The Fifth Typology

A symposium about Type and Architecture

Rafael Moneo once said that to talk about type in architecture is to talk about the essence of architecture. Indeed, when conceiving a building is almost impossible not to start from an existing type, no matter how strange or peculiar this building may look like.

A type is not a model or an image to be copied, but the deep structure of how things are put together. Although typology is a recent concept, to think and build architecture typologically goes back to immemorial times. Yet, in the neoliberal economy, where uniqueness, newness and competition are considered indispensable values for architecture, the concept of type appears anachronistic, as it understands uniqueness not per se, but as the product of sameness.  The symposium revisits the concept of typology by critically reading its previous definitions and by offering a new interpretation of this rather elusive concept. The main thesis that will be discussed is that typology should be reconsidered as one of the most productive ways to teach, study, criticize and above all politicize architecture. Rather than considering type as the stronghold of the discipline of architecture, the symposium will debate how this concept could offer a precise understanding of the politics that produce architecture through architecture itself. Contributions will reconsider typology with concrete case studies such as the concept of typological transfer, feminist critique of type, the idea of copy in medieval architecture, the rise of "non-typological" architecture in Japan, typology as the "common ground" between architecture and the city, the politics of typological researches in the 1970s.

Invited lecturers

• Brandon Carlin, Architectural Association, London
• Emmanuel Christ, ETH, Zurich
• Sophie Delhay, EPFL, Lausanne
• Maria Shéhérazade Giudici, Royal College of Art
• Marson Korbi, EPFL, Lausanne
• Christopher C.M. Lee, GSD Harvard
• Enrica Mannelli, Architectural Association
• Gili Merin, Technische Universiteit, Vienna
• Davide Sacconi, Syracuse University, London
• Alfredo Thiermann, EPFL, Lausanne