, published by the Yale School of Architecture and distributed by the MIT Press. Get it at the MIT Press or Amazon or maybe even a physical bookstore like Hennessey + Ingalls in LA, William Stout in San Francsico, or McNally Jackson, Spoonbill & Sugartown, St. Marks Bookshop, and Van Alen Books (among others) in New York.
