History and theory 125tectural history theory in the 1960s and 1970s introduced
French critical theory to a French architecture audience who
in the 1970s became attentive to the work of Italian think-
ers.^15 The translation of those Italian books and articles into
English, and the systematic uptake of post-structuralist
French philosophy in the pages of various books and jour-
nals, further aided the introduction of critical theory to archi-
tectural history and theory. There is, naturally, a parallel
history of the reception in architectural theory of German-
language philosophy and critical theory through interna-
tional translation and transmission. (The small but infl uential
political journal Contropiano regularly published articles on
architecture and cities that explored the implications of a
range of German and Austrian thinkers for architectural
knowledge. Beatriz Colomina has observed how Spanish
readers received these articles in translation, drawing upon
them to cultivate a politicized theoretical production on
architectural themes, especially in Barcelona under the infl u-
ence of Ignasi de Solà-Morales.^16 ) The assimilation of French
philosophy by Tafuri and his Italian contemporaries into a
critical architectural history and a history of architectural
ideas, suggests Cohen, introduced philosophical systems to
French architectural culture, which had not explored the
possibilities, for architectural thinking, of structuralist and
later post-structuralist philosophy.
During these decades many ideas originating in continen-
tal philosophy, literature, politics, mathematics, economics
and history were thoroughly mined for their architectural
implications, and as a result were often drastically
transformed.^17
Outside the university, the (recently reinstated^18 ) Institute
for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS) in New York was,
from 1967 to 1985, a crucial clearinghouse of international
theory. Its roll of fellows, variously under the direction of
Peter Eisenman, Mario Gandelsonas, Anthony Vidler and
Steven Peterson, included a number of critical historians
whose work was viewed as theory, and several theoreticians
and architects whose material was historical. In the former
camp we can count Kenneth Frampton and Rosalind Krauss,
and in the latter Diana Agrest, Rafael Moneo and Rem
Koolhaas. Its journal Oppositions surveyed the limits of