Avenues of Approach – Petar Bojanić and the Institution of Architecture

Abstract

The philosopher Petar Bojanić advocates resistance of the architectural discipline to the philosophy of architecture. Using the technique of mise-en-scène, in “Thinking Architecture/Disciplining Architecture” (2015) Bojanić reaffirms that after architecture’s theoretical turn in the second half of the 20th century the architect is undoubtedly capable of theoretically thematizing his/her own work. I argue strongly that this implies, among other things, building a disciplinary language, which must reconcile, or at least balance between, the verbal and non-verbal form of expression. Also, I try to show that it is precisely theory that the architect has needed through history to establish the architectural discipline as liberal and autonomous.
In “The Real and the Theoretical” (2013) the philosopher from Belgrade stresses the tensions between reality and theory present in the work of the architect. Theorizing in the field of architecture carries a danger of severe detachment from currently important and pressing social problems. Since there is no discipline without a group and since architecture is defined as the art of community, architectural practice can be understood, as it is in “The Architectural Philosophy” (2013), as a spatial way of transforming society.