"There will be no response other than the barbaric if we do not learn to couple together multiple, divergent struggles and engagements in this process of creation, as hesitant and stammering as it may be." – Stengers2015:50
The Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture and the City at the Technical University Braunschweig is dedicated to the investigation, analysis and documentation of the polito-economical frameworks and ethical demands for architecture and architects in the context of a new civil society.
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We consider the making-visible and, therefore, understanding of decision-making structures as an essential if not indispensable instrument for a negotiable, transformative, emancipatory, and just production of space. This is important as other ways of doing become thinkable only when questions about privilege, interests, power or agency are exposed and their distinctive layers revealed. The much-demanded right to the city or wider socio-environmental justice, for example, can only be realised if and when the very systems that produce architectural projects and objects become the focus of attention.
This critical-reflexive starting point is anchored in our teaching and research. We explore historical lines of flight and situate ourselves within interdisciplinary discussions and trans-local concerns. Our aim is to frame contemporary concerns—such as migration, the housing question, climate breakdown, and agency—within wider debates. Through this approach, we position ourselves against the modernist fragmentation and abstraction of knowledge, whilst drawing attention to and investigating complex machines or apparatuses and the subsequent configuration of other trajectories and imaginaries.
The Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture and the City (GTAS) and the Collection for Architecture and Engineering (SAIB) are headed by Tatjana Schneider.