Description
Used by Rodolfo Machado and Rudolph El-Khoury in 1995 to describe a series of projects that deliberately did not articulate a part to whole relationship, ?monolithic architecture? became the predominant architectural form of the ?avant-garde? in the last two decades. ?In its allegorical mode, the use of term in architecture has more to do with representational strategies than material qualities or construction systems?. In its representational and iconographic nature, latent muteness, scalar ambiguity and unquestionable objectness, lies the possible autonomy of the monolithic project. Dwelling in the very incongruity of the term as a productive dichotomy, the class will aim to elucidate the critical lineage and contemporary relevance of monolithicity in architecture.
The class will revisit some of the most relevant, contemporary and historical examples of this under explored and yet over utilized category. Beginning with the analysis of key contemporary precedents and the discussion o