Architecture: Distinguished or ordinary network agents in the field of its representation

Abstract

This study will focus on the representation of Architecture with a capital A by questioning the phenomenon of ordinariness, starting with the question of where in the representations of Architecture can we trace the phenomenon of ordinariness? The paper goes on to disclose the paradoxical relationship between distinguishedness and ordinariness. Bourdieus concepts of habitus and field are specified as methodological tools to analyze this paradox within the following two themes (i) the representation of architecture and architects as related to the social classes to which they belong (habitus) and (ii) the influence of architectural institutions and their network agents on architecture as they are socially represented (field). The concept of habitus, will help us to understand the social mechanisms of architecture and architects as distinguished and/or ordinary phenomena, while the concept of field will help us to analyze the operative principles of representational mechanisms. The field of architectural institutions (as understood of Bourdieusian term) descriptive phrases stated by the institutional actors will be taken as major data to examine this paradoxical mechanism. They will be represented by network maps to discuss which mechanisms structure the representational field of Architecture with a capital A whether as a distinguished and/or ordinary phenomenon.