A neo-structuralist perspective on architectural theory of post-truth era: Re-constructing the architect-subject

Abstract

The fundamental aim of the article is to scrutinise the transformations and yet pseudo-disappearance of architectural theory with an archi-theoretical gaze. It is an attempt to reread/ write the architectural theory of the 21st century in the shade of the claim that architectural theory was dead. It is obvious that not only in architecture but also in all social-life structures, free-floating meanings began to invade the totality; every concept that constitutes societal life was dislocated after the digital turn. Concepts began to be depicted with the prefix 'pose; such as post-historical, post-humanist, post-political, post-ideological, post-theory, and even, 'post-truth'. Under these circumstances, the main argument of the article is that architecture could be run as a 'point de capitone' -in Lacanian terminology-, between the subject -described as the sublime object of ideology by Zizek- and the ideology; the role of architecture is to work as a stabiliser on/between the liquid surfaces/grounds. In the context of the main argument, the article is structured on three conceptual domains, which are that ideology, subject and architecture. Architecture as a point de capitone has a significant role in the reconstitution of incommensurable dialectic in the 'redoubling procedure; which works for both recreating the lost otherness, and providing social antagonism.