Agency
AGENCY - 'Transformative Research into Architectural Practice
and Education' is a research centre initiated in 2007 at the School
of Architecture. It was formed through the alliance of staff and
researchers working in and around the subject of architectural
practice and education, and taking a critical view of normative
values and standard procedures in this area, in order to propose
alternatives.
AGENCY is potentially a provocative name for a research group in a
School of Architecture. It was chosen to give an immediate sense of
the research in the group being active, engaged, and outward
looking. It also indicates the non-hierarchical structuring of our
group and the dynamic nature of our collaborations. It implies
change, with a hint of subversive irony. It asks questions about
'agency' in architecture.
The strapline 'Transformative Research into Architectural Practice
and Education' expands the idea, stressing the word
`transformative´ to suggest a research activity that both creates
and responds to shifting conditions. Instead of remaining passively
(and safely) contained within our academic environments, we see
ourselves as agents acting both within and between the fields of
research, practice, education, and civic life.
The AGENCY projects shown here are about this expanded field; they
are instances of crossing boundaries, of seeking new
collaborations, and of redefining given parameters and conditions.
Members of AGENCY: Cristina Cerulli, Florian Kossak, Doina
Petrescu, Tatjana Schneider, Renata Tyszczuk, Stephen Walker and
Peter Blundell Jones, Prue Chiles, Rosie Parnell, Sarah
Wigglesworth.
www.shef.ac.uk/architecture/research/researchcentres/agency.html
