COUPLING PORTRAIT

Content

We are accustomed to seeing architectural portraits were the (male) builders are standing next to their creative creations. What do such portraits tell us about the state of the profession of architecture? The star system fails to recognise the social context involved in the process of constructing architecture. Unfortunately, architects still follow the nineteenth century’s romantic concept of the design genius which pressures them to become an expert on edifying by themselves. Regardless of what architectural historians, critics and academia portray, architecture comes to life through collaboration: Margaret Macdonald and Charles Rennie Mackintosh worked together, so did Ray and Charles Eames, and Aino and Alvar Aalto.

Methodology

Held during the COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar was designed for online-teaching and to embrace the use of new media. The course consists initially of online seminars and group discussions on architectural labour from a feminist point of view, followed by activist events on social media and concludes with a re-enactment of famous portrait-photos. The content of couplings is exploited through historical research and the method of role-playing, as a masquerade of constant performance in society. Participants will personify the architects, mainly focusing on the costumes and gestures to recreate famous portrait-photos that recognise collaborative creations.

Mission

With their whole body-experience and the use of digital technology, they were empowered to make visible the ghosts of the history of architecture and to engage critically with issues of architectural labour.