Architectural Autonomy

Definition

Architectural autonomy names architecture's claim to be a self-grounding, self-legitimating discipline — the appeal to essences, origins, genius loci, and eternal principles that, for Jacques Derrida, makes architecture "the last fortress of metaphysics." Derrida deconstructs this autonomy: the "centre" or foundation on which architecture grounds itself is always "foreign," brought in from outside and dependent on the very terms it excludes, so that "the concept of foundation seems to rely on this instability to establish its status as a core." Deconstruction does not abolish architecture's autonomy but shows it cannot be secured by appeal to foundations; architecture must "resort to apparatuses other than authoritative meanings on which to peg its claims to expertise." Richard Coyne draws the institutional consequence: Derrida's real target is architecture as an authoritative profession — accreditation, organisation, standards, leadership, archives, and a 'canon' — whose autonomy is a metaphysical claim to be subverted from within, via the "double gesture" of upholding professional rigour while undermining the foundations of the profession.

Key Thinkers

• Jacques Derrida — architecture as "the last fortress of metaphysics"; the four foundations to deconstruct (home/dwelling/hearth; nostalgia for origins; progress toward human betterment; beauty/harmony/completeness); the "double gesture."
• Richard Coyne — the institutional reading: autonomy as the profession's self-grounding (accreditation, canon, standards, archives), which architectural Deconstruction failed to touch.
• Peter Eisenman — formal autonomy as the architectural appropriation of Derrida (the "Corbusian phase" of insulated authorship).
• (Related: Manfredo Tafuri on the autonomous object; Theodor Adorno on aesthetic autonomy; Henri Lefebvre on architecture's "relative autonomy.")

Related Concepts

• Deconstruction — the practice that undoes autonomy's metaphysical ground.
• Metaphysics — autonomy as architecture's metaphysical self-grounding.
• Presence — the foundational value that autonomy presumes and deconstruction destabilizes.
• Critical Architecture — autonomy as resistance (Adorno, Tafuri) against Derrida's deconstruction of autonomy.
• Architectural Object — the autonomous object as the built form of autonomy.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Derrida for Architects (Coyne 2011)

Open Questions

• Does deconstructing architecture's autonomy leave any ground for a critical or ethical architecture, or does it dissolve into the "undecidable"?
• How does Derrida's deconstruction of autonomy relate to the Frankfurt School's defence of aesthetic autonomy (Adorno) and to Eisenman's formal autonomy — are these compatible or opposed?