Crisis Formalism Pedagogy
Architecture is facing a crisis of relevance where form is losing its immediacy, with “Crisis Formalism” proposed as a framework to reconnect architecture with crisis.
As a working definition we are using Edgar Morin’s “Polycrisis” - not a single problem but interconnected crises that resist reductionist approaches or singular solutions.
Young architects are abandoning form-making in favor of focusing on policy, financing, labor practices, and post-occupancy considerations.
Traditional architectural responses to crises (like defamiliarization, dystopian visions, or engineering solutions) ultimately get absorbed into the system that caused them.
Crisis Formalism suggests that architecture should not confront crises directly but approach them obliquely, avoiding easy codification or analysis.
Some architectural projects intentionally embrace illegibility, noise, and rejection of precision to create forms that cannot be easily codified or copied.
We are proposing an architecture that harnesses the flows of crisis rather than fighting against them, potentially formalizing the collapse instead of resisting it.
Projects that exemplify these approaches include works by DSR, Kaiping Diaolou, Frei Otto and others.
The polycrisis is constantly generating forces, but reactions don’t drive new architectural forms. Instead we need to build work within the flow of crises.