Architecture Against Architecture | Reinier de Graaf | DOA Guest Lecture

NEW VENUE: This talk will take place at the Arthur Streeton Auditorium, Sofitel Melbourne on Collins Street.

Architecture, as we know it, is in crisis. The authority of architects is crumbling, their methods no longer tenable. In his new book Architecture Against Architecture Reinier de Graaf demands we rethink both how and why we build, challenging readers to question the fundamental assumptions of the discipline. How do we end the feudal veneration of starchitects? When will architects finally recognise that it is in their own best interest to unionise? Why aren’t more practices collectively owned? Why do so many architects over sixty-seven refuse to retire? How do we stop buildings from being copyrighted? What will remain of architecture after AI? What can prevent iconic structures from being embroiled in money laundering? What projects should architects refuse on moral grounds?

About the Speaker

Reinier de Graaf (1964, Schiedam) is a Dutch architect and writer. He is a partner in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and the co-founder of its think-tank AMO. He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, architect, verb.: The New Language of Building, the novel The Masterplan, and the recently published manifesto Architecture Against Architecture. He lives in Amsterdam.

Copies of Reinier’s book will be available for purchase after the talk, courtesy of URO Bookshop

Images:

Cities after Climate Change by OMA
Reinier de Graaf , photography by Adrienne Norman

The Department of Architecture Guest Lecture Series presents the diverse guests who visit us to talk, teach and research the complexities of architecture today.