Instability

Nicolás Verdejo Bravo

Instability

2024, Hyphen

Architectural production has always necessitated a degree of fundamental confidence—or, arguably, even optimism—to be possible. The fact remains that the basic conditions against which we must carry out our work stay in constant and elusive flux. Uncertainty, that is, is among the only certainties in life. We cannot ignore the profound instability of our present milieu: The looming proposition of a post-pandemic scenario, world economies in free fall, the rampant spread of misinformation, politically polarized societies, and myriad social and environmental injustices, to name but a few, represent a complex and often daunting map of action by which architects might aspire to rethink the scope of our discipline. These challenges have rendered the task of envisioning the near future all the more pressing and raised (or resuscitated) urgent and essential questions about the architect’s role.

hyphen 2 Instability Architectural production has always necessitated a degree of fundamental confidence—or, arguably, even optimism—to be possible. The fact remains that the basic conditions against which we must carry out our work stay in constant and elusive flux. Uncertainty, that is, is among the only certainties in life. We cannot ignore the profound instability of our present milieu: The looming proposition of a post-pandemic scenario, world economies in free fall, the rampant spread of misinformation, politically polarized societies, and myriad social and environmental injustices, to name but a few, represent a complex and often daunting map of action by which architects might aspire to rethink the scope of our discipline. These challenges have rendered the task of envisioning the near future all the more pressing and raised (or resuscitated) urgent and essential questions about the architect’s role. Instability is most frequently understood simply as the absence of stability. The Oxford Dictionary describes it more evocatively as a state of being likely to change suddenly or unpredictably. Ilya Prigogine, the renowned physical chemist and Nobel Laureate, asserts that instability has been a neglected and omitted variable when studying the laws of nature. He points out that instability—an inherent condition of the world—is considered a threat to absolute control and precise forecasting, which are, after all, vital preconditions for scientific research.1 Similarly, by its very nature, architectural work follows and creates rules that must guarantee the stability of its material outcome through space and time. The firmitas principle, established by Vitruvius near the end of the first century BC, is one of the earliest statements regarding the essential need for stability and firmness in buildings. In contrast to this central tenet, instability has long offered fertile ground 1 Prigogine, Ilya. “The Philosophy of Instability.” Futures 21, no. 4 (August 1, 1989): 396-400 3 hyphen 4 for architectural theories that embraced uncertainty, complexity, contradiction, and difference from the midtwentieth century onward. Theoreticians and intellectuals such as Manfredo Tafuri, Reyner Banham, Denise Scott Brown, and Robert Venturi expanded such concepts into robust lines by which to interrogate the values of a seemingly exhausted modernism. What current architectural ideas, operations, practices, and projects productively navigate the instability of our discipline? In this first issue, we address the concept of instability through three thematic blocks with contributions from authors from range of backgrounds, interests, and locales. The first reflects on technology and materialities. Ali Ghazvinian elaborates on potential tectonic paradigms that go back to nature, discussing the importance of defining a framework to cope with natural phenomena. Yasaman Najjari shows how an adaptive canopy design can address a range of evolving and unpredictable conditions. Elizabeth Andrzejewski observes the uncertain role of human labor in a period where automation has reached an important level of sophistication in housing assembly. In the second group, short-form reflections on research production or design-related activities that inhabit the space between stability and instability are presented. Virginia Melnyck’s Helix-Tower challenges conventional tectonic approaches through lightweight structures. Elena Vasquez shows how instability can be crucial in designing kinetic structures such as adaptive building screens. Tess Clancy reports on how a famous twentieth-century urban and cultural ‘battle’ story can be taught to first-year students through Opera. Sophie Marks and Tiffanie Leung, two of the most recent prize winners of the Stuckeman School’s annual Corbelletti Drawing Charrette, discuss the conflictive fate of hand-made drawing in technology-anxious times. The concluding section comprises four studies questioning the stabilities of theories, histories, and environments. Houman Riazi presents a delirious reading of Deleuze and Guattari’s becomings in art and architecture. Jaymes Progar observes how East Germany’s far-right politics were scripted into architecture under Cold War tensions. Leonardo Portus’ visual essay explores architectural dystopias and imaginaries that recall those of the early twentieth-century avant-garde. Zoe Swartz explains an interesting case of participatory design under unstable ecological conditions in a small village in Thailand. Returning to Prigogine’s definitions, we must accept that the future will remain stubbornly unpredictable, even if the basic circumstances of present challenges are, arguably, well understood. We inevitably confront these issues daily as PhD students, designers, researchers, and advocates for a discipline in flux. As we write this introduction, we recognize and stand in solidarity with our peers from Architecture Departments at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Michigan, among others, in their strikes against unstable labor conditions and uncertain agreements for a living wage to graduate workers. We, as students, faculty, or practitioners, navigate a fundamental unknowing that lends urgency to design research in all its forms, and around which the inaugural issue of Hyphen aspires to open a productive conversation, hosting provocations that identify, interrogate, or problematize the space between what is stable and what is not. We close the issue with Stuck Pills, a one-page cartoon Hyphenexclusive by Nicolas Verdejo, and an outro inviting contributions that span the space from this issue to the next one. The editors of Hyphen. 5

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