Architects on a Mission
The course critically explored the figure of a “global planning expert” that emerged in the post-war period, along with changes to planning practice brought by this transnational turn. During this time, architects converted to jet-setters who travelled the world on “missions” to solve complex problems posed by rapid urbanisation and mass migration. Practitioners like Otto Koenigsberger, Ernest Weissmann, Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, Constantinos Doxiadis, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry were commissioned by the newly independent states for large urban development projects initiated by the United Nations. Such projects required new interdisciplinary expertise, as planners and architects worked alongside politicians, sociologists, anthropologists, economists, procurement specialists and financial planners.
Although these planning “missions” were arranged under the seeming neutrality of “technical assistance” by the United Nations, they relied on Western ideas of modernisation and development, often at odds with local realities. Architects developed new knowledge as they adapted imported models to specific social and climate conditions and local material and logistical networks. Coupled with the discipline’s participatory turn, these projects delegated design agency to the users, profoundly shifting the role of the architect in the design process. Through three main modules—Projects, People and Knowledge—this course explored how these transnational design projects conceived under the idea of “development” redefined the architects’ position, agency and knowledge.
Through selected studies, we worked to untangle complex webs of architecture in development. What role did architecture and urban planning play in post-WWII developmental projects? In what way did international institutions like the United Nations incorporate physical planning into their projects? How did the architects and urban planners shape the discourse on modernisation, and what were the tangible implications of this discourse?
Based on the three main clusters, students investigated concrete design projects carried out under the United Nations Technical Assistance programme. By working with original project archives and documents, students discovered the role of other less-known actors involved in these projects—politicians, UN officials, engineers, and inhabitants. As a final deliverable for the course, students produced an interconnected actor’s map of selected case studies and fictional project diaries, which explored the shifting position, agency and knowledge of architects and planners through the internationalisation of architectural practice.
This course took place in the Fall semester 2023.
Below are some selected examples of student work.
