(Re)Encounters:

This dissertation explores the little-known influence of Michael Polanyi’s philosophy of tacit knowledge on architectural education. It examines four moments when tacit knowledge, though always present in the design studio, was explicitly addressed: in the studios of Melvin Charney and Colin Rowe in the 1970s; the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (ILAUD), 1976-1986; the “post-critical turn” of the early 2000s; and contemporary studios at ETH Zurich. Tacit knowledge is elusive: its embodied and collective dimensions are difficult to grasp in archival documents or capture in traditional academic writing. For this reason, I develop a set of experimental methods informed by queer and feminist theory—autoethnography, fictocriticism, and re-enactment—going beyond intellectual history while acknowledging my tacit knowledge as a researcher. Despite Polanyi’s engagement with exclusionary forms of neoliberalism, these moments and methods act to reframe—or queer—tacit knowledge, pointing towards more inclusive pedagogies that bridge individual differences and shared communities.