A World Apart Architectural Autonomy as Artistic Freedom

Understood traditionally, architecture is a service profession responsible for designing and overseeing the construction of the built environment to suit the diverse needs of human life. However, since the late 20th century, architecture has been reframed as a realm of exception; a sort of 'art-world' that is relatively marginal to mainstream society. With its 'curated' events involving 'exhibitions' of 'installations' and 'performances', architecture is increasingly the stuff of museums, galleries and biennials: autonomous spaces that are separate from everyday life. When still constructed as spaces for human occupation, architectural quality is increasingly confined to 'high-profile' buildings -often museums- that generate media buzz useful for branding and tourism. In the sphere of architecture as a service profession, autonomy entails 'self-regulation' or 'self-governance' in the assumption of public responsibility. In the sphere of the art-world, however, architectural autonomy means greater 'artistic freedom'; a freedom from -and hence an abdication of- public responsibility. While the ongoing displacement of architecture from design-action toward artistic reflection has resulted in the gaining of greater creative freedom and artistic license for a small minority of vanguard practitioners, it is simultaneously widening the gulf between 'architecture' and 'building', thereby marginalizing the former. Furthermore, since Duchamp proved that anything can be art (and art can be anything), architecture's resemblance to art inevitably results in its very absorption by contemporary art, and hence its end as an 'autonomous' discipline. Will we soon see exhibitions of 'architectural art' sponsored by, ironically, the very same private real-estate developers who increasingly determine the design of cities? How does architectural art serve the interests of capital when it no longer focusses on building? This paper is a social critique of the price of artistic freedom in architecture.