What’s the Matter with Canon?

Our third issue, What’s the Matter with Canon?, considers the question of how best to engage with the biases we’ve inherited. Are well-known works of architecture considered valuable within the discourse because of their intrinsic worth? Or is their perceived value a function of their ubiquity? This question underlies the very notion of architecture’s canon; a set of common reference points for those studying and working in our field.

The issue brings to the fore questions of land and authorship, the role of media and narrative-making, and even the complex and nuanced function of personal networks in the elevation of architectural works to the canon. It includes a roundtable discussion, What’s in a Name?, with Ajay Manthripragada, Alex Oetzel, and Letícia Wouk Almino; What Excellence?, a conversation with Yen Ha; The Media Ecosystem of Architecture, a conversation with Eva Hagberg; and This Land Is Not My Land, an essay by Mark Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash.

Our previous thread offered a glimpse into architectural education and featured an image essay by Leonid Furmansky in addition to conversations with Ekin Erar, Leyuan Li, and Zaid Kashef Alghata.

Pouya Khadem, Sebastián López Cardozo, Mai Okimoto, and Lauren Phillips