Unlearning Architecture – Care, Critique, and Transformation
Title: Unlearning Architecture – Care, Critique, and Transformation
Author: Alina Brose
Time: Summer Semester 2024
Tutors: Prof. Dr. Richard Woditsch, Prof. Niels Jonkhans
Thesis: Master’s
“Working with emotions is a subversive gift to the world.” – LASTESIS
We live in a time of pervasive crises shaped by climate change, social injustice, and political instability. These crises are rooted in patriarchal and colonial structures that create privilege on one side and marginalization on the other. Rather than proposing a concrete solution, this work approaches the feminist discourse on care as an overarching ethical framework. Care means taking responsibility for established power structures, whose opaque roots ensure their continued existence. To actively seek solutions that promote sustainable and just ways of living, it is essential to uncover these roots.
To connect the built environment with the causes of global challenges, this work first examines the presence and absence of care in institutionally shaped architectural discourse. It highlights that exclusivity and autonomy are inherently embedded in the discipline. Consequently, it is necessary to question and deconstruct existing colonial and patriarchal structures in architecture. To reach these roots, the methodology of unlearning is applied, understood as a continuous process of critique and transformation. Universities and technical colleges, as places of teaching and learning for architects, play a central role in this process, as they influence the built environment through education, research, and architectural practice.
