This section is the gateway to the philosophical premises and the theoretical framework that guided the conception of the World Architecture Community Portal. Various subtopics are also developed in the related issue pages. The main issue here is the role that the Internet might play in questioning the basic premises that dominate the disciplinary discourse of architecture. Here we have a revolutionary potential for enhancing global communication patterns, which eventually upsets the established../MORE

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This section is the gateway to the philosophical premises and the theoretical framework that guided the conception of the World Architecture Community Portal. Various subtopics are also developed in the related issue pages. The main issue here is the role that the Internet might play in questioning the basic premises that dominate the disciplinary discourse of architecture. Here we have a revolutionary potential for enhancing global communication patterns, which eventually upsets the established conditions and conceptions in every aspect of life.Presently the pedagogical and theoretical discourse of the discipline is articulated with reference only to its acknowledged masters. Ordinary architects and their extensive practice that define the built environment, on the other hand, remain practically exempt from all these discussions.Other art forms usually enjoy a lively audience and an interested public, which make good performance a joy and motivate the improvement of competence. Actually, criticism is sine qua non for any practice to develop. But ordinary architects rarely hear anything about their efforts but the complaints of their few clients.Architecture as an institution is defined by a Western discourse and based on a biased historiography that encourages mystifications diverting from the local conditions that await the services resident architects could offer. A creative impulse that could emerge from local practices is blocked by the dominant rigid discourse of the discipline.Institutionalized architecture has never developed reflexive mechanisms to improve the competence of ordinary architects and their local practices. The institution rather keeps a distance to the crowd and enjoys a strict social control:No matter how well we study architecture and refine our knowledge of it, our architectural environment will continue to be determined by the alienated performance of the desolate local practices. This thesis tries to formulate alternative approaches that might lead out of this impasse and prepare for the emergence of a new paradigm.As an abstract theoretical formulation, reflexivism sounds quite reasonable, but a reflection on real-life conditions may reveal its weaknesses, as in the case of architecture. Reflexive processes within a closed system may produce change but only within a defined channel towards a formerly established direction. This inevitably results in a general stagnation of the system. And this naïve outlook exactly is the characteristic flaw in non-dialectical thinking: change cannot be understood if contradictions perpetuating the system are not recognized. Reflexive criticisms by individual actors are usually meek enough to be easily suppressed or subsumed by the established paradigm. Real change definitely is the consequence of the historical processes activated by dialectical mechanisms.There is another dimension to this issue: after the advance of the Internet there are no closed systems anymore. Prior to the development of global and transnational communication technologies all transaction among the members of a professional community were transferred over Western nodes. The Internet makes possible direct transactions among non-Westerners and also the formation of communities and networks where non-Westerners have equal chances to intervene and to contribute. Promoting this kind of equality may really activate reflexive mechanisms towards change as never seen before.
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