What’s the Matter with Canon?


September 2023


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

What’s in a Name?

with Ajay Manthripragada, Alex Oetzel, Letícia Wouk Almino

What Excellence?

with Yen Ha

The Media Ecosystem of Architecture

with Eva Hagberg

This Land Is Not My Land

by Mark Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash

CROSS-TALK


December 2024 Coming soon:

PUNK: Brothels, Anarchists, Filth, and Architecture is the pilot issue of Crosstalk, a place for writers to test out ideas in short pieces.

Sign up here to receive AWW updates and Crosstalk pieces in your inbox.