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| My in-situ sketch of Nasser's House in Churet, Iran. 2015 |
"in my deserted home village
the old cherry tree
now in bloom"
–
Haiku by Issa
First Draft: What I Talk About, When I Talk About Unarchitecture
Coining
terms is one thing, and getting them accepted is another. So when I first made
up the word “un-Architecture”, I wasn’t pretty sure if it made any sense
outside my mind – and the minds of the NAAM team of course. But when the
submissions started to roll in [for the 3rd issue of NAAM / published Feb 2016], I felt relieved with the connection that a
number of people from different parts of the world had found with this word. Yet,
here I feel the urge to clarify some points about “un-architecture”.
Un-architecture
is not a term only limited to rural areas. But let me begin from another point
of departure: un-architecture is not the opposite of architecture. If it
was so, then we would have probably named it “anti-architecture”, but that’s
not the case. Just as architecture is derived from architect (originally from
Ancient Greek “ἀρχιτέκτων”, arkhitéktōn, “master builder”), un-architecture is
similarly derived from un-architect; and for that matter, “un-master builder”.
