THE ARCHITECTURAL ASSEMBLAGE

PhD thesis in Architectural History and Theory
UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, 2012 (expected)

As a starting point, many months ago, one of the questions was 'what takes place when someone designs for a heterogeneous public realm?' The questions have since then transformed and others come forth, but the core remains the same. This thesis is an investigation of the relation between the notion of a heterogeneous public realm on the one hand and 'open-ended design', or design inviting multiple occupations and interpretations, on the other. As a starting point the thesis considers design as a form of imposition on the agency and identity of individual persons and groups. Design in the public realm thus raises the issue of representing an indeterminate group of potential users and invariably involves a process of reducing intricate and heterogeneous social interactions between persons and groups to a relatively homogeneous whole, the 'general public'. Here we concentrate on two approaches used in architecture that stand as critiques of this imposition: the related strategies of authorship-sharing and open material dialectics as used and represented in architectural design and theory since the mid-twentieth century and that may be described as 'open-ended design'. One of the main ideas behind this investigation is that the material and social aspects of architectural design, especially for the public realm, cannot be conceived of separately but should be understood as an 'assemblage' or as an 'unfinalisable' set of relations contingent on spatial and temporal variables. This 'assemblage' is then suggested as a hermeneutic paradigm to understand urban public space and its design.

To frame these questions the research uses the work of Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, especially his theory of dialogism stating that no entity, whether individual person or object, can be understood outside of the relations that link it to an 'Other'. This notion, extrapolated through problematic and arguably outdated dichotomies like theory and practice, subject and object, public and private, and coupled with related Bakhtin- ian concepts such as architectonics, the chronotope, incompleteness and heteroglossia, becomes significant in framing questions of ethics, shared-authorship, heterogeneous publics, identity, use, artistic creation, and interpretation as they relate to architectural design for the public realm.

Empirically the research draws on an extensive critical investigation of the recent Barking Town Square by muf architecture/art. During the process of designing the Square the designers relied on what they themselves refer to as an 'open-ended' approach combining engagement with local residents and a formally 'open' architectural language. In its broader context the Town Square is part of an extensive development scheme for the east Lon- don area touching on various issues including regeneration, planning, urban design, public and private part- nerships, and affects a complex socio-economic, cultural and political situation. The method of investigation is influenced largely by ethnography and social anthropology, and original empirical material has been gathered through intensive participant-observation fieldwork in Barking in the form of personal interviews, photography, video, and on-site observations.