Armillary Lecture: Carlo Menon—Minor Modes of Practice: The Architect-Editor

MINOR MODES OF PRACTICE: THE ARCHITECT-EDITOR

The lecture will insist on key concepts and arguments that I could first develop through my doctoral research at The Bartlett, titled ‘Critical Editorial Devices in a Minor Mode: ‘Little’ Architecture Magazines of the Early Twenty-first Century’. Stemming from the broad purpose of assessing the recent wave of independent magazines, the thesis took the form of a critical ethnography involving hybrid modes of enquiry that pertain both to academia and to its outside: writing essays instead of dissertation ‘chapters’; editing and running a magazine (Accattone); theoretical speculation; and a constant, self-critical stance regarding the risk of navel-gazing. Next to discussing these methods with the audience, the lecture will put forward the challenges that this thesis poses to architectural criticism as well as to architectural practice: a change of focus from authorship to editorship.

CARLO MENON is an architect and a researcher in history and theory, with degrees from La Cambre, Brussels (diploma, 2006) and The Bartlett, London (MA, 2013, and PhD, 2023). His PhD thesis, ‘Critical Editorial Devices in a Minor Mode: Little Architecture Magazines of the Early Twenty-first Century’, supervised by Jane Rendell and sponsored by the AHRC, explored the field of recent independent magazines as a site for theoretical and critical debate (c. 2008–2021). His collaborative practice interweaves architectural thinking with publications (frequently), exhibitions (occasionally) and education (continuously). In particular he has developed writing and editorial skills, whose outputs mostly appear in the magazine Accattone and its related projects – like the recent book Impasse des Lilas, of which he authored the main essay. In 2023, he and his partner Sophie Dars won the architecture prize of the French Académie des beaux-arts with their project Magasin/Magazine, on the figure of the architect-editor. Currently he teaches architectural design at La Cambre Horta Faculty of Architecture (ULB Brussels) and representation at the MA Civic Design (PBSA Düsseldorf).

https://accattone.be/