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Architecture Against Architecture:A Manifesto
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What should architects do in the 21st century? A manifesto on what is possible in the age of climate change, AI and Inequality
Architecture, as we know it, may be coming to an end, and architects only have themselves to blame. The profession is out of touch, refusing to acknowledge the changes in the conditions that they work, or to reflect on how they go about doing their job. In Architecture Against Architecture, Reinier de Graaf sets out a 14-point manifesto of what needs to be done to revolutionise architecture for the 21st century.
With wit and insight, De Graaf anatomises the future of the profession and calls for the end the era of the Staritect. How architects should unionise. Why there should be a mandatory retirement age of 67. That building should not be copyrighted. How to use AI in practise. At the same time, he looks at the economics and politics of design. He offers strategies of why we should stop building. That architects should design to adapt to climate change rather than to mitigate it. To reuse rather than demolish. And the vital question of whether an architect can refuse a project on moral grounds.
This book will provoke and challenge readers. De Graaf wants to rebuild architecture from the ground up and make it relevant again.
Reviews
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Following the diagnosis that ‘the architecture profession is at war with the present’, Reinier de Graaf calls for disarmament and conscientious objection in his manifesto Architecture Against Architecture. With a touch of anarchism, this work is an absolute must-read and perfectly timely.
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De Graaf has often been adept at pointing out the foibles of contemporary architectural practice, but this is a far more direct provocation. Going beyond playful observation and witty turn of phrase, Architecture against Architecture is an often hilarious but excoriating description of the state we’re in and a timely and urgent call to arms. ‘Arise ye architects from your slumber’ indeed!
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Kicking off with a punch, Reinier de Graaf urges readers to unlearn and reimagine architecture’s role in modernity. With wit, insight, and vulnerability, he crafts a sharp, fact-driven argument that deepens our understanding of practice, academia, and the climate crisis—an essential, provocative read for all shaping the built environment.
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A much-needed reality check to the popular image of the master architect at his drawing desk. Grounded in his own personal professional experience, De Graaf poses an incisive, self-reflective and unfiltered challenge to architects – one a entertaining as it is unsettling.
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We stand with Reinier de Graaf’s Architecture Against We Architecture in its call: Demolishing buildings is a mistake, a huge waste and a violent act for those who live there and those who built them. Stop talking about sustainability if we are not able to reuse, repair, transform or improve what already exists.
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One of the great services an insider in the establishment can grant to everyone else is to become a mole, giving away power's secrets. As this book proves, Reinier de Graaf has become one of our great contemporary moles, burrowing through buildings into the world of the 21st century oligarchy, so as to reveal to the rest of us those weak spots we could strike in order to collapse the entire edifice
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A wake-up call for the architectural profession. In an era marked by environmental degradation, political instability, and technological disruption, architecture faces a profound crisis of relevance - if not legitimacy. De Graaf argues that the discipline must undergo a fundamental re-examination - not merely adapting to change, but redefining its very premises.
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With equal amounts of sarcasm, facts and figures, and thoughtful reflections, de Graaf presents a necessary and a well-documented recount of the history of architecture and the path that led us here—a moment in which the discipline feels captive to its own contradictions. A call for attention that is not exempt of provocative suggestions for a radical course of action.
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...grapples with hard truths. And there’s no easy fix. We cannot take agency unless we fix ourselves. Engaged, angry, and dark at times. De Graaf is making a powerful call to humility.
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Architecture Against Architecture presents a lucid critique of the architecture profession’s delusional self-image. With forensic precision and a dark humour, de Graaf exposes the contradictions between architectural ideals and their real-world entanglements. Obligatory reading for anyone interested in the present and future of architectural discourse.