Hideo Sasaki Distinguished Visiting Critics Exhibition

Can buildings heal? Can they directly impact people's political or economic potential? We have seen buildings that have caused public health crises, clinics whose poor designs have helped to incubate disease, and facilities that have expedited the decay of communities. If we have seen buildings that destroy, we also have seen the opposite ‒ that buildings can actually heal. As theorist Zeynep Celik notes, the architect has a uniquely political role to play in negotiating power through architectural forms: "Among cultural formations, architecture occupies a prominent position because it bears the potential to express social relations and power structures at certain critical moments in crystallized forms."