Towards a territorial praxis

Abstract

Within current contemporary conditions the profession of Architecture has been diminished and the impact of the discipline in some cases is almost irrelevant to the production of our contemporary world. Compare to other professions, economists, politicians, developers, policy-makers, computer scientists, architecture plays a tiny role in shaping our world, socially, politically and physically. Architecture seems to increasingly matter only to architects and the work that is produced admired for the singularity of the designed object. It is praised by its technical ability or aesthetical features but outside the realm of the majority’s everyday life. In this essay we explain the emergence of “territory” as a field of design praxis as research and praxis by the Landscape Urbanism Master Programme at the Architectural Association and at Groundlab in order to incorporate architecture into a wider framework within current and urgent contemporary conditions and as way to intervene within it through design.