The Power of Sources in Architecture Research and Practice

Sources play a central role in the production, organisation, storage, accessibility, and dissemination of knowledge. They are active agents in epistemic processes. In architecture, sources take many forms: architecture itself can be a source; it shelters sources; it references and generates them; and as a discipline, architecture is shaped by its sources. This book explores the plurality of sources in architectural research and their entanglement with systems of power. The first section, Agency and Politics, examines cases where sources are absent or inaccessible and presents innovative responses. Data and Biases considers how digital information is managed through metadata, databases, and interfaces and reflects on the risks and potentials involved in its evaluation. Media and Materiality investigates how complex image and photo collections are handled, focusing on the individual structures of archives. Finally, Canon and Episteme takes a critical look at architectural-historical canons, offering new perspectives on historiography.