modernity, architecture’s relation to the city and the territory, its awareness of history
and tradition, its involvement with the media and the public realm. These issues are
not covered as such in this volume, but I hope to have at least indicated how a seri-
ous involvement with critical theory can provide valuable clues for intensifying and
enriching the theoretical debate about architecture’s role in society. For if architec-
ture is not able to design a brave new world in which all our problems are solved, nei-
ther is it doomed to just give in to impulses stemming from societal developments
in which it has no say whatsoever. It is my belief that architecture hasthe capacity to
articulate in a very specific way the contradictions and ambiguities that modern life
confronts us with. In this articulation it can generate a sense of involvement with as
well as critique of modernity.
Introduction