David Cunningham, Jon Goodbun, and Karin Jaschke (eds.). Journal of Architecture: Returns of the Avant-Garde: The Post-War Movements, Routledge (Tayler & Francis Group/ RIBA), June 2001 (Vol. 6, No. 2). ISSN: 1360-2365.
The Avant-Garde project came out of the intersecting interests of the three contributors: all three of us were working on aspects of the historical avant-garde, yet from different disciplinary points of view. In discussions the need for a more conceptual approach to thinking about the role and ongoing potential of avant-garde art, architecture, and literature became evident, especially thanks to David Cunningham's background in critical theory and literary studies. With the financial support of the University of Westminster we were able to stage a two day conference with a range of speakers from different disciplines to explore the subject from a variety of viewpoints, both historical and critical-theoretical. The Journal of Architecture subsequently asked us to edit an issue of the journal, based on selected conference contributions.
My own paper in this issue is part of ongoing research as explained in my portfolio page about Output 3. The conference and editing of the journal was both an extremely interesting opportunity to review the work of other architectural writers, which I was familiar with, and to encounter new work, by scholars who were brought to the project by my co-editors. It was also an opportunity to widen the interpretive horizon of my own work, bringing a more structural and politicised understanding of the concept of the avant-garde to bear on my material. Subsequently, as mentioned in the RAE2, Routledge selected my paper for re-publication in Narrating Architecture. The conference event and Journal issue were well received and Jon Goodbun and I have recently been invited to guest-edit another issue of JoA, in the near future: a critical exploration of the notion of 'sustainability' in architecture.