In Das Passagen-Werk Benjamin cites a letter from Marx to Ruge, 'the reform of consciousness consists solely in [...] the awakening of the world from its dream about itself.' This idea of awakening recurs in Benjamin's methodological considerations and his many metaphors during the final thirteen years of his life. Benjamin set himself the pedagogical task of awakening 'the image-making medium within us, raising it to a stereoscopic and dimensional seeing into the depths of historical shadows...

The canon of western contemporary architecture has overlooked everyday, 'salaried' architecture - overwhelming as it may have turned out to be in our built environment - praising instead the solo designer and his ground-breaking work.

Since World War I, the social role of the architect (in terms both of his or her place in social hierarchies and of his or her contribution for social betterment) seems to have been primarily tested, and largely consolidated, in 'departmental architecture'. Yet...

The terrorist attacks at the start of the 21st century catapulted the issue of space and conflict into the forefront of architectural debates. As a result, existing and newly emerging national, religious and ethnic conflicts in relation to urban space became the focus of attention in architecture. Though military thinking had already had a long-standing tradition in architectural history, the sudden emergence of new spaces of conflict considerably altered architectural discourse. Extreme cond...