Autonomy, criticality and the Avant-Garde

This chapter outlines the development of the modern idea of architectural autonomy and the manner in which autonomy relates to another ingredient of modernity: criticality. It will unfold the relation of architectural to artistic autonomy, a relation that has mostly been neglected despite its implicit presence in architectural notions of autonomy. The main argument of this chapter is that, in contrast to persistent claims, autonomy can no longer be considered critical. A second argument is that the historic avant-garde consisted only of a specific and critical section within modernism; namely, the designs that attempted to merge the building with the city. The story of theories of architectural autonomy is a story of transforming meanings, disputed associations, and exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims. While the idea of autonomy ought to have been exhausted by the twenty-first century, an era of flows, networks and of inter-, post-, trans- and cross-disciplinarity, it nevertheless continues today to animate architectural positions, self-perception and discourse