Transgression suggests operating beyond accepted norms and radically reinterpreting practice by pushing at the boundaries of both what architecture is, and what it could or even should be. The current economic crisis and accompanying political/social unrest has exacerbated the difficulty into which architecture has long been sliding: challenged by other professions and a culture of conservatism, architecture is in danger of losing its prized status as one of the pre-eminent visual arts. Transgression opens up new possibilities for practice. It highlights the positive impact that working on the architectural periphery can make on the mainstream, as transgressive practices have the potential to reinvent and reposition the architectural profession: whether they are subverting notions of progress; questioning roles and mechanisms of production; aligning with political activism; pioneering urban interventions; advocating informal or incomplete development; actively destabilising environments or breaking barriers of taste. In this new dispersed and expanded field of operation, the balance of architectural endeavour is shifted from object to process, from service to speculation, and from formal to informal in a way that provides both critical and political impetus to proactively affect change.
Contributors: Can Altay, Edward Denison and Guangyu Ren, Kim Dovey, Chris Jenks, David Littlefield, Silvia Loeffler, Alistair Parvin, Louis Rice, Patrik Schumacher and Robin Wilson
Featured architects: atelier d’architecture autogérée, Lina Bo Bardi, Construire/La Machine, EXYZT, Didier Faustino/Bureau des Mésarchitectures, Lacaton & Vassal, N55, Catie Newell/*Alibi Studio, Wang Shu, Superflex and Bernard Tschumi
Jonathan Mosley is a practicing artist/architect and senior lecturer in the Department of Planning and Architecture at the University of the West of England. His collaborative studio with artist Sophie Warren produces events, constructions, exhibitions and publications that bring conceptual art processes to the exploration of architectural concerns. They are currently editing Beyond Utopia a multi-contributor book for Los Angeles and Berlin publisher Errant Bodies Press to be released in November 2011. Their work has been exhibited and published internationally.
Dr Rachel Sara is a senior lecturer in the Department of Planning and Architecture at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE). She studied architecture to Doctoral level at the University of Sheffield, and has contributed to a range of academic architectural journals, books and conferences, including Field journal, JEBE, Transactions. She was contributed to various publications and co-wrote The Crit: An Architectural Student's Handbook (2000 and 2007 2nd edition) published by Elsevier. She is peer reviewer for a number of journals including Journal of Architecture, Urban Policy and Research, Gender Work and Organization, CEBE Transactions and Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education.
