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Agripoetic Resistance in Urban Architecture and Planning in the European World

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Neo-liberalism and the Architecture of the Post Professional Era

Part of the book series: The Urban Book Series ((UBS))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the architectural responses to the evolution of human–nature relationships throughout history within European urban context by reviewing design practices with a focus on farming as a settling and dwelling. Drawing from Martin Heidegger’s notion of poiesis and Henri Lefebvre’s definition of urbanization, we elaborate on the ways that global urbanization controlled by neoliberal forces is challenged through a poetic urban agricultural tactic, namely agripoetics, an opposition to scientific and quantitative thinking of mass production for the sake of efficiency and profit. Agripoetic resistance overcomes one of the most controversial challenges of urban society—the impossibility to shape itself through the shape of its cities. Through agripoetic resistance, human–nature relations unfold with new meanings as social activists and architects, activism and profession merge together, while the rights to the nature, food, and city blend in a new modality of dwelling.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Poetic truth has its origin in the strife between the world and earth. The phenomenon of the world is located within Heidegger’s wider discussion of the meaning of being human (Dasein), which is “being-in-the-world.” On “being-in-the-world,” Heidegger states that “Dasein is an entity which, in its very Being, comports itself understandingly towards that Being. […] Dasein exists.” (Heidegger 2008a, 78). Heidegger also says that “[…] to Dasein, Being in a world is something that belongs essentially. Thus, Dasein’s understanding of Being pertains with equal primordiality both to an understanding of something like a ‘world’, and to the understanding of the Being of those entities which become accessible within the world.” (Heidegger 2008a, 33) Entities such as equipment, tools, and animals are worldless (Heidegger 2008a, 81, 2008c, 170); they may not encounter each other, and the only way they can be brought into each other’s proximity is by being within a world. According to Heidegger, an entity can only be encountered by Dasein and “an entity can ‘meet up with’ Dasein only in so far as it can, of its own accord, show itself within a world.” (Heidegger 2008a, 84) The world that Heidegger has in mind is the context of significance against which all entities gain their meaning. Thus, Heidegger refuses the division of subject and object that has come down to us from Descartes. In his later philosophy, Heidegger introduces the notion of earth as against the notion of world. The earth and the world are in a paired relationship and are rivals in a process of unconcealment and concealment. Only in this rivalry with the earth, the world begins to show its worldhood, and the relation between human beings and the earth is revealed. Roth summarizes that “dasein is not a subject, it is a relation, so too the world is not an object but a totality of relationships [and]… earth is the ground upon which the relationships of the world are fostered.” (1996, 32) Furthermore, the earth is the ground on which the limits of the world may be pushed further. The strife between the world and earth is analogous to human–nature relations.

  2. 2.

    Aristotle divides knowledge into three categories—episteme, techne, and phronesis. Episteme is the type of knowledge gained through theoria or disinterested pure thinking—contemplation and reasoning. Phronesis, or practical wisdom, is the type of knowledge gained through praxis or actions and doing. Praxis may be further divided into ethics, economics, and politics, which are considered applied knowledge. Techne, or arts and crafts, is the type of knowledge gained through poiesis or poetics—the experience of production. Episteme, phronesis, and techne are known as theory or science, practice, and arts and crafts, respectively, in the contemporary era. See (Aristotle 2000).

  3. 3.

    Earth has been described in the following way by Heidegger that resembles physis: “Earth is the serving bearer, blossoming and fruiting, spreading out in rock and water, rising up into plant and animal.” See (Heidegger 2008b, 351).

  4. 4.

    For these examples, see (Lefebvre 2003, 4).

  5. 5.

    In Lefebvre’s opinion, living in the city is miserable. Urban dwellers live alienating days, commuting between house and working location in a repeated cycle. Writings on Cities. (159)

  6. 6.

    We refer to the definition of Henri Lefebvre: “…transformations that affect contemporary society” from the period of questioning the industrialized model to the period of searching solutions to urban problems. See (Lefebvre 2003, 5).

  7. 7.

    Carroll-Spillecke (1992).

  8. 8.

    The quote comes from Green’s “Short History of the English People,” Chapter X.

  9. 9.

    To read a comprehensive analysis of “Village Radieux,” see the chapter written by McLeod (2015).

  10. 10.

    Published in Heather Ring’s (2012) article in Lotus International and in Moira Lascelles’s (2011) book “The Union Street Urban Orchard: A Case Study of Creative Interim Use.”

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Acknowledgements

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, University of Florida, 142 Architecture Building, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Bahar Aktuna

  2. School of Architecture, University of Florida, 162 Architecture Building, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Carla Brisotto

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  1. Bahar Aktuna
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  2. Carla Brisotto
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Correspondence to Bahar Aktuna .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, Girne American University, Kyrenia, Cyprus

    Hossein Sadri

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Aktuna, B., Brisotto, C. (2018). Agripoetic Resistance in Urban Architecture and Planning in the European World. In: Sadri, H. (eds) Neo-liberalism and the Architecture of the Post Professional Era. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76267-8_13

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