“Architecture & Micropolitics” challenges two common misconceptions: first, that architects no longer play a central role in building creation, and second, that design follows a linear process starting with a fully developed architectural vision. Architect Farshid Moussavi argues that the temporal nature of architecture allows for the potential to create change in day-to-day practice. She suggests that we move away from determinism and embrace chance events and subjective factors that influence practice in order to anchor buildings in the micropolitics of everyday life.
The book showcases four buildings designed by FMA, Moussavi’s London-based practice, demonstrating how their design process, with its rhizomatic nature, is combined with thorough research and a willingness to incorporate chance elements to fuel creativity and push boundaries for more than just functional buildings.
The book includes a significant essay by Farshid Moussavi and an afterword by philosopher Jacques Rancière, along with detailed analyses of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland; Lot 19, the first new residential block built in the La Défense district of Paris in thirty years; the Folie Divine apartment building in Montpellier; and the Ismaili Center Houston, the first new building in the US dedicated to use by the Ismaili community. Contributions by Iñaki Ábalos, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Irénée Scalbert are also featured in the book.
