GESTURES MAKE ARGUMENTS Performing Architecture Theory in the Studio and the Classroom 196x-199x

Architectural theory - the collection of theoretical approaches by which the aesthetic, technological and societal challenges of architecture are defined and challenged – has only recently come to define itself as a field that is to play a major role in the education of future architects. This study explores the formation of architectural theory as an academic discipline in the second half of the twentieth century. It focuses on Belgium, and more specifically its northern part Flanders. This field is explored by making deep drills into the educational landscape.

Rather than studying the publications or written accounts produced by canonised historical figures, this contemporary past is examined through the lens of four architect-educators or ‘gatekeepers’. It asks how, in addition to more conventional oral and the textual materials, objects such as diagrams, paintings, maps and thumbed manuscripts circulate meaning visually.

The aim of this case-study based approach is to gain insight into the multiple processes of theory formation in architectural education in the second half of the 20th century. In particular, the project illuminates how texts and objects were pedagogical devices through which educators engaged and developed architectural knowledge. As a result, images and objects function as gateways into the black box of the classroom and into past schooling practices.