Overview

The Ethics of a Potential Urbanism explores the possible and potential relevance of Giorgio Agamben’s political thoughts and writings for the theory and the practice of architecture and urban design. It sketches out the potentiality of Agamben’s politics, which can affect change in current architectural and design discourses. The book investigates the possibility of an inoperative architecture, as an ethical shift for a different practice, just a little bit different, but able to deactivate the sociospatial dispositive and mobilize a new theory and a new project for the urban now to come. This particular reading from Agamben’s oeuvre suggests a destituent mode of both thinking and practicing of architecture and urbanism that could possibly redeem them from their social emptiness, cultural irrelevance, economic reductionism and proto-avant-garde extravagance, contributing to a renewed critical ‘encounter’ with architecture’s aesthetic-political function.

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9781138687707

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Reviews

This book offers more than an original contribution to the field; it opens a true debate that can no longer be ignored. Francesco Careri, Roma Tre University This book examines the relevance of Giorgio Agamben's political writings for architecture and urban design and carefully guides the reader through Agamben's fascinating ethical and political vocabulary. The book rethinks notions such as use, productivity, and creation that are, in the design disciplines, often taken for granted. It recognises, perhaps provocatively but convincingly so, in 'inoperative architecture' a genuine route towards a political and ethical design practice. This book offers a timely contribution to the debates on the social responsibility of architectural and urban design, and a must-read for scholars interested in the emancipatory and transformative agency of design. Isabelle Doucet, The University of Manchester For all those of us concerned with a truly alternative project for architecture, Boano's work is not only enlightening but also timely. His reading of Agamben from an architectural point of view certainly goes beyond proposing the paradox of making philosophy operative by rendering architecture inoperative: it also sheds light on a possible way out of the anti-intellectual trend that pervades contemporary architecture. Instead of a new style or another slogan to feed the industry of architecture, Boano's proposal looks for a renewed ethics which, precisely in a discipline that forgot about this word, will surely open up unexpected and yet amazing new avenues for architectural debate. Francisco Diaz, Professor at the School of Architecture Universidad Catolica de Chile and Editor in Chief of ARQ Magazine, Santiago, Chile.

Author Information

Camillo Boano is an architect and urbanist. He is Senior Lecturer at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College of London (UCL), where he directs the MSc in Building and Urban Design in Development. He is also co-director of the UCL Urban Laboratory.

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