Unlocking a Multidisciplinary Discourse

’The City Lived – Unlocking a Multidisciplinary Discourse’ sets out to correct the existing historiographies of architecture by exploring interdisciplinary concepts and theories that shaped the architectural discourse in the second half of the 20th century. Through selected reading and expert lectures, these seminars introduce students to theories and concepts from the fields of gender and urban sociology that have been crucial in shaping the architectural discourse.

To test our interdisciplinary perspectives, we focus on a particularly productive ‘encounter’ between architects and other disciplines — The Any Conferences (1990-2001). The Any Conferences were ten exceptional cross-cultural and multidisciplinary conferences, with associated books, on the undecidability of architecture at the end of the second millennium, convened by editor Cynthia Davidson. In this series of exploratory conferences, it was not the product, but the encounter of ideas, thinking and concepts that was the goal. By inviting activists, art theorists, economists, artists, philosophers and the like to engage with architects in architectural discourse, The Any Conferences attempted to expose architecture and its theories to contemporary concerns.

During the course, we analyse one edition of The Any Conferences (1996 Anybody, Buenos Aires) from the perspectives of gender and urban sociology. Each student takes on the role of one of the participants, and tries to identify the position ‘their’ character would take in the conference. Through a series of (public) input lectures from experts in the various fields, students are introduced to key theories and methods in the fields of gender and urban sociology. With this newly gained knowledge, students are asked to analyse and interpret the same position in The Anybody Conference, but from the perspectives of a) gender, and b) urban sociology. By way of a ‘re-enactment’ of The Anybody Conference, students present their selected conference speaker’s participation from gender and urban sociology perspectives. A special workshop led by Dr Anne Hultzsch (gender perspectives) and Professor Emeritus Arnold Reijndorp (urban sociology perspectives) equips students with the methodological tools to cross these two disciplinary perspectives. During the final presentations, students play with traditional hierarchies and gender roles in a re-enactment that allows them to discover what new ideas happen in the crossing of gender and urban sociology perspectives.

This course took place during the Fall 2021 semester.