The Practice of Critical Theory in Architectural Schools: Twenty First Century Transformation
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Abstract
Critical theory is an interdisciplinary way of thinking that tries to bridge the gap between architectural
theory and practice. During the past thirty years, the gap between the academic world of studio studies and
the academic world of history and theory studies has become increasingly difficult to bridge [1]. In other
words, the space of inquiry between architectural production and advanced scholarship has increased [2].
The task of architectural institutions today is thus to bring architectural education back to the interdisciplinary
equilibrium it was once familiar with. This paper reviews the frameworks of critical theory, which during the
past ten years has begun to replace the conventional history/theory approach in North American and
European schools as a vehicle to re-unite architectural theory and practice. The review focuses on a
selection of different modes that critical theory is taught and practiced, as well as ideas and principles of
critical theory that have become increasingly relevant in the discourse of architecture today. Priorities and
preoccupations of critical theory may help unfold the inherent complexity and contradiction within the
process of architectural creation. In architectural discourse, both theory and practice are reread repeatedly,
reworked and represented in roles that are well outside the original. Critical theory thus represents both
the pragmatic doctrine and the philosophical inquiry that partake in the potential of architectural design to
draw from the past and the present towards the future.
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