The Transcendental Stupidity of Architecture

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59490/footprint.19.1.7498

Abstract

This article discusses, within the transcendental empiricism of Deleuze’s philosophy, how stupidity comes to be seen as a positive possibility for thought. Nomad architecture, which is contrasted with the state science of architecture, has a certain stupidity about it, but this is nothing other than the stupidity which allows us access to the groundless ground, the field of the real, which can be perceived as a depth within the forms which architecture creates as an aftereffect.  Examples are given, including that of the 2017 Grenfell fire and Anne Querrien’s nomadic architectural work.

Author Biography

Tim Gough, Independent architect

Formerly senior lecturer in design, history and the theory of architecture at Kingston University School of Architecture and Landscape, Tim Gough has an architectural practice in London. His research interests include the work of Gilles Deleuze, Francesco di Giorgio, Roman baroque, and the ontology of architecture.

References

The Building Regulations 2010, Fire Safety, Approved Document B, Volume 2 – Buildings other than Dwellinghouses, 2006 Edition with 2007, 2010 and 2013 amendments, Section B4, page 94, paragraph 12.7. Accessible via: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-approved-document-b. Accessed 30/3/24

“Grenfell Tower was so dangerous ‘it was like throwing match into petrol’“, Metro, 5th June 2018 https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/05/grenfell-tower-dangerous-like-throwing-match-petrol-7607068/ Accessed 30/3/24

Prescription of qualifications: ARB Criteria at Parts 1, 2 and 3, Architects Registration Board, 2010. https://arb.org.uk/information-for-schools-of-architecture/arb-criteria/ Accessed 30/3/24

Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy, trans. Hugh Tomlinson. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006 [1983].

Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition, trans. Paul Patton. London: Continuum, 1994.

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia: A Thousand Plateaus, trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1987.

Andrew Pollhammer, Between Natural Stupor and the Thought of Stupefaction: On Gilles Deleuze’s Transcendental Stupidity, p.20. Research paper, August 2017. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/983013/1/Pollhammer_MA_F2017.pdf (accessed 30/3/24).

Anne Querrien, Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu, “Making a Rhizome, or Architecture after Deleuze and Guattari” (trans. Doina Petrescu) pp. 262-275 in Deleuze and Architecture, eds. Hélène Frichot and Stephen Loo. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

Gilbert Simondon, “The Position of the Problem of Ontogenesis”, trans, Gregory Flanders, Parrhesia number 7, 2009, pp.4-16.

Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics Proved in Geometrical Order, trans. Michael Silverthorne and Matthew J. Kisner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Manfredo Tafuri, Theories and History of Architecture. New York, Harper & Row, 1976.

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Published

2025-06-20

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2025): Issue # 36 | Who’s Stupid Now: Architecture, Intelligence and Transdisciplinarity

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Article

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Copyright (c) 2025 Tim Gough

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