OASE 81 / Constructing Criticism

The apparent increase in popular demand for volumes presenting works of architecture as novelties has been curiously matched by the marked absence of a critical discussion of the objects that would explain and examine their role as cultural statements or as exponents of particular urban, social and political visions. The dearth of architecture criticism, not only in general newspapers or magazines, on television and radio, is a perennial phenomenon.
There are many reasons for the disappearance of the culture of architecture criticism. The progressive acceptance of architecture as image production rather than as an agent of a larger social or political project and the demise of platforms for critical thought, however, are among the most alarming. If architecture is a rich and complex field of cultural production and know ledge that continuously redefines itself vis-à-vis spatial, societal and cultural challenges, then critically thinking and writing on this role of architecture both as a force of change and as a mode of reflection are most essential.
This issue of OASE is aimed at examining the role of the architecture magazine within the current debate on architecture criticism. Resulting from the numerous talks, seminars and symposia organized in the framework of the 25th anniversary of OASE, this issue brings together important critical voices around one central question: ‘What critical role should the architecture journal play in an ever more a-critical landscape?’