Space Prospect in the Flexible Era of Late Capitalism

Abstract

This study is mainly influenced by the idea of Manfredo Tafuri that architecture cannot fulfil its ideological task since it started serving capitalism and there are no more utopias. In his book Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development, Tafuri discusses the sociophilosophical tangle in which architects have been struggling since the 18th century. According to Tafuri, the drama of today's architecture is the obligation to return to pure architecture, a matter of form without utopia, supreme uselessness. Another influence on the study is Richard Sennett's book The Corrosion of Character. Sennett mentions the concept of flexible capitalism and explains that work life is not as rigid as it was before. According to Sennett, flexibility has an impact on personal character and asks questions about how to decide the lasting value of we in an impatient society, how to pursue a long-term goal in a short-term economy, how to sustain loyalties to the continually redesigning institutions. Purpose The thoughts of Tafuri and Sennett are discussed through Patrik Schumacher's Parametricism manifesto. In the manifesto, Schumacher reflects architecture's evolving patterns of communication in relation to its social task. The main objective of the study is to propose a future space based on the ideas of Tafuri, Sennett and Schumacher. Design/Methodology/Approach This paper discusses the reviews of books of Tafuri and Sennett and manifesto of Schumacher as a methodology. Findings After the reviews of The Corrosion of Character and Architecture and Utopia, there is a discussion of flexible space through parametric design approach. Finally, there is the prediction of future space based on the findings in the previous sections. Research Limitations/Implications There are no research limitations for this paper. Social/Practical Implications According to this paper, parametric design method can be used in practice to achieve the spaces that are needed by the complex society of global era. Originality/Value This paper synthesizes the ideas of two great thinkers, who have influential discourses on architecture and business world, and approaches them from the perspective of parametric design as one of today's design tools, to make predictions about the future space.