The Architecture of Neoliberalism: How Contemporary Architecture Became an Instrument of Control and Compliance

by Douglas Spencer

The Architecture of Neoliberalism pursues an uncompromising critique of the neoliberal turn in contemporary architecture. This book reveals how a self-styled parametric and post-critical architecture serves mechanisms of control and compliance while promoting itself, at the same time, as progressive. Spencer's incisive analysis of the architecture and writings of figures such as Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher, Rem Koolhaas, Greg Lynn and Alejandro Zaera-Polo shows them to be in thrall to the same notions of liberty as are propounded in neoliberal thought.
Analysing architectural projects in the fields of education, consumption and labour, The Architecture of Neoliberalism examines the part played by contemporary architecture in refashioning human subjects into the compliant figures - student-entrepreneurs, citizen-consumers and team-workers - requisite to the universal implementation of a form of existence devoted to market imperatives.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Politics

232 pages, Paperback

Published October 20, 2016

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly beautiful, complex, intricate and challenging book. This book takes the best of architectural theory and the best of contemporary critical theory and aligns them to create a powerful theorization of space, place, work and power.

As we expect from Bloomsbury, the book is stylish in form and potent in content. It is provocative and offers provocations. Excellent.

[callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

ive been LOOKING for a book like this. i’ve been put off by the general failure of architectural theory to properly situate itself in real political ideas and not wade through the murky waters of vacant environmental politics and performative ideologies. i can’t help but feel that Spencer’s critique of affect as an entirely neoliberal mode of engagement is hard to level with all the time. like i feel like there are different experiences/ ontologies/ knowledges that can create important affective understandings even if they are not ‘critical’ or ‘academic’. he addresses this a bit at the end but it annoyed me while reading some sections. there is a repeated proposition that the gallery is a neutral space for consuming art– a sort of ’sanctity’– which feels weird cuz these spaces are also shaped environments by neoliberal institutions. i also don’t feel like biomimetic design necessarily invokes the idea of spontaneous emersion. that being said i really loved this book– it felt really researched and passionate. even when i didn’t completely agree with it, his arguments felt justified. really really loved his critique of neoliberal ideas of equivalence, critique of counter-culture and general framing and contextualizing of architectural theory within the last 50 years. changing the way i think about public and private space for sure. felt like a lot of my person inherited beliefs were being challenged in a way that was really exciting. i’m not super familiar with any of the material he referenced or architectural theory in general.. might change how i understand the whole thing.. idk guys lets talk about it

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

And the solution is not more freedom, but rather more power to the one corporation with an army, and militarized police. This is all under blatant conflict of interests, as the authors are paid mostly by the one corporation that they support.

[yuefei · Rating 3 out of 5]

idk not super deep and more of a short-term intervention than anything else, but still v interesting and informative for someone who knows nothing abt architecture. critique of deleuze & 60s counterculture are things that will stick. there is a point at which critique becomes cynical-paranoid self-affirmation & this gets v close to that line sometimes.

[Sean Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depressing. The citizen validating by consuming architecture.

[I am he as You are me · Rating 2 out of 5]

omg it was so boring. less architecture more economy and globalization brought my tears back. if you gonna write a book about actual architecture please talk more about it.

[Alya AlShaibani · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brutal omg.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incoherent academic rambling, that feels ten times longer than it's 200 pages. The core argument can be summed up thus: the architecture of the 90s and 2000s, with it's fluid forms and claims to dynamism and the disruption of heirarchies in reality reinforce the (secret!) heirarchies of neoliberal capitalism, that turn individuals into everyone-for-themselves atoms, to the detriment of collective society. Ho-hum.