L’Objet Invalide

Abstract

Over the course of this paper, I will consider categories of thought within architectural discourse from the poststructuralist paradigm as a primary resource. The texts and authors referred to are specifically those that discuss and critically analyse matters of authorship and origination among the arts and architecture. The poststructuralist paradigm offers a body of commentary on the primacy of written text over speech and its problematic with respect to appropriation and translation of form as well as content. A particular discrepancy to be disentangled in my research is the nature of the theoretical basis established by architectural authors of the period with respect to an anticipation of digital modes of design. The architectural projects during the period can be considered early statements that also attempt to establish the limits of tools available to architectural production, specifically where this concerns architectural representation. And, thus, can be read as having embedded within them a tendency for or maybe an exposition of those limits. The paper aspires to uncover and elaborate the modes of thinking and the consequent problems of translation, into an aesthetic, i.e. considerations of form and content or the lack of clarity on any such legible distinctions.