The Blind Spot

Abstract

As we scroll through Instagram or Dezeen contemporary architecture is presented in carefully angled photographs, composed to mediate ideas about buildings that render certain aspects invisible. Absent from the pre­ sentation of modern architecture is any acknowledgment of its mainte­ nance, eventual obsolescence or its dependence on a constellation of tech­ nical installations, materials, and expertise. What we now understand as architecture is less a spatial or a tectonic task based on aesthetic principles, but as was defined in the nineteenth century, the act of forming closed en­ vironments, with substances, energy, and people quantified into very pre­ cise programmes. This essay considers these environments, problematising them through the invisible technologies that enable their enclosure and considering how these concerns affect our experiences of the world.