Rachel Sara & Jonathan Mosley 
The Architecture of Transgression [PDF ebook] 

Transgression suggests operating beyond accepted norms and
radically reinterpreting practice by pushing at the boundaries of
both what architecture is, and what it could or even should be. The
current economic crisis and accompanying political/social unrest
has exacerbated the difficulty into which architecture has long
been sliding: challenged by other professions and a culture of
conservatism, architecture is in danger of losing its prized status
as one of the pre-eminent visual arts. Transgression opens up new
possibilities for practice. It highlights the positive impact that
working on the architectural periphery can make on the mainstream,
as transgressive practices have the potential to reinvent and
reposition the architectural profession: whether they are
subverting notions of progress; questioning roles and mechanisms of
production; aligning with political activism; pioneering urban
interventions; advocating informal or incomplete development;
actively destabilising environments or breaking barriers of taste.
In this new dispersed and expanded field of operation, the balance
of architectural endeavour is shifted from object to process, from
service to speculation, and from formal to informal in a way that
provides both critical and political impetus to proactively affect
change.

Contributors: Can Altay, Edward Denison and Guangyu Ren, Kim
Dovey, Chris Jenks, David Littlefield, Silvia Loeffler, Alistair
Parvin, Louis Rice, Patrik Schumacher and Robin Wilson

Featured architects: atelier d’architecture
autogérée, Lina Bo Bardi, Construire/La Machine, EXYZT,
Didier Faustino/Bureau des Mésarchitectures, Lacaton &
Vassal, N55, Catie Newell/*Alibi Studio, Wang Shu, Superflex and
Bernard Tschumi

Tabla de materias

5 EDITORIAL

Helen Castle

6 ABOUT THE GUEST-EDITORS

Jonathan Mosley and Rachel Sara

8 SPOTLIGHT

Visual highlights of the issue

14 INTRODUCTION

The Architecture of Transgression: Towards a Destabilising
Architecture

Jonathan Mosley and Rachel Sara

20 Transgression: The Concept

Chris Jenks

24 Extenuating Circumstances: Salvaged Landscape

Catie Newell

32 Architecture and Transgression: An Interview with Bernard
Tschumi

Jonathan Mosley and Rachel Sara

38 Transgression and Progress in China: Wang Shu and the
Literati Mindset

Edward Denison and Guangyu Ren

44 Not Doing/Overdoing: ‘Omission’ and
‘Excess’ -Lacaton & Vassal’s Place Léon
Aucoc, Bordeaux, and Construire’s Le Channel, Scène
Nationale de Calais, Calais

Robin Wilson

Sobre el autor

Jonathan Mosley is a practicing artist/architect and senior lecturer in the Department of Planning and Architecture at the University of the West of England. His collaborative studio with artist Sophie Warren produces events, constructions, exhibitions and publications that bring conceptual art processes to the exploration of architectural concerns. They are currently editing Beyond Utopia a multi-contributor book for Los Angeles and Berlin publisher Errant Bodies Press to be released in November 2011. Their work has been exhibited and published internationally.

Dr Rachel Sara is a senior lecturer in the Department of Planning and Architecture at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE). She studied architecture to Doctoral level at the University of Sheffield, and has contributed to a range of academic architectural journals, books and conferences, including Field journal, JEBE, Transactions. She was contributed to various publications and co-wrote The Crit: An Architectural Student’s Handbook (2000 and 2007 2nd edition) published by Elsevier. She is peer reviewer for a number of journals including Journal of Architecture, Urban Policy and Research, Gender Work and Organization, CEBE Transactions and Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education.