A Compass of Architectural Theories in the Tower of the Winds

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59490/footprint.19.2.7805

Abstract

In this paper, we present the axes of a mode of epistemological orientation originally designed as a “Compass of theories and theses.” The purpose of this model is to support the possibility of a categorization of architectural theories, hence of architectural theses. It was originally designed to orient doctorate students facing inevitable meditations and doubts regarding the nature of a thesis in architecture as well as the complex nature of knowledge production in architectural theory. An analogical categorization, mirroring both theories and theses, should prove productive to an understanding of the future of theory since doctoral students are called to become the theorists of tomorrow.  Pragmatically, the four quadrants are based on an empirical mapping of theories related to four main types of knowledge production here qualified as: prospective versus retrospective, proactive versus retroactive. This compass – itself a theoretical model of architectural theories – is therefore consisted of two main axes:

1 - The axis of epistemological aims allows for the distinction of knowledge productions along a slider situating objects of research and modes of writing theory. This axis distinguishes two poles, one of retrospective and the other of prospective aims of theories.

 2 - The axis of tensions between disciplinary and professional projects qualifies typical theoretical oscillations between architecture as a way of thinking and as a mode of action or “project.” This axis distinguishes two poles, one of retroactive and the other of proactive dimensions of theories

Author Biography

Jean-Pierre Chupin, Université de Montréal

Jean-Pierre Chupin, PhD, holds the Canada Research Chair in
Architecture, Competitions and Quality at Université de Montréal
(https://crc.umontreal.ca). A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,
he coordinates the interuniversity Laboratoire d’étude de l’architecture
potentielle (LEAP). He has published extensively on analogical
thinking, design competitions, awards of excellence, design thinking,
qualitative processes, architectural judgment, criticism and imagination.
Jean-Pierre is the scientific director of the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada partnership: Quality in
Canada’s Built Environment: Roadmaps to Equity, Social Value and
Sustainability (https://livingatlasofquality.ca), which brings together
fourteen universities, sixty researchers and sixty-five public and
private organisations at the municipal, provincial and national levels.
He is chief editor of 3 online databases of contemporary projects
and buildings: the Canadian Competitions Catalogue (CCC) (https://
ccc.umontreal.ca); the Canadian Map of Award-Winning Buildings
and Places https://architecture-excellence.org) and ArchiQualiData
(https://archiqualidata.ca/en), which intersects issues of quality,
equity, durability, lived experience and social value in the collective
redefinition of living environments in Canada.

References

Jean-Pierre Boutinet, Anthropologie du projet, (Paris: PUF, 1995)

Greig Crysler, Stephen Cairns and Hilde Heynen, The Sage Handbook of Architectural Theory, (New York: SAGE, 2012)

Antoine Picon, Ornament: The Politics of Architecture and Subjectivity, (London: Wiley, 2013)

Manfredo Tafuri, Teorie e storia dell'architettura (Bari: Laterza, 1968)

Alberto Perez-Gomez, Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1985

Peter Eisenman, The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture, (Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2006)

Werner Oechslin, “Out of history? Peter Eisenmans’ Formal Basis of Modern Architecture” in Peter Eisenman, Die Formale Grundlegung der Modernen Architektur, (Trad. Christoph Shläppi), (Zürich: GTA / Gebr. Mann, 2005)

Downloads

Published

2025-12-15

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 2 (2025): Issue # 37 |Architectural Theories, their Performance, Quality and Effect: An Appraisal

Section

Article

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Jean-Pierre Chupin

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.