Organised Architectures: New Frankfurt and the Bureaucratisation of Modernity.

In view of the great influence that bureaucratisation has had on the built environment in Europe since the 19th century, the tenacity with which the cult of the designing subject prevails in the 21st century is still rather remarkable. Years ago, Bruno Latour and Albena Yaneva called for us to finally overcome our perspective on architecture as a manufactured object. Instead, we should regard it as the materialisation of things that are themselves absent from the architectural location, but are essential to grasp what defines architecture as a social phenomenon: namely practices of exercising power, norms, negotiating compromises, as well as limiting regulations, the uncertainty of long, complex planning processes, competition rules and public campaigns. Using the example of New Frankfurt, one of the largest urban planning campaigns of the Weimar Republic, the text wish to demonstrate how beneficial it could be to change the perspective in this sense.