'Man is the Measure of All Things'

Authors

  • Victor Muñoz Sanz Technical University of Delft
  • Dan Handel

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7480/footprint.13.2.4284

Abstract

The term Man, and the humanist tradition which followed from it, have been challenged in feminist, queer, poststructuralist, and postcolonial critiques, which questioned its nature, or even pondered if we are actually human. What we seek in this issue of Footprint is to add to these perspectives cases of what we call radical conditioning, in which some architectures bypass assumed values of humanism and operate under a wholly different set of values, emanating from industrial and post-industrial economies and its technological developments. These architectures dictate the creation of spaces in which the human body has to operate, and to which it needs to adapt in order to survive. The research articles and visual essays included in this issue shed light on the many ways architects, advertently or inadvertently, coalesce with forces intending to condition humans. Unfolding in the study of histories, architectural types, aesthetics, atmospheres, systems, and users, authors propose inquiries along two main directions: the first trajectory highlights the prolific use in spatial design of concepts borrowed from cybernetics and information technology for the conditioning of human behavior through the built environment; the second deals with architecture conditioning the creation of new subjectivities, placing the body as the territory of intervention. Understanding these spaces, in which humans and their artifacts interact in unprecedented ways, could provide architecture with the timely opportunity to challenge our anticipated redundancy, and reconsider its own humanism in order to charge it with new meanings.

Author Biographies

Victor Muñoz Sanz, Technical University of Delft

Víctor Muñoz Sanz is an architect and researcher whose work examines the notion of ‘workscapes’, that is, the architectures and territories of human and nonhuman labour. He holds the degree of Architect from ETSA Madrid, a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University, and a PhD cum laude from UPM. Víctor was Harvard’s Druker Fellow; Emerging Curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture; co-principal researcher of ‘Automated Landscapes’ at Het Nieuwe Instituut; fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude; and is currently a researcher at TU Delft. He has published essays in Harvard Design MagazineBartleboothWork Body Leisure (Hatje Cantz, 2018), e-flux ArchitectureVolumeDomus,  and On Site Review. His research on automation with Het Nieuwe Instituut was exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

Dan Handel

Dan Handel is an architect, researcher and curator. He was the inaugural Young Curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, developed exhibitions for the Venice Biennale and Het Nieuwe Instituut, and was curator of architecture and design at the Israel Museum. Handel holds an MArch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a PhD from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. His writing has appeared in Harvard Design Magazine, e-flux Architecture, Thresholds, Frame, San Rocco, and Pin-Up. He is the editor of Manifest, a journal of the Americas and a recipient of grants from the Graham Foundation for Manifest (2012, 2014) and Carpet Space (2019).

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Published

2019-12-12