Eurocentric Legacies: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies and Delaying Change in Architecture in 1970s New York City

This paper examines how the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS) that existed in New York City between 1967-1984, constructed a space that reinstated a Western epistemology for architecture and created an audience and discourse for an emerging architecture scene in a distressed New York through its events and media during the 1970s. Given their resonance, the paper positions current demands for change in architecture education and the profession concerning their equivalent in the late 1960s when the IAUS was founded. This paper will ask whether a change in architecture and non-Eurocentric educational models following the 1960s struggles and upheavals were delayed with the appearance and success of the IAUS in New York City. The paper argues, through a critical reading of their media apparatus (exhibitions, lectures, classes, journals, and books), notably the ambitious OPEN PLAN series, and their undeniable success, that the IAUS’s reinstated a Eurocentric legacy—delaying change, the reckoning of architecture’s role in racial, social, and political asymmetries, and advanced architectural disciplinary ideas’ marketization in an emerging neoliberal rationale. Finally, this paper discusses existing scholarly work around the IAUS and first-hand research from the IAUS’s collection archived at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.110.53

Volume Editors
Robert Gonzalez, Milton Curry & Monica Ponce de Leon

ISBN
978-1-944214-40-1