This research project brings the fields of Architecture and Museology closer together through a shared apparatus: the archive. Whether laid down on paper or extracted from the monitor, produced for clients or for internal means, and whether they portray built or unbuilt projects, architectural drawings and representations convey ideas and the traces of their evolution. The collection of ideas, beyond that of material artefacts and documents which contain them, is the backbone of archiving architecture, for buildings alone rarely testify to the complexity of design processes. In the archive, therefore, lies the potential for countless narratives yet to be crafted, written and told. These, in return, are especially triggered within the walls of architecture museums, where scholarship and multidisciplinary research agendas leading to exhibitions, publications and public programs are fostered.

By investigating architectural archives in their capacity as sites of knowledge production beyond ones of knowledge retrieval, this research project posits the notion of the ‘productive archive’ as a conceptual thread to explore innovative approaches and practices in the curation of architecture. Specifically, this project aims to understand how, since the creation of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM) in 1979, contemporary curatorial practices in architecture engage specifically with archives as comprehensive sets of materials and ideas – rather than with categories taken individually such as models, books, prints, photographs – while methodologically challenging established modes of historical and theoretical knowledge production.

date

February 2020 -

Team

Emilie Banville

Sergio M. Figueiredo

Jennifer Carter

Bernard Colenbrander

Partners

UQAM