Joseph Grima, Genoa
ÖGFA_Schwerpunkt “Hinter den Bildern” / Teil 3: Bedeutung

As the speed with which the onslaught of ?disruptive technologies? reshaping everyday life continues to accelerate, we have collectively come to accept that the only reliable constant in the contemporary city is technologically-driven change.

In this field shaped by technological forces both visible and unseen, the practice of ar- chitecture would seem condemned to marginality through a sheer lack of speed. What forms of social relations is architecture actually being asked to articulate today?

Perhaps the act of designing should begin with a new analysis of the economies, cultures and politics of the present, and ask itself how life truly unfolds in the Promethean city we are building. If the segmented organisation of the modern city no longer reflects a reality in which the boundaries between private and professional time have unraveled, a new paradigm is needed in order for architecture to remain relevant in shaping the future. (Text: Joseph Grima)

Joseph Grima is an architect, writer and curator
based in Genoa, Italy. He is a partner at Space Caviar, an architecture and research office operating at the intersection of design, technology and the public realm. He is the director of the Ideas City program at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and teaches architecture at the AA in London. He was previously the editor in chief of Domus and co-artistic director of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial.