The evolution of architecture in the 20th century can be read as a history of alliances. Associations like the Werkbund, CIAM, Team 10 or the Texas Rangers acted as reform movements with a political or pedagogical agenda to spread their ideas – and finally also push them through – with the joint force of the collective. Our young millennium currently sees a renaissance of collaborative concepts and the establishment of unprecedented networks facilitated and expedited by digitalization and globalization. Can traditional structures still keep pace with these developments?

What is the general framework of these new collectives – open community, secret society or lobbyism? It is time to take a look under the surface and explore the mechanisms of these associations. How do they work, what keeps them together, and what powers them?

The recent crisis has thrown the architectural profession into economic and professional angst, and one could see a parallel in this to the previous century. Might it be that this uncertainty has led the architect – the great individualist – back into the collective? Isn’t the main purpose of alliances protection? But against whom?

The present issue of archithese examines these underlying structures of architecture on various levels. Architects like Max Bill, Le Corbusier or Esther McCoy developed their own strategies for reaching their goals and operated from their own networks. While Bill entered parliament as a politician to directly inject his idea of environmental design into the political discourse – a commitment that is rare amongst designers up to today – Le Corbusier’s upbringing in a Masonic milieu significantly expedited his career. Even today, some architects’ careers would not have come very far without a certain amount of external support, just think of SuperDutch or New Wave Denmark. In retrospect, many heroes of the American scene owe their legendary reputation to the architect and writer Esther McCoy, who, despite her achievements, has been largely forgotten by architectural historiography.

A fate similar to that of the young generation of contemporary architects in Southern Europe, who are already being called the „lost generation“. The dramatic slump of the Spanish and also the Italian construction industry has forced young architects, most of all, to question the traditional idea of the egomaniac artist-architect and to find new definitions as agents of society with social competence and community spirit. They thereby rediscover long-forgotten potential and areas for themselves and know how to make creative use of the possibilities of the 21st century to digitally connect and organize collective projects. But how does politics react to this new situation? While architectural associations used to mainly promote the interests of their members, they now for the first time in history face serious competition in the form of architectural trade unions in countries like Denmark or Spain. May it be that the profession felt their interests weren’t sufficiently represented anymore? Have the associations become tools of the economy and the construction industry?

A classic example of successful lobbyism can be found in the strategic methods of the Hamburg-based corporation ECE with its foundation „Stiftung Lebendige Stadt“ (Foundation for a Living City) for the major project MILANEO on the Stuttgart 21 area. The fusion of economy and politics achieves a certain blur here. And thus the economic lust for profit dominates the public good – which should customarily be protected by politics – thereby turning the city into prey. Lobbyism is no longer a pariah; it has become part of the establishment. We can at present already observe the emergence of new forms of dependencies, for example in the area of copyright legislation for new contracting forms like the Australian Project Alliance or in the transferral of estate archives, as is the case with the Barragán archives. So, what is the current state of the profession? – The time has come for new alliances.

The Editors

ARCHITEKTUR AKTUELL
10 Eigenwillig willensstarker Solitär. Schulhaus von Angela Deuber Architektin in Thal, SG | Hannes Mayer
18 Barocke Gewänder und karge Leiber. Neubau des Landtags in Potsdam von Peter Kulka Architektur, Dresden – Köln | Florian Dreher

BÜNDNIS
24 Italien: Über alle, die nicht Rossi heissen. Das italienische Netzwerk der zeitgenössischen Architektur | Luca Molinari, Rossella Ferorelli
30 Neue Netzwerke, neue Dynamiken. Anmerkungen zu aktuellen Allianzen unter jungen spanischen Architekten | Isabel Concheiro
36 Eigeninitiative im Kollektiv. EASA European Architecture Students Assembly | Paula Strunden
42 Die Politik der kleinen Schritte oder Der behutsame Mensch. Max Bill als Politiker | Florian Dreher
46 Le Corbusier and the Occult. Notes on Le Corbusier’s architectural and phenomenological methodology | Jan K. Birksted
54 Texas Strangers, Texas Rangers. Experiments at a Mid-Twentieth-Century
Educational Outpost | Joan Ockman
60 Der Kopf hinter Mythen: Esther McCoy . Die Arbeit der Schriftstellerin und Architekturjournalistin Esther McCoy in Kalifornien | Klaus Leuschel
64 Meins! Oder auch: Vertigo – Die Drohung des Troges. Eine diskrete Liebestragödie in mehreren Revitalisierungen unter Mitwirkung des Bündnisses für Unschuld | Hannes Mayer
68 Die Stadt als Beute. Eroberungsstrategien der Immobilienwirtschaft | Holger Pump-Uhlmann
74 Das zivilisatorische Modell in der Architektur. Wie Technik die Architektur, ihre Prozesse und Beziehungen verändert | Hannes Mayer

RUBRIKEN
76 Debatte. Dornröschenschlaf in der Hönggerburg
78 fsai. Bündnisse im Verband
82 Neue Vertragswerke. Teamwork statt Diventum
88 Neues aus der Industrie
94 Lieferbare Hefte
96 Vorschau und Impressum