INSURGENT ARCHITECTURES - Léopold Lambert
INSURGENT ARCHITECTURES - Léopold Lambert
INTRODUCTION BY LÉOPOLD
LAMBERT
dominant order, but also how the rare exceptions that challenge such an order
an architecture magazine, and there are legitimate reasons for that to be partially
architecture was at the core of the issue’s editorial line, and numerous other articles
discipline that organizes bodies in space” — the definition I have personally been
using for the past ten years — countless texts can be commissioned and written
about how architecture materializes various forms of political violence. Yet, it is much
propose to do throughout this issue, as part of our 2019 series dedicated to various
The reason for this difficulty lies in the fact that, despite what many in the field of
materially enforce the location of bodies on either side of its lines (paradigm of the
access to some and refuse it to others (paradigm of the door-key apparatus), can be
involved. In this case, these two parties are the bodies and architecture, although the
latter is usually conceived in such a way that the violence it receives from a body is
close to negligible — one just has to try to punch a wall with their bare hand to be
convinced by this. What makes this inherent violence political is the agenda that is
enforced through architecture and here, one has to admit that there is nothing easier
for architecture than to embody a dictatorial program. After all, hasn’t the current
U.S. President run an entire electoral campaign in 2016 on the idea of materializing a
settler colonial line on a map, into a coercitive wall? Similarly, aren’t the various
carceral environments that constitute the prisons and camps of the world, some of
the easiest architectures to bring into existence? The line that forms the wall simply
has to inflect a right angle three times and span an unmovable structure around one
Insurgent architectures are architectures that understand this violence. But, far from
being paralyzed by it or to shy away from it, they embrace it and re-orient it against
the logic of the dominant order. Yet, this process is immensely difficult as “the
master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” as Audre Lorde tells us
(Sister Outsider, 1984). If we paraphrase her, these tools will only build our house if
we learn how to subvert their inner logics. Of course, there’s always the example of
the barricade, the tunnel, and of the various architectures built for the sole purpose
of defense in a direct conflict; but this is not to assume the many other functions of
these structures in daily life (even those under siege). The architectures presented
throughout this issue, whether they are undermining the logics of colonialism,
such architectures are to be found in what architects have called (in a self-centric
and towns of the world) to which we had dedicated the entirety of issue 16 (March-
April 2018) Proletarian Fortresses. Yet, in this case, we wanted to focus specifically
on architectures designed by those for whom it would be easier to side with the
dominant order.
A new generation of architects understand the violence of their discipline and the
some adopt an ironic if not cynical approach to this conundrum, while others, more
hear from the latter in the pages of The Funambulist but, this time, we wanted to hear
from the few (many of whom belong to this new generation) who have not given up
on designing spaces, and who, rather than opting for the humanitarian illusion of
non-violence (that usually barely hides the tropes of orientalism and colonialism),
have decided to embrace the disruptive dimension of activism into their spatial
schemes. Others could certainly have been featured in this issue: the architectural
Art Residency (DAAR), the memorialization of slavery in the South of the U.S. by
Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins — cited countless times in The Funambulist —,
the stateless parliaments constructed for the New World Summit — we are however
happy to feature one of them on this issue’s cover —, the architectures that reclaim
These architects’ imaginaries of the world (and through it, their professions) are also
formed by radically different works than those that have formed the imaginaries of (in
the context of the western world, much more white, much more male) previous
generations of architects. In 2017, I asked six young architects (Olivia Ahn, Zulaikha
Ayub, Alicia Olushola Ajayi, Melisa Betts, Ylan Vo, and Whitney Hansley) based in the
U.S. and who have previously contributed to The Funambulist: “what would be the
five books that influenced the most your understanding of society?” Although two of
them included books by Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi, traditionally taught in
U.S. architecture schools, the other 28 books did not belong to the usual canon of
architecture books. The few author architects cited are also activists (Lori Brown in
environmentalism). But this bibliography mostly consists of authors who have little to
do explicitly about architecture. Some are written by poets, other by novelists, but
most of them are written by historical and contemporary activists involved in the
African American struggle (W.E.B. Dubois, Ralph Ellison, Audre Lorde, bell hooks),
gender fluidity (Paul B. Preciado), self-care (Carolyn McLeod), as well as the ongoing
Although it is clear that these architects constitute the exception rather than the
norm, there is no arguing that the architects’ responsibility for the materialization of
becoming more known and visible. Our hope for this issue is therefore double:
allowing architects to ‘count themselves’ amongst those who not only refuse to be
complicit with such programs but also organize against them, as well as promoting
another possible dimension of the political imagination: the difficult yet potentially
excellent read. ■
Léopold Lambert is the founding editor of The Funambulist. He is a trained
architect, as well as the author of three books that examine the inherent violence of
book examines the spatial history of the French states of emergency and colonial
email address
SUBSCRIBE
CATEGORIES
Select Category
[email protected] The Funambulist EURL,75 rue du Cherche Midi, 75006 Paris, FRANCE