Cultural criticism is an occupation as serious as the work of an actor or a comedian. No society can do without it without suffering an internal process of fatal contraction. Neither can architecture, a discipline that suffers—perhaps more than most—from the pressures of political and economic powers, as well as the prejudices of the public and architects themselves. With the same insistence that people speak of the 'death of the novel,' some critics and historians frequently revisit the tropes of the 'death of architecture' and the 'death of criticism.' These are bad times for criticism. Yet it is precisely the threatened state of the discipline—the fact that it finds itself in a 'crisis' that will lead either to its death or to its revitalization—that opens the door to reflecting on it without prejudice.
This book examines architectural criticism through six complementary essays: the first, 'Criticism & Public,' accounts for its history and social role; the second, 'Criticism & Method,' presents various methods loosely tied to different eras; the third, 'Criticism & Culture,' studies the figure of the first modern architectural critic in Spain, José Moreno Villa; the fourth, 'Criticism & Journals,' focuses on the quintessential medium for criticism through the case of Arquitecturas Bis; meanwhile, 'Criticism & Media' analyzes the continuities and ruptures produced by mass media and digitalization; finally, 'Criticism & Project' reflects on the paradigm shifts occurring in the ever-complex relationship between criticism and architectural practice.
Minicongresos Series on Theory, History, and Criticism of Architecture. Linked to the ETSAM Minicongresos organized by the Department of Architectural Composition at the UPM, this series consists of rigorously and beautifully edited volumes intended to address contemporary topics of reflection from a perspective that combines historical analysis with the use of contemporary critical and theoretical tools.
