Gravitivity : architecture’s defiance in a post-structural society

Blenkuš, Matej (avtor), Dobnik, Maja (avtor)

The paper deals with the relationship between architecture and contemporary socio-political structures, drawing from the concepts of desiring machines and bodies without organs as developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The central premise derives from the fact that today, architecture as a socially embedded practice operates in increasingly unstable and unpredictable conditions of global capitalism, where traditional hierarchies and institutional frameworks have been disintegrating. In such a context, architecture decreasingly relies on stable systems and increasingly operates in conditions of continuous flow, adaptation, and openness. We introduce the concept of temporal layers, an analytical tool developed from the division of the architectural system into material and functional components with different lifespans. This six-layered structure based on the models proposed by Stewart Brand, Francis Duffy and Dietmar Eberle helps us understand both buildings as systems and their adaptability. This model is challenged in the case of Ljubljana’s Cukrarna Gallery, where the classical hierarchy of layers is inverted: the programme dictates the structure, and the historical shell turns into an empty supporting surface. Architecture thus enters into a relationship of tension between the past and the present. The paper works to expand the temporal layers to the broader urban context, where it addresses the phenomena of homelessness and consumerism as expressions of how bodies without organs function in a contemporary city. Rather than discuss them in terms of order versus chaos, the authors see them cohabiting as two spatial logics that transform urban space. Their shared characteristic is the dismantling of classical temporal and structural hierarchies: the central solid layers become improvised or displaced, while dynamic external and internal layers become the only vessels of content and meaning. To allow architecture to maintain its identity, we introduce the concept of gravitivity – a spatial and temporal re-grounding that derives from structural frameworks as a vehicle of stability and continuity. Gravitivity is a physical as well as symbolic quality that allows architecture to move beyond its current uses and resist being dissolved into the flows of unpredictable changes in content and appearance, We illustrate this with two examples: the Concrete Tent project by DAAR collective, which transforms a tent – a symbol of temporariness – into a permanent concrete structure with a collective memory, and DARS office building with its exposed structural framework that defines the spatial logic of the building and its resistance to economic and organisational changes. The paper concludes by defining gravitivity as a means of one’s identification with a space as an act of regrounding and resilience against the dominance of temporal layers, as well as against dissolution, incorporeity, and dispersion of an existential space into bodies without organs.

• Jezik: Angleški jezik
• Ključne besede: gravitivity, post-structuralism, temporal layers, social structures, architecture, solid structures, architecture's defiance
• Vrsta gradiva: Članek v reviji
• Tipologija: 1.01 - Izvirni znanstveni članek
• Organizacija: FA - Fakulteta za arhitekturo
• Status publikacije: Objavljeno
• Različica publikacije: Objavljena publikacija
• Leto izida: 2025
• Št. strani: Str. 179-233, 418-419
• Številčenje: Vol. 26, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181109
• UDK: 72.01
• ISSN pri članku: 1581-6974
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265062659

Avtorske pravice

Podatek o licenci CC BY-NC 4.0 je naveden na spletni strani nadrejene revije https://ar.fa.uni-lj.si/the-ar-ethic-statements. (Datum opombe: 8. 9. 2026)

• Datum objave v RUL: 25.03.2026

Gradivo je del revije

• Naslov: AR : arhitektura, raziskave = architecture, research
• Skrajšan naslov: AR, Arhit. razisk.
• Založnik: Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za arhitekturo = University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture
• ISSN: 1581-6974
• COBISS.SI-ID: 124694784

Licence

• Licenca: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva-Nekomercialno 4.0 Mednarodna
• Povezava: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.sl
• Opis: Licenca Creative Commons, ki prepoveduje komercialno uporabo, vendar uporabniki ne rabijo upravljati materialnih avtorskih pravic na izpeljanih delih z enako licenco.

Sekundarni jezik

• Jezik: Slovenski jezik
• Ključne besede: težnostnost, postrukturalizem, arhitektura, časovni sloji, družbene strukture, čvrste strukture, kljubovanje arhitekture