Degree Zero in Architecture: Form, Value, Authorship traces how a concept borrowed from Roland Barthes has shaped architectural theory and criticism since the 1960s, gathering fifteen essays that interrogate what architecture values, how it is authorised, and what forms it legitimises.
About This Book
The concept of "degree zero" — first articulated by Roland Barthes in relation to writing — has had a long and productive afterlife in architectural discourse. This edited volume maps that afterlife with precision, examining how the term has been deployed across projectual, theoretical, speculative, critical, and academic practices since the 1960s. What holds the collection together is a set of interrelated questions: how do architectural forms embody values, who is authorised to produce architectural knowledge, and what does it mean to position a practice within the field? The fifteen essays gathered here address these questions with rigour, making this a significant contribution to contemporary architectural theory for researchers, critics, and advanced students.
Key Features
- 326 pages of critical essays on architectural theory, discourse, and disciplinary positioning
- Edited by Lyna Bourouiba and Wouter Van Acker
- Fifteen essays interrogating form, value, and authorship across diverse architectural practices
- Published by Spector Books, ISBN: 9783959059053
What You'll Discover
- How Barthes's concept of "degree zero" was adapted into architectural theory and what critical work it has performed across different practices and periods
- The relationship between architectural form and the values — disciplinary, cultural, and political — that forms are made to carry
- How authorship functions in architecture: who is recognised as producing architectural knowledge, and on what terms
- The ways in which architectural practices — whether built, speculative, or academic — position themselves within a contested disciplinary field
About the Author
Lyna Bourouiba is an architect and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Architecture (La Cambre Horta), ULB, Brussels. Wouter Van Acker is an engineer-architect and associate professor at the same faculty, ULB, Brussels.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 326
- Dimensions: 140 × 160 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783959059053
- Publisher: Spector Books
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architectural theorists, historians, and critics; postgraduate researchers working in architectural discourse; and practitioners with an interest in how disciplinary values and authorship are constructed and contested.