Kontrakurs: architectural theory reading group
23. 4. 2026
You are cordially invited to the next meeting of the architectural theory reading group Kontrakurs, which will be held on Thursday, 23 April 2026, at 4 p.m. in the DESSA Gallery. We will discuss second chapter, "Classical Architecture" in G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on Aesthetics: third part. The system of individual arts. 1, architecture (Ljubljana: Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis, 2009).
Kontrakurs is an architectural theory reading group. The goal of the group is to establish a regular and independent practice of producing and processing architectural theory knowledge. The theme of the first year (2025/2026) is architectural criticism, the critique of architecture.
The field of architecture is, perhaps even more obviously than other creative and intellectual practices, public. Architectural works must be accountable to everyone. Therefore, they are more constantly and more generally subject to the critical attention of the audience, and they are also the domain of numerous political, aesthetic, and economic programs of their authors and sponsors. However, a simple summation of the social effects of architectural works or an assessment of the motives of architects does not exhaust all the complex roles, processes, and functions that architectural work has or triggers.
In the first year of the reading seminar, we will focus on texts that have attempted to understand this social reality of the architectural field in its complexity. We will read texts from the so-called Venetian School, the Revisions study group, the Ljubljana critical theory of architecture, theorists of the so-called turn to work, and production studies; the reading program will be supplemented on an ongoing basis, depending on the interests of the participants and the intermediate conclusions of the circle.
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The reading seminar is led by Uroš Mikanovič and Blaž Šenica.
Uroš Mikanovič is an assistant professor at the Department of History, Theory and Renovation at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana. He is engaged in the critique of architectural ideology and the role and status of architectural work within capitalist development.
Blaž Šenica is a young researcher at the Faculty of Architecture. In his architectural theoretical work, he focuses on theories of the contemporary capitalist city in connection with the transformations of the architectural discipline and its practices.
Kontrakurs meetings:
_ 23. 4. 2026 at 4 p.m.: second chapter, "Classical Architecture" in G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on Aesthetics: third part. The system of individual arts. 1, architecture (Ljubljana: Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis, 2009)
_ 16. 4. 2026 at 4 p.m.: first chapter, "Independent, symbolic architecture" in G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on Aesthetics: third part. The system of individual arts. 1, architecture (Ljubljana: Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis, 2009)
_ 9. 4. 2026 at 4 p.m.: G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on Aesthetics: Part Three. The System of Individual Arts. 1, Architecture (Ljubljana: Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis, 2009). We will start with an introduction and division, pp. 7–26
_ 2. 4. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Douglas Spencer, "Architecture's Abode of Production: Beyond Base and Superstructure", Critique of Architecture: Essays on Theory, Autonomy, and Political Economy (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2021)
_ 26. 3. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Owen Hatherly, "Breathing Space", NLR/Sidecar (16 February 2024)
_ 19. 3. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Jacques Rancière, "Dekorativna umetnost kot socialna umetnost: tempelj, hiša, tovarna (Pariz–London–Berlin, 1893)", in Aisthesis: prizori iz estetskega režima umetnosti, transl. Sonja Dular (Ljubljana: Maska, 2015)
_ 12. 3. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Janko Zlodre, "O pastirju modernega in njegovi drami", in Zbornik Oikos in drugo (Ljubljana: Univerzitetna konferenca ZSMS, 1988)
_ 5. 3. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Janko Gerdol Zlodre, "Vladimir Šubic, arhitekt-stavbenik", in Notice o arhitekturi in drugem (Ljubljana: /*cf, 2011)
_ 26. 2. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Kenneth Frampton, "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance," in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983); and Frederic Jameson, The Seeds of Time (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), [pp. 183--205]
_ 19. 2. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Fredric Jameson, "The Brick and the Balloon" in Cultural Revolution (Ljubljana: Studia humanitatis, 2012); and Kenneth Frampton, "The Volvo Case", in The Object in Architecture, ed. Petra Čeferin (Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2021)
_ 12. 2. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Fredric Jameson, "The Brick and the Balloon" in Cultural Revolution (Ljubljana: Studia humanitatis, 2012); and Kenneth Frampton, "The Volvo Case", in The Object in Architecture, ed. Petra Čeferin (Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2021)
_ 5. 2. 2026 at 4 p.m.: continuation of Manfredo Tafuri, "Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology" in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. Michael K. Hays (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press)
_ 29. 1. 2026 at 4 p.m.: continuation of Manfredo Tafuri, "Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology" in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. Michael K. Hays (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press)
_ 22. 1. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Manfredo Tafuri, "Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology" in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. Michael K. Hays (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press)
_ 15. 1. 2026 at 4 p.m.: Manfredo Tafuri, "The Task of Criticism" in Theories and History of Architecture (London: Granada, 1980)
