MAB20 Symposia: The Double Life of Architecture

Architecture in its practice and outcome are layered in communicative possibilities and meaning making. It’s an elemental media that stimulates, interacts and relates in and between the spaces of different social systems and stakeholders. Completed buildings and environments often hold the privileged position as the final and tangible products which make known the architect’s contribution to society. Practices of architecture: sketching, rendering, photography, building however often go unnoticed outside the autonomy of an architectural system. The relationship between architecture, society and other stakeholders therefore lead to a communicative double life within discourses; on one hand buildings and environments communicate and intervene in communication systems outside the autonomy of architecture; on the other hand they become points of critical reference or examples within the discourse of architecture. In this symposium the team that are involved aim to unpack these architectural discourses, social systems, and value assignments.